Parker’s oldest child, 9-year-old Maddison was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome at any early age.  Rett Syndrome is a neurological disorder that develops after a child is born. As the child’s brain begins to develop, it does not make proteins needed to perform certain tasks.

    Due to her symptoms, Maddison has a hard time walking and cannot talk. Maddison can hear and use up to 250-300 words of sign language as a way of communicating with others.

    About two years ago, Parker and his wife, Julie, began working alongside the Make A Wish Foundation, an establishment that focuses on gratifying the wishes of children with terminal illnesses, to begin the process of fulfilling one of Maddison’s life wishes.

    “I was on the Make A Wish Foundation website one day and I decided to fill out an application for Maddi. That’s how this whole process started,” said Parker.

A few weeks after filling out the application and having it approved by Maddison’s doctor, the Parker family was visited by a Make A Wish volunteer.

    “We talked with the volunteer and tried to arrange a trip for Maddi to see Raffi, her favorite singer. That took six months and ended up not working out so we had to come up with something else. When we met with the volunteer again, we said that Maddi loves giraffes. After some planning, everything fell into place,” said Parker.

    Before leaving for Africa, the family watched a documentary called “Tall Blondes.”
The film focused on Giraffe Manor, the resort the Parker family would be staying at while in Africa.

    “Seeing Maddi experience the things she got to see in the documentary was so cool to watch,” said Parker.

    On Oct.4, 2008, after boarding several connecting flights in 31 hours, the Parker family, consisting of Maddison, Parker, his wife Julie, and their two sons, 7-year old Emmett and 3-year old Everest, arrived at Giraffe Manor in Kenya.

    “We lived such a privileged seven days at the resort. All of our needs were taken care of very well,” said Parker.

Giraffe Manor is home to ten giraffes that freely wander around the 120 acre land.

    “We were actually able to feed some of the giraffes at the breakfast table. They just stuck their heads through the windows and we gave them food,” said Parker.

Giraffes were not the only exotic animals the family got to see. Monkeys, hogs and lizards also roamed the manor.

    The Parker family enjoyed their seven day adventure in Africa exploring the manor, taking a surprise trip to the Rift Valley, a private hot spring ranch that purifies water, and getting to know that staff at the resort.

    “We had a choice to make at the beginning of this trip: we could be pampered by the staff or try and build relationships with them. My family decided that we wanted to really bond with the staff since they were true African natives,” said Parker.

Making the decision to bond with the staff opened up new doors for the family.

    “We were able to arrange a play date for my kids and our driver’s kids. We spent a couple of days interacting with his kids and took them to the hot springs with us. It was interesting watching his kids in the water because they had never been swimming before. At first, they didn’t even know how to react to all of the water,” said Parker.

Even though the family was in Africa for one week, returning on Oct. 13, they plan on staying connected with some of the staff they met on their trip.

    The Parker family knows this will be a well remembered experience and are already planning on going back.

    “This was such an eye-opening experience. You really don’t know how much you have until you see how much others don’t have,” said Parker.

To learn more about the Parker’s family adventures in Africa, visit parkerfamilyadventures.blogspot.com