Thanks to both of you!
Soo... tell us about your "Dream".
The lead up to the dream is in normal type, the dream is in bold below.
Well, the nominee is actually my son, Levi...not me. Levi is a five year old with autism. He had autism from day one I am sure. I could tell because he was my fifth nursing child and he did not bond to me in the same way as my other children. I forced bonding through a technique when he was 6 months.
He would jump for hours daily, held a similar toy in each hand and played ambidexterously, made some eye contact, and could say "Love you mama!" When he hit around 15 months he went into a sharp decline. He did NOT have the MMR shot at that time so that is not what caused it. It seems to be an age related decline at that period in time that just so happens to coincide with the same time people tend to get the MMR shot for their child.
Levi became completely non-verbal, quit making all eye contact. He became full of anger and frustration and would go into meltdowns for hours at a time several times daily.
First I taught him to make eye contact. Then I taught him to interact with me. Next, I taught him to mimic. However, he would not point at his needs, he would just SHRILL. He remained non-verbal outside of shrilling. I thought there was nothing I could do about it. Then I read an article about how stroke patients can develop a new language center in the other half of their brain and develop new nerve pathways to be able to speak. Why wouldn't that work on an autistic child I thought?
I had no financial resources. My hubby and I were separated at the time and I worked full time from home just to support my children and me. I did not want Levi put in daycare as he had so many issues I was afraid somebody would be tempted to abuse him. Levi only slept about 4 hours a night and I refused to have him medicated, even though so little sleep was taking its toll on me, as I had to be awake when he was awake to keep him safe, as he was oblivious to danger. I knew if he was medicated I would NEVER pull him out of his own world.
Anyway, we made a bunch of changes when Levi was about 42 months old to teach him to talk. They worked. Soon as he started talking, we found out he knew SO MUCH all this time. The meltdowns became less and less as he could now communicate his needs. Levi still has quirks, but you talk about an amazing child. He now loves other little children, shows empathy to others, talks to people in the store (most of the time), behaves very well overall. There are a couple of things that overstimulate him and can set him off into a meltdown. I know the triggers and I can see it coming on and nip it in the bud.
My husband and I are back together now. When we moved to California, I have not been able to find another work from home job that can work out around Levi as of yet. So our finances are still very tight. In fact, on our trip to
Disneyland, even though it is mostly paid for, we don't have money to eat out, as we have a big family. I am ordering our groceries from Albertsons and we will eat sandwiches, cups of soup, etc in our room. I don't mind at all...we are still so very blessed.
So Levi is the little guy whose dreams are to be fulfilled. I did not know what to ask for him. The things I want for him, I don't know how Disney could ever fulfill. Those are for God, Levi, and me to work through. Such as Levi fulfilling the purpose for which he was born. To continue to express empathy to others, his education, his desire to interact with others and learn to think on more than his obsessive thought at the time.
Except this trip itself is a dream come true. And Levi would love to have his pix taken with certain characters (Chip N Dale, Pluto, Donald Duck, Lightning McQueen, etc) and would love it if they had a birthday cake with candles on it and sang Happy Birthday to him (even though it is NOT his birthday). LOL
Also, there is a character our children think is related to us because of the same last name. My teenage and three year old daughters both love this character. Levi would love for his sisters to meet that character.
I don't expect those things to come true at the party. I think there will be somebody with a much greater need/dream to be fulfilled and I will be blessed to see them receive it!
We are so very blessed just to receive this trip. And I am in tears again!
Blessings to all of you!!! And thank you again for all the wonderful help we have received here on the boards.