Miss Victoria

Today began VERY early. Molly was up at 3:30am cranky with a fever. I gave her some Motrin and put her back in her bed, but she was up again an hour later. Her fever had broken, but she seemed to have decided she wanted to be rocked - and would not accept anything less. I rocked her until 5:25am before she was sleeping deep enough to put her back in her own bed. Having slept only about 4 hours myself, I chose not to head back to bed and instead hopped in the shower and got ready for the day.

Who in the world wakes up at 6am on a Saturday? Well, Ava and I do, when it is the day of the 2012 National Walk for Epilepsy. We went down to the Capitol Mall area in DC and walked about 2 miles to raise money and awareness for epilepsy. We were part of Team "Victoria"us, in honor of Victoria Olszowy. Victoria is one of the "big girls" at Ava's dance studio, and this year she is also Ava's dance Big Sister. She and her little sister Veronica babysat my girls several times last summer, and we spend a good amount of time together between dance and just getting together for the girls to all play.

Walking this morning was an incredible experience. I explained to Ava as best I could this morning what we were doing. In the end, she got what was truly important: we were walking because we love Victoria. This young lady is everything I hope my daughters will grow up to be. She ALWAYS has a smile on her face - I'm not sure I've ever heard a truly mean or negative thing come out of her mouth. She has the biggest heart - all morning she spent as much if not more time with Ava as with her other same-age friends who were there. She was only diagnosed with epilepsy a few months ago, but has had other health issues in the past... or so I've been told. I've never heard the girl complain about a single thing, and again I have no doubt she's had a time or two when she would have been plenty entitled to be less than chipper. She is beautiful inside and out, and my whole family adores her. There is nothing we would not do for this girl, including get up at 6am on four hours of sleep and walk a few miles in the cold.

Highlight of the day: Ava was getting tired again (she had a few rough patches but overall handled the walk like a champ), but I pointed out the finish line and told her we were almost done. She immediately ran ahead to catch up with Victoria and took Victoria's hand. I'm not sure how it happened, but one by one girls began joining hands and crossed the finish line together. To see these girls joining together to support someone they love and a cause close to her heart was truly special. I am so glad we were there to be a part of it. On our way home Ava asked if we could go walk again next year, and I told her I certainly hope so.

Team "Victoria"us before the walk

Crossing the finish together

Special friends :)