A Secret and a Wish

Before I get to the heart of this post, I want to share a little story with you…..

Once upon a time in a land called Mississippi lived a little girl named Nicole. This little girl adored Minnie Mouse. She had amazing parents who worked hard to take her family on summer vacations. One year, Nicole was so excited to go with her family to Disney World and meet Minnie Mouse. All she wanted to do was give Minnie a big hug. But her parents had other ideas. Her parents wanted her to go on this big silly boat for breakfast. Nicole was very upset and loudly protested. She just wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom and meet Minnie Mouse! She didn’t want to go eat breakfast on a big boring boat.

As she stood in line with her family waiting to board the boat, she began to notice there were an awful lot of children in line. Then, as they got closer, she noticed balloons tied to the boat. “Hmmmmm” she thought, “something is up. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all.” She boarded the boat and sat down at the table with her family. A few minutes later, out of the corner of her eye she saw the red and white polka dots for which Minnie Mouse is famous for. She looked up and was SO surprised to see Minnie Mouse rounding the corner and then making her way to each and every table spending a little time with each child. Her sneaky parents had kept a BIG surprise and that made the experience all the better…….

I remember as a child wondering why would my parents want to surprise me like that. Why wouldn’t they have just told me we were going to a character breakfast. Now that I’m a Mom myself, I totally get it. Sometimes the surprise factor makes the experience that much better. I have a secret and a surprise in the making. Today, I’m going to share my not-so-little secret with you.

In the summer of 2014 my sweet cousin, Shelby, was interning at Make a Wish in Mississippi. She asked her Mom to message me and asked me if Noah had ever received a wish through Make a Wish. I responded with a no and that I didn’t think he was eligible. I thought wishes were only for children with terminal illnesses but my Aunt explained that the requirements were a little different now and that Noah would most likely be eligible. Due to his special needs, Noah misses out on a lot of the opportunities that are afforded to his same aged peers have, so I thought I should contact our local Make a Wish chapter and see if he was eligible. After a mountain of paperwork, we got a letter confirming Noah was indeed eligible for a wish.

Two wish volunteers came out to our house to meet with Noah over Christmas break in 2014.They asked Noah about his wish. After much consideration and deliberation, Noah decided he wanted to meet Darth Vader, see and possibly pet a dolphin, and ride roller coasters. Because Make a Wish only grants one wish, his official wish is to meet Darth Vader. Since Darth Vader “lives” at Disney World, Noah will meet him there also allowing him to ride roller coasters and go to Sea World to see a dolphin. All of that happened so long ago that he has probably forgotten about it and he for certain doesn’t know this is going to happen in TWO days! 

Noah would be SO anxious if he knew about this trip, so we don’t intend to tell him until we are on our way and even then it will just be a “surprise” location for a bit. It may seem odd to some not to tell him but as his Mom, I know him best and I believe this will help with the stress and anxiety a trip of this magnitude would induce for him. I have some tricks up my sleeve to make this trip easier on him and I’ll probably share some of those as we go.

Since we don’t have another child at home, Noah has the opportunity to bring along a “friend.”  Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew if given the opportunity to choose himself, he’d bring the person he refers to as his best friend; my Dad. And where ever Granddad goes, Nana goes so my Mom is going to come along too. We’re thrilled to have them both join us for this special adventure. 

It’s going to be an amazing trip! Make a Wish thinks of everything and works really hard to make this an extra special trip full of perks and fun! To be completely honest, it feels really surreal still. I doubt it will feel like a reality until we are actually on the way.

It seems kind of silly to ask for prayers about this trip, but this is a big trip for Noah. For my prayer warrior friends, please pray that Noah isn’t too anxious, that he embraces this vacation, that he doesn’t have seizures, that he has a great time, and is at peace. Please pray that he does OK with the noise we’ll encounter at the parks, in restaurants, and what not. Please pray for safe travels for all of us and that we all have patience and endurance to keep up with this fearless, roller-coaster-riding dare devil of mine.

And don’t worry, I’ll be sharing photos and updates on social media as time allows so be sure to follow along if you aren’t already!

PS. Remember this is a secret, so zip your lips! ;)