Make a Wish (and other organizations) ~ Wish Trippers UNITE! Volume FOUR!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Ari was born with trisomy 9 mosaic,a rare chromosomal disorder. his diagnosis was a shock and took nearly a year of testing,medical scares and many therapists and doctors to diagnose. children with this disorder do not thrive,and most often result in death before the first birthday. From the moment Ari was born he struggled and worked every day, every min, and every sec. he couldn't coordinate his suck and swallowand he had severe medical issues related to this. threw aris determination and perseverance he began to thrive. surpassing all the doctors expectations (when i first saw Ari one neurologist said- he was a lump of clay- the nerve of that one! Boy did heprove him wrong!) every time something threatened to take our Ari away- someone above watched and fought for Ari. by the time Ari was three he had been threw early intervention and just a few weeks before his third birthday ari started walking-making him one of the only children with his disorder walking with out the use of a walker before the age of three (thanx to surgery on his spine ari has spina bifida occulta and it can cause the spinal cord to snag on one of the openings on his spine aka a tetheredcord ) his third birthday was a celebration! and a celebration of life- for in 3 years Ari had been put threw the ringer- many hospital stays ,procedures,surgery's and allergic reactions(a simple eye test – he was allergic to the cylco gel they use to dialate the pupils and his organs started to shut down – he was in the hospital for about a week.. he graduated that day- at dougies (his fav. Resturaunt at the time) with all his family ,friends and therapists. then It was time for ari to go to school , this special needs school became our familyl. words cannot even express the amount of love and care and devotion that the staff showed to Ari-whom they all nicknamed little tzadik(righteous one) and Mr. America(due to his waving skills!) he thrived and pushed threw mountains and he conquered. his biggest test came when a simple bronchoscopy turned bad and he stopped breathing(larangical spasam)- even on a respirator Ari fought along with his zaidys and bubbys in heaven to survive- and threw g-ds kindness he pulled threw and went right back to school within a week! that's my Ari! . when Ari turned 5 we faced a huge decision. with all of our family in Florida-and the school system changing we made a bold step and moved to boca raton Florida. From new york. leaving behind his friends ,his therapist and his doctors (thank u Dr. rosen) .). but we moved forward -and that's how it went- Ari thrived and his health improved in sunny Florida. and best of all his quality of life improved by being next to his bubby and zaidy (ari’s sister rosie now had a place to hang out when we were at his dr. app.),his great bubby rochel and all his aunts ,uncles and cousins. support is the biggest thing a special needs family can get- and that's just what we got! as hard as it was-we knew the right decision was made and Ari was enrolled in public school- bec. there were no available schools that would be the best place for Ari that were Jewish. and we were proud of our ari, going to school everyday with his kippa and tzitzis.!!! many teachers came for shabbos and.....my heart was filled because my little tzadik was flourishing. with in the year ari was sitting at a desk and making an x with a green crayon. but best of all he began to expand his sign language(Ari cannot speak and has a hearing loss in both ears he usually wears his blue and green hearing aides) he began communicating in ways that i only dreamed of. and we were happy, we were moving forward and we were proud of all the hard work Ari was doing.
Ari is now 8 and he continues to work so hard every second of every day to achieve what most kids take for granted. His sister rosie is a gem. She truly is a trooper! She didn’t know what hit her when ari was born! But now she is like a mini therapist! Although there are a lot of times when it is very hard for her . like when ari has his dr apps. Or when ari acts out( he has been diagnosed now with add//adhd )yup along with his extra chromosome why not add to his reseme!!lol . today ari goes to a great school in
delray beach that has a aac class that is augmentative communication devices are used by all the kids in his class. Although ari loves his dynavox. He communicats so nicely with his sign language. He can sign maybe 150 – 200 words!!!! And the school has given him his own sign interpreter(I wish she could go everywere with ari! Just so she can help others who don’t know sign to understand ari.
Because of a lot no known on trisomy 9 mosaic ari is closly watched my geneticist, neurologist, cardiologist, gastro, developmental pediatrician, neurosurgeon, orthopedics, ent, and his audiologist. Some appts. Come once a year , some dr like to see us more often- it’s a life long thing here! And that is why aris genetist signed ari up for make a wish foundation.
Within a day they had called us to say ari was eligible to recive a wish and then the granters would contact us with in a week.
It is now april and its been a whirlwind of excitement! We met everyone on aris wish team and got right to work in playing his sign game to see what his wish would be.
Ari wished to go to Disney world with his family and to orlando to meet blues clues his all time fav.!!! And he wants to color with him- and look for blues clues! And so fran his wish granter waved her wand-made the phone calls and the wish was granted! Our trip date is may 9th and we are counting down the days. We are excited and starting to plan the send off party(any ideas are welcomed) . we will be staying with give kids the world and from what I have heard – we are just speechless at the kindness that the show to the kids there.
We are working hard to make sure that rosie is not left out- in a way- she deals with so much more then ari, because she understands so much more! Hopefully everything will be magical.
So there is our story- a shortend version at least(could u imagin the long one!!!!
 
