No worries, you weren't being too nosey. It was about Mom's concerns with anything church related, even BYU. That does simplify it, so I just said it got complicated. I figured the details would bore everyone, but here they are if anyone cares to read. 🙂

My son seemed unsure about the wish. The Make-A-Wish foundation representative saw that and said the wish was for the child and to not worry. With that in mind, he chose to do a BYU wish.

This is a kid that goes to the hospital in full BYU gear (including helmet and pads) to do chemo treatments. He listens to the BYU fight song or Warriors by Imagine Dragons while he throws the football with me in the hall, all while hooked up to an IV. He wears BYU shirts almost every day and watches every game and highlight video he can. His favorite thing (other than to go to a BYU game) is to go to Deseret Industries in Utah to replenish his BYU drawer. Truly, BYU football helped him through every treatment and moment of sickness.

His Mom tried to talk him into other ideas he had considered. It was difficult for my son and he was worried about picking something she disapproved of. There are some complicated reasons (there's that word again - complicated) that go beyond a kid wanting to please Mom.

To be fair - Mom has been through a lot of struggles, medical and otherwise. I don't want to be too hard on her, because a lot can be traced to struggles with mental illness. My now ex-wife's Mother left when she was barely a teenager, and she hasn't seen her since.

My ex-wife left me and the kids three times before my son's Cancer diagnosis for months at a time. She's attempted suicide and spent time in mental illness focused hospitals. She previously had her records removed from the church. She came back and I rebaptized her. She left the church and had her records removed again though, and this time said she would divorce me and leave if I didn't leave the church too. I wouldn't do that, and she followed through with the ultimatum. She actually served divorce papers in the morning and my son was diagnosed that evening. My youngest was three months old at the time, so it was a lot at once and definitely more than Mom could handle.

The divorce was hard at the time, but it has been far better for my kids and I to be out of that situation. I thought things would get better if Mom had the right combination of meds, and things often improved when I'd consider divorce. I was also worried about the kids being alone with Mom at a time when she had some struggles with mental illness, and me not being there to help or get them out of the situation. It's incredibly important to hang on to a Temple marriage, but I held on far too long in our case and I definitely failed in that regard.

My son doesn't know all of those details, but he knows most of them, unfortunately. He watched as his Mom smashed pictures of Jesus Christ and the temple, for example, when she left the church. Thankfully, things are better for my kids now. Mom still struggles and was checked in to a mental hospital as recently as last month. But, my kids are able to stay out of that world a lot more and just be kids. The trials have strengthened their testimonies rather than weaken them. I hope every day that the challenges they've gone through while so young will build them up rather than wear them down.

I know that was a long tangent, and probably far too many details. I've never been good at telling part of a story - it's all or nothing for me. 🙂

With that background, my son decided to change his wish and went to Disney World. It was a great experience, but he's shared recently that he still would rather have played football with the team or Taysom Hill (his favorite former player). Really though, he's so happy to go to the game that he'll be just fine without anything extra. I know it seems unlikely, but he'd rather see a victory than anything! Either way, we'll be cheering to the end and be fans win or lose.