#4.18.17

by KENDALL FISHER & ALESSANDRA MORTELLARO | Tue, Apr 18, 2017 1:49 PM

All things are possible in the land of Disney...Just ask 7-year-old Daisy.

The young girl from Houston was diagnosed with Achondroplasia (a form of Dwarfism) from birth. She recently became the internet's obsession due to heartwarming photos in which she's seen crying as she meets Belle from her favorite movie, Beauty and the Beast.

E! News spoke with her aunt Patricia (who shared the photos) and the backstory of little Daisy's meeting will make you get up and grab a box of tissues (if you need to do so now, we'll wait).

Patricia tells us Daisy has had to battle through surgery after surgery her entire life, including her head, legs, neck and back. Thus, after watching her go through all of this, a thoughtful nurse at the Children's Health in Dallas nominated Daisy for Make A Wish.  

When she was approved at the end of last year, Daisy decided to pick Walt Disney World in Florida as her trip—specifically, so she could meet Belle. To make things even cuter, her other choice was to meet Louis Tomlinson from One Direction, but she wanted something she could share with her brother and sister.

She and her siblings have been staying at Disney World since Friday, and on Sunday, she got all dolled in up her yellow Belle dress in order to finally meet her favorite princess. As you can tell from the photos, the moment was very emotional for the 7-year-old.

Then, as they were getting ready to get on with the rest of their day, Daisy's mom told Belle that she was the reason why Daisy wanted to go to Disney World. Belle decided to make the little girl's dreams come true and asked to take the whole family on a Tour of France (as a part of Epcot in Disney World).

"Daisy was jumping up and down from excitement and was balling her eyes out when Belle told her she would take her on the tour," Patricia told us. "Daisy was sobbing from happiness, and everyone around her was crying, too."

She continued, "Disney characters never break character, but Belle almost started crying when she said goodbye to Daisy [at the end of the tour] because she was so touched."

Needless to say, the moment was magical.

"For a day, Daisy wasn't having to worry about surgeries or doctor's appointments. She just got to be carefree and have fun. Disney World, Make A Wish, & Give Kids the World really made a difference in Daisy's life. They are all amazing organizations and people's donations really do make a difference."

Cue even more tears.

[This isn’t part of the article, but the Aunt tweeted this tonight, 4.18.17.]

As a recovery blog that's often idealistically positive (though it hasn't always been that way), I want to be honest and share that I have been struggling the past week or so with triggers and disordered thoughts.

About a week ago I was sick, with some sort of a virus, so I went to the Dr, and of course, they weighed me—and despite my chart noting not to, they read the weight out loud. I was down 3 lbs from my weight in February (noting the actual number only because it's relevant to the following discussion). I struggled with that. What does that mean? Does that mean I'm slipping? Do I need to gain the weight back? Should I be happy? Was that a disordered thought? (It was.) (Checked reality with a friend who's never had an ED—that's a normal weight fluctuation!)

I ended up sitting down at my computer and logging into my "patient portal" where I can see all my past lab work and weights within the past 5 years or so. I sat there for about an hour, analyzing "how sick" I had been. Definitely disordered. My thoughts were a mix of "how could I do that to myself" and "I wasn't even really that sick" (I was).

I sat with the thoughts, yet (somehow) free of disordered urges. The thoughts plagued me, but the urges were gone— and a year ago I would've been struggling not to act on urges—two years ago I would've already acted. Progress is slow, but present.

Last weekend, when I was scrolling through screenshots on my desktop, I accidentally scrolled all the way to the bottom of my images. And what did I see? An image of myself from when I weighed quite less than now. So of course then I couldn't help myself, I went on a search to find the sickest image of myself (I do not advice this search to ANYONE ever ever ever). I've done this before, always coming up with the same image. In the past this image has made me cry, use behaviors, or whatever else. I was deep in self-pity, and found myself stuck between wanting and loathing—yet again, free of conscious urges. I ended up looking through all my childhood photos, criticizing my every flaw, until my computer sensed how disordered that was and decided to freeze my photos app and quit the application... And I realized what I was doing and did not open it back up. I moped for a little while, but then I talked to a friend about it and we joked about how that's probably not the best use of my time.

In the end, I was fine.

Today, yesterday, I am fine.

I consider myself 99% recovered, but even here, my mind is not 100% free. Life is a journey, and I am constantly growing.

"Purity"