Happy 11/11/11 AGAIN!!

We're still working to make wishes come true! We've got the book back up on the Blurb website. Plus, we've added two new ones and two more are on on their way. (Check back frequently between now and Christmas for "Through an Artist's Eyes {Lauren's art book} and "I Udder-ly Love Moo!" {Lauren's Children's book}.) We too, were disappointed in the final price and are glad to be able to offer alternatives.

Each of the books are fully accessible to read on-line with no charge. Just enlarge it in your browser and soak it all in. If you would like to donate to her foundation, just send a donation to:
Living Lauren's Legacy Foundation
P.O. Box 9043 SLC, Utah 84109

loveandlaughtereveryday@gmail.com

Click on the title for a full book preview and purchase information:

"Happily Ever After: The Power of Perspective"
This one is a full color 8X10 book with the story and photos of her life. 180 pages.
$5.00 from each book goes to her Foundation.

"Happily Ever After: The Power of Perspective" text only
Black and White (with photos on chapter pages) 6X9. 111 pages.
$5.00 from each book goes to her Foundation

"A Pocketful of Perspective"
Color pocket book (5X8) 40 pages
11 pieces of 11 qualities of Lauren's happily ever after perspective.
$5.00 from each book goes to her Foundation

All are now available through Blurb.com. Each book is also offered as an e-book for I-phone's and I-pad's. $10.00 from each downloaded book goes to Lauren's Foundation.

"Through an artist's eyes"
Full color art book (10X8) 20 pages
Available by Christmas 2011

"I Udder-ly Love Moo!"
Illustrated children's book / color (6X6) 20 pages
Available by Christmas 2011

These books will carry the same proceeds ($5.00 for books and $10.00 for downloaded versions) which will service more wishes coming true.

Thanks for sharing with us!! May ALL of your wishes come true!
With love,
Lauren's family

Special thanks to Kent Shelton Photography
for the magic in our family Christmas Card Photo.

Lauren's book is currently unavailable for sale or complete review. Technical difficulties warranted this maintenance time, and we'll let you know when it is available again. Thanks for your patience. E-mail Melodie@webbtours.com with any questions, please.

Happily Ever After by Lauren Webb
& Melodie Webb | Make Your Own Book

11/11/11

What would you wish for if you were given the chance to make just one wish? Would you wish to give your wish away? Would you make a wish that the wish of someone else would come true? Would you create a wish that could change the lives of hundreds of people you don't even know?

Lauren made just that kind of wish ... and today, it comes true.

Lauren was a wish-maker. She wished on first and falling stars, lucky clovers, dandelion seeds, coins in wells or fountains, lucky pennies, eyelashes on your cheek, necklace clasps that had rotated to the front, birthday candles, "bumps" on the head, feet raised over railroad tracks, and numbers that repeated in sequence on dates or time like 2:22 or 11:11. We get 12 repeated dates a year ... 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, .... on up through 12/12. But, just how often do you get 11/11/11!? Today is simply a lucky, lucky day. Lauren would make sure of it.

So, we have too -- we've done all we can to make her wish a reality. Today, her book (the means to her wish) "Happily Ever After ... The Power of Perspective" is available on line -- and, as she wished, the proceeds will return through The Living Lauren's Legacy foundation to her favorite charities which will benefit thousands of wish-seekers. Every reader will learn how Lauren saw her life as a "Happily Ever After" and how in such short years, she was able to have such a powerful influence ... and that will help make YOUR wishes come true, just like she wished for.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2642848

The book turned out much more expensive than we had hoped, but it's a beautiful photo book (572 to be exact) to coincide with Lauren's writings and the expanded addition of her mom's view from close by.

We'll post segments of the book on the blog over the next few weeks and provide a text only edition as well.

Happy WISH COME TRUE day ... for you, for us, and for our angel Lauren!

With love from all of the David Webb family
David, Melodie, Taylor and Heather, Sara, Carlie and Lauren

Happy 9/10/11

The fun nature of today's date would have gone over all of our heads, if not for Lauren. She wouldn't have missed another reason to celebrate! When else will you have the opportunity to 'party' over such a date? It's not the same without her, so we didn't celebrate the way SHE would have, but we did stop to acknowledge it's a fun date anyway.
She's got that effect on us. We notice things differently than we otherwise would, simply because she always did. We see more to be grateful for and more to celebrate and more to enjoy.
So enjoy this day and all of your own reasons to enjoy, celebrate, and be grateful, along with the fact that this particular date can't happen for another hundred years!

Happy 4th!!

