Mommy, I want to see Carsland! Tycen's MAW pretrip report

mydisneyanytime

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Nov 30, 2012
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We have finally gotten our dates for our Make A Wish trip. We are very excited as this has been a while in the making. As you can tell from the title, we are headed to Disneyland!!

Cast of Characters: Me (Disney is my happy place), DH (Disney is NOT his happy place), DD (age 7), and DS (age 7 - the WISH child)

Our family: DH and I have been married almost 20 years! It is hard to believe that we have been married for so long. After being married for almost 12 years we decided that we wanted to have children. We tried the normal routes and then some but couldn't seem to make our family grow. Then... on a very special day in October about 7 years ago we got a very special phone call. "Are you ready to be parents?" We were going to be parents to a little cutie on the other side of the world!! We packed our bags and made our way there to finally hold her!

Fast forward a few years and we felt that it was time to add another blessing to our family. After many papers, phone calls, meetings, and months of planning we got another special phone call. "Are you ready to be parents again?". Of course the answer was yes. So after more packing and planning we once again made our way to the other side of the world to hold our bugaboo.

Once home we started to recognize a few issues (well, we noticed them while we were gone but with one toddler and a newly adopted one and being on the go about 24/7 it was hard to really think about them). He was barely walking, wasn't talking, didn't cry, and was extremely delayed.

We were lucky (if you call this lucky) in the fact that my husband had lost his job about a year earlier so he was able to stay home with the kids and work with our son. We got him into the county school preschool and began looking at the other issues that we had noticed.

Finally, sitting in an IEP meeting to help with his needs, a very dear physical therapist said "I think that we may be looking at muscular dystrophy". Wow, what parent wants to hear that!

Well, once again, fast forward a year or so and here we are at the present. I am watching my dear boy play toy story on the Kinect and say "I do it again". Lots of blessings come our way.

It isn't easy. He has Duchenne's muscular dystrophy which is a progressive form of muscular dystrophy that unless something comes along soon will leave him basically motionless as it destroys the muscles at a young age. He may live to be in his teens or early twenties but we can hope for more. He is walking and talking but has speech issues and learning issues. We have behavior concerns that come with the diagnosis and with the delays. We have doctor clinic visits in another state and steroids that he takes daily.

There is lots of good. He is an awesome kid and I love the hugs and kisses. He has been in a clinical trial and we are hoping (who wouldn't) that good things will come from it. He is coming along in school and has lots of supports in place. He has an awesome big sister, that although it is hard for her at times, loves and takes care of her little brother.
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We as a family love Disney. We went to Hong Kong Disney just days after adopting Tycen and have visited WDW at many times during the year. A few months ago we were headed to his therapeutic horseback riding and he didn't want to go. So from the back seat I hear..."mommy, turn left, go Disney". I told him that we couldn't and that it was too far away but that we would soon. He then, a little louder, said "turn left, go Disney".


We had been approached by our wonderful doctors at clinic about a make a wish trip but we wanted to wait until Tycen could verbalize what he wanted to do. Well, just a few short months ago, after seeing the new CarsLand on tv, he said that he wanted to go. The funny thing is that I don't think that he realized that it was part of a Disney park. He will be so excited when he sees the castle and the characters!!

We were approved for a WISH some time ago as we had Panera Bread choose him for one of their fundraisers. We were so excited and felt so lucky to be chosen. We had a special dinner and even got to thank them during that time.

Now, just today, we have our dates. We are going to California from July 5 - 10 and then we will be extending our trip until the 13. I figure that we will never be in CA again so I want to see what we can!!
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If you are still reading, thanks. I hate to be long winded but I wanted to let people know our experience and why we are being granted a wish. I also hope to write a trip report so others going to Disneyland will be able to learn from what we did!!

We are very excited and can't wait to share it with everyone here!!

I will post a picture as soon as I can figure out how to do it!!!
 
I hope you have a wonderful trip! Please let us know if you have any questions, we would love to help. :)

I wish the best for you and your family and that you get an extra special dose of Disney magic!
 
What an amazing memory-making experience for such a special family! I'm sure both Tycen and his big sister will feel loved by both family and community during the vacation. I look forward to reading your trip report.
 

How much fun! This will be such a special time together with your family. I hope everything is perfect for all of you! :cloud9:

Midnightred
 
So excited for you all! Sounds like Tycen will be over the moon seeing Carsland :woohoo: Have fun planning! :cool1:
 
So glad that Tycen is getting his wish to go to CarsLand, and that you have dates. :cheer2:

DH & I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this year also.

Disney is my happy place too. :) DH isn't "unhappy" there, but he definitely only goes to make me & DD happy.

I have fond memories of going to Disneyland as a child many years ago, and I'm looking forward to reading all about your trip.

Here's a thread that will help you post pics - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31317618&postcount=1323
 
Welcome!!:wave2: So happy Tycen is getting his wish! Carsland sounds so cool. I love Cars the movie, Larry the Cable Guy lives in the same city as me. I have met him a few times and think Mater is awesome! Can't wait to hear more about your planning!:cool1:
 
What a touching story of your love, kindness, and understanding of what it takes to take care of a special needs child. What a great organization the Make a Wish Foundation is and so glad you guys could experience the magic of Disney in CA!

I wish you guys all the best and hope we get to see some pictures of your wonderful trip after you take it in July :)
 
Joining in!! I'm so glad that Tycen gets his wish to Carsland! Can't wait to hear all about your planning and your trip!

Jackie
 
Yeah for your family. Sounds like you have a lot to look forward to. I have a very good friend who also has a son w/ duchennes. I hope that a cure will be found to help her son and yours in the next decade.
 
We heard from our MAW this week!! She was filling out the paperwork and wanted to know what extra tickets and dinner that we might want!! We are so excited. Tycen keeps asking when we are going to see Cars Land. We made a great countdown calendar but there was not enough room to make it for all of our countdown days so we won't start the actual countdown until the middle of March. I will post a picture of the countdown calendar soon!! Here is a sweet picture of both of the kids together!!

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:)

Your children are adorable :goodvibes

What dinner, etc. did you chose? :)

Is that King's Island? (pic of DD in 1st post)

Yes, that is King's Island. We love visiting during the Halloween season and trick or treating with the dinosaurs!! DD was the Queen of the Nile this year.
 
DH & I used to go to King's Island every summer, but haven't been there since 96. It was always so nice & clean there. :)
 












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