Maria Sue Chapman 2003 - 2008 Photo by Mary Beth Chapman
Last night Maria Sue Chapman, adopted and youngest daughter of Mary Beth & Steven Curtis Chapman, was killed in a tragic accident in the family driveway. She was LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital but for only reasons God can explain she went home to Him... not back to Franklin as we all so desperately wanted.
We are all humbled by the incredible outpouring of love and support at this difficult time. I have watched you, the Chapman friends, overwhelm website servers and jam phone lines with your gracious words and heartfelt prayers. The Chapman family is so grateful. Obviously, we cherish your prayers for all in the Chapman family, and we welcome you passing this along to others to pray and encouraging them to sign up for Steven's e-mail list to receive continuing updates.
If you'd like to express your condolences and get a glimpse of this beautiful little girl through a short video clip, click here.
Mail to PO Box 150156 Nashville, TN 37215.
In lieu of flowers, the Chapmans request any gifts be directed to Shaohannah's Hope, click here.
In closing, as many of you know, the song "Cinderella" was written by Steven to help him (and us all) grab a hold of the special moments with those we love we might otherwise rush by. It was inspired by a bath time that Steven tried to "hurry," Maria and her sister Stevey Joy were not exactly cooperating. : ) Let us all be reminded again today what Steven compels us to with the lyric of this special song.
Maria, we already miss you so much, and we only take comfort in The Hope that assures us we'll see you again soon.
On behalf of the Chapman team and family, Jim Houser (Manager)
I hope that you had a goodnight's rest last night and will have a good day today. It is Friday which is always a good thing, yahoo. I hope that you all know how you mean to me and know that your all such a blessing to me always. I wanted to share with you all some bad news that I had recieved a few days ago. I have reciently found out that I have cancer and have been given a year to live. I know that many of you will be sadned when you read that, but I want you to know that I will be strong and will hold on. I know that there are times that I ask why must this happen to me, but then I remember that we must let go and let God help us deal with the problems that we may face in our life. I know that times are hard for each of us, but that doesn't mean that we still don't have love in our life. I know that I still do and I am blessed by all the love that have in my life. I had heard this song when I was watching the movie called 'All Dogs Go To Heaven 2' and I had thought that it had fit this blog entry, the reason is that I will always be with you no matter what may happen from here and know that your all my special friends of whom I love with my heart always. I will always keep you in my thoughts, heart and prayers forever. If I were to pass away in the night, I know that I would be missed by many, but I want you to know that I always did love you for who you are and always will. Each night when I go to sleep, I send each of you, butterfly kisses and hugs with a special prayer. So if you feel a light kiss, there is no one there it is me, sending you a butterfly kiss, plus hug and a prayer. I hope you all know that you all mean a lot to me always and forever.
At the end of May, I shall be closing down my account. I will never forget any of you and if you wish to keep in touch with me, then please send me a message to my inbox and I will gladly let you know how to keep in touch with me. This isn't an easy decision for me, but this is something that I must be done. I will never forget any of you.
I hope that your all doing well so far. I am not doing so well, because I have been ill since March 31st, 2008 with a mysterious illness. I am a bit worried that it has drag on this long infact the doctors, can't seem to figure it out either. If you don't see me log in here for the next little while, well you know the reason why that is. Know that I love you all and miss you all so much. I hope that your all having a good day and take care always.
