The Day has Finally Arrived!

April 22, seven months after Annalise's first visit with her wish granters, the day of her wish trip finally arrived.  Her ride arrived at 7:30 to take our family to the airport. 

Definitely a sweet ride!

Because of the size of our family and the fact that we have the two wheelchairs, they brought a van along as well as the limo to carry the chairs and all the extra luggage. 

We really were all very excited.  The sun was just very bright at this time of the morning.   

Our family with our limo and van drivers.  They were super nice and very helpful men.

Amber, one of Bryce and Annalise's caregivers came to help get Bryce and Annalise ready for the day as I finished up with all the last minute duties for the trip.  See those leaves in Annalise's hands?  Remember them.  They will come up again in a bit. 

 

Annalise looking cute in William's glasses. 

Amber checking out the inside of the limo before we headed off.  We wish we could have tucked her away in one of our suitcases and taken her with us. 

It was fun to see the looks on people's faces as they drove by our limo.  I wasn't quick enough to get a picture, but somewhere along I-10 we noticed someone taking a picture of us as he drove by.  As John looked closer, he recognized the man as someone from his work. 

 

Bryce wasn't so sure (okay he was terrified) about riding in the limo without the safety of his wheelchair.  He clung to my arm the entire way to the airport. 

About 10 minutes before we arrived at the airport, Bryce finally lifted his head up and looked around a little bit.  I was even able to get a little grin out of him. 

Arriving at the airport 

 

Annalise's wish granters, Jeff and Mindy Clark, were there to help us.

Remember those leaves Annalise was playing with before we left our house.  As we got to the airport, she saw them again and began playing with them and rubbing them on her face.  It took about a minute before she started sneezing and having itchy watery eyes.  We were able to get them away from her and get her all washed off and luckily the allergy symptoms went away without too much problem.  Luckily we didn't have to give her Benadryl which makes her hyper and irritable.  It's not what you would expect it to do nor is it what you would want while on a plane ride.   Luckily she cleared up without needing that.

Jeff and the Southwest employee who was assigned to help our family get through security.  That was definitely a nice touch!

 

Annalise taking a look at the little gifts she received from Southwest Airlines. 

Our beautiful wish kid!

While in the airport, the little sling seat that helps support Annalise's in her walker broke and we could not find the little attachment piece.  Jeff rigged something up for it and luckily it held throughout the trip.  I still need to get a replacement seat for her. 

 

I think she may be getting a little long for these changing stations. 

As we were waiting for our flight, this nice man began talking with me.  He said that he was a music therapist.  He works with adults who are on hospice.  He had his autoharp along with him and asked if Annalise would like to play it.  She, of course, loved it!

Heading down the ramp!  The gate agent (here in the white shirt) was so kind.  He was having fun helping with Bryce.  He even got him out of his chair and carried him into the plane for us.  That was a nice surprise.

Unfortunately Bryce needed a diaper change even before we took off.  If you think the changing tables are small in regular restrooms, you should see the ones on a plane!  Changing him there was quite the trick. 

Although his feet hung into the sink, we were able to avoid turning on the water during the change. 

Bryce was a little freaked out at the beginning of the flight, but soon calmed down and began looking around.  He and the rest of the kids all did great throughout the flights. 

 

Our greeter Phil found us and soon we were on the shuttle out to Give Kids the World Village.  Make A Wish had also scheduled a couple of rental cars for us, but do to a little miscommunication the GKTW village people didn't know about that and had the shuttle take us right to the Village.  John had to get a ride back to the airport later that night to get one of the cars.  He would then return the next morning to get the van.  Kind of  a hassle, but finally we all arrived!

Our Villa



We got in pretty late so we checked in and headed over to our villa.  Here are some of the surprises we had waiting for us in our villa. 

During our check in, the GKTW Village volunteer gave Annalise this Mickey doll and a little whale to each of the other children.  The pink dolphin here is one that John and I brought back to Annalise from our cruise in February. 

Annalise lined all of her stuffed animals and new toys up and said it was time for a family picture.  What a great family. 

 

 It took everyone quite a while to get calmed down and settled in for the night.  We were all so excited to be there.   Annalise insisted on sleeping with all of her new friends so that none of them would get lonely.  :)  She is such a good little mommy!

The Changing of the Wish

As many of you know, Annalise's Make-A-Wish trip was last week.  We enjoyed a wonderful week in Florida staying at Give Kids the World Village and visiting the Amusement Parks of Orlando.  I have had many people asking for pictures and trust me, there are many and they are coming.  I could say that I haven't gotten to them because of the unpacking, or appointments, or cleaning that has had to take place since we got home and although that is all a part of it, that is not the full story.  At the last minute there were a few things that did not go quite as planned on this trip and I am still trying to figure out exactly how to deal with all of the emotions around all that happened. 

I mean how is it okay to feel down about what didn't happen when there were so many amazing, good, wonderful things that did happen.   I want to just think about the good and be thankful for what we did receive, and I am, but I realize that the disappointments that we faced on our trip were a true part of it as well.  So, I will just briefly mention the biggest shock of the trip now, get that out of my system, and then get on to the good stuff!

Annalise did not get to swim with dolphins for her wish trip.  We started to feel that this may happen only a few days before we left for her trip.  Even at that time though, we still hoped it was going to happen because no one was telling us for sure, but do to some information we received, it sounded like it might not happen.  Since we didn't know for sure and it didn't make any sense that it wouldn't be happening because of things we have been told since February when we found out that Make A Wish had found a way to make it happen, we chose not to say anything in case it was truly still in the plans.  Annalise continued to tell everyone she saw that she was going to get her wish and swim with the dolphins.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that may not be the case.

We discovered on Friday while on our trip that having Annalise swim with the dolphins was truly not in the plans.  In fact, it wasn't even in the plans to have her touch or be near the real dolphins.  (We took care of that...but more on that story soon!)   Her wish to swim with dolphins at Discovery Cove had been switched to a Disney World Wish trip and we were never told about it.   We still don't know when or why it was switched.  It was a tough blow.  Although it still would have been a disappointment, I don't think it would have been as big of a deal if someone would have let us know a little sooner.  When we asked the Make-A-Wish coordinator about this, she responded with a text that said "swimming with dolphins is not part of a Disney Wish, but I will see what I can do." We never heard from her again.  Annalise has been talking about swimming with dolphins for over a year now...especially over the past few months.   So that was a huge bummer.  Honestly it still is.  We are still trying to figure out how to make that part of the wish a reality for Annalise.  It will happen some day. 

Also our trip was cut a few days shorter then we had planned due to some miscommunication somewhere along the lines.  We had arranged to stay a few extra days, but found out that due to the type of tickets that had been used for our flight we could not change them.  The mix-up with the rental van issues once we arrived in Florida made it so that John had to return to the airport twice the following day to pick up our cars.  Not life shattering things, but things that definitely made for a bumpy start to the trip. 

But, that is enough of that kind of news for one day.  It is late and I must go to sleep.  Tomorrow I will begin to write and share pictures of all the amazing, memory making events that occurred on Annalise's Make-A-Wish trip!  There were many.  Here are a few pictures to hold you over until tomorrow.   Enjoy!