Can You Keep a Secret?

Ella “met” Katherine Beattie (top woman WCMX skater IN THE WORLD!!! and the only woman to land a backflip in a wheelchair) on Instagram. Once she saw the backflip video,

Ella was a KTBeattie super fan girl. She started hashtagging her own photos and videos #iwannabektbeattie. (If you want to follow Ella on Instagram, you can find her at @ellarides)

They hit it off and Ella spent the weekend cheering her hero on to an 8th place overall finish.

Once the competition was over, we persuaded her to come to our house for dinner,

Ella went to bed that night sighing over “the best day ever.”

That record will stand for exactly two more days.

Ella’s new wheelchair, the one we all emailed, tweeted, facebooked, and screamed for it to have wheels? It’s done. Two weeks before Ella expects to see it at our house. It passed the quality control check Friday morning.

I got this picture a few hours later

It’s from Katherine. She’s flying it out here on Monday to surprise her #1 fan. Ella is going to

lose. her. mind.*

She has no clue. I’ve told her that a writer friend of mine will be here Monday-Wednesday, and she has been talking to her brothers about “Mom’s blogging friend.” Oh my gosh, y’all, I can’t wait. I’ll video it, for sure, so that I can share it with the people who helped to make this moment possible.

Now I just have to get through the weekend without saying a word to her or her siblings (who absolutely cannot keep secrets.) I don’t know if I can make it. I’ve been grinning stupidly since Friday afternoon and the kids already suspect that something is up.

God grant me the strength to not spill the beans.

* Ella’s super excited usually looks like other people’s mildly impressed. She probably won’t be jumping up and down, but she’ll be saying “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh” repeatedly. That’s my prediction.