Love Wrapped Up Like a Birthday Present

As soon as the news sunk in that Jasmine would be starting chemo on Tuesday and would spend her actual birthday (today) in the hospital, a plan was set in motion to throw her a birthday party before. Once the idea was birthed and the word was spread, many people volunteered to take a piece of the big task of making this party spectacular for Jas.

Not only would this be her 13th birthday party, but it would also be a head shaving party. Jasmine planned on shaving her head because the chemo would cause her hair to fall out anyway, and there were a few other brave souls who committed to being shaved as well. In less than 30 hours, the birthday/head shaving party was planned, set up and happening.

By the time Jasmine and her family arrived at 5pm, there were over 50 people there waiting for them, eagerly desiring to give them the gift of “we’re with you and we love you”. The party was held in the foyer of Bow Valley Baptist Church in Cochrane, and it was packed! As the night wore on, more and more people showed up to join in the celebration of Jasmine’s life.

The room was decorated from head to toe in teal (her favourite colour) and rainbow colours with pom-poms, balloons, banners, and presents. There were many long tables of food and a photo booth with costumes of crazy hats, neon glasses, wigs, inflatable instruments and moustaches on a stick. There were two giant posterboard cards to write birthday greetings, and a journal to write longer messages.

The first portion of the night was spent visiting and eating the dishes that everyone brought. Jasmine’s favourite foods were at the feast, including pizza, lasagna and spaghetti. There was an ice cream cake, another favourite, and a whole choir of voices singing Happy Birthday.

Then it was time for the main event: the head shaving. Money was being raised at the party to buy Jasmine a wig. When her hair was cut off, it was saved to be sent to a company that will make a wig out of her own hair. The cost of this is around $1500, and within 1.5 hours, over $1600 was raised! This is separate from the Go Fund Me amount, so we are blown away!

The first two brave people went up to have their heads shaved, and then people started lining up. Nine people shaved off their hair before Connie and Jasmine went up together, each person adding to the gift of love and support demonstrated through their actions. It was beautiful to see the unity and strength in that moment. As Connie kept the crowd laughing with her witty comments, the atmosphere shifted from sadness to joy. In a moment that was supposed to be devastating, we couldn’t help but smile because we knew we could walk through this together. And right after they were done, Eli courageously walked up to shave his head too, as if he was adding the bow on the present we were all giving to Jas.

The last event of the night was surrounding Jasmine and the Adams family with love and prayers. As we wrapped our arms around them, it was like they were able to unwrap the gift of God’s love.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.” Jeremiah 31:3

Thank you to everybody who came! We apologize to anyone who would have wanted to come but didn’t get an invite, it was thrown together pretty quickly. If you want to write a note to Jasmine, please do so in the comments and we will make sure she gets it.