Wish Trippers...Unite!! Volume One

[Pez Pez]

Way off subject but start praying for us. We're working on getting a little sister for Alize. She's 2 almost 3 and we should know in the next week or so. Karen

How exciting....assuming you are adopting? DH works with foster kids/parents. The kids are AMAZING~~~

We had a lot of neat things happen and even had An AWESOME dream awarded,because a photopass photographer noticed my WISH shirt when I asked her to take some pics of the kids playing.

Did you have your shirts made or were they given to you by your organization. I was thinking about having shirts made, but was having trouble coming up with something. It was hard enough convincing DS that Crocs are cool! Thanks for the tip about saying you are getting the CD!!

I did the Photopass share off another thread. You have to remember that you are trusting someone else will send you the CD. I am optimistic about it and it cost less than $20 if you do it with a group. Although they are strangers If I do get burned I will just order the CD myself before the 30 days are up. I also plan on taking a lot of my own pictures, I used to do photography so I really like to take freestyle photos, no poses, just kids/family in the moment.

Does anyone have a 2007 Birnaums (I think I spelled that right?) Disney World guide that they are willing to part with?

TIA

 

[5dwarves]

Congratulations on having your wish granted!! I too wondered about making any reservations. I called and for the ressies that I had to give my credit card there is a $10 fee if you don't cancel 24 hours in advance. They don't charge your card at all unless you don't cancel. I found this to be true for most major character dining experiences and for the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. We went through Make-A-Wish and they provided MVMCP tickets for us. I simply phoned them and asked if it was included or if we should buy them. I would have gladly purchased them. Our Wish Manager insisted that she purchase them for us.

As for spending money - it seems to be a topic nobody chooses to discuss because different wish granting agencies give a different amount. However, when I find out how much we are getting I will gladly share. Not to expose any agency or brag. But to help other future Wish families budget for any potential expense since everyone spends differently and will dine differently.

Good Luck to you - Keep us posted

I would be happy to tell you how much our wish agency gave us, but please remember that it is different for every agency and ever family. We also had money given to us for travel expenses (we drove and didn't fly). Our agency gave us $3100 for gas, tolls, and meals to and from disney, two days of hotels on travel days, lunches, since we couldn't eat at GKTW for lunch, and some spending money for my wish child. Again, please remember there are 7 people in my family, so our number reflects expenses for 7 (2 hotel rooms on travel days, 21 meals a day). We also didn't have any taxi/limo, airfare or rental car expenses that our wish agency paid for so that may have increased our number. We didn't know how much we were getting until 10 days or so before our trip.

Elisa

 

[5dwarves]

Did you have your shirts made or were they given to you by your organization. I was thinking about having shirts made, but was having trouble coming up with something. It was hard enough convincing DS that Crocs are cool! Thanks for the tip about saying you are getting the CD!!

TIA

Our organization gave our wish child a T-shirt. I believe MaW gives the entire party a t-shirt. GKTW will give all the children a t-shirt. You will be t-shirt rich when you leave.

E

 

[alizesmom]

How exciting....assuming you are adopting? DH works with foster kids/parents. The kids are AMAZING~~~


Initially fostering but intend to adopt. Karen

 

[5dwarves]

How exciting....assuming you are adopting? DH works with foster kids/parents. The kids are AMAZING~~~


Initially fostering but intend to adopt. Karen

Very cool! We have a news anchor here who was in foster care as an infant, then adopted by her foster parents. She has started a charity that provides foster kids with school supplies in August and Christmas gifts in December. It touches so many kids who have already been through too much. All the best with the little girl!

Elisa

 

[scrappin]

Did you have your shirts made or were they given to you by your organization. I was thinking about having shirts made, but was having trouble coming up with something.

Does anyone have a 2007 Birnaums (I think I spelled that right?) Disney World guide that they are willing to part with?

TIA

Regarding the shirts - I made an attempt to do the tie dye thing - used spray can fabric paint I got at Michaels and did red/green and did mickey with black and silver in the middle. It turned out cute - kids like them. It was very fast too! I'm not allowed to post pictures yet so I cannot post them here. Yesterday at Target, I found some plain red zip up the front hoodies and I am going to put something on them with the kid's names.

My kids love reading through the 2007 book - that is our new bedtime story!

