We Bought a Zoo!

First of all, I love that show. 

Second of all, I love this quote form that show:


Speaking of courage, that seems to be a popular word in my family:

En-COURAGE-ment

My older brother, Ryan, was born two months prematurely. He was kept in the NICU in an isolette, with lots of monitors and wires. On Valentine’s Day, my mom decided she wanted something to be there with him when she couldn’t be there, and set out to find a small stuffed lion. She planned to make a little card to hang around the Lion’s neck identifying it as “Ryan’s Lion.” She wanted a lion to represent courage, and his courage in fighting for his life. She searched stores but couldn’t find any lions among the shelves of dogs and bears. So, she went to the hospital discouraged and empty-handed. A few days later, a package arrived addressed to Ryan. Inside was a small stuffed lion, and a note from Aunt Marilee.

Baby Ryan, and the first Ryan's Lion

"Your mom mentioned in her last letter that she and grandma had been looking for a stuffed lion, and that they had been having a hard time finding one. Well, wouldn't you know that I just happened to have one, and had been looking for someone special to give it to?

"You see, this lion has been all over the country. He comes with a legacy. This lion (like the one from the Wizard of Oz) has been passed from friend to friend to friend to help give them courage to do difficult things in their lives. A friend of mine gave it to me last summer when I moved away to Texas. It was given to her when she was going through a painful divorce.

“I don't need him anymore, but you do, Ryan. Take him, hug him tight, use all his courage, and grow up big and strong. Then, if someday, you find that you don't need

him anymore, pass him on.

"XOXOXO,
Aunt Marilee”

Ryan was eventually able to come home from the hospital, and then had to return two more times—once for a bout with pneumonia, and a second time for heart surgery. Each time, my Mom would put the Ryan’s Lion in his crib “so it wouldn’t seem so empty”, and at night, she would give it a hug and use up all of its courage. When Ryan was in the hospital having his heart surgery, a strange coincidence happened. One of my Mom’s cousins had a baby boy who also had a heart defect, so they were there in the hospital at the same time. This little boy’s name was Devin. He lived for three weeks, waiting for a heart transplant, and then contracted an infection and had to be taken off from the transplant list. His heartbroken parents held him for a few hours until he passed away. My mom then went and found a lion that she gave to them. After that, it just turned into a family tradition to find a lion anytime someone was going through something really hard.

The first hand-made batch of lions

            When Ryan turned 14, he wanted to make giving away Ryan’s Lions into something bigger than just a random family tradition. He was old enough to start an Eagle Scout Project, so it seemed like a good excuse to kill two birds with one stone. He enlisted some volunteers, registered a website domain, www.ryanslion.org, and found some signature blue fur. Ryan and his helpers made 24 “Ryan’s Lions” and gave them to one of the hospitals where he had stayed as a baby. But those were soon gone, and the hospital requested more, so friends and family searched fabric stores and found more blue fur and we made another 45 lions. Each one took about 5 hours to make, and it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to keep up with this forever. My Aunt Karlyn came to the rescue and asked if she could help Ryan organize a fundraiser. Ryan successfully raised the money he needed and found a manufacturer who could produce 500 of them. But the demand was growing. After several donations to the hospital, and random give-aways to friends and family, we began to run low again.

The new manufactured lions!

            By this time, Ryan was on an LDS Mission in Mexico City. My Aunt Karlyn, who had been extremely involved since the beginning decided to keep the snowball rolling, and invited me to join her. We planned a big Bake Sale, and got donations from friends, neighbors, and whoever was willing to donate a plate of cookies, a pie or a batch of rolls. Two other Eagle Scout projects raised additional funds, but because the manufacturing costs had doubled in China where the lions are made, we were still short of the $7,000 we needed to order a new batch of Lions. We set the funds aside in a savings account until other fundraisers were able to cover the cost.

           

The next summer, my aunt and I put on a second big Bake Sale, which in short, was a HUGE success. With the proceeds we were able to get a second batch of lions.

All of this is because a baby made his entrance to the world a little early, and because my aunt sent a stuffed animal in the mail. What started out as a simple act of kindness snowballed into big blessings and opportunities for me and anyone who is involved. One Ryan’s Lion went to parents of a soldier who had committed suicide after a standoff with police. Another one went to a little boy suffering from epilepsy. 100 of them were donated to the Children’s Christmas Cancer Foundation. Ryan’s Lion recipients also often pass their lions on to others in need. One boy who had his leg amputated because of bone cancer passed on a lion to another boy, a stranger to him, who was going through the same thing.  One went to a mother who accidentally backed over her 18-month-old baby. One went to a man whose safety rigging gave way when he was cleaning windows, and he crashed through a window of the building he was cleaning and was seriously injured. 

Every year, several dozen are given to the hospital NICU where they are given to parents of critically ill babies. When I reflect on where it came from to where it is, I’m amazed at how something so simple and small can be something so big and life changing to people. Why was my angel brother allowed to make it through his heart surgery? Ask the recipients of a little blue item, and see that they can stand as an answer.