If you have followed our blog long you would know that last summer the Kyle Korver Foundation selected Mason (and our family) to be one of the families that they would provide a wheelchair ramp for. After a lot of work from a lot of amazing people we are making progress! It's been a long journey and still isn't complete, but it's sure getting close! We are so grateful for all of the work people have done to make this possible for our family! It looks amazing and I will go take a few pics to post, but here is the story that they posted on their website and facebook page. Here are the links if you want to see it 'live'!!
Mason's Ramp - Facebook link
Mason's Ramp - Kyle Korver Foundation Blog
Have you ever pondered the wonder of a flower’s beauty? How it is credited to the work of soil, something seen as “broken?” One definition of soil is “a place or condition providing the opportunity for growth or development.” Mason Shaw, six-year-old son of Kerry and Spencer Shaw, is the “soil” to many he comes across. Though others perceive him as broken, he has an amazing ability to draw beauty from others, because of who he is and what he has overcome. “He brings out the best side of people,” his mother Kerry said.
Mason is six years old and has Cerebral Palsy. He survives legal blindness and deafness, has Quadriplegia, a chronic lung disease, Pulmonary Hypertension, temperature irregularity, and has a g-tube that feeds him through the stomach. His list of his diagnoses is 30 or more.
Challenge number one was day one. Beginning with his premature birth at 27 weeks, Mason was born with a rare and severe genetic skin condition, Congenital Lamellar Icthyosis. The doctors doubted he would live through his first week. In his newborn pictures, his skin was pulled as-tight-as-could-be over his entire body. This caused him to be fire-engine-red and extremely shiny. To the doctor’s surprise, Mason battled and overcame his first almost-impossible odds. Kerry and Spencer were unable to hold him for the first five weeks, but after four long, rollercoaster, excruciating months in the Intensive Care Unit, they brought him home to meet his older brother Ethan.
Mason and 8-year-old Ethan will soon be younger brothers of their adopted 16-year-old Ukrainian sister Victoria and they have been older brothers together to adopted 2-year-old Ezra. Kerry and Spencer have no doubt these new children will bloom where they are planted, nurtured in part by the soil of Mason’s can-do spirit. “If someone in the family needs comfort or love, he is always there to give it. He is happy and charming, easy to like, innocent and strong,” Kerry said. She refers to Mason as their “angel,” and in the front room of the Shaw home is a display of that belief. A framed photo of Mason says, “Most people only dream of angels. We have held them in our arms.” She identifies her motherhood to him as “the greatest thing in the world.”
Kerry also explained the realities of life with Mason’s disabilities. A quote that she hangs on to during the harder days is one that her neighbor, who was dying of cancer, once shared: “If we hung our troubles on a line, you’d choose yours and I’d choose mine.” She and Spencer continue to painfully endure letting go of the “dream family” they once shared in their hearts. When they first wed, they did not imagine they would have a child with as many medical challenges, or that they would ever adopt. Neither of these was in the plan. Family events like hiking or vacations are slim-to-none, especially as Mason is getting heavier and more of a challenge to mobilize. “It is the freedom to go places that I miss,” said Kerry. “Even if it is just going to the grocery store, the ramp will free us in many ways.”
The ramp will allow Mason to sit outside on the deck in his wheelchair in the summertime while his siblings play in the pool, whereas before he was stuck inside. He will be able to use his chair in the house, which will permit him to sit at the dinner table with everyone else. “We have never planned ahead with Mason. Every doctor’s visit has left us hoping for at least six more months with him. It will be really nice to have something more permanent,” Kerry said. The thought that ran through her mind when she saw Mason wheeling down the ramp for the first time was one word: “liberation.”
Mason is six years old and has Cerebral Palsy. He survives legal blindness and deafness, has Quadriplegia, a chronic lung disease, Pulmonary Hypertension, temperature irregularity, and has a g-tube that feeds him through the stomach. His list of his diagnoses is 30 or more.
Challenge number one was day one. Beginning with his premature birth at 27 weeks, Mason was born with a rare and severe genetic skin condition, Congenital Lamellar Icthyosis. The doctors doubted he would live through his first week. In his newborn pictures, his skin was pulled as-tight-as-could-be over his entire body. This caused him to be fire-engine-red and extremely shiny. To the doctor’s surprise, Mason battled and overcame his first almost-impossible odds. Kerry and Spencer were unable to hold him for the first five weeks, but after four long, rollercoaster, excruciating months in the Intensive Care Unit, they brought him home to meet his older brother Ethan.
Mason and 8-year-old Ethan will soon be younger brothers of their adopted 16-year-old Ukrainian sister Victoria and they have been older brothers together to adopted 2-year-old Ezra. Kerry and Spencer have no doubt these new children will bloom where they are planted, nurtured in part by the soil of Mason’s can-do spirit. “If someone in the family needs comfort or love, he is always there to give it. He is happy and charming, easy to like, innocent and strong,” Kerry said. She refers to Mason as their “angel,” and in the front room of the Shaw home is a display of that belief. A framed photo of Mason says, “Most people only dream of angels. We have held them in our arms.” She identifies her motherhood to him as “the greatest thing in the world.”
Kerry also explained the realities of life with Mason’s disabilities. A quote that she hangs on to during the harder days is one that her neighbor, who was dying of cancer, once shared: “If we hung our troubles on a line, you’d choose yours and I’d choose mine.” She and Spencer continue to painfully endure letting go of the “dream family” they once shared in their hearts. When they first wed, they did not imagine they would have a child with as many medical challenges, or that they would ever adopt. Neither of these was in the plan. Family events like hiking or vacations are slim-to-none, especially as Mason is getting heavier and more of a challenge to mobilize. “It is the freedom to go places that I miss,” said Kerry. “Even if it is just going to the grocery store, the ramp will free us in many ways.”
The ramp will allow Mason to sit outside on the deck in his wheelchair in the summertime while his siblings play in the pool, whereas before he was stuck inside. He will be able to use his chair in the house, which will permit him to sit at the dinner table with everyone else. “We have never planned ahead with Mason. Every doctor’s visit has left us hoping for at least six more months with him. It will be really nice to have something more permanent,” Kerry said. The thought that ran through her mind when she saw Mason wheeling down the ramp for the first time was one word: “liberation.”
