Around the village- 1

 Yes everyone, we are still on DAY ONE- this day was spent around the village doing some very special things with our time. Making memories that will certainly last a life time. We started the morning once in our villa with a nap. Three children- Jude, Angelina and Isaac DID NOT sleep one wink. They were ready to get out the door. We took them over to play at the playground across the street that was totally accessible. In the picture above and the one below you will see some very grouchy children when we told them that we were leaving the park so that we could explore the rest of the village. I think that they thought that they were going to miss out by not getting to stay longer at the playground!

Below you will see all the older kids smiling and being silly because they knew that it was ridiculous that anyone would even waste one minute sulking! They had heard me talking all about the village before the trip and knew that there were endless activities and tons of fun to be had by all.

Did I mention that Give Kids the World has special parties and events each evening? Yes, they do! They even have a spa and horse riding area where all the children are able to ride the ponies and they have helpers to get them on and off etc.

I knew that I needed to get a special moment with Angelina for her to make a wish and give her star to the star fairy that would take it to the ceiling and place it up there with all the other stars of all the children who had stayed at Give Kids the World. I think some 140,000 families have been blessed to stay here! Angelina wrote her name on the star as careful as she could.

 She placed it inside the magic box. And she watched as the star fairy took her star up, up and up and away. (All the while there was a little video of the star fairy and then the twinkling lights all over the room were the fairy taking the star up in the sky!)

 If you look closely or click this picture you can see how many stars are on the ceiling. There are other rooms of this building that are covered with stars as well. We knew that the next morning we would have a special card delivered to our villa that would tell us where Angelina's star was going to stay forever.

 Here is her AJ star.

 And here is her AJ star up on the ceiling.

 All of the children also got to make special pillows. There was a little video of an owl in the tree that would have the children do a few tasks and then they could go over and look in the tree stump and inside there they would find a special travel sized pillow.

OK now. I told myself that I was going to cherish each moment this week and be sure to say YES far more than NO. This is where I first messed up. I asked the volunteer that was helping the children if she wanted to do a few children at a time. Each of the children took a bit of time to be able to complete the activity and had to go one at a time. She said... no, that is why its so special because we want them each to have the experience of the magic.

Duh me.
I learned to step back, enjoy the moment and live in the thrill of the magic that each one of the kids was experiencing!

 Jude loved to sit in the King and Queen chairs.

 Angelina and Alyssa visited the spa and were able to get airbrush tattoos. Angelina picked a panda bear OF COURSE!

Our dear friend Maria and Ava came to visit us at the Village and had dinner with us. The Village welcomed our guests with open arms and even fed them! David and Cole decided to give their pillows to Maria and Ava since they are far too cool to participate in the activity! We were so thankful to have our friends spend time with us during the week. We not only had Maria and Ava (my God daughter), my best friend Amy and her Mike. But also my Mom (Nana), Aunt Barb, Aunt Ann and my friend Cindy and her four children too! Lots of visitors and lots of fun had by all. I can't wait to tell you more.

Day one ended with a surprise birthday party celebration for Mayor Clayton. He is the Bunny Mayor of Give Kids the World. There was cake and popcorn, a movie and candy too. Dancing and music and all kids of fun and memories. It was a GREAT TIME.

At the end of day one we all crashed HARD. (After a long bath in the jacuzzi tub!)

Day 1- Give Kids the World

 We stayed at Give Kids the World. www.gktw.org
I have been debating all day long how I was going to write a post about GKTW. Its the most magical, wonderful place that I have ever been. We basically could have gone here and stayed here all week long and we would have had plenty to do and a wonderful wish trip with Angelina.
The villas that families stay in look similar to the ones above. (Ours was next door to the one above and white in color.) They are duplexes but we were given both sides of the duplex since we had so many children. There are signs in front of the house that they put the families names on.

{Please do not read this post if you are going to GKTW and don't want any SPOILERS! This post will contain SPOILERS that you might want to keep for a surprise!)

 This is the sign that is out front.

