Moses Lake girl, 13, meets Wilson

MOSES LAKE - This past Tuesday was supposed to be an uneventful one for Moses Lake teen Alianna Valdez.

Exhausted from having spent the last few days in the Seattle Children's Hospital recovering from surgery, the only thing she had on her mind that day was making the trek over the mountains and back home.

She had no idea that a wish she recently expressed was about to come true.

Alianna, now 13, was diagnosed with a form of Cerebral Palsy when she was younger and has never been able to walk.

Her mother, Raelynn Valdez, said she hopes Alianna's recent surgery will allow her some use of her legs.

"She had surgery on both of her legs Thursday," Valdez said. "They lengthened her hamstring and cut a chunk of her thigh bone and manipulated the placement of the bone where it meets her knee so she's able to straighten her legs."

With that, she said doctors are hoping Alianna will be able to stand and take some unassisted steps.

A week before her surgery, Alianna told her story to a KHQ reporter. The reporter and her production team traveled to Moses Lake for the interview, said Valdez.

"They did some of the interview in Alianna's bedroom," she said. "And she has it covered with Russell Wilson posters and all this Seahawk stuff."

Alianna then mentioned to the reporter that she knew Wilson would sometimes visit the Children's Hospital and it would be awesome if she got to meet him while she was there for her surgery.

"She told the lady it was her wish to meet Russell Wilson," Valdez said. "So she asked her viewers to hashtag 'AliannasWish' on Twitter for him to see."

Valdez said she and her husband James kept checking Wilson's Twitter and Facebook pages to see if he responded to anything. However, from his social media feeds, it seemed Wilson wasn't even in the area, she said.

Then Tuesday rolled around and it was time to get Alianna back to Moses Lake. Valdez said she and her husband figured it just wasn't meant to be.

But then, she said, it suddenly was.

"We were getting ready to leave, me and my husband were literally in the middle of transferring Alianna to her wheelchair to leave when someone knocked and said she had a visitor," Valdez said. "And in walked Russell Wilson."

She said none of them knew how to react at first.

"Well Alianna freaked out, and I was just speechless," said Valdez. "My husband teared up, I don't think he knew what to do either."

Wilson and Alianna then spent some time talking and goofing off. The pair even recorded a video together, which Wilson posted on his Facebook page.

"He told her he had seen Twitter and the interview and that he liked the way her room was decorated," Valdez said. "Now we tease her because Russell Wilson has seen her room."

She said the visit with Wilson was just what Alianna needed to lift her spirits post-surgery.

"It was a huge procedure," Valdez said. "She is doing OK now, but there were some complications."

Alianna's legs swelled up, which caused some compression on her nerves. She lost feeling in her feet, but her family is hopeful that it is only temporary.

Alianna is now at home resting, which she will do for the next couple of weeks.

She will then return to Seattle for about four to five weeks of in-patient physical therapy - where Alianna will work with doctors for six hours a day, six days a week. "She is very strong and will get through this," Valdez said. "This is something she wants, it will make things a lot easier especially when she is transferring to and from her wheelchair."