Welcome to Abigail's wish trip report. We are all so excited about the trip and have had a great time planning.
A little introduction to the wish girl...Abigail is an 8 year old with 3 older brothers who adore her (in their own way
). She loves all things pink and is a huge animal lover and a sweet all-around girl. She loves basketball (and is pretty good at it, all things considered) and would play football in heels. She's all-girl who has to play with the big boys!
When Abigail was about 18 months old, it was discovered that her spine did not form properly....(I like to call it a puzzle spine) she has three vertabrae that did not separate on one side and a couple of vertabrae that are shaped like triangles instead of rectangles. Because of the deformities, her spine began to rotate and curve and she was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis (with thoracic insufficiency).
Like anyone else would, we searched high and low for the best treatment for her and came to the conclusion that a Vertical Expandable Titanium Prosthetic Rib was our best option. A VEPTR is normally attached to the child's spine and rib and allows the rib to expand. It has to be expanded (or replaced) every five or six months until the patient is done growng. In Abigail's case, her curve was so severe that one lung had only grown to 75% of the other one, thus diminishing her capacity to breathe. She had her first surgery in January, 2008 when she was 4 years old. Surgery #9 was two weeks ago. Here is a picture of her recovery spot on the couch with her faithful companion, Black, right by her side.
Abigail was approved for a wish from Make-a-Wish and we met with her wish granters in July. When asked what her wish was, Abigail said she wanted to go to Disney and see the princesses. (We have been to Disney twice before but she doesn't remember a great deal of it.) The granters said that in case Disney didn't work out, they would need to put down another wish. Abigail said she'd like to swim with a dolphin as her back-up wish. Too my surprise, our wish granters said..."You know, we just had a little boy who had the same wish and he was able to do both on his trip...why don't we put that together with your first wish."
In my research on the disboards, I didn't think it was possible to have both wishes and had seen that most wish agencies have a separate trip agenda for Discovery Cove and swimming with the dolphins. I figured they knew what they were talking about and so that's how we left it. Now there was a dilemma....Abigail had not even thought about another wish, but they needed to put down a second wish on their form. The granters asked if she liked to shop and she answered with a loud "YES". So they said "well, where do you like to shop....you could have a shopping spree as your second wish?"
And my girl, who could ask for anything in the world, confidently answers:
"Wal-Mart." Just another reason why I love her more than air.
