9-4-04
Hey everyone!!
Well this is my first journal entry...how exciting! First off, I want to thank the wonderful ladies who run Shining Stars Online Mag, for being the sweetest girls ever and helping us out so much with everything these past few months.
I gotta keep this entry a tad short because we're getting ready to leave in a few. We spending time with a fan today through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Her name is Kaleigh and she's 15-years-old, a huge fan of the group and our music, and she's battling Cancer and a Brain Tumor. We heard she's been battling this for a couple years and the doctors think she's fading pretty fast, so her biggest wish has been to meet us, so she's coming out here to spend the day or two with us. We're looking forward to it a lot. Charity is really important to us, especially with children with life-threatening illnesses.
Guess what ya'll! My daddy is coming home today, he's been in Iraq for almost a year and I've missed him SO much. Jade's uncle Ryan is coming home from Iraq today as well. My uncle was just killed out there a few weeks ago, so that was so hard for my family and me. We're just glad they'll be back for a few months. They're arriving here in California later on tonight, so we may still be with Kaliegh then, but that's alright, she can come and meet my dad and Jade's uncle with us.
My phone is ringing...it's probably my lil' Jaders, telling me to get my butt moving! I better go! I'll talk to you guys later on...lots of kisses and hugs!
Love,
Jessica
xo.
9-5-04
Hey everyone!
I just thought I'd write again to say hey and tell you about our day! :) Kaleigh is so sweet, and such a sweet person. We had such a great day with her. This was her first time meeting us and her first time in L.A. so we wanted to make sure it was really special and memorable for her, since it was one of her last wishes, which is really unfortunate. We took her around to each of our houses and gave her a tour of each of our homes and she met our families and some of our friends, and then we took her out for some lunch in the city. After lunch we went back to Jade's for a little while and tried making ice cream which was just awful, lol! Let's just say we'll just buy ice cream for now on! Then we all took Kaleigh shopping at Universal City Walk and she saw all of the Hollywood stars for celebrities and stuff, which she thought was really cool. We did SO much shopping in downtown L.A. and gave her a big tour of the city. We even got a map of celebrities homes and tried finding some...that was interesting and pretty fun! It was Kaliegh's first ride in a limo and she loved it. After shopping, we went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in the city and then we stopped in at Build-A-Bear and each made cute little animals. I made the *cutest* little puppy, it's adorable! And now I'm at home for a little bit to spend time with my dad and then I'm going over to Jade's with the other girls for a slumber party with Kaliegh. She's going to spend some time with us tomorrow too, before she heads home.
Meeting Kaliegh has been such an amazing experience. It's really been a taste of reality for me and she has been such an inspiration to all four of us. She lives each day one day at a time, and never lives in the past or worrying about seeing the next day. She has tremendous faith in God and Heaven and knows when she passes on, she'll no longer be in the pain and discomfort she's in now, and that she'll be happier than she's ever been. I would never be able to keep such a level head if I was in her position right now. She's always wearing a smile and she's so open to talking about her illness and death. I know Kaleigh will forever hold a very special place in my heart for the rest of my life. As much as we have touched her life with making her wish come true, she's touched my life more than she will ever know. I will definitely keep in touch with her and her family after she goes home and even after she passes on, I'll still stay in touch with her family. I am so thankful that we have had the opportunity to meet Kaleigh, because she has changed my life in so many wonderful ways that she will never know or understand, and for that, I owe her tremendous thanks. So thank you, Kaleigh, for being you, for living each day to the fullest, and for affecting my life so deeply that I will never be the same person I was yesterday. I now know only a small taste of what it's like to have death be knocking on your door by spending time with you, and I will forever live my life differently. I am so thankful to be alive and healthy today, and I will live every day to it's fullest as long as I live, and I will never live in the past or even the future again, I will only live in the present, and live with a smile on my face and a smile in my heart...that smile in my heart will be from one person and one person only...Kaleigh.
Love,
Jessica
xo.