Our Buddy Peyton!

What a way to start our day….getting to surprise a 1st grader from our little guys school with some fun little gifts! Our son and Peyton were in the same class last year and Peyton was just the sweetest who I don’t think ever once was talked to by the teacher for not doing what he was supposed to! Just an all around great kid. About a week before Easter, his parents started noticing Petichiae (red spots) all over his chest and face and bruises all over his legs, and then on Easter he got a really big bruise on his arm that made his arm look like it was broken, so that’s when they took him in. The doctors told them he has something called ITP… It’s an autoimmune disease where his body thinks his platelets are foreign and so his body is attacking and destroying them. When they first went in to the doctor, his platelets were 3,000 (145,000-400,000 is normal) which explained why he was brushing everywhere. He has had 3 IV IG treatments which is a blood product to help with his platelet count. With this autoimmune disease he is not able to run and play like every other kid because if he fell or had any amount of impact to his body, he could bleed internally. When we heard this, our heart broke for his parents. Having to watch your child sit and watch all the other kids play is nothing any parent wants to see happen. His parents are such amazing people and it was just inspiring to see how much positivity they show for Peyton. You can tell that he has so much love and encouragement surrounding him because every time I see him at lunch and recess, he could be sad not being able to run and play like the others, but he still has friends giggling with him and a grin from ear to ear! Just makes you so proud watching him be so brave! We are so blessed and honored to have gotten to meet Peyton’s parents and siblings and to have some of his other biggest supporters (the amazing staff at Pathfinder 😍) there to support Peyton and give him a little gift to show him we are all there for him! We hope and pray that Peyton’s little body is healed quickly and he can start running around playing all the sports he wants and doing flips into the pool! 😉 Thanks so much for everyone who is a part of Step7living.org and everyone who watches these missions happen!  We appreciate every one of you!