Friends and strangers donated thousands to send an Oregon family on a dream vacation.
The donations of friends and strangers helped send a mom battling brain cancer on a dream vacation with her huge family.
Kimberly and Stuart Wall have eight children, four of them adopted in 2017, ranging in age from 4 to 13.
The Oregon family was stunned last year when Kimberly was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons unsuccessfully tried to remove a tumor from her brain. There was more bad news — the mother had stage 4 brain cancer.
Daughter Kira Bracken, on leave from her job to help care for her mom, established a GoFundMe account to raise money for a dream trip for Kimberly — a cruise to the Bahamas and a stopover at Disney World with her brood of kids in tow.
"We were very fortunate getting the help we did, to be able to go on this trip," Bracken told InsideEdition.com. The gang returned from their trip about a month ago. "We wouldn't have been able to do this for my mom if we didn't get that help."
She and her siblings were astounded by "complete strangers reaching out and helping us. It was so overwhelming."
The site raised more than $20,000.
Her parents had adopted four kids who had been living with them for six years. The day of the adoption was also the couple's 25th wedding anniversary. "She puts everyone first and her[self] last," her daughter said. "I wouldn't trade anything for her."
Her mother became very sick on the trip and was experiencing a stroke when she returned. Her doctors told her, "You are in the middle of a stroke. We need to admit you," Bracken said. There were blood clots in her lungs and legs, the daughter said.
But Kimberly "wouldn't have traded" the experience, Bracken said. "She was so excited to go on this trip."
Her mother has accepted her diagnosis without complaint, she said. "She is such an amazing woman. She is taking it gracefully ... She wants everyone to be happy and get what they need from her while she still can."
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