 

[wendygrace]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Michael is doing ok. We are out of the hospital and recovering at my MILs right now. She only has dial-up and very limited time that we can use it. He is still in a lot of pain but getting better. I just saw him run after his sister so he can't be too bad. LOL My MIL is about four hours from St. Louis (we are about six) so we stopped here because we have an appt on Monday for a follow-up. Mick will be coming down as he took next week off of work. We're gonna spend a couple days in St.Louis, I think.


Karen, good luck to you! I hope it works out for you. I'm a DCFS worker in IL in my other life and we so appreciate you foster parents!

I will reiterate what others have said. Get the photopass, tell the photopass people and make sure that wherever there is someone taking pictures (including Cindy's castle and the rides that take your photo) you ask if you can add it to your photopass. I missed out on Cindy's castle because I didn't think to ask. Take your own pics too because not all the photographers are good or sometimes they get lost. Again, at Cindy's castle, the photographer wasn't very good and our pic with Cindy was blurry and rushed because I didn't think to ask about the photopass there.

I know there were other questions I wanted to answer but I can't remember what they were. I'll try again later!

 

[LindaBabe]

Glad to hear that Michael's improving and you're sprung from the hospital!

Wishing everyone on this thread a very happy Thanksgiving day and wishes that the coming year give you all much to be Thankful for.

I'm off to my Mil's house - she's not wired at all - back in a week. Stay safe.

 

[LeeLee2U]

Way off subject but start praying for us. We're working on getting a little sister for Alize. She's 2 almost 3 and we should know in the next week or so. Karen

How exciting!!! Keep us in touch!!

Did you have your shirts made or were they given to you by your organization. I was thinking about having shirts made, but was having trouble coming up with something. It was hard enough convincing DS that Crocs are cool! Thanks for the tip about saying you are getting the CD!!

Actually DH designed the shirts and our Wish org made them. For some reason the images didn't come clear throught the e-mail so they replaced them eith their own, but the basic design was the same. Here's a pic of us in our shirts. The top says THE TEXAS WISHING WELL FOUNDATION and then the middle is thier wishin well logo with Pooh on one side and Mickey on the other, since that was his wish and the bottom says MAKING BRAETONS WISH COME TRUE SEP 2007. These were for our whole family to wear. As you can see we each wore hem how we wanted to , so maybe you can let DS add something with it or somehow to make it more his style. O.k. here's the pic for real now

Not our best pic. Braeton wasn't too sure about all the people, but you get the idea.

 

[5dwarves]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Michael is doing ok. We are out of the hospital and recovering at my MILs right now. She only has dial-up and very limited time that we can use it. He is still in a lot of pain but getting better. I just saw him run after his sister so he can't be too bad. LOL My MIL is about four hours from St. Louis (we are about six) so we stopped here because we have an appt on Monday for a follow-up. Mick will be coming down as he took next week off of work. We're gonna spend a couple days in St.Louis, I think.


Karen, good luck to you! I hope it works out for you. I'm a DCFS worker in IL in my other life and we so appreciate you foster parents!

I will reiterate what others have said. Get the photopass, tell the photopass people and make sure that wherever there is someone taking pictures (including Cindy's castle and the rides that take your photo) you ask if you can add it to your photopass. I missed out on Cindy's castle because I didn't think to ask. Take your own pics too because not all the photographers are good or sometimes they get lost. Again, at Cindy's castle, the photographer wasn't very good and our pic with Cindy was blurry and rushed because I didn't think to ask about the photopass there.

I know there were other questions I wanted to answer but I can't remember what they were. I'll try again later!

Glad to hear you are out of the hospital and Michael is chasing his sister..that is a good sign! I am sure you rested much better at your MIL's than at the hospital. All good news! Keep us updated as you can.

E

 

[LeeLee2U]

Regarding the shirts - I made an attempt to do the tie dye thing - used spray can fabric paint I got at Michaels and did red/green and did mickey with black and silver in the middle. It turned out cute - kids like them. It was very fast too! I'm not allowed to post pictures yet so I cannot post them here. Yesterday at Target, I found some plain red zip up the front hoodies and I am going to put something on them with the kid's names.

My kids love reading through the 2007 book - that is our new bedtime story!

