We arrived early to the event and toured the hospital with all of our family who came to support us. It was wonderful to be able to show them where we spend so much of our life. We also saw a bunch of the hospital that we hadn't even seen yet. It is amazing! Beautiful state of the art everything! What a gift...and it is truly just that...a gift...no cost to us, ever, for anything!
I wanted to share with you what Jon and I said in our speech at the ceremony because I loved it...I just wrote from my heart, as I always do, and the words came out perfectly and said everything I wanted to share.
My name is Becca Turkington and this is my husband Jon. You already know about Israel, but we also have two other children; Rachel who is 8 years old and Jaxon who just turned 7 yesterday. We live in Salem and are very thankful that whenever we have Shriner’s appointments it’s only a 45 minute commute as we know others travel much from farther away.
We started coming to Shriner’s in July of 2009 when Izzy was just 4 months old. After our first appointment here I left saying “Shriner’s is the first place I have taken Izzy where I felt like we were “normal”. Everywhere else we go people point and stare and comment. But not here…unless they are commenting on his curly hair or blue eyes or chubby cheeks or his ability to give dirty looks or his killer smile. We love being at Shriner’s so much that my husband and I actually joke about wishing we could live here because we just love the people and the environment so much. Everyone treats us like family and has a genuine love and passion for what they do. It’s so evident in the things they say, the way they work, and the smiles on their faces.
Most of the time when we are here, which is every other week, we see Shannon for physical therapy and quite often Todd or Sabrina for his prosthetics. They have been such a gift and a blessing to Izzy and to our whole family. They are always willing to help with any need, answer any question and give advice and encouragement. And because they believe in Izzy so much they also challenge him (and me) from time to time.
Along with having congenital limb differences, Izzy was also born with many mouth and jaw complications which required surgery. We were originally trying to get the surgery done at Doernbecher’s because that is where he had first been seen for this particular problem. But after 6 months of fighting the insurance company, we came to the conclusion that we had lost the battle and they were not, under any circumstances, going to cover the surgery. As you can imagine this was heart breaking for us because we did not have the means to cover this very expensive surgery. In this time of heart ache and pain, Shriner’s was there. Within weeks they got Izzy’s surgery approved and scheduled. It was our first experience with surgery, plus Izzy was just barely a year old, but Shriner’s provided us with amazing care for Izzy and for Jon and I. Everything went wonderfully and the surgery was a success. And all of this, at no expense to us. This is a blessing beyond words. Israel will have surgery again here at Shriner’s next week. And we are looking forward to it with hope and anticipation for another great outcome.
We are so thankful and blessed to have The Shriner’s Hospital and could never say Thank You enough.
And of course...what would a post like this be without pictures? :-)
My sister Melanie and her husband Kevin
Jon's parents Don & Sue, Grandma Lois, and brother Jesse
My Parents Jeff & Mary and my niece Callie
(Kevin's (My brother in law)Mom, Dad & Grandma. They used to be very involved with Shriner's years ago. And my niece Hailey too.)
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