Madison's Make a Wish Trip/GKTW

LydRos

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
17
I am officially starting our Pre-trip report to plan and document Madison's Make a Wish trip. I have read so many wish stories I am excited to share ours as well as take in all the planning advise!

First things first, let me introduce our characters.
Me- I am the stay at home momma (right now)
Fred- The amazing Daddy
Madison- My sweet 10 year old wish child
Emma- My 21 month old bundle of energy

Maddie's story started for me when I was just 18 and was told that the baby I was carrying would probably not survive birth. She was diagnosed with Hydranencephaly, basically that means that her brain did not develop and her head was filled with spinal fluid. After the grim prognosis from every single doctor I saw, I had a scheduled c-section and did not expect my baby girl to live minutes. Well, God a had other plans, because minutes became hours, hours became days, days turned into weeks and years. My sweet baby girl is now 10 years old. How's that for showing the doctors? She is by no means a "normal child" but we try to make her life as normal as possible. She has countless medical problems, she can't walk or talk, and just this year we made the decision to put in a feeding tube to make her life easier.

This year as I sat in the hospital after Maddie's feeding tube surgery I got a call from MAW saying we want to grant your child a wish. Honestly it couldn't have come at a better time! 2 weeks later we had wish granters in our home and we were wishing to go to Disney. We have been a couple times as a family and I honestly can say the way Maddie is treated there is so amazing! What a way to get away and have my princess be treated like a princess. The wish granters told us about GKTW and how amazing it is. I can't wait to get there.

We just got our date November 14-20! The week before Thanksgiving, how awesome is that!!!!!!

Now it's time to start planning! I don't even know where to start!!!!
 
Sub'ing as well and can't wait to follow along :flower3: I love your positiveness and aww what a miracle you have !! I had my daughter when I was a Junior in highschool and my senior year I joined a Parenting program so that I could still go to school and still be near my child and learn what it is I needed to so that I could be the best mum that I could be. One of my good friends that I was so blessed to make had a child born with the same condition.She too also expected her child not to survive but due to strong beleifs she continued her pregnancy, Long story short That child lived to be nearly 8 months old and brought so many cherished moments, bonds and joy to everyone who had the pleasure to meet her. You like my friends from highschool are an inspiration to many mothers by how strong you are :grouphug: Glad you are here and So excited to be able to follow along :yay:
 
How blessed to have such an angel in your life.I look forward to hearing more,your story reminds me to not sweat the small stuff!
 

So glad I can post on yhour PTR now!! We are going the same week as you and hopefully we will bump into each other at GKTW!!! I am sop happy that Madison is getting her wish! Can't wait to ready about your planning as well! I have heard that this is an awesome week to be at Disney!!:cool1:
 
I can't wait to hear more. Have fun planning your trip and thanks for bringing us along for the ride! :goodvibes
 
I am so glad you guys have been granted a wish! :wizard:

I am going to link you guys on the Wish Trippers thread. :)
 
Subbing! :goodvibes It's so exciting to find out dates. Have fun planning! Sydney's trip is in August so a lot of our planning is done. Any questions, just ask. :)
 
Sorry posted in wrong place.
Cast of characters:
Madison Dawn [ 7 yrs. old] wish child
Tammy [mommy]
and myself [grandma].
 
So glad I can post on yhour PTR now!! We are going the same week as you and hopefully we will bump into each other at GKTW!!! I am sop happy that Madison is getting her wish! Can't wait to ready about your planning as well! I have heard that this is an awesome week to be at Disney!!:cool1:

I do hope that we run into each other! You are WAY ahead of me on the planning side!

I honestly don't know where to start and because I have never been with a toddler so I have no idea what my little one will like. We had planned a trip over a year ago to go to Disney with my parents in September, they want to take the grandkids and aren't brave enough to go it alone so my husband and I get to tag along. So I plan to go on that trip and then plan the MAW trip. Yes, I know 2 Disney trips in 3 months is overkill but we honestly had no idea MAW was going to come into our lives when we planned the first one.

I was wondering if anyone has done the "very merry christmas" party? Is it worth the extra money? I was thinking of trying to do it while we were there for our MAW trip but don't know if it's worth the extra cash, cause it's a lot of money!!!
 
I do hope that we run into each other! You are WAY ahead of me on the planning side!

I honestly don't know where to start and because I have never been with a toddler so I have no idea what my little one will like. We had planned a trip over a year ago to go to Disney with my parents in September, they want to take the grandkids and aren't brave enough to go it alone so my husband and I get to tag along. So I plan to go on that trip and then plan the MAW trip. Yes, I know 2 Disney trips in 3 months is overkill but we honestly had no idea MAW was going to come into our lives when we planned the first one.

I was wondering if anyone has done the "very merry christmas" party? Is it worth the extra money? I was thinking of trying to do it while we were there for our MAW trip but don't know if it's worth the extra cash, cause it's a lot of money!!!

Some wish organizations will actually pay for one "special" thing during your trip (like a meal, BBB makeover or even one of the special parties!) If you tell them that you guys would like to go - they may cover it in the cost of the trip - if you really want to go!

I love the party - because it gives you some extra MK time without having to pay for a whole one day ticket. I also love the special fireworks, snow on main street and the parade!

But...if your kids go to bed pretty early and you don't think they would get much out of those things, then it really may not be worth it. All up to you guys. :)
 
Hi ,

I newbie too. I can't wait to hear more about your PTR. My daughter was also granted a wish, but we don't have dates yet. Our first dates are for the same week. Nov.14th-20th. The second one is in March.
 
I have our plan (so far anyway) posted on my PTR! Hope we will bump into each other at GKTW!
 
We just got our date November 14-20! The week before Thanksgiving, how awesome is that!!!!!!

Now it's time to start planning! I don't even know where to start!!!!

We will be there November 15-21. We have 3 boys, only two are coming, we're leaving the baby at home. Our boys are 7 and 5 (turns 6 one week after our trip).
Hopefully we'll bump into you!
 
Wow, I can't believe that I haven't posted on here since we found out our dates. I truly had every intention of keeping this up to date but some how life seems to have gotten in the way. New job for me, new schedule for the husband, and a toddler that is getting more energy everyday. Maddie (our Wish Kid) has been super healthy and gaining weight like crazy since her g-tube surgery. Hooray!
We literally just got our flight schedule yesterday from MAW. We have no set plan and I kind of like it that way. I always overplan and then get frustrated when things don't go according to plan. Between Maddie and a 2 year old we may need to play things by ear. The only thing set in stone for us is our flight times. We are leaving Louisville at 7:15 on Sunday morning and after a brief lay over in DC with arrive in Orlando at 12:15. I think Sunday will be our GKTW day, where we hang out, relax and get settled. We will hit the ground running on Monday.
Looking forward to just relaxing and enjoying the time with my family!

Hope to run into some of you guys there! See ya real soon!
 
I hope you have an amazing trip full of great family memories and pixie dust!!!! Safe Travels...
 
Have a MAGICAL trip!

Please come back and tell us all about it!
 














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