A Make A Wish Trip - Final Update!! Pg. 33

Hi, I don't have a wish kid but I do work with them! I am anxious to read how much fun your family had!:yay: Also, prayers for you to find the right hospital/doctors.pixiedust:
Shannon
 


Is the "Give kids the world village" part of DW? Or is it in Orlando or nearby? I've never heard of it. Is it part of the Make a Wish foundation? Awesome! I'm glad they were so excited the same day they got off the plane. That puts some in a foul mood! LOL Great report! Thanks for writing!
 
Give Kids the World is a resort exclusively for Wish kids in Kissimmee. I'll post pictures soon of what this amazing place looks like. There website is www.gktw.org. It is almost entirely run by volunteers. Many of them are people who work at the theme parks who apparently can't give enough of themselves. There are also volunteers from all over and they even get "snow angels"; volunteers who live up north during the winter and come down to the area in the summer and volunteer there. It is an amazing place. It is not a part of a Wish foundation but Wish foundations from all over the world use it. The even fly the flags of the countries represented that day. We had people from Brazil and England and Germany and other countries while we were there. So neat!

Thank you for all the compliments. I do believe my children are most adorable and credit my dh's genes for that. They are the spitting image of him. And thanks for all the well wishes. :)
 
Ok. Here we go.

First some background. Dh and I were newlyweds when we found out we were pg and that Michael had issues. We were living in a small one bedroom apartment in Chicago. Michael was born and spent the first six months of his life in the hospital, nearly five of those on life support. He nearly died several times during those six months. When we were discharged out of the Children's Hospital, it was with the recommendation of hospice care as he had six months to live. Therefore, Mick and I bought a house as we wanted a home for Michael. Mick had a great career and I also had a good job. I was on maternity leave and we expected that my leave would get us through Michael's impending situation and then we could "move on" for lack of a better term. Well, life had other plans. The week after we signed on our house, Mick was advised that he would be laid off since he could not travel anymore (wanted to be close to home). We now went from being able to afford our house to 1/3rd of what we were making. But we figured for five months we'd forge ahead. Mick and I stayed home together living on his unemployment for the next couple months while he looked for employment but nothing came close to the medical insurance we needed to keep Michael as healthy and safe as possible. Soon we realized that the doctors were wrong. Michael was not going anywhere and he was actually thriving. He might just make it afterall. I went back to work and we have struggled financially these last five years. In that time, we have not been able to afford the upkeep and repairs of the house.
Enter our community. Picture Pleasantville and you have our "HomeTown" (which is the subdivisions name). They heard of our struggles about six months ago and have vowed to help us rebuild.
The Saturday before our trip, we have over 45 volunteers swarming our house. We have tossed all our furniture, ripped out all the carpet and all the walls have a layer of paint on them. Drywall is repaired. General Chaos. The last volunteer leaves at 10pm that night. Children collapse on the mattress we have in one of the rooms. All four of us sleep on the King size bed.

Oh yes, we have to be up in 6 hours and the kids hadn't napped that day!

I'm too excited to sleep. I toss, I turn and I finally fall asleep only to hear Danae screaming. She is still firmly asleep, screaming. As I pick her up trying to figure out what is wrong, I find out. I am now covered in pee. Lovely. Off we go to the bathroom. I wash her and myself up. She's still asleep, as is Michael. Back in bed. Ahhhhh, peace. I toss, I turn, I fall asleep and 45 mintues later, Danae is up screaming. I toss her at Mick and tell him to take her to the bathroom. She doesn't make it and now we have a puddle on the floor. Back to the bathroom we go. She is still asleep. Now I'm concerned. This is not like her. Back to bed. Toss, turn and you guessed it. Just as I fall asleep, she wakes up screaming again. This time she's wet the bed. Thankfully I had put down a towel this time. Still asleep. Its now 3 am. I'm up. No more sleep. I start getting the bags ready, take a shower, get the kids clothes set up and take the luggage out to the sidewalk. At 4am I wake Mick, who's cranky because he didn't get any sleep last night. Grrrrrr! He showers, dresses and goes to wait outside for the limo. At 420am I wake the kids and dress them. They are exhausted but excited. Limo is to be here any second now. Any second now....

At 440am I call the limo company. They have the wrong phone number and are lost. 10 minutes away. Not bad. Give directions and the driver's here by 450am. We get to the airport and drag our luggage into the terminal at Midway airport. Did you know you have to take your own luggage to the screeners these days?! Ya know how hard that is with a three and five year old and two carseats?! Poor Mick. We take a potty break. We're starving as the kids don't want the bars I got them. I'd take a picture but we want to get to the terminal and then get breakfast. Security is busy but moves at a nice pace. Kids have no problems with the procedure at all. We find the terminal and then the gate sign. Sends us off to this strange corridor that keeps going and going and going. I take a quick pic of the kids (in case they get lost) and Mick goes off with Michael for potty and breakfast at MickeyD's.
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Not five minutes later I am frantically calling Mick (and he's not answering) as they have started boarding. I call again about three minutes later as boarding is going much faster then I expected. Where is he and why isn't he answering?!? He really does get there as they call off "final boarding"! Yikes!

