I'm copy/pasting this from my facebook a few days ago, so please forgive any typos, as I posted from my iPhone.
So we experienced a miracle tonight. Noah (ds5, with moderate non-to-limited-verbal autism)has never in his life done any greetings. We can't get him to wave, say hello or goodbye, or anything of that nature. So tonight we rode the Nemo ride at Epcot and he loved it. We went right back in (it was close to closing time and hardly anyone there) and the 2nd time, I said, "Noah, let's wave to Nemo!" and he waved! Kept doing it the whole ride. We told the CM's what had happened, and they were super excited, and told us to keep riding as many times as we wanted, so we took him through like 8 more times. By the 5th or 6th time, he was waving at all the characters, AND saying "Hi Nemo! (and Dori and Marlin and Bruce, etc.) I was bawling by then of course. lol. After the 8th or 9th time, the cast members met us at the end of the ride, along with the engineer and supervisor of the ride. They had brought Noah a stuffed Nemo doll, and they all talked to him and took pictures and stuff. I can't properly express what a huge thing this is for us. Not only for the amazingly huge breakthrough Noah had, but also the outstanding people who work here. I've before never experienced the welcome and helpfulness that we've seen every single day from the Disney staff. This is truly a magical place. ♥
And this is my update today:
Our little Disney miracle has definitely stuck. Noah has been waving and saying hi and goodbye consistently since it happened. Praise God!!! Oh and a cast member totally made my day the day we left. We went back to Nemo and rode a few more times, and she remembered us. She was so excited that we came back, and she said all the cast members in The Seas had been talking about him all week! The best part - she said if she had ever needed validation for her job, we were it! ♥
So we experienced a miracle tonight. Noah (ds5, with moderate non-to-limited-verbal autism)has never in his life done any greetings. We can't get him to wave, say hello or goodbye, or anything of that nature. So tonight we rode the Nemo ride at Epcot and he loved it. We went right back in (it was close to closing time and hardly anyone there) and the 2nd time, I said, "Noah, let's wave to Nemo!" and he waved! Kept doing it the whole ride. We told the CM's what had happened, and they were super excited, and told us to keep riding as many times as we wanted, so we took him through like 8 more times. By the 5th or 6th time, he was waving at all the characters, AND saying "Hi Nemo! (and Dori and Marlin and Bruce, etc.) I was bawling by then of course. lol. After the 8th or 9th time, the cast members met us at the end of the ride, along with the engineer and supervisor of the ride. They had brought Noah a stuffed Nemo doll, and they all talked to him and took pictures and stuff. I can't properly express what a huge thing this is for us. Not only for the amazingly huge breakthrough Noah had, but also the outstanding people who work here. I've before never experienced the welcome and helpfulness that we've seen every single day from the Disney staff. This is truly a magical place. ♥
And this is my update today:
Our little Disney miracle has definitely stuck. Noah has been waving and saying hi and goodbye consistently since it happened. Praise God!!! Oh and a cast member totally made my day the day we left. We went back to Nemo and rode a few more times, and she remembered us. She was so excited that we came back, and she said all the cast members in The Seas had been talking about him all week! The best part - she said if she had ever needed validation for her job, we were it! ♥