The Wish by Tara McCarton

I am so excited to let everyone know I am finally finished with my first book! It has been a year or so in the making but is finally here! It is so funny too because in school I was never good at writing, I used to say I would write exactly how I spoke. But everyone would always tell me that I should write a book. You can’t make up some of the stories that happened in my life so far!

When Audrey was diagnosed with Microcephaly, I remember reading so many negative stories, as if there was no hope and they were all so depressing. It broke my heart and that is when I started to write my blog and put a positive, hopeful story into the world! It is my mission to spread the word of hope and how to focus on the ability in disability.

This past Christmas, Vivienne was playing with a Santa App we have and he asked her what she wanted for Christmas. I thought she was going to say something “princessey”, she is only 3. But then she said, “I want Audrey to talk!” Well that just melted my heart because we did not tell her to say that, she just had an innocent wish. This inspired me to incorporate that wish into a real life Fairy Tale called “The Wish”.

So now that I had the story in my head, I knew that for it to be a Fairy Tale it needed to have certain elements. One day at a birthday party for one of Audrey and Vivienne’s babysitters, Allison, I looked up on her wall and she had all these pictures of fairies everywhere. I never knew that Allison loved to draw and it was as if she could see the story in my head. I asked her Mom and she said that Allison had been drawing since she was little and loves it! So I asked her and her mom if she would like to be a part of my book.

We know Allison from Respite at St. Anne’s. Respite is every other Friday at St. Anne’s where members of the school and community volunteer to watch our Special Needs Children so the parents can have a break and a nice dinner with friends. Allison and her brother are part of the Special Needs community at St. Anne’s. I thought who better to be the Illustrator for my book than her! She has helped me all summer with the girls being a Mother’s Helper and she trick or treats with us every year. She is smart, kind and always willing to help. I am so glad that she wanted to be a part of this story and bring my book to life! She also proves that you can do anything you put your mind to and nothing is holding her back!

The Fairy Godmother in the book is named after my cousin Lauren who passed away this summer. Lauren was a smart, funny, beautiful woman who was also an amazing athlete, hence the green running sneakers she wears in the book. Lauren was always so supportive of spreading the word about Audrey and how important it is to get your child into Early Intervention and believing in them and never giving up. I miss her dearly, but know that she will live on forever in this book.

There are not that many books written about special needs children. Hopefully this one will be read in classrooms all over as well as bedtime stories at night. It is a sweet story about kindness and inclusion. It welcomes the questions some children may have about other kids that are different. It is important to talk about how not everyone is the same and we all have feelings. If we start the conversations now while our kids are young, this may inspire them to be kinder and hopefully there will be less bullying in the world. Parents and teachers can see how Vivienne’s selfless wishes made them both feel so happy!

So now that you know the inspiration behind “The Wish” I really hope you enjoy it and read it to your children and I hope they take away the special messages I tried to convey.

There are so many people I want to thank for helping me on this endeavor: Allison; for vibrant illustrations. My sweet in-laws, Patti & Jim for always helping with the girls so I could get this finished. Annie, my fabulous sister in law for her back and forth of input. My cousin Winnie who is an amazing Editor. My sister, Krafty Kristen for her advice and encouragement. Tara, one of Audrey’s Special Ed Teachers who helped me craft a Fairy Tale. All my Friends and Family, Thank you so much for always rooting Audrey on! And last but not least Jimmy, my soul mate and biggest supporter and my sweet girls, Audrey and Vivienne, who inspire me every day, I love you all so much!

The Wish is available via the publishers website below or you can buy directly through me via the contact page and get a signed copy at a discount! Please also consider writing a review of my book on Amazon and the publishers website below, that will help so much! Thank you all for being apart of our #audreystory Please share this post, Thank you!!!

The Wish