We get on. We are at 11ABCD. Not bad and Mick starts installing the two carseats. I'm off to take Danae to the potty before takeoff. As I am pottying her (there is no way she and I would have fit in that tiny potty so the door is open), I am chatting with Danae about our Wish trip. The flight attendant, just behind me asks about our trip. I tell her we are on our son's Wish trip and this is there first time on the plane. I turn back to Danae to help her finish up. When I get back to our seats, Mick is uninstalling our carseats. We have been upgraded to Business class. We are now in 2ABCD! Yeah! I won't have to deal with both kids alone!! We install and sit and off we go! Kids still haven't napped and there is no indication they are ever going to sleep again!

Flight is wonderful. No problems whatsoever. We arrive on time and off we go to find our Wish Trip Escorts. We pass security and there is a big sign with Michael's name. We have found them, or they us. Yeah!

They have a luggage cart and off we go to collect our bags. No problems here. Easy Peasy really and off we go to the car rental. We get a nice car with plenty of trunk space. Again, no issues. We install carseats, say goodbye to our escorts and we go off to Give Kids the World (forevermore referred to as GKTW).
 


Wendy you have me sitting here in tears right now. I wish you the best of luck and I'm looking forward to reading more.
 
Alright, so we are driving in the Orlando area and are having no problems getting to GKTW. Directions are clear and as we head into GKTW, here is what we see.

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The place is beautiful and quiet. We check in as the kids run around check in area. There are books, tvs, rocking horses, a replica map of the village. The people are awesome. Our villa is ready and the kids get new t-shirts that say Give Kids the World. Off the kids and I go in a golf cart while Mick follows in the car. I wish I had pictures of the villa but I don't. :( I did take video later in the week but not sure how to get that online. Anyways, Living room, eat in kitchen, washer/dryer, a master bedroom, bathroom, a kids room (two twin beds - huge) and a huge bathroom for the "kids" which includes a hot tub! Sweet! Our back door looks out to the pond, the swimming pool is steps away and the fishing area is right there! And its quiet! Beautiful! The villa has everything we will need, snacks, drinks, dish and laundry detergent, soap, shampoo and gifts for the kids.

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We wander around. There is a caroussel (which we must ride),
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a train (which we must ride),
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a "magic castle"
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with a play room and volunteers and lots of other good stuff.
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Note the "giant" looking down into the playroom. So cute! And that cabinet with the mirrors is full of dress up clothes for children of all ages.


Oh, and Ice Cream from Friendly's (as well as sandwiches). Ice Cream for lunch! Great way to start our vacation!
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After wandering around, we try to nap the kids and its a nogo. They're not napping ever! So Mick takes the kids fishing and I head off to orientation. I learn a good bit there, get our tickets and other important stuff including the all important GKTW pin. This pin will be our "ticket" to "special treatment". I also learn we can use a stroller as a wheelchair and this will be a lifesaver as Michael has poor stamina for walking distances and he has trouble doing any kind of waiting. He also likes to take off on us. He just has no attention span. Michael has autistic like tendencies with severe ADHD like features. The resort has him completely fascinated though. Thank goodness the doors to our villa have chain locks way up on top. We later find Michael has pulled a chair to the door in the middle of the night to the doors, trying to unlock them.

We return to our room and opt to not do dinner but order free pizza. We're hoping that just being in the villa will calm them down enough to sleep. Haha! Michael has received a birthday cake from GKTW as well and although I hide it, they find it. Mick goes to take a bath in the hot tub for a "break". They're still awake. Then I go take a bath for my "break". When I get out, they're still awake. At about midnight, they both lay there head down on their beds and crash. Mick and I are utterly exhausted but fascinated with how excited they are.

We are a bit nervous as we want to be up by 7am or so to get breakfast and be at Magic Kingdom at rope drop. Tomorrow is Michael's birthday. We are scheduled to do MK in the morning and Epcot in the evening with a quick break at GKTW in between. We have dinner reservations at Epcot and we can't wait to meet our Dis friends at Off-Kilter. We pass out on our beds and hope for the best.

Stay tuned for our Wonderfully Perfect Day at MK...even though all our plans went out the window!
 
