Magic machine

So, two weeks exactly since our Disney wish trip return. I'm not even sure how to feel now. I think I'm still a little sad, actually.

Sad, you say? How could I possibly be sad after coming home from the Happiest Place on Earth? Well, simple. I'm here---not there.

I've got the wish trip blues. I won't even call it 'Disney blues'---for it was far more magical than just any trip to Disney could be. It was Make-a-Wish and DISBoards and Give Kids the World blues. All of these amazing organizations that went out of their way to make every moment of that trip and the months that led up to it, pure magic. We will never experience that level of kindness, generosity and good fortune again. And, it makes me a little sad to think that our lives may have to return to normal. To days when the only pixie dust we'll be able to find will be in the pages of our photo albums and our autograph books.

And, now I'm sad because the trip is over. I need time to mourn the end of our fairy tale. It's time to get back to reality--to laundry and swim classes and cable bills and publishing week at work. But, I'm not ready. Ugh.

Let me explain. I've been planning this wish trip with our Make-a-Wish representatives for months. I've researched, I've joined online forums, I've watched videos, read books. I put so much energy into the plans. You name it, I did it.

I found a group of 'FairyGodMailers' online and had someone send the girls a postcard from Disney a few weeks before our trip. (The idea is that when you go, you have to pay it forward. I sent two cards to Hope and Grace in North Carolina. Hope they liked their cards!) It's a wonderful little initiative. Adds a bit of fairy dust to the mail and get the girls excited about the trip!

Then, thanks to the kind-hearted friends I made on the Disneyboards (DISBoards), my daughters were selected to participate in the Big Give. It's basically a program in which volunteer crafters (many of whom are former wish trip families) choose a family to 'gift' with custom clothes for the wish trip. They sew beautiful princess dresses or create personalized t-shirts and then send them, along with stickers and colouring books and travel essentials, to the girls. It was....amazing. For about a month, every day the girls would receive a package or two, filled with surprises. They were spoiled. Rotten.

B has inherited her love of getting the mail from me, so this was just pure delight. We'd get so excited, waiting all morning for the mailman to come, then rushing to the box to to see what today's package could contain.

Such thoughtful and clever gifts! Personalized autograph books and adorable I-Spy bags. A crocheted mermaid doll. A princess picture frame. Books and stickers and Ariel socks. And, such beautiful handmade clothes! Cinderella ball gowns and Ariel pettiskirts for Brooke. Minnie Mouse hats and cupcake bibs for Avie. Matching jungle twirl skirts for Animal Kingdom. Orca-printed dresses for Sea World. Matching hair ribbons and Cat and the Hat aprons. The girls were definitely the best-dressed kids in the park. Honestly, people came up to me (at least a half-dozen every day), asking where I bought such beautiful clothes. I could have been handing out business cards. The girls looked amazing and I didn't have to pack a single piece of clothing for them. It was all a bit overwhelming!

It was just more kind-hearted wish trip magic.

And, then there was the Make-a-Wish (MAW) reveal party! The MAW wish grantors came to the house, accompanied by the sweetest man imaginable--Wayne, Brooke's wish grantor. They brought cake and balloons and presents galore. They flooded our house with good wishes and hugs and tears and laughter. Cameras whirring, bulbs flashing, princess tissue paper fluttering to the ground as the girls dug into gift bags and treats and passed out hugs and kisses for such generosity.

When the party first began and Brooke caught the first glance of the princess balloons, Brooke looked at me and asked quite wide-eyed: "Is it my birthday?"

It wasn't, but it sure felt like it was. Like it had been her birthday and Christmas and every holiday and childhood celebration all rolled into one. When the guests left, I sat there stunned for about an hour. I wiped away the happy tears and just mulled over the kindness that had been heaped upon us. Magical.

So, the lead-up to that amazing trip, was....incredible. Mindblowing. Awesome--but not awesome in that 'cool!' sense, but in the original, awe-inspiring way.

And, then--on September 8, 2011, at 5:10 a.m.--a white stretch limosine pulled into our gravel driveway to whisk us away to Magic Kingdom and Give Kids the World. To take us to relive our childhood and to celebrate life and merriment and innoncence and victory over disease. And, for one week--one week that passed by much too quickly--we forgot what real life was like.

It was magic.

There are not enough qualifiers and adjectives in the English language to describe that trip. To explain just how fortunate we feel, how blessed to have shared such an amazing experience with our children. Or how it felt to watch Brooke's face light up when we turned that first corner and the castle's magnificent fairy-tale silhouette filled the horizon. Or to describe the joy in Avie's laugh as she ran into Donald'd Duck's furry arms for the fourth time. Or to share the emotions I felt watching as the starstruck shyness that comes when a nearly-four-year-old meets the princess she's been dreaming about for over a year falls away and she throws herself in for an embrace.