Those shirts sound really cute!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates. Michael is doing ok. We are out of the hospital and recovering at my MILs right now. She only has dial-up and very limited time that we can use it. He is still in a lot of pain but getting better. I just saw him run after his sister so he can't be too bad. LOL My MIL is about four hours from St. Louis (we are about six) so we stopped here because we have an appt on Monday for a follow-up. Mick will be coming down as he took next week off of work. We're gonna spend a couple days in St.Louis, I think.


Karen, good luck to you! I hope it works out for you. I'm a DCFS worker in IL in my other life and we so appreciate you foster parents!

I will reiterate what others have said. Get the photopass, tell the photopass people and make sure that wherever there is someone taking pictures (including Cindy's castle and the rides that take your photo) you ask if you can add it to your photopass. I missed out on Cindy's castle because I didn't think to ask. Take your own pics too because not all the photographers are good or sometimes they get lost. Again, at Cindy's castle, the photographer wasn't very good and our pic with Cindy was blurry and rushed because I didn't think to ask about the photopass there.

I know there were other questions I wanted to answer but I can't remember what they were. I'll try again later!

Ahhh!! Glad to hear you're out!!! So glad he's doing better This is when chasing your sibling brings on cheers!!!!
Thanks for the update Wendy. I was just fixing to post a question asking if anyone had heard form you!!!!

 

[LeeLee2U]

Oh and Wendy I understand about the dial up. It's all we have! That's why I am on here for ever sometimes. I will get up and clean or do something else why it's (the comp) is taking it's merry little time loading my posts!!! I'm really not sitting here for hours staring at the screen.. Wish I could, but haven't found the answer to that little thing called time yet!!!

 

[LeeLee2U]

Quick update. For those of you that pray if you wouldn't mind saying a quick prayer for Braeton O.k. for me too I would sure appreciate it. Braeton is still having the migraines and The last couple of months, he has been doing this fever thing. He'll have fever, headackes, stomach ache etc... typicall virus and sinus infection stuff then be fine for a few days and then b
OOM it starts all over again. In the last 6 weeks he has done 3 rounds of antibiotics. His Doc thinks that it is still his sinus but says the only thing they haven't covered with the antibiotics is staff. Since there is no way to tell if your sinuses have staff she just want him to try ANOTHER antibiotic that is for that. BACTRIM If he is not better by Mon then they are going to do a CT scan of his head to see id there is a fungus up there. I'm pretty worried. I asked for blood work, since we haven't had any since his surgery and she said "Well all the blood work will show us is his white blood cell count." I am trying really hard not to be spastic, but I really want some blood work to start ruling some things out before we just keep him on antibiotics. She has never just given antibiotics befoere, butthis has got he baffled and she said the specialist disease DR she consults would tell her to do this first. I am thinking of taking him Mon to the other Dr that works there. (They take turns in thier different offices) The other Dr had mentioned doing blood work. I'm very confused on what to do. Any advice??? And don't hesitate to tell me if you think I just need to wait patiently. I might just be a little to spastic. I get this way with Braeton sometimes. It's the not knowing that drives me crazy. He has so many "unknown" thngs. Anyway I'd appreciate all prayers and all advice!! Thanks Guys!

 

[Eeyore's Mom]

Quick update. For those of you that pray if you wouldn't mind saying a quick prayer for Braeton O.k. for me too I would sure appreciate it. Braeton is still having the migraines and The last couple of months, he has been doing this fever thing. He'll have fever, headackes, stomach ache etc... typicall virus and sinus infection stuff then be fine for a few days and then b
OOM it starts all over again. In the last 6 weeks he has done 3 rounds of antibiotics. His Doc thinks that it is still his sinus but says the only thing they haven't covered with the antibiotics is staff. Since there is no way to tell if your sinuses have staff she just want him to try ANOTHER antibiotic that is for that. BACTRIM If he is not better by Mon then they are going to do a CT scan of his head to see id there is a fungus up there. I'm pretty worried. I asked for blood work, since we haven't had any since his surgery and she said "Well all the blood work will show us is his white blood cell count." I am trying really hard not to be spastic, but I really want some blood work to start ruling some things out before we just keep him on antibiotics. She has never just given antibiotics befoere, butthis has got he baffled and she said the specialist disease DR she consults would tell her to do this first. I am thinking of taking him Mon to the other Dr that works there. (They take turns in thier different offices) The other Dr had mentioned doing blood work. I'm very confused on what to do. Any advice??? And don't hesitate to tell me if you think I just need to wait patiently. I might just be a little to spastic. I get this way with Braeton sometimes. It's the not knowing that drives me crazy. He has so many "unknown" thngs. Anyway I'd appreciate all prayers and all advice!! Thanks Guys!

