Mom Invents Sightseeing Bucket List for Daughter Losing Her Vision
Catrina Frost says her daughter Cailee Herrell has a rare genetic disorder.
— -- One 6-year-old girl in Arizona is losing her vision, so her mother came up with an idea that will ensure her daughter will have memories to last a lifetime.
Catrina Frost is taking her daughter Cailee Herrell on a sightseeing tour filled with bucket list items. The Phoenix, Arizona, woman invented the list because Herrell's sight is deteriorating due to a rare disorder called familial exudative vitreoretinopathy or FEVR.
"Cailee is this unbelievable, heartwarming, magical little girl," Frost gushed. "Nothing keeps her down. She doesn't even recognize that she has a visual impairment."
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, FEVR is a rare hereditary disorder that affects the retina and can cause blindness.
Herrell, who was diagnosed with a variety of vision problems at age 2, has already had five laser surgeries to delay some of her vision loss symptoms -- "the most she can have," Frost told ABC News. The mother added that right now Herrell's vision is akin to looking through a snow globe that's been shaken up.
Since there's no treatment for FEVR, Frost, 40, who has three other sons, decided to take her daughter on several trips to create unforgettable moments.
"We were heading out to California on our way to see this doctor studying the disease and we drove past the Imperial Sand Dunes," Frost recalled.
It was there that she came up with the idea to create a bucket list of adventures. "I saw this little girl run up and down ... these dunes. She was making sand angels and just having a blast. It kind of gave me the idea: I have to start gathering all of these experience for her."
So far they've been to Disneyland and Sea World in California. The two have even gone snail hunting.
In the future, Frost said she has other to do's up her sleeve -- from cooking classes to New York Fashion Week.
The mother added, "I also would really love to take her to 'The Nutcracker' in December and to visit the California Redwood National and State Parks."