Make-a-Wish Trip Day 1: Give Kids the World

I'm slowly working to sort through hundreds of photos from our trip!  I'm hoping to post about one day each day this week.  But it's definitely hard to narrow down which pictures to share.  Here is a small sampling and summary from our first day. GKTW took several of these pictures for us and included them on a disc for us to take home.  More pictures of GKTW will be coming later in the week.

We got up at 3:00 this morning to get ready to go to the airport for our Make-a-Wish trip! We planned to leave around 3:45 but we were running a little late and left by 4:15am. Justin dropped us off while he parked the car. We actually got through security really easily without any problems at all. I surprised even myself at how lightly we packed and that we were able to pack everything—even all of Annie’s diapers, formula, CPAP, and other medical supplies—without having to check any luggage! We had two rolling carry-ons that were just full of all of Annie’s supplies, and then one rolling carry-on was full of our clothes. We also had two backpacks with the rest of our things. We were told by previous wish families and by our own wish granters to take an extra empty suitcase for all the gifts we’ll receive while there, so we did pack an empty backpack and duffle bag, but we’ll also have two empty suitcases after we use up all of Annie’s diapers, chux, and formula while there. I can’t imagine we’d need more space than that!

All our luggage--two suitcases full of Annie's diapers, formula, and medical supplies.  I can't believe we packed so lightly!

4:00am and ready to go!

Annie was excited to go--even at 4:00 in the morning!

 We bought some snacks for breakfast and were the first ones to board the plane. Annie fell asleep before we even took off. So far people have been really nice to us. A pilot saw us and gave the girls wings and asked about our MAW trip.  Molly and Lexie started playing games on tablets soon after take-off. To help Annie ride on the plane more comfortably, we used a baby sling as a strap to wrap around Annie’s chest and her airplane seat. We also packed a travel pillow that we used to help prop her up in the seat. She was more comfortable than I thought she’d be on the plane, but she was really fussy and crying on our descents. We had a lay-over in DFW—just long enough for us to get Annie back in her wheelchair, do a quick diaper change, and board our next flight. On our flight to Florida, the captain even made a shout out to us over the intercom, announcing special company as a Make-a-Wish family aboard the flight.

Annie all situated on the plane with her chest strap around the seat and pillows to prop her up.

Ready to go!

On every single flight, Lexie spent a good 20 minutes studying the emergency procedures card on the plane.  She was well prepared for any type of emergency!

We landed in Orlando and were greeted by a Give Kids the World (GKTW) volunteer and a rep from the wheelchair van rental company. They had our accessible van waiting for us at the curb and helped us load our luggage and then we were off to GKTW!! When we arrived, we went to the House of Hearts to check in. A volunteer sat down with us and gave us a booklet with all we needed to know about the GKTW village and explained how our meal card worked and other things. We grabbed a quick lunch at Kate’s Kitchen (run by Boston Market),  then went to check out our villa and drop off our luggage. We returned back to the House of Hearts for the rest of our welcome info, only to find out that they usually escort families to their villa and give them a tour. So we rode in a train cart around the village and got a tour of the different buildings and things to do. Then went back to our villa for a quick tour.

GKTW Entrance

House of Hearts where we checked in

There are several of these trains circling the village all the time to help families get around the village.

Annie with her welcome gift from GKTW and the sign the greeter held to meet us at the airport.

Our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom villa!

Our villa porch and Molly and Lexie with their gifts from the Star Fairy for the day--Shamu stuffed animals.

Our super nice wheelchair accessible rental van

 

Villa family room

Villa family room and kitchen in background

Annie and Lexie's bedroom.  (Molly slept on a roll-out bed in the family room.)

Fully accessible bathroom off of girls' bedroom. There's a jetted tub to the far left, and a HUGE roll-in shower next to that.

Kitchen

It definitely felt like home for the week!

We planned today to just be at GKTW and explore all there is here, so we immediately went to the Castle of Miracles to write Annie’s name on her golden star for the Star Fairy to hang on the ceiling later that night. I knew about the stars hung in the castle, but I had no idea there were so many! It was overwhelming to imagine that many children coming through GKTW, each with their own battle they are fighting. They said there were over 120,000 stars in the castle. I can’t wait to see where Annie’s star ends up later this week.

Castle of Miracles Star Tower (where Annie's star was later hung)

Entrance to the Castle of Miracles

Inside the Castle of Miracles--the station where we wrote Annie's name on her golden star and but it in the box for the Star Fairy to hang later tonight.

Just a small sampling of all the thousands (over 120,000) of stars, each with a special child's name on them.

Castle of Miracles with a star-covered ceiling!  And this is only ONE of the rooms covered in stars!  Seeing all the ceilings of the castle covered like this was definitely an impressive sight.

Then in the Castle of Miracles, the girls each got a magic pillow from the pillow tree.

Listening to the story and instructions from the owl in the Magic Pillow Tree

Looking up in the branches for the pillows

In the Castle of Miracles with their magic pillows

Next, we all rode the carousel, twice.

Carousel next to the Castle of Miracles

Molly

Annie riding the carousel

Molly beginning her series of crazy poses for pictures on our trip!

Of course by now, we couldn't possibly keep passing the Ice Cream Palace without stopping to get free ice cream!

Ice Cream Palace

Next we went to the Amberville train station and saw the huge electric train display, played arcade games, and drove remote control boats.

At the Amberville train station were arcade games, remote control boats, mini golf, and video game rooms.

Huge train display of electric trains in the Amberville train station.

Driving the remote control boats

Then Molly, Lexie, and Justin went swimming in the smaller pool right next to our villa. We were the only people there and we had fun pushing the button that would turn on the sprayers over the pool, trying to surprise each other.

Fashionable girls, ready to swim!

Molly is being dramatic in this picture, but the water was a little chilly, so Annie and I didn't get in the water.

I caught them all in the middle of the pool with the sprayers!

Then we went to the bigger pool where they were having a pool party. (Each night at GKTW is some kind of big party and celebration.) We got hot dogs at the cookout and did more swimming. It’s so amazing to be here finally, and see all these other families like ours. It has the same amazing spirit that we experience at Aicardi Syndrome Family conferences. It’s so inspiring to be around these precious children who are fighting illnesses or disabling challenges. And the volunteers here are all so kind and generous and genuinely interested in each child, showing each one so much love. It’s so overwhelming and such an amazing place that I teared up several times just sitting and watching these families and the selfless volunteers, and realizing what an incredible blessing it is for us to be here. Disney World may be magical, but GKTW is truly inspirational and magical in a whole different way.

Entrance to the larger pool--the Pool of Dreams

At the Pool of Dreams is a huge ship that they use as a stage for shows and has a screen they use for movie party nights.

Enjoying the cookout and swimming

After the pool party, we went back to the villa, but on the way, we ran across the cookie cart train that drives through the village every night stopping to hand out hot fresh cookies. So of course we had to sample them. Justin got the kids to bed while I ran to Walmart for applesauce for Annie and distilled
water for her CPAP. Then I went to the orientation meeting to learn how to use all our park tickets and claim all the special benefits that wish families get in the parks. We turned in for the night early at 9:30pm because we’ll be having early mornings and late evenings the rest of the week, plus we've been up since 3am!. They have given us so much to do—so many passes to all the theme parks, and almost every other attraction in Orlando you could imagine. There’s absolutely no way we would
have time to do it all. We feel so incredibly blessed to experience this amazing week with Annie in a place where she is treated like royalty!

The little lake near our villa, looking towards the main village area.