Hey there my dear sweet friends, I hope that your all doing well and are keeping warm. I hate snow and boy are we getting pounded with the stuff here today, yuck. I am still not feeling very well and it is starting to scare me a bit. I had felt God cradling me the other day when I was crying and I knew that some how that things will work out, I just have to believe that somehow I will be healed from my illness. In away each blog that I write is kind of like my last testimonial, because you never know how long you are guaranteed to live for while your here on this earth. I sometimes think that things are meant to happen the way that they do, but sometimes it is hard to except the changes for the way that they are. I love begin able to be with my friends and to talk about the things that my heart wants to tell you for the day. Sometimes they are sad and other times they are happy, but it just depends on how I am feeling. I have found that what ever you go through in your life, there is always someone there to lend you a hand back up and to be an encouragement for you. I know that feeling all to well, because I have some awesome friends on here. I thank God each day for each of you and always say a prayer for each of you always. Sometimes when times are hard and you don't know where to go, know that you can always turn to God and He will never turn away from you, the reason is that He loves each of you for who you are for know and always. I am thankful that I have a new love in my life, because it makes me feel like as if someone cares about how I feel and loves me for who I am. I thought that I had that with my previous relationship, but the fact is that I didn't and that was a lesson learned that will go with me no matter where I may go to from here. I am trying my best to be the best person that I can be, but I have times where I struggle, but we all have times like that. Well it is time for me to go curl up, take a cat nap and try to feel better soon. Have a perfect Sunday, Megan
The 22-year-old mother stared down at her daughter who was dying of terminal leukemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness, she also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent she wanted her daughter to grow up and fulfill all her dreams. Now that was no longer possible. The leukemia would see to that and that broke the mother's heart.
Still the mother wanted her daughter's dreams to come true. She took her daughter's small hand into her's and asked, "Alishia, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?"
"Mom, I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up." The mom smiled back and said, "Let's see if we can make your wish come true for you."
Later that day she went to her local fire department in Ottawa, Ontario, where she met Fireman James, who had a heart as big as Ottawa. She explained her daughter's final wish to him and asked if it might be possible to give her six year old daughter a ride around the block on a fire engine. Fireman James said with tears in his eye's, "Look, we can do better than that. If you'll have your daughter ready at six o'clock Wednesday morning, we'll make her an honorary fireman for the whole day. She can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards! If you'll give us his sizes, we'll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat -- not a toy one -- with the emblem of the Ontario Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots. They're all manufactured right here in Ontario, so we can get them fast." The mother with tears in her eyes, gave him the information that they would need and left.
Three days later Fireman James picked up Alishia at the hospital, dressed her in the fire uniform that was made for her and escorted her from her hospital bed to the waiting hook and ladder truck. Alishia got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. She was in heaven and had a blast of a time. There were three fire calls in Ontario that day and Alishia got to go out on all three calls. She rode in the different fire engines, the paramedic's van, and even the fire chief's car. She was also videotaped for the local news program. Having her dream come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, so deeply touched Alishia that she lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible and it was a true miracle.
One night all of her vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital. Then she remembered the day Alishia had spent as a fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Alishia as she made her transition to pass away. The chief replied with tears in his eye's, "We can do better than that. We'll be there in five minutes. Will you please do me a favor? When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over the PA system that there is not a fire? It's just the fire department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to her room for us?" "Of course, I can do that," she says.
About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital, extended its ladder up to Alishia's third floor open window and five firefighters climbed up the ladder into Alishia's room. With her mother's permission, they hugged her and held her and told her how much they loved her. With her dying breath, Alishia looked up at the fire chief and said, "Chief, am I really a fireman now?" "Yes, Alishia, you are a fireman now," the chief said. With those words, Alishia smiled and closed his eyes one last time. She passed away with Fireman James holding onto her.
The day of the funeral for young Alishia, firefighter's from across Canada came to say goodbye to the littlest firefighter who touched the heart's of so many across the world. I wanted to share a story of how a child's wish was granted for her and how it is my heart wish to have wishes granted for other children around the world.
Have a lovely Friday and may all of your wishes come true always.
Sending butterfly kisses and hugs to all of you, Megan
I was inspired to write this story after I read the puppies for sale story. I hope that you will like it.
Kittens for Sale
A book store owner had some kittens that he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the kittens and set about putting it in the window of his store. He went on with his day, when a child came in, he went over to the young girl and asked, "Can I help you?" "I came to see the kittens," she said. " Follow me, there in the back with the mom", he said. When they entered the room, the mother cat came over and so did the kittens.
