LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An 8-year-old boy with a rare blood disorder made a wish to go to Mars with his favorite astronaut.
His dream came true on Tuesday through a simulator at the Challenger Learning Center from the Kentucky Science center at the Academy at Shawnee.
“He likes science,” Averey’s Edwards mother, Rhonda Renfroe said. “Period. He's really curious about how things work, why things are the way they are.”
Eight-year-old Averey Edwards knows things about space beyond most 8-year-olds. He's like a sponge asking questions even mom and dad can't answer.
“He has sickle cell disease,” Renfroe said. “A blood disorder. Anything can trigger it. When he was a baby, his first crisis, he was teething and we didn't even know he was having a crisis. They had to admit him when he was nine months old. They had to do his first spinal tap. It's very painful for them to where sometimes they have to take morphine to ease the pain. It can kill you if you don't do what you're supposed to do.”
When Edwards got his chance to make a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the decision was easy: a mission to Mars and a chance to pose his questions to the professionals when he met his favorite astronaut.
“Once he got to know him, he opened up, he played games,” Renfroe said. “They talked.”
With mom, dad and brother along for the ride, they traveled from Indianapolis to the Challenger Learning Center for the simulation.
“I want to thank Make a Wish Foundation for making this all possible for Averey,” Renfroe said.
His parents say he absorbed everything. The only downside was they have to try to answer more of his questions all the way home.
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