All that magic, all that bliss--how can I ever convey it with words? What I need is some sort of new-word machine into which I could I could shake all of the the 'imagination,' 'sparkle,' and 'glitter' words from the dictionary. Then I'd throw in a cup of pixie dust, dump a bucket of love and kindness, add a batch of strawberries for sweetness and hit the 'blend' button. After some whirring and beeping, the machine would churn out a new word, so fresh the plastic seal would still be intact. I'd peel away the plastic and voîla! The perfect answer to the simple "How was your trip?" question.

I'm not very good with electronics and short on time these days, so it'll be a while before I get to work on such a machine. For now, I'll just say it was magic.

Pure magic.

Catch a falling star

I don't even know where to begin when it comes to this. It is mindblowing and two weeks later and I am still trying to wrap my head around it.

If you will remember waaaaaay back in February, after much encouragement from our Interlink nurse, we applied for a wish for Brooke from Make-a-Wish Foundation of Canada. Brooke was eligible, so we filled out the paperwork. We filled out the cute little questionnaire about her favourite colours (orange and blue), her favourite store (the blue store--WalMart), her favourite dinner (grilled cheese), favourite sport (she said soccer, even though she has never played it), etc. She also answered several questions about her wish and drew some accompanying pictures. We threw in a few prints of Brooke and Avie (as they asked for photos, too) and hoped we'd hear from them.

Well, fast forward a few weeks (nine to be exact!) and a polite query to see where the status on Brooke's application stood. Immediately following my e-mail, we received a call from Anne, our local Make-a-Wish (MAW) co-ordinator. She told us that they had not forgotten us and were, in fact, going to contact us shortly to arrange a meeting between our little family and some volunteer wish grantors. She said that ''our daughters were beautiful and they were honoured and looking forward to granting Brooke's wish.''

Sold. That sentence alone was enough for me.

A week later and we had a date for our little meeting. Anne herself would be coming (I couldn't have been more pleased as she was so sweet on the phone) and so would another volunteer named Laura. They were to come that Saturday morning.

On Saturday, I vacuumed the house like a fiend and cleaned up a bit. It was raining outside (uh---until yesterday, when has it not this spring?!?), so I knew we would have our meeting inside. I made a pitcher of iced tea. Hot Wife will tell you that I love iced tea. Hubby put on a pot of coffee. Hot Wife will tell you that Hubby likes his coffee. We were prepared.

The day before the wish visit, I had told Brooke that her fairy godmothers would be coming to grant her her wish. Her response--and I should have expected this--''Will they be coming in a car or by their wings?'' (When I told this to Anne and Laura, they laughed. Laura has determined to get herself a pair of wings and a wand for her next wish-granting visit.) Curious about the fairy godmothers, Brooke prepared herself for her wish.



Anne arrived first, carrying with her a huge gift bag. Brooke was so excited, that she gave Anne a hug before the woman had even stepped over the threshold. We welcomed her in and that's when the magic began.

We chitchatted until Laura arrived a few minutes later. The ladies were simply lovely. They told us all about MAW and then, not wanting to keep Brooke waiting any longer, handed her the gift bag.



MAW always tries to have a little 'icebreaker' gift for the wish child. Well, Anne and Laura went above and beyond. They had clearly read that questionnaire and knew just what Brooke liked. They brought Brooke an Ariel books-on-CD set, a huge tub of Play-Doh and a giant Ariel teapot, full of tea party dishes with the mermaid princess etched on them. Brooke was delighted, to say the least! They even brought Avie a little something--some chunky Crayola crayons for the bath. Perfect!

Brooke busied herself with the teapot (pouring tea for all of us) while we adults discussed Brooke's wishes. She needed to have three of them--but one had already been 'fulfilled.'

Brooke's third wish had been 'for a park,' which we interpreted as a swingset/slide playstructure. One had been massively on sale at Toys R Us a few weeks beforehand, and not knowing if the wish would ever be granted, we went ahead and bought it. Brooke and Avie would need it this summer if they were to spend the whole summer at home with my mother-in-law instead of at daycare.



Then, it was time for the formal wish from Brooke. Anne pulled something out of her bag and handed it to Laura. Laura started unwinding this little trinket and revealed that it was a special wishing star necklace. She clasped it around Brooke's necklace and it began to glow with a blue light! I started to get goosebumps, as Laura asked Brooke what her wish was.



Brooke's wish? ''I want to see all the princesses checked off in my book.'' The ladies laughed at that and asked "What book?"