As the kittens made their way towards them, the little girl noticed something else stirring inside the basket. Slowly another little ball appeared; this one was noticeably smaller. Out the basket it came slowly and then in a somewhat awkward manner the little kitten began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.... "I want that one," the little girl said, pointing to the runt. The owner knelt down at the girl's side and said, "My dear, you don't want that kitten. The kitten will never be able to run and play with you like these other kittens would be able to." With that the little girl stepped back from the owner, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of her trousers. In doing so she revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the owner, she said, "You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands." The owner wiped away the tears and scooped up the kitten. He said, "You can take him home, I am giving them away for free, I will include the basics for you plus a care book for your new friend." The child thanked the owner and took the kitten home with her.
I had cried when I had written out this story, because it is so sweet how much love there is in this story, especially for this tiny kitten. I know what it is like to be different for I am also disabled, I get judged for my disability more often then not. I am glad that I am loved so much here on multiply for that means the world to me and so does your friendship. I know that I love everyone with my heart even the one who hurt my heart and is still making it hurt to this day, but I still love that person as a friend and always will. My favorite bible quote with the word love in it is:
Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil.
I will let you guys figure out where that one is from.
I can not thank each of you enough for your encouragement and messages of love. I have to admit that when I get that low it scares the heck out of me. I hate having a mental illness and wish that I never ever had one to begin with, but we all have to go thru trails to get to the one place that is paradise in heaven, but that will come all in good timing. I hope that I will be with you all for a very long time and will be around to encourage you with my messages of hope and love. I want you all to know that each message is a hug from your heart to mine which is slowly beginning to heal. I believe that once I am fully healed from my mental illness, then that will be a testimonial to share with everyone, but only time will tell when that will happen and boy am I look forward to that day. I want you all to know that I love each of you for who you are and am always with you. Whenever you feel a special kiss on your cheek with no one there to give it to you, I want you all to know that it is a butterfly kiss from me for you, because it is a prayer sent from my heart that was sealed with a butterfly kiss. Know that your friendship means to the world to me and it always will. May you all have a beautiful Monday, knowing that I am still with all of you always.
Hey there my friends, I thank you for taking the time to read over each blog and leaving feedback on my blogs for they mean a lot to me and so does your amazing friendship from each of you. I think that there are times when we all get broken, but I have learned that no matter how much you may get broken you just have to keep trying till you get it right. Whenever I do my browsing online or just want to have some tunes while I clean up the house, I listen to music from my ipod, I am listing to it as I try to type this, it is a bit tricky, because I am dancing as I listen to it, lol so you can imagine how hard that is. I love the verity of music that he has there, each one has a hidden message inside of it, but it is up to you to hear it. I think that this particular song called 'Broken' by 12 Stones tells us that no matter how much we may get broken we can still do what we want with our lives through it all with the love of the saviour there to help us out. I know that you may not think that we are broken, but in away we are all broken for we are all missing something special in our lives and so a piece of us will always be broken. I will always keep trying, because there has to be a light at the end of the darkness. I know that if I want my dreams to come true then I will have to keep trying till I get it right. I am always saying a prayer for all of you and when I do you're getting a butterfly kiss on ur soft cheek from my heart that is broken at times, but is slowly learning to heal. I hope that when I am not fully broken that I will finally feel at peace with myself and not feel the darkness in my life anymore. Also enjoy the song at the bottom of the blog called 'Broken' by 12 Stones. Butterfly kisses and hugs to all of you my friends, Megan
Maria Sue Chapman 2003 - 2008
I will never forget any of you and if you wish to keep in touch with me, then please send me a message to my inbox and I will gladly let you know how to keep in touch with me. This isn't an easy decision for me, but this is something that I must be done. 
I will never forget any of you.
I hope that your all having a good day and take care always.