July 4, 1996

Another 4th of July --

It is hard to believe that five years has passed away since being diagnosed with cancer. It's also hard to believe that it is possible that I hate that word now more than I did even then. Hind sight IS 20/20 vision, however, - so not really knowing what lied ahead couldn't allow for as much dread as knowing the course it put us on.
Even so, Lauren is such a profound privilege, that looking back I would still take the cancer if I knew it was the only way to have Lauren in our life. For reasons I don't think I'll ever understand in this lifetime, ... it was a package deal.
And, interestingly enough, ... that was amongst the first logical thoughts that came to my mind that dreaded night on the 1st of July 2006 when the words "your daughter has a tumor" were spoken. I recall feeling as though every ounce of blood was drained from my body because I couldn't move my extremities or form a logical thought. Quietly, and over and over again I began saying to myself "I know in Whom I have trusted." And, sometimes to this day, it is the only thought that makes any sense or calms my lonely heart.
At the time, it was the only thought I could form. And, it has proved most sustaining.
After we told Lauren, shed some tears, and watched her faithful spirit to fight, the next sustaining thought was how much of a privilege she is. And, I promised those in Whom I trust that because I trusted Them and knew what an honor it is to be her mom, I would find the battle a privilege too.
Easier said than done, I suppose. I didn't care for the battle. It was excruciating. I would give anything to remove the battle that ensued over the next three and a half years along with the wounds and scars left behind, but I wouldn't trade a moment of her life for anything either. She simply IS a privilege.
Our loving Father has ways we don't understand or don't want. But, He also had Lauren in mind for my family . . . and even my best dreams and wishes couldn't have conceived of such a gift.
We'll be on the parade route without her this year. And, I'm not going to pretend that doesn't hurt. But in her honor, and in honor of They who gave me the comforting and sustaining reminders of those realities, I'll just keep reminding myself that the joy and privilege she (and even that excruciating and unwanted battle to keep her) is forever.

July 4, 2006

May all your wishes come true!

Happy Birthday, Lauren!!

Happy Valentines Day!

Lauren on Valentines Day (with her Valentine box) in first grade / 2001
Happy Valentines Day!!

Lauren celebrated LOVE every day of her life. She knew the NOUN AND the VERB so well. She is just a master of it. So, Valentines was a big, big day to her .... even in the toughest days of her illness. During those days, it wasn't just her family and friends who received Valentines, it was fellow patients whom she had never met. Hundreds of Valentines were delivered in her 3 1/2 year battle with cancer with a special measure of the love she so sweetly possessed and expressed so well. Thousands of Valentines graced her short mortal life.
In that honor, I had "wished" to deliver the Valentine of her completed book "Happily Ever After: The Power of Perspective" today. Despite my sincere desires and efforts otherwise, I have been unable to complete it. I have no idea when or even if it will be finished.
I remain determined to honor her life and the love she filled every day with . . .
I'll either find a different way to do it or I'll keep laboring and hope to be able to announce the completion soon.
May you fill Valentines Day with Love as a VERB . . . and do it deeply.

Lauren's mom.

1-11-11

Lauren was a wish-maker. She wished on first and falling stars, lucky clovers, coins in wells or fountains, lucky pennies, eyelashes on your cheek, necklace clasps that had rotated to the front, birthday candles, "bumps" on the head, feet raised over railroad tracks, numbers that repeated in sequence (as in today's 1-11-11 date), and any other 'excuse' she knew of. All of these, and others I haven't been able to recall were moments to close her eyes, express a desire in her heart, and blow ... or whatever else she had to do to make the 'wish' come true.
It wasn't until the Make-A-Wish foundation approached Lauren about making a wish that it dawned on me that most, if not all of the wishes Lauren was making were wishes for others instead of herself. Her unhesitating response was "I wish to give my wish away!" And, repeated efforts to get her to think of herself were in vain as she continually tried to maneuver a way to focus on the wishes for someone else.
I don't know of a child with a life-threatening illness who wouldn't wish that they didn't have the illness. I'm sure that Lauren didn't want to have cancer and yet, even this wish was foreign to her. A conversation about her illness was more like debate as I told her I would do everything and anything to take her illness away and she countered that she wouldn't trade her life for anyone's. The only concession she would make was that she wished I (and the rest of her family) didn't have to endure her illness. (Although, she was able to find silver linings in that too.) Again, the wish was about others, not her.
The wish we were able to get Lauren to make that was "about her" STILL involved others more than herself. She determined to do something that would raise awareness, concern and funds to help other families with life-threatening illness. For, as Lauren told me after I questioned if she couldn't possibly think of something for herself ... "Mom, my wishes have all come true."
In order to complete her wish for others in need, she determined to complete at least one of two books she had in her heart which she had become convinced would 'help other people's wishes come true.' Unfortunately, she didn't get the opportunity to accomplish the "means" in order to get to the "end." Make-A-Wish foundation does "not fulfill wishes for families of already deceased children." So, I am committed to fulfilling this wish in my angel daughter's honor.
Lauren's two books: "Happily Ever After (The Power of Perspective)" (a teen / adult book) and "I Love MOO!" (a book for children) should be available in the next few weeks. Pre-orders would really help an awareness of production time, and would be appreciated. (These books will be available through an on-line service.) All proceeds will go through the Living Lauren's Legacy foundation to benefit Lauren's favorite charitable organizations, including those who serve children with life-threatening illnesses, and service research and awareness for Childhood Cancer amongst others. Giving Lauren's wish away will accomplish what she had intended from the beginning.
It is interesting to note that Lauren, in so many significant ways, actually DID accomplish her wish to make other people's wishes come true. These books will only be two in a long list of wishes her selfless, loving life granted for others. Lauren's response to her last treatments have changed the world for all children with her same cancer, as well as many other types of cancer. Her willingness to fight for life has given many others more of a chance, with much less of the severe consequences of the more harsh treatments. She has indeed, just as she wished, made a huge difference with her heartfelt desire to make others wishes come true. It wasn't as simple as a momentary close of eyes and a blow of breath ... but she did what she had to do. And, even though some wishes don't come true if you 'tell' them ... some wishes won't come true unless you do. This is the purpose of the foundation and the efforts to accomplish her 'wish.'
Thank you for your help in making it possible.
melodie@webbtours.com