Thanks, Maroo! We're positively thrilled for her to have something to look forward to, though I know she's a little young to understand the whole scope of things.
For those of you with multiple children, how do you address the needs of the non-wish child? As soon as I got off the phone with MAW and relayed the news to my husband, my other daughter wanted to know when she was going to get her wish. We've never really talked to Maya about Ali's mitochondrial disease, though she certainly knows something is up. And to be honest, I'm not sure I'm ready to address it just yet because we certainly don't treat Ali like she is "sick." And for the most part, her health is stable right now so I don't want to go there in my mind, either. So thoughts on how to address it? Thanks so much!
Kelly
Of course...this totally varies family to family...
It would be particularly hard since Maya doesn't really know about Ali's condition...so maybe that would be a starting place? But I understand if you just don't want to go there...
And I expect it would be strange for Maya - since Ali doesn't "seem" sick - I would think that may even prompt Maya to want to be "sick" too...since it doesn't seem so bad.
To be honest...this was a problem for Lauren's trip...William was really jealous of her. Especially since William had been sick, too. William had spent just as many days in the hospital and day-to-day is probably "sicker" than Lauren (GI issues, etc). We joke that Lauren is the healthiest member of their family - she takes less medicine...and despite the fact that she can't walk or breathe right and will probably die of her condition sooner rather than later, she IS healthier than the rest of the family...
So this was a struggle for them.
William threw several "fits" when the wish granters would come and bring things for Lauren and not him...Lauren told William during one of these episodes that she picked Disney so that the whole family could have a trip (which was true) and we told William that Lauren could have picked something that she would have only benefited from...like a shopping spree or meeting a famous person, etc. So that helped a bit.
The other thing was making sure there was something special for William. On our trip, it was the Pirate Dinner Adventure (which was a nightmare and a whole different story) - and that was William's night and we made a BIG deal about it being HIS night!
GKTW does an
excellent job of making the siblings feel special. For the most part, most of what they do they also do for the sibling...toys, gifts, etc...are given to both children. So that helps.
Our MAW chapter did not do this, though, and were vocal about this being "only for Lauren" and only brought stuff only for her. If we could do it all over again, we would have had toys for William for that night - we just did not anticipate that problem.
Short of telling her she is sick...
I don't know? You could probably tell her she is sick and not make it seem like a big deal...but tell her that sick kids get to pick a wish. But the next time she has a virus...
I think just making a point to include her in the planning..."what do YOU want to ride"...what do you want to do...etc. And maybe a special event just for her that is all about her and make it a BIG deal.
Just the fact that you are being sensitive to it is a big help. It is so hard on the siblings, too.
). So now that I don't feel like I will be jinxing us, I will probably be around more often now.
She said that we should hear from Ali's wish granters sometime within the next week, and we'll get this show on the road. Then I can start planning in earnest. It will be so nice to research something fun instead of diseases, treatments, and surgical outcomes.
We arrive 4/17, or so I was told (no tickets or confirmation info yet). 