 After meeting the greeter at the airport we had a little issue with the rental car. Make a wish had reserved us a car, and GKTW has reserved us a car, we weren't sure which to take and didn't want to mess anything up for anyone and let there be two charges! So we called our awesome wish granter in Washington (it was 3:30am mind you PST) to be sure that we were doing things correctly!

Once we were loaded in the car and arriving at GKTW it was about 7am. We were hungry and exhausted. DH and I went into the House of Hearts and we were welcomed with open arms! Our villas weren't ready yet but they checked us in and gave us our meal card for the week. They made arrangements for one of us (DH) to attend the orientation at 9am and sent us on our way to explore the village and eat breakfast. They also gave us a special magic button for Angelina (more about that soon) and a Mickey Mouse plush for AJ. They gave shamu toys for all the other children.

We found next to the House of hearts there was a game room inside the "train station" that was totally free to play. Actually everything at the village is free for all the families who stay there. They provide three meals a day and endless ice cream from 7am-10pm daily. There is a place to eat in for both breakfast and dinner that is filled with wonderful volunteers who help carry your trays, get your children more food and refill drinks, love on your whole family, offer up lots of smiles and make you feel MORE WELCOME than you can even imagine.
Then there is take out for lunch that you can have delivered or pick up that is actually Boston Market. And also pizza delivered late at night! For breakfast there is also an express counter that is handy if you want to grab and go. And a cart that comes around with fast breakfast choices to the villas. (Also a cookie cart that comes around in the evening to bring fresh cookies to those in need of a sweet treat!) We have never eaten so well. And both DH and I gained five pounds. Lots of comfort foods... I haven't eaten quite so many mashed potatoes ever.

 Here is inside the train station. So fun!

 The welcome desk in the house of hearts. (Also the location where you can pick up extra park tickets, shop for souvenirs of GKTW, rent movies etc.)

 One of the fun trash cans that "eats" your garbage. We were having to come up with extra garbage at one point for Jude. He loved this!

 The Amberville train.

 The exterior of the train station.

 Ice cream anyone?

 Inside the ice cream parlor.

 Merry Go Round and castle. (More about the inside of this soon.)

 The fully accessible playground. Our villa was right across the street from the entrance to the playground. We couldn't have asked for a better location!

 The Gingerbread House where we ate breakfast and dinner most days.

 Outside the pool

One of the two pools. There was also an awesome splash garden with spraying water that was a blast. The kids loved the mini golf and fishing. There was a huge pirate ship next to the pool that had a massive screen where they showed movies at night. And a theatre that had movies inside.

Each day when we would come home to the villa there would be gifts left for the kids on the table. It was fun to look forward to what treats might be there! One day we got a special edition GKTW game of Candy Land. Love it!

The village is only for families who are on wish trips. They give you at orientation park hopper passes for three days to Disney, two days to Universal and one day at Sea World. They also have a huge list of other places you can visit for free while you are there. One week was definitely not enough time to do it all. But we made sure to fill each moment with as much magic and time together as possible.
They also loaned us a video camera and put our videos on CD for us before we left. I already have plans to go back next year and volunteer. The village has 1500 volunteers PER WEEK to make it possible. A lot of the volunteers that we met were families who had been there for a wish trip and had come back with family and friends to Orlando to help out at GKTW. It is definitely on my list for something we want to do as often as possible.
It's the best place on earth- I am certain of it!

Angelinas MAW Day 1 (Part 1)



We left on Friday night last week. We were taking the red eye direct from Seattle to Orlando. I was really thankful that Make A Wish booked the most favorable flights for us traveling with so many small children. We knew that we were meeting someone from MAW and a representative from TSA. We were traveling with two suitcases of carry on medical supplies so we were so thankful that we had someone from TSA to help us through security. What we didn't know was that we also had a Seattle police officer meet us and the Alaska Airline representative. Wow. We felt so special and everyone paid oodles of attention to Angelina and she already felt like a princess and was squealing "this is the best day ever!" And "I am going to have a BLAST this week!"

