Hi everyone~
Let me introduce you to our family...
First is my dh (Frank), myself (Wendy), our ds (Dalton who is 20) and our wonderful dd (Lindsay who is 15 and our Make a Wish child). Lindsay has a connective tissue disorder (originally diagnosed as Vascular Type 4 Ehlers Danlos) yet she has many more symptoms and issues than most Ehlers patients experience. In the past 3 years her declining health has led to her using a wheelchair for most outings that require walking like shopping and she uses a walking cane around the house. She is in constant pain and is on high doses of pain meds daily. There is no cure and all we can do is treat the symptoms. I homeschool as her stamina level does not allow her to participate in public school. It is now starting to affect her speech and her process thinking. This has been a VERY difficult journey for a 15 year old to travel as you can imagine. Especially when I tell you that just 3 years ago she lived a very normal life and was even cheerleading for a Christian organization here in town. It has been a very difficult and eye opening 3 years!
Now, having told you a little of her medical situation, let me describe our lives right now...my dh was laid off 2 years ago after 30+ years of service in the same industry...the economy here is HORRIBLE and it took him 2 years of constanct searching to finally find a job which he started 3 weeks ago. We have been very blessed thru the years and have always been huge Disney fans. We stated taking our kids to Disney when Lindsay was 2 and have gone every other year since that time until the past few years. Our last trip was in 2008 when we celebrated our son's high school graduation and had an amazing trip of a lifetime. With each trip, Lindsay has ALWAYS wanted to do a behind the scenes tour but found that you have to be 16 to do these tours. For YEARS we have promised her that we would celebrate at Disney for her 16th birthday and take her on the tour...that was until the layoff and our finances were no more! We are barely getting by even with the new job because of the huge paycut he had to take plus we have lots of medical bills becuase we exhausted our cobra medical insurance and were unable to obtain private medical insurance. So now you are up to speed...
A very good friend of mine felt that Lindsay needed something special in her life as so much has been taken from her with this illness. She researched MAW foundation but was unable to refer Linds as you have to be a parent or medical provide. She asked me to refer her and to be honest, I wasn't sure if Lindsay would qualify and I HATED to get her excited about something that might never happen. Well, it IS happening. We recieved the letter late April that Lindsay would be granted a wish and we meet with the wish coordinator tomorrow night! OF course Lindsay is wishing for a Disney trip. The only week my husband can go will be the week his plant shuts down for the Christmas holidays so we are keeping our fingers crossed that MAW can work in that time schedule. Lindsay says this is God's way of answering her prayer...she has prayed for a way to go to Disney this year to celebrate. It is a huge year for us as My dh and I will be married 25 years this June, Linds turns 16 in August, our ds turns 21 in Sept and my dh turns 50 in Nov. I think this is an answer to prayer for all of us and I LOVE seeing Lindsay get excited about something for a change. I will keep everyone posted and we meet with her wish granter tomorrow and the plans start to come together. Thanks so much for taking the time to read about our family! We love the disboards!!!
Let me introduce you to our family...
First is my dh (Frank), myself (Wendy), our ds (Dalton who is 20) and our wonderful dd (Lindsay who is 15 and our Make a Wish child). Lindsay has a connective tissue disorder (originally diagnosed as Vascular Type 4 Ehlers Danlos) yet she has many more symptoms and issues than most Ehlers patients experience. In the past 3 years her declining health has led to her using a wheelchair for most outings that require walking like shopping and she uses a walking cane around the house. She is in constant pain and is on high doses of pain meds daily. There is no cure and all we can do is treat the symptoms. I homeschool as her stamina level does not allow her to participate in public school. It is now starting to affect her speech and her process thinking. This has been a VERY difficult journey for a 15 year old to travel as you can imagine. Especially when I tell you that just 3 years ago she lived a very normal life and was even cheerleading for a Christian organization here in town. It has been a very difficult and eye opening 3 years!
Now, having told you a little of her medical situation, let me describe our lives right now...my dh was laid off 2 years ago after 30+ years of service in the same industry...the economy here is HORRIBLE and it took him 2 years of constanct searching to finally find a job which he started 3 weeks ago. We have been very blessed thru the years and have always been huge Disney fans. We stated taking our kids to Disney when Lindsay was 2 and have gone every other year since that time until the past few years. Our last trip was in 2008 when we celebrated our son's high school graduation and had an amazing trip of a lifetime. With each trip, Lindsay has ALWAYS wanted to do a behind the scenes tour but found that you have to be 16 to do these tours. For YEARS we have promised her that we would celebrate at Disney for her 16th birthday and take her on the tour...that was until the layoff and our finances were no more! We are barely getting by even with the new job because of the huge paycut he had to take plus we have lots of medical bills becuase we exhausted our cobra medical insurance and were unable to obtain private medical insurance. So now you are up to speed...
A very good friend of mine felt that Lindsay needed something special in her life as so much has been taken from her with this illness. She researched MAW foundation but was unable to refer Linds as you have to be a parent or medical provide. She asked me to refer her and to be honest, I wasn't sure if Lindsay would qualify and I HATED to get her excited about something that might never happen. Well, it IS happening. We recieved the letter late April that Lindsay would be granted a wish and we meet with the wish coordinator tomorrow night! OF course Lindsay is wishing for a Disney trip. The only week my husband can go will be the week his plant shuts down for the Christmas holidays so we are keeping our fingers crossed that MAW can work in that time schedule. Lindsay says this is God's way of answering her prayer...she has prayed for a way to go to Disney this year to celebrate. It is a huge year for us as My dh and I will be married 25 years this June, Linds turns 16 in August, our ds turns 21 in Sept and my dh turns 50 in Nov. I think this is an answer to prayer for all of us and I LOVE seeing Lindsay get excited about something for a change. I will keep everyone posted and we meet with her wish granter tomorrow and the plans start to come together. Thanks so much for taking the time to read about our family! We love the disboards!!!
but we don't have any additional details yet so we are "hoping" that more info will come along because we are planning to set out on this adventure in less than 5 weeks!!!! Can you tell that we are just a "little" excited!!! Linds has been looking forward to this for so many months and now is in so much more pain. From falling and passing out, she has inflamed bursitis in her hip and that is just making her pain worse but she keeps smiling 
What a gorgeous resort!!! I do hope that she gets to do her tour! 
I think their hours are 8am-11pm. We have 1pm lunch ressies at Crystal Palace and hope to eat dinner at Columbia Harbor House. This will be a good day in case Linds needs to go back and rest, she and I will just hop on the monorail!...and leave our guys to enjoy the park while she rest.
