Once upon a time...and they lived happily ever after!

So many of you have asked me what the buttons on the side of my blog were all about~"I read NieNie" and "Nie Recovery"~Well, they are for Stephanie and Christian Nielson. They are a couple that live in Mesa. Just a couple of weeks ago they were involved in a plane crash in St. Johns, AZ where the pilot Doug Kinneard was killed. Christian sustained burns over 30% of his body and Stephanie received burns to 80% of her body. Although Christian has a broken back also, he is expected to recover. Stephanie is more critical at this time. They have 4 small children that weren't involved in the crash~Claire 6, Jane 5, Ollie 3, and Gigs 1. They are still heavily sedated, and as far as we have heard, haven't yet realized what has taken place. The children have been taken back to Utah (where Stephanie is from) with Stephanie's sister Courtney. Stephanie's parents are staying at the hospital to care for the injured couple. The amazing thing about this story is that most of us never even knew the Nielsons~I read about the plane crash in the newspaper and then looked her blog up (the address was given in the newspaper). I also found out my cousin Sara had been following the "NieNie Dialogues," I started to read it and could not stop! Stephanie is an incredible writer and VERY inspiring! She loves all things vintage and is a very good mother to her kids. Steph loves pretty things and is freaked out in love with her husband!~She makes you want to be a better person. Soon after the crash many more people that didn't know her wanted to do something to help. They started about 300ish auctions of various items with all of the proceeds going to the family. Its so cool to see how people have come together for a family that they don't even know! People have donated clothes for the children (as Courtney only had one newborn). Other People have brought in food, movies, toys etc. Some have offered babysitting, laundry help and cooking. Some people were even trying to help the other day, by figuring out what Ollie (the 3rd youngest) was trying to say. I guess he was trying to tell his Aunt what movie he wanted to watch, in his own baby talk. He kept saying something that sounded like "Reginald King." Courtney wrote about it on her blog and lots of people commented with ideas of what he might be saying. Finally a mom suggested that it might be "Lightning McQueen," with a ton of other ideas from other moms. It turned out to be The movie "Cars" with Lightning McQueen. I just thought it was so cool how so many moms were concerned and knew how frustrating that would've been for little Ollie and how Stephanie, wouldn't have wanted her little boy to struggle, so people jumped in to help! So if you would like to donate you can go the the button at the top of the page OR bid on an item~ Go here to check out the auctions OR Go here to read Courtney's blog with updates on the couple and the children. I would love to somehow get her blog published with all of the proceeds going to the family. I would LOVE to have a copy of her blog in book form, to pick up when ever I needed a lift!! She is truly amazing and VERY inspiring! They have a very long road in front of them (especially Stephanie) so please keep them in your prayers!