You can count on my prayers for sure! I do understand exactally how you are feeling. Marek (my 4 yr old w/liver transplant) can have a cold and I am freaking out. Last year my oldest had pneumonia for several days before I even took him to the doctor because I was not at all worried (oops!!) So I do know it is normal to have concern for our "health challanged" kids by nature but I think you have a pretty valid concern anyways. As a mom, you have certain understandings and instincts about Braeton that even the doctors don't. I would call and insist on some blood work, at least it may provide some peace of mind for you and if Braeton is like Marek, a blood draw is pretty routine stuff. Hugs to you!! Prayers that the doctors can find out what is causing these episodes and get him feeling well very quickly!

 

[scrappin]

Quick update. For those of you that pray if you wouldn't mind saying a quick prayer for Braeton O.k. for me too I would sure appreciate it. Braeton is still having the migraines and The last couple of months, he has been doing this fever thing. He'll have fever, headackes, stomach ache etc... typicall virus and sinus infection stuff then be fine for a few days and then b
OOM it starts all over again. In the last 6 weeks he has done 3 rounds of antibiotics. His Doc thinks that it is still his sinus but says the only thing they haven't covered with the antibiotics is staff. Since there is no way to tell if your sinuses have staff she just want him to try ANOTHER antibiotic that is for that. BACTRIM If he is not better by Mon then they are going to do a CT scan of his head to see id there is a fungus up there. I'm pretty worried. I asked for blood work, since we haven't had any since his surgery and she said "Well all the blood work will show us is his white blood cell count." I am trying really hard not to be spastic, but I really want some blood work to start ruling some things out before we just keep him on antibiotics. She has never just given antibiotics befoere, butthis has got he baffled and she said the specialist disease DR she consults would tell her to do this first. I am thinking of taking him Mon to the other Dr that works there. (They take turns in thier different offices) The other Dr had mentioned doing blood work. I'm very confused on what to do. Any advice??? And don't hesitate to tell me if you think I just need to wait patiently. I might just be a little to spastic. I get this way with Braeton sometimes. It's the not knowing that drives me crazy. He has so many "unknown" thngs. Anyway I'd appreciate all prayers and all advice!! Thanks Guys!

You can count on us for prayer support too!

 

[Pez Pez]

The other Dr had mentioned doing blood work. I'm very confused on what to do. Any advice??? And don't hesitate to tell me if you think I just need to wait patiently. I might just be a little to spastic. I get this way with Braeton sometimes. It's the not knowing that drives me crazy. He has so many "unknown" thngs. Anyway I'd appreciate all prayers and all advice!! Thanks Guys!

LeeLee - Definitley sending good vibes your way and positive thoughts too! I hope Braeton feels better soon!!
One thing I have learned with Trevor's 5 open heart surgeries is to ask, ask, ask. An order for bloodwork is very simple for a Dr or nurse to write. I have even had the PCP do things that I forgot to ask the Caridologist for
I may be the wrong person to answer this because I never wait paitently, I am not demanding and am always polite and appreciative, but I am always worried when anything is not "normal".

Thanks for sending those pictures of your shirts. I love your shirt, super cute!!

 

[Iluvmickeymouse!]

Way off subject but start praying for us. We're working on getting a little sister for Alize. She's 2 almost 3 and we should know in the next week or so. Karen

You are amazing!! Will say a prayer for you!

Did you have your shirts made or were they given to you by your organization. I was thinking about having shirts made, but was having trouble coming up with something. It was hard enough convincing DS that Crocs are cool! Thanks for the tip about saying you are getting the CD!!

I did the Photopass share off another thread. You have to remember that you are trusting someone else will send you the CD. I am optimistic about it and it cost less than $20 if you do it with a group. Although they are strangers If I do get burned I will just order the CD myself before the 30 days are up. I also plan on taking a lot of my own pictures, I used to do photography so I really like to take freestyle photos, no poses, just kids/family in the moment.

Does anyone have a 2007 Birnaums (I think I spelled that right?) Disney World guide that they are willing to part with?

