I must admit I decided to copy this over from another thread, because I wondered if others who were following our trip might just see it. We're just 3 weeks away from moving back to our house post-reno. Once we get settled in, I am really, really hoping to write our trip report. I've been following a number of threads on the DIS, mostly Wish Trip threads, and I realize how much I enjoy those reports, so it's time I joined in. As I say below, the Wish trip stories have come to mean a lot to me, and I guess the Wish trippers here, and those that support them, are like a support group for me!
So here goes...and sorry for the copying, if you've already seen this on the Wish Trip thread. I'll be back with a trip report...hopefully soon!
Alison
Sitting here with coffee cup in hand, I begin what has become a renewed morning routine - checking in on my Wish Trip friends. As we were planning our own trip, this routine helped me to plan, built the happy anticipation, and introduced me to a group of wonderful, loving people. After our trip, there was so much going on that I couldn't keep up the routine and I was absent for a while. And I missed that uplifting feeling that comes from our common bond.
It's been a real slog for us in the months since our trip - nothing near as challenging as some of the health issues we've seen among the Wish Trip families, but...well, someday I am really going to write that trip report and fill everybody in. Yes, I am still feeling guilty about not writing it - it will be a gift to our own family to have that chronicle too. I just don't have the wherewithal to do it right now (great word, and yes, I did have to check the spelling!).
Reading your pre-trips and trip reports gives me a well needed boost. It's so much fun to help the new families still in the planning stages. Sharing your excitement brings back such wonderful memories. Reading the expressions of support as we share our concerns about some of our dear Wish Kids fills me with such thanks for the goodness in people. It's not just the memories of the things we did that renews me- it's the memory of feeling so supported - by other Wish Families here, by the DisBoutiquers, by everyone at GKTW, by the CMs at the parks, by other families, by our Wish Granters. It was such a "lifting up" that it is indescribable...and, at times, sorely missed.
When I visit here, some of that magic returns - as I said, I feel "lifted up" - and I realize that it was exactly this that our Wish Granters wanted us to feel. Yes, Mark experienced his Wish and he was thrilled beyond belief, and I remember a time when we were reluctant to accept a Wish for Mark. It took us 2 1/2 years to say yes. We feel that we are blessed while there are so many families who have so little. We feel quite safe while others fear they may not be able to provide for their children's needs. Eventually I was taught that a Wish Trip is not just a vacation, it's not a handout - it is a "lifting up" for the whole family, because the whole family is touched by our Wish Kids' conditions. I'll never forget the conversation that convinced me. I was told "we want to give Mark back some of the childhood he has lost - and we want to give your family a chance to have family time that you will always treasure. We recognize that you face challenges every day that most people don't understand - and we want to show you through this Wish that there are people who support your family and want to ease the load." And that was the speech that did it. We were ready to accept a Wish for Mark, and through his Wish, he has brought us to all of you.
Little did I know how blessed we would truly be.
Thank you, Wish Trip friends, DisBoutiquer friends, DISboard friends.
Blessings to all of you,
Alison
We are hungry for more TR's!!!! 
