Bolts Strike… Day 874 07APR11

Today was another celebration for Joshua's birthday. In our family we seem to celebrate birthdays all week long. A couple of months back I had the idea of seeing if Joshua could attend a Lightning Hockey practice for an extra special birthday gift. With the help of Coach Raymond from the Lightning we were able to do just that today. Coach Raymond and all the Lightning players and coaches made today an extraordinary special day. We started out by being able to watch the players practice. There were only a handful of people in the seats watching and more than half of those were media or staff. After the practice was over, Joshua was asked to come down to the ice to meet the players. The entire Lightning team then preceded to sing Happy Birthday to Joshua and give him a cake with candles to blow out. It was pretty amazing to see a professional team of athletes singing happy birthday to my son. These players all had huge smiles on their faces knowing that they could do something just that simple to make a little boy's wish come true. They are truly a first class bunch. Coach Raymond wasn't finished because he then presented Joshua with his very own Bolts Jersey with his name "Gandy" on the back and a hat with the new emblem on it. After that Joshua went back to the locker room and got all the players to sign his new jersey. Mike Smith, one of the goalies, gave Joshua one of his sticks and even signed it for him. I heard he also learned a couple of new handshakes from Stammer! Joshua had a blast! On the way home home Joshua said, "Mom, that was the best experience ever!", "I am the luckiest kid in the whole world!" I agree.

As I stand writing this a knock at the door had me opening it to Coach Raymond. We had forgotten Joshua's cake and he brought it to us tonight. Lucky for Joshua he stayed for just a little while and even gave Joshua a couple of pointers as he shot pucks to Joshua in front of my door!

On a side note, tonight was Children's Cancer Center night. We were asked to take the fish that was in the teen room so we did. We renamed him…Bolt! Appropriate for the day we had!