(reposted from Hannah's PTR)

Hey everyone! Just wanted to check in since we seem to have dropped off the face of disboards the past few days! Daddy has been out of state for work these past 3 days (coming home tomorrow), Hannah has been sick, and I have been breaking in new nurses (mixed bag here).

I can't wait for Daddy to get home tomorrow night so we can start planning again! All I have been doing these past few days is sleep when the nurse is here and take care of the kids after I wake up plus stay up to do Hannah's night nursing. I want so bad to jump back into it! I need my Disney fix!!

We have received so many generous big give gifts over the past few days that I want to share as well. I just am waiting a couple more days to see if I can get Hannah in some of the shirts and dresses before I post them - she has just really been under the weather this week! If I can't get good pics of her by Sunday night, I will just go ahead and post the pics with Ethan and Abby opening everything.

I ordered Kingdom Keepers for Ethan to read, and he got it in the mail today! This type of series is right up his alley, and I thought it would be a fun tie in to WDW. I wish they had a younger chapter book series like this for Abby!

Glad to see you back... I can't wait to see the outfits... I hope Hannah's feeling better...
 
Ari was born with trisomy 9 mosaic,a rare chromosomal disorder. his diagnosis was a shock and took nearly a year of testing,medical scares and many therapists and doctors to diagnose. children with this disorder do not thrive,and most often result in death before the first birthday. From the moment Ari was born he struggled and worked every day, every min, and every sec. he couldn't coordinate his suck and swallowand he had severe medical issues related to this. threw aris determination and perseverance he began to thrive. surpassing all the doctors expectations (when i first saw Ari one neurologist said- he was a lump of clay- the nerve of that one! Boy did heprove him wrong!) every time something threatened to take our Ari away- someone above watched and fought for Ari. by the time Ari was three he had been threw early intervention and just a few weeks before his third birthday ari started walking-making him one of the only children with his disorder walking with out the use of a walker before the age of three (thanx to surgery on his spine ari has spina bifida occulta and it can cause the spinal cord to snag on one of the openings on his spine aka a tetheredcord ) his third birthday was a celebration! and a celebration of life- for in 3 years Ari had been put threw the ringer- many hospital stays ,procedures,surgery's and allergic reactions(a simple eye test – he was allergic to the cylco gel they use to dialate the pupils and his organs started to shut down – he was in the hospital for about a week.. he graduated that day- at dougies (his fav. Resturaunt at the time) with all his family ,friends and therapists. then It was time for ari to go to school , this special needs school became our familyl. words cannot even express the amount of love and care and devotion that the staff showed to Ari-whom they all nicknamed little tzadik(righteous one) and Mr. America(due to his waving skills!) he thrived and pushed threw mountains and he conquered. his biggest test came when a simple bronchoscopy turned bad and he stopped breathing(larangical spasam)- even on a respirator Ari fought along with his zaidys and bubbys in heaven to survive- and threw g-ds kindness he pulled threw and went right back to school within a week! that's my Ari! . when Ari turned 5 we faced a huge decision. with all of our family in Florida-and the school system changing we made a bold step and moved to boca raton Florida. From new york. leaving behind his friends ,his therapist and his doctors (thank u Dr. rosen) .). but we moved forward -and that's how it went- Ari thrived and his health improved in sunny Florida. and best of all his quality of life improved by being next to his bubby and zaidy (ari’s sister rosie now had a place to hang out when we were at his dr. app.),his great bubby rochel and all his aunts ,uncles and cousins. support is the biggest thing a special needs family can get- and that's just what we got! as hard as it was-we knew the right decision was made and Ari was enrolled in public school- bec. there were no available schools that would be the best place for Ari that were Jewish. and we were proud of our ari, going to school everyday with his kippa and tzitzis.!!! many teachers came for shabbos and.....my heart was filled because my little tzadik was flourishing. with in