Ryan House is Open!!

This is Jesse's card that we will give to the children visiting Ryan House. (She has one for HOV too that we leave with the hospice patients that we visit as well) It is a nice way for not only the patients to remember Jesse visiting but so the families see that we have been there as well.

Last Thursday Jesse and I had our first visit at Ryan House. Last week was the opening of Ryan House and all week people from the community could come and see the house. I can't even put into words how amazing this place is! Everything is beautiful, magical and fun! They wanted to have a pet therapy team at the open houses so Jesse and I were there Thursday 5pm-6pm and then Saturday 11am-1pm. They are going to have the house open for a few weeks before we start on our weekly visits so it won't be until probably close to the end of the month when we will start our weekly visits.

Just want to share one story that I think sums up this place....
There is a family who has I believe 4 or 5 children. Two of the children they have are special needs children and require 24 hour care. They have scheduled a stay for those two children at Ryan House so that they can take the other children to Disneyland. While the family is at Disneyland, Ryan House is going to bring disney to Ryan House! They have volunteers coming as snow white, cinderella, mickey and minnie mouse! That way the children who are unable to go to Disney can experience a disney of their own!

Now that I have seen the house I am more ecited than ever to be a part of this amazing place!!! Jesse and I are very lucky!

This is Baer, my friend Ann's dog who is also a Hospice therapy dog and now will be visiting Ryan House as well. Notice their cute bandanas. A fellow volunteer made them and then I had our embroider at work, embroidery the dogs names on them. She also made us aprons that I had embroidered with the Ryan House logo that the volunteers wear. That way we can carry water, hand sanitizer, poop bags etc. They look great!