O.k. I'm sitting here attached to my comp. (although i've still got 100 things to do before I go to bed!) with tears rolling down my face. It's so awesome that there are still people in this world who do care and give of themselves with no thought of a "reward"! I'm overwelmed by how ya'll must have felt and it's so unreal that we will soon be on a wish trip in 2 months ourselves. I understand what you mean about your dd going through the same stuff with your ds. My DS7has grown up before his time since we had our DS5 (our wish child) In a way though he is definatly a better person. His dad had kidney failure when DS7 was 17 months old so all he has ever know is his dad with tubes in him and dialysis and hospitals. So with DS5 and all the hospitals, DR, therapy etc... to both of them this is normal. They are just now starting to realize that not every one has to all this!! Some of my proudest moments have been when a kid or (rude) adult says WHATs WRONG with YOU?!!! and instead of answering back rudely Braeton says I have cerebral palsy, but God made ME special and he loves me VERY much! How are you today? This usually floors the adults and the kids usually either just say oh or ask what is CP and he tells them it's like a 4 wheeler that backfires (we ARE from TX!) sometimes my legs act up and they usually accept it and want to play with him. He's heard me explain it enough that now he enjoys telling people what cp is. I'm just thankfull he can talk well enough that they understand him!
But enough about us what we want to hear ismore about ya'lls trip!!
Keep it coming. Excuse me why I go get a cup of coffee and a box of tissues:surfweb:
 
Love this trip report. We too will be going on a MAW trip soon. We haven't picked our dates yet but are very excited. This is giving me a very good picture (literally also) of what to expect. Thanks ---- Mindy
 
Great trip report so far wendy. Looking forward to reading more. Btw Make a wish is one of my very favorite charities.
 
Thank you all for staying with me. I have been uploading pictures to photobucket and reading ChristaMae's TR. And that is why I am up at 4am. My dh is gonna kill me! I will take a nap with the kids tomorrow, I am sure! I hope to add our first full day in Orlando by Saturday depending on how much time the children give me. My sister and her family are moving in with us on Thursday so it is a very busy week. I can't wait to do Monday's report. It was a truly magical day and perfect in every way. Monday alone made the trip entirely worth it. Everything else was just gravy.
 
What a great way to start my day! I have enjoyed every aspect of your report. I am chuckling at the thought of your two children napless, operating on little sleep and then having ice cream for lunch at GKTW! LOL. We will be there in 3 weeks. Let me know if you would like me to take pictures of the outside of your villa for you and email them to you. I can't figure out how to take pictures off of my video camera either....
 
I am loving your report Wendy!!! (I posted w/you on MDC) I can't wait to read more!!

:yay: Glad to see you over here!! Thank you! :goodvibes

What a great way to start my day! I have enjoyed every aspect of your report. I am chuckling at the thought of your two children napless, operating on little sleep and then having ice cream for lunch at GKTW! LOL. We will be there in 3 weeks. Let me know if you would like me to take pictures of the outside of your villa for you and email them to you. I can't figure out how to take pictures off of my video camera either....

Did I forget to mention they also had Ice Cream for a before dinner snack?! Ooops! Just too much to mention, I suppose. They were sooooo hyper which is really hard since Michael is already a ball of energy that never stops.

Oh, if you have time, I'd love a picture of 217! Its hiding in the corner behind Claytonburg pool. There's a lovely train car thing that takes people around at night during the festivities and drops them off anywhere on property. Its absolutely awesome! Oh, and don't worry about bringing your own video camera. Sony donates video cameras and they give you free DVDs to record on (all you want. apparently, someone once walked off with like 55 of them) and it is super easy to manage and easy to switch from camera to video and you can have the camera the length of your trip until 8pm the night before you leave (they then "prepare" your DVDs). I'm just silly and decided I didn't want to take pictures with the video recorder. I'm a moron! :laughing: And its free!! Have you been to their website? Its an absolute must for planning. But don't plan too much because you will want to be there for certain evening or daytime activities. You'll see but you'll have to wait until I get to Tuesday night!

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Sunday as my children were "relaxing" in our resort, the resort was hosting a giant game of Candyland. They put out a giant gameboard. The kids are the pieces. It is done nearly every Sunday and looked like so much fun! I wish we had gone but we won't learn until Tuesday how awesome their events truly are.

It is now 8am and my dh let me "sleep in". He just took the kids to get some groceries and I'm supposed to be sleeping. Um, yeah. I have a trip report to write! :rotfl:
 
So I'm debating what to do here. Mick has already written his report. Funny and Sentimental all in one. However, I of course have my version of how things went and would add pictures but would take me quite a bit of time to write.

What to do, what to do? :confused: :rolleyes1

I really would like to get our Perfectly Magical Day up soon...
 

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