Remember that Disney Princess magazine Brooke's picture was in last spring? Well, shortly after her 'win,' I ordered a subscription for her. (Which was a good thing, too! Getting her monthly magazine was a wonderful distraction for her when in the hospital.) Anyways, there is a page in each issue that has a space for readers to draw their favourite princess. Around the border of the page is a picture of eacho f the princesses with a checkbox beside it so that readers can select which ones are their favourites. Brooke had checked them all off.

Brooke raced over to the table, grabbed her magazine and flipped it open to that page to show Anne and Laura, naming each princess along the edge and stating how Ariel was her favourite and that's the one she most wanted to meet. She continued that she had all of the Ariel movies and was even Ariel for Halloween. (She also insisted on showing them the tail I had sewn back in the fall for the costume.) And, finally, how she wanted to see the princesses at their castle in Disney.

Well, folks, the grantors looked at each other and then at us and said ''We think we can do that.''

Then they launched into details about the trip to Disney World and how we would stay at this amazing resort just for sick and special needs children called Give Kids the World. I knew much about these trips already from joining an online forum for wishtrippers back in March. At the time, I didn't know if Brooke was going to get her wish granted, but I had hoped against hope! And, being my neurotic, research-crazy self, I needed to know more about these trips--just in case. I just sat there on the floor, listening to the volunteers talk about the beautiful parades and the wonderful resort, stunned. Teary-eyed. Her wish was coming true!

As much as I wanted her wish to come true, I hadn't really banked on it. I even outlined the second wish (princess for a day) in detail to the ladies, as the first one seemed soooo 'big.' Almost unrealistic. (We even started looking into how much it would cost us to take the girls to Disney next spring if the wish fell through. We were determined to make her wish to meet Ariel a reality.)

And, we thought, there are just so many kids who are (and don't get me wrong, I am beyond thankful for this!) more priority than Brooke. Kids who are terminal, kids who have chronic pain and illnesses. Kids who won't ever get old. We figured Brooke wouldn't be selected in favour of those children. And, we were fine with that. In our minds, there are kids who deserve it more. (Not that she doesn't deserve it--just that there are others who could benefit from it more than she.)

This, however, couldn't be further from the truth. It's a myth that kids need to be on terminal to have their wishes granted. Kids don't even have to currently be ill to be wish kids. Lots of children with serious illnesses qualify, but not everyone knows this. And, no wish child is ever deemed 'less important' than another. All of them get a wish. And, most of them grow up to be healthy, happy adults.

As one MAW volunteer, who is a friend of a friend, put it--a wish is a way to make up for all of the pain and discomfort of hospital visits and treatments that the kid has had to endure. ''At the end of the day,'' she said, ''the nurses and doctors get their paycheque. This is yours.''

But, still--something as big as Disney?! But, as Anne explained, the problem isn't funding. Although they always welcome and appreciate donations, MAW has plenty of that--what they don't have is enough wish grantors and volunteers to make the wishes happen. And even fewer wish kids. (So, if you know of a kid between the ages of 3 and 18 who has or has had a serious illness, regardless of their health right now, encourage their families to refer them to MAW.)

Anyways, after the wish grantors left (leaving behind a MAW star magnet and chocolate, fish-shaped treats for Brooke), we nearly jumped out of our skin from sheer excitement!

Within two days, not only had Anne and Laura called to confirm that Brooke would be going to Disney, but they had already confirmed our flight, a reservation to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique salon (for a princess makeover) in Magic Kingdom, followed by lunch with the princesses at Cinderella's Castle. Amazing! We were elated. Totally walking on air!



We are currently making plans for our trip, which we will be taking from September 8 to 15, 2011. We can't wait! We've decided to keep it a surprise from Brooke for now. Anne and Laura want to plan a special 'presentation' for the actual wish package (tickets, expense cheque and flight info, etc.), probably a month or so before the trip, and we'll wait until then to tell Brooke about her wish coming true. They are doing all the work (really, MAW doesn't want us to lift a finger!), so they should get the honour!

And, besides--Brooke has no concept of time, so how would she be able to understand that we are only going in three months? She would ask me every day if today was the day we're going to Disney.

So, yeah--to say the least, it's been pretty friggin' exciting around here lately.



Brooke caught a falling star and she put it in her pocket. She saved it for a rainy day. And that day came. And, with it a special wish.

We are beyond thrilled to be going on this amazing trip with our little girls. It really will be a dream come true!

P.S. Apologies for the huge pics. Am using Photobucket to upload pics nowadays and still haven't figured out the correct sizing yet. Clearly, I have my homework to do.