Our son and his wife have been the house guests of a very gracious couple in Lancaster who opened their home to AJ and Katie when there were no reasonably priced apartments available. Dani and Tim have a lovely and very large home, which they share with their two darling daughters. The older of their 2 girls is an early teen who has very severe cerebral palsy. She is confined to a wheelchair and must depend on others to do most everything for her. She is a healthy (aside from her cerebral palsy) and beautiful girl with the biggest brown eyes I have ever seen. Her smile says most everything she needs to say.
Over the course of the past 2 seasons, she has become a big fan of AJ's but now that she is with him everyday, she sees him more as a big brother than anything. Just recently, she has become smitten with one of AJ's teammates who has spent time at their house with AJ and Katie. Anyway, he was christened by our little friend with the nickname Huggy Bear (he is a doll and does indeed look rather huggy) which he somehow learned about. And last night, after the game, he presented her with her own little Huggy Bear to hold when he is traveling.
Here is this grown man (guess he is 23 or 24) who went to Build A Bear Workshop and built her her own little huggy bear, clad in DIAMONDBACKS GEAR ! ! Little purple pinstriped uni with purple stirrups and little black cleats. It was all we could do to keep from bawling our eyes out as he opened the box and handed the bear to his little friend. She was positively speachless and kept looking at her mom as tho in total disbelief.
I just love to watch young adults interact with children and their relationships with special needs kids is so heartwarming it makes me tear up just thinking about it. What that young ball player did last night (and the day before as he personally made the bear for her) was so very touching because we all know how hard these kids have to work to stay on their game. To think that he cared enough to take time from his schedule to bless a little girl for a lifetime ... well, I am sure you can all imagine how I feel.
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