They printed out our boarding passes and then everyone walked us through the security line. They helped carry kids, fold strollers, open luggage etc. we were in our own very special line. They escorting us to the Alaska Airlines board room area. We had our own private room to wait in and upstairs was drinks, snacks, salads and COOKIES. You know that the kids cleaned out all of the big cookies that they had and watched TV in the private waiting room. About an hour later the rep from Alaska Air came and escorted us to the gate.



Angelina was given a special back pack full of princess goodies. It was shaped like the Alaska Airlines plane. She was thrilled to say the least. Then they announced her name over the loud speaker and welcomed Princess Angelina and her family aboard the aircraft FIRST. We went down the ramp and into the plane...

and we were welcomed into the cockpit to check it out. Jude has never been on the plane since he was a tiny baby and this is all he talked about- getting to meet the pilot and see where he flew the plane. You can tell from his smile below that he was very happy.

They were incredibly patient as all NINE children took turns climbing in and out of the seats. They helped get us all situated and then boarded the rest of the aircraft.

As we were taking off Jude completely FREAKED OUT. He was screaming "let me off this plane!" and "I want to get out!" and "I am SCARED!" for about half an hour. It was late at night, he was scared and tired and wow... we made quite the spectacle. Everyone was so nice. They brought Digital players around for all the kids (for free) and a special snack for Angelina. The flight time was record fast (just around 4.5 hours) and next thing we knew it- it was SUNNY and we were landed in Florida! (Mind you even though it was 6am Florida time- it felt like 3am our time.)
Angelina had a special moment with the pilot and he gave her a pin for her lanyard of the "WISH plane" that Alaska Airlines has. It was something she talked about throughout the week. Her most prized pin that she would never trade to anyone.

Before we knew it- we saw the sign welcoming Angelina to Give Kids the World. Our greeter was there at the airport to meet us and help us get to our rental van. Day 1 was just beginning!

Most amazing week ever. I can't wait to tell you all about it. For now I am unpacking, getting my life back in order, uploading TONS of photos, about to watch a movie with the kids who are "coming down" off of "the trip of endless fun", and just letting it all sink in. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Beth UPDATE and VIDEO

Check out THIS LINK to view a NEW video of sweet Beth.
Please read below for more information.
We need to find her family URGENTLY.
Contact Nina at: nina.t@chiadopt.org for more information!

Desperately seeking

 Desperately seeking

a family for Beth.

Are you her Mommy?

 Why her belly looks like it is sticking up in

this picture is because they have a "donut"

shaped medical dressing over the hole in her spine.

Beth has Spina Bifida.

Beth is in a country where she hasn't

and will not get medical care for her

open spine. So in the meantime..

She is on borrowed time.

 Beth is tired of laying in her crib.
Beth has to lay on her side because she can't roll over because she has that big huge donut wrap on her back that prevents her from spending time anywhere but laying on her side. Beth can't sit up because she has
been laying in this crib. Beth is fed and her diaper is changed but she is just left laying. This might have been the thing that saved her life thus far.The lack of attention, affection, and "touch" may have kept the bad germs away and kept her alive longer than she should be- here on borrowed time.

Beth has hydrocephalus.

(Just like Jude and AJ and most children with Spina Bifida.)

Beth recently got her VP shunt.

That's a tube that goes into her brain.

It goes into the ventricle and it drains

the extra fluid from her brain.

In our country newborn babies get VP shunts.

They don't wait until the children are older.

But likely because Beth has been leaking

spinal fluid from her back her brain 

maybe hasn't been as affected from the

pooling fluid that has increased her pressure

in her head daily. So because of the country

that she is in who is willing to pay for the

surgery for the VP shunt- but NOT willing

to pay for the $800 shunt...

Beth waited.

And Waited.

And laid in misery.

With her big old headache.

And her spine leaking spinal fluid.

From a HUGE open hole.

And still waits.

Are you her Mommy?

Are you pro life?

Who's for Beth's Life?

I am.

Now you know.

What are you doing about Beth?
and the countless others like her?