Dear Dolly.

Dear Dolly, 

We love you. All 5 of us. LOVE you. 

We will be taking our first family of 5 vacay next month for our 4 year old, Lola’s, bday. Destination- DOLLYWOOD! Why? Because she loves you. Like LOOOOOOVES you. 

A little bit about us:

We are the Harmon’s. Adam and Emily are the parents to 3 children who are way too close together 😴: Lola-4, Brooks-2, and Dollie Mae- 10 months.  About a year and a half ago Lola discovered you, “Dolly Partons”, and she fell in love. Car rides became live concerts. The set list? Always a Jolene and 9-5. When she saw your pictures and your beautiful blonde hair, there was NO turning back! Brooks got on board and it was the best to hear a 1 year old singing songs when he could hardly talk. 

They use Adams ukulele as their guitar and they sing and strum.  Then they discovered “Coat of Many colors” and Lola had a ton of questions about the meaning. She told me how rich you were, but I explained to her that you felt rich because your heart was so so so full of love. You didn’t have any money. You didn’t need money because the love you felt was more than enough.  Your mama loved you so much that she made you a coat with every ounce of love in her body, she gave you more than any dollar could ever buy. 

We’re part of the imagination library and have shelves and shelves full of amazing stories to read to our kiddos. The best part, they always look at the picture of you with excitement, “Look! It’s Dolly!!”

See... we had a crazy year last year. We went from “rich” to poor. We fell into hard times and it was ok... it was HARD, but ok. We had each other and we learned so much about life in general. Who knew it would be such an amazing gift! In the middle of it, I found out I was pregnant with a baby girl who had Myelomeningocele Spina Bifida. Money was gone, the marriage was a wreck, we had two little ones and a third on the way with needs we didn’t feel like we could meet. 

Our Dollie was born last July and she is an angel warrior princess! She has had 3 surgeries, 16 sets of casts on her legs, 8 brain mri’s and endless trips to Vanderbilt’s children’s hospital. She goes back for her next surgery in August. She will hardly be 1 and is tougher than any human I’ve ever met. She was the missing link to our family, we thank God for His sweet gift to us every night. (Did you know that Dolly / Dollie means “a gift from God”?) 

Life is hard and this is a lesson we strive to teach Lola and Brooks daily. And even though it’s hard,  you’ve gotta pull up your big girl/boy pants and keep on keepin’ On. Thank you for helping us to teach this lesson and for being an amazing role model for our babes. We are SO thankful they have chosen you...girl- SO THANKFUL! 

So we’re doing it, for Lola’s 5th birthday (June 17) we’re going to Dollywood. The only thing is, she thinks you are always there. She keeps saying “‘mama, Dolly’s gonna be there singing! I’m gonna sing her Jolene.” I thought you might enjoy a video of her best performance. :-) If you are feeling generous, we would be over the moon with some kind of birthday message to Lo. And if by chance you’ll be in pigeon forge (and not Nashville, or LA, or who knows where else!), I know a little girl who would give her right arm just to see your beautiful hair and hear your angel voice! 

Keep doing what you’re doing, you’re changing lives. Xoxo

Love, 

The Harmon’s

Your biggest (little) fans 

Sent from my iPhone