What are you wearing?

Those of you who really know Jadon and Kalina know that finding shoes for them is pretty much impossible.  Jadon was able to wear Crocs until about 1^st grade.  Since then, he has just had a pair in the scooter “for show”.  They were much too long for him but needed to be that size for the width.  He only wore them when he really had to have something on his feet.

Kalina has worn See Kai Run Smaller shoes for a while.  I found a style that fits her a few years ago.  Unfortunately, the style was discontinued and the other styles didn’t really work.  I went on-line and bought her all the next sizes of the style that fit (3 or 4 sizes).  She had made her way to the second to last size.  The next size was too long so she wore her last pair for months.  They are smelly and so worn there are holes in them. 

Every once in a while I get on a mission to find them shoes.  We go to stores and try on anything and everything.  The results are always the same – no luck.

Last year my friend Masumi gave me a book called “My Message is C.L.E.A.R.”.  In it, the author talks about a shoe place in Mercer Island that made leather covers for his knees so he can play baseball (I won’t go into the details here but the book is worth reading).  This time, I decided I would try that place – Chick’s Shoes on Mercer Island. 

One day in spring I took Jadon and Kalina there with the hopes of getting some shoes made for them.  The staff was so helpful.  They told us they don’t make shoes but they can modify existing ones.  They gave us some guidelines and sent us on our way to find something that could be modified.  After searching, we finally found shoes that could be fixed for both Jadon and Kalina.

The process of modifying them took a while but... I am so happy to say that both Jadon and Kalian now have shoes!!!  Jadon, who has not really worn shoes for years, is getting used to having something on his feet again.  Kalina’s shoes have a slight lift and she is getting used to that.  They both love their shoes.

We are so thankful for the great people at Chick’s Shoes, especially Chris and CJ who worked on the shoes.  Thanks to Gabe Murfitt for mentioning Chick’s Shoes in his book.  Thanks to Masumi for giving me the book to read. 

Yes, I am one happy Mama!