TIA

MAW gave us all shirts...you can see them in my TR, DH & I never wore ours. They were white..I don't do white.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Michael is doing ok. We are out of the hospital and recovering at my MILs right now. She only has dial-up and very limited time that we can use it. He is still in a lot of pain but getting better. I just saw him run after his sister so he can't be too bad. LOL My MIL is about four hours from St. Louis (we are about six) so we stopped here because we have an appt on Monday for a follow-up. Mick will be coming down as he took next week off of work. We're gonna spend a couple days in St.Louis, I think.


Karen, good luck to you! I hope it works out for you. I'm a DCFS worker in IL in my other life and we so appreciate you foster parents!

I will reiterate what others have said. Get the photopass, tell the photopass people and make sure that wherever there is someone taking pictures (including Cindy's castle and the rides that take your photo) you ask if you can add it to your photopass. I missed out on Cindy's castle because I didn't think to ask. Take your own pics too because not all the photographers are good or sometimes they get lost. Again, at Cindy's castle, the photographer wasn't very good and our pic with Cindy was blurry and rushed because I didn't think to ask about the photopass there.

I know there were other questions I wanted to answer but I can't remember what they were. I'll try again later!

Glad to hear that Michael is out and feeling better!! Running around is always a good thing!

Oh and Wendy I understand about the dial up. It's all we have! That's why I am on here for ever sometimes. I will get up and clean or do something else why it's (the comp) is taking it's merry little time loading my posts!!! I'm really not sitting here for hours staring at the screen.. Wish I could, but haven't found the answer to that little thing called time yet!!!

Hey....me too...that's what happens when you live in the country and can't afford anything more than dial-up.

Quick update. For those of you that pray if you wouldn't mind saying a quick prayer for Braeton O.k. for me too I would sure appreciate it. Braeton is still having the migraines and The last couple of months, he has been doing this fever thing. He'll have fever, headackes, stomach ache etc... typicall virus and sinus infection stuff then be fine for a few days and then b
OOM it starts all over again. In the last 6 weeks he has done 3 rounds of antibiotics. His Doc thinks that it is still his sinus but says the only thing they haven't covered with the antibiotics is staff. Since there is no way to tell if your sinuses have staff she just want him to try ANOTHER antibiotic that is for that. BACTRIM If he is not better by Mon then they are going to do a CT scan of his head to see id there is a fungus up there. I'm pretty worried. I asked for blood work, since we haven't had any since his surgery and she said "Well all the blood work will show us is his white blood cell count." I am trying really hard not to be spastic, but I really want some blood work to start ruling some things out before we just keep him on antibiotics. She has never just given antibiotics befoere, butthis has got he baffled and she said the specialist disease DR she consults would tell her to do this first. I am thinking of taking him Mon to the other Dr that works there. (They take turns in thier different offices) The other Dr had mentioned doing blood work. I'm very confused on what to do. Any advice??? And don't hesitate to tell me if you think I just need to wait patiently. I might just be a little to spastic. I get this way with Braeton sometimes. It's the not knowing that drives me crazy. He has so many "unknown" thngs. Anyway I'd appreciate all prayers and all advice!! Thanks Guys!

Keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.

 

[5dwarves]

You can count on us for prayer support too!

Leah:

I wouldn't panic about a staph infection just yet. Braeton may just have a really bad sinus infection that is taking some time to respond to meds. Adam was on Bactrim for a very long time (a year or so) because his immune system was so compromised. Just recently he had a brain scan to see if there was anything causing his petit mal seizures and they were able to see a bad sinus infection on the scan. This is the season for those things. If it were me, I would do the blood work and the CT scan, and then I would get the pediatrician to do a referral to the infectious disease doctor (rather than just a consult with him/her), if none of those things brought about a diagnosis.

~Elisa

 

[alizesmom]

Glad to hear that Michael and mom are free. Hope he feels better fast.
Sending prayers for Braeton.
We get to meet our girl tomorow and will bring her home as soon as we return from Disney!!!!!! Karen

 

[Eeyore's Mom]

Glad to hear that Michael and mom are free. Hope he feels better fast.
Sending prayers for Braeton.
We get to meet our girl tomorow and will bring her home as soon as we return from Disney!!!!!! Karen

What a wonderful thing to look forward to after your trip!!! If you are comfortable to I hope you will share details after you meet her tomorrow! Best wishes (Your trip is coming up fast!!)