Make-A-Wish trip

10/15/13

Aidan's Wish has been granted and we are heading to Disney World at the end of November. We're all so excited and are looking forward to having a great time and making memories with Aidan and his brother and sister. I'm hoping to chronicle our trip so that our family and friends and other Wish families can see what a Make-A-Wish trip is like. It's quite different than if we were to set this up all on our own.

We'll be staying at Give Kids the World . It's an amazing village just for Make-A-Wish families. They have volunteers, called Angels, that fill over 1200 positions each week around the village.

I'll be posting more as we get closer to our trip and then we'll be bombarding you with pictures!

Thanks everyone for your support, love and prayers. Aidan is one special little boy and we're incredibly blessed to be his parents.

11/18/13

Just under 2 weeks to go! The kids are so excited. These last few weeks are dragging by while we wait. In the meantime, we're starting to pack what we can and figure out the rest. This is the first time we've flown with 3 kids. Aidan is the only one of the kids who's ever flown and that was when he was a baby. He was a frequent flyer his first year of life! I'll either be bald or completely white haired when all is said and done. HAHAHA! :) 

11/29/2013

Make-A-Wish Trip, Day 1: Give Kids The World

We started the morning early, but we are used to it with how early Aidan and his brother have to be off to school. We flew out of Charlotte Douglas just before 11:30 AM and arrived in Orlando around 2 PM.

Once we finally got to Give Kids the World, we spent the balance of the day there; we knew it was going to be impossible to get to Disney between getting checked in, eating lunch, and unloading luggage.

We spent the afternoon and early evening getting settled. This evening, we took the kids to Ms. Mary's Tea Party then a Pirates and Princesses Party here at Give Kids the World. We will be posting pictures to Aidan's Facebook page through the course of the trip, so stay tuned to http://www.facebook.com/prayforaidan for those!

11/30/2013

Make-A-Wish Trip, Day 2: Magic Kingdom, Day 1

We just got home from a very crazy day at Magic Kingdom. This has long been a "bucket list" thing for me, but it wasn't until I started walking along Main Street, USA that I started to get a little emotional. That, however, was only the beginning ...

We were consistently hit in the feels as we got our first taste of the how they treated Make-A-Wish kids. We were passing Tinker Bell's Magical Nook when a cast member stopped us and asked if we wanted to see Tinkerbell. I was floored that they came to us about this, and not the other way around (we had this happen again in near Gaston's Tavern, when Gaston just walked up to us and offered to take pictures with us). Even better was that Tink's sister, Periwinkle, was also there (see "Sercret of the Wings" if you don't know who this is). I'll have to admit, seeing the joy on Graceyn's face at getting to see them made me tear up again.

Move ahead to our first ride of the day, Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Evan wanted to ride, but Graceyn didn't, do our nurse to Aidan and Evan to ride it. This was Aidan's first amusement ride EVER. Erin started crying at the site of this.

If you are keeping score at home, this was a breakdown of what we experienced today:

Rides Ridden: Ferry to MK, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Railroad (Frontierland to Fantasyland), Dumbo the Flying Elephant, The Barnstormer (Russell and Evan only), Under the Sea

Characters Met: Tinkerbell, Periwinkle, Jasmine/Aladdin, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Goofy, Ariel, Gaston, Belle, Rapunzel, and Snow White

It was a fun day overall, even though the kiddos started showing their wear towards the end of the day. We are hoping tomorrow is better for us.

Erin and I are in the process of figuring out our agenda for tomorrow. We know we want to finish out MK, but that will have to wait until Monday; the Main Street Lights Parade does not happen again until then. We will most likely go to Epcot and maybe Hollywood Studios.