Monday, September 12, 2011

The all time greatest Gabba moment

My husband has a pretty cool job. There have been moments in his Gabba journey that have been so crazy and exciting. Most of the time I am not there for these crazy exciting moments. It's normally Scott telling me how crazy it was meeting the President was or how cool and the Flaming lips are. And me bitterly thinking, Yes, I bet they were pretty cool.
But I actually got to be there for what Scott said was by far the best Gabba experience he has had. And that was meeting Mason, sorry Mr. President.
Mason was visiting our set through the Make a wish foundation. Out of all the wishes he could have had he wished to come and meet everyone here in Gabba land.
Mason has a very rare form of muscular dystrophy called X-linked Myotubular Myopathy. He has had to live the last 10 years of his life away from children and during flu season he has been secluded from the world all together. I have had a small taste of this over the past year and it is not an easy life. And I am saying this after only one year.

You could just see how excited Mason was to be around Lance and the characters. He would not take his eyes off of them.
I asked His mom, Staceyanne what his favorite part of the day was and she said it was when DJ lance came into the greenroom to visit him, " very few people actually interact with or touch Mason, most likely out of not knowing what to do. Everyone at Gabba was so wonderful about that, and I think the fact that DJ Lance kept holding his hand, letting him take off his glasses and hugging him made him feel very special."

I can say I feel the same way about Lance. He makes everyone feel that way. I can never get a good picture of Lance with my kids because he is always playing with them making them smile.
I hope you don't mind but I wanted you guys to read part of the letter Mason's mom wrote me.

This was such a surreal opportunity for all of us. Mason is completely isolated from the world- no friends, no social interaction. Even though we take him all over the place, we have to be so careful of his exposure to people- and then there's still that issue of people not knowing what to say or how to act, so they don't really try w/ him. Most people would never pick up on the little mannerisms of how Mason is feeling, but I can tell you that the welcome that he felt, the acceptance- he totally enjoyed being part of something, of being special in a good way, not just in that "you're different" way. I know we keep saying this, but his episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba are his entire world- they fill up every waking moment of his day. And his little plastic characters, they are his friends, his security. His whole life, all his happiness comes from our love, and from the joy he gets from all the aspects of the show, especially the music- we are able to know exactly what he is feeling by what song he's singing. That's absolutely golden to us!!! From the moment we realized our time w/ him was going to be short, we've done everything we could to give him a fun life- trips, toys, adventures, etc. But what you guys did for our little boy, for our family- it was something that meant more to us than anything money could buy...

Staceyanne, I feel like we should be thanking you. This was a day WE will never forget.
If you like to read more about Mason and his family click right HERE.

16 comments:

Jax @ AlyandAsh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jax @ AlyandAsh said...

What an incredible experience. Our Autistic son also lives in Gabba Land and it sounds like him and Mason would be great friends. What a sweet boy, I love the picture of him, Lance & the Cast. You guys are amazing, what a fantastic day!

Ali said...

His story is amazing, and brings me to tears. SO much love in that Mother's words it also makes me super happy. Thanks for sharing...

Tee said...

That is fantastic! What a sweet boy. I just get a big smile on my face thinking about how DJ Lance and the crew made him so happy :)

robin said...

what a wonderful experience. thanks for sharing...

and thanks for making me cry.

Sarah Hull said...

beautiful. just beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

I was just talking to another mom today about our Gabba experience and how much it meant to us and how even three years later Katie still benefits from it when people say "hey, I just saw you on TV today!" She LIGHTS UP!

So grateful for the Gabba crew as well as the aquabats who also did some pretty cool stuff for us. When my brother was 14 fighting bone cancer the aquabats came to visit him. All of them. They brought him tons of cool stuff and rallied around him. It was amazing! He idolized them and to have them all in his house was a dream come true. We still talk about how awesome that was! (p.s. this same brother is married and will be a dad in about two weeks. miracle. yes)!

Once again, thank you for sharing and introducing us to sweet Mason.
XO

Jessica Crozier said...

What a great story!! Such a feel good moment for everyone involved. How awesome!!

Unknown said...

This made my day! What a wonderful story of human interaction and pure love. I can't imagine what it would be like for Mason's parents to feel the way they do, but I can surely feel the gratitude she shared with you. We all LOVE Yo Gabba Gabba in our home, and we always get excited to introduce people to YGG and then say "Did you know the creators are LDS?" Even better! :-D Thanks for sharing such an uplifting story!

Georgia said...

My eyes are just filled with tears! What a beautiful story, and what a beautiful boy Mason is! Thanks for sharing this GREAT story.

Christina said...

Sniff happy tears sniff

Allison said...

Such an amazing story! Thanks so much for sharing, it brought tears to my eyes.I totally remember you telling me about Scott's show back at Lux. So inspiring.

Ps love the pic of Davy

Beth said...

Thank you for sharing this beautiful day.

Reenie said...

That was beautiful Ruth....

xo

Elk Dresses said...

That made my heart happy as a mom. DJ Lance and all of the Gabba people deserve a gold star. :)

PilatesMom said...

What a sweet story and what a wonderful organization Make-A-Wish is! Even betterthat Mason picked a wish that more than fulfilled the purpose of Make-A-Wish! Enjoy the flu a/k/a "love-in" season it can go too quickly for kiddos like these...

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much. I'm obsessed with your blog and I think your family is absolutely stunning. I found your blog because of a reccommendation from Kori's blog from Mates of State. You've inspired me to personally photograph pro bono as a hobby. I think you would be amazed at the affect you've had on your readers.

Keep it up! You've got support from all over the country, even in raggity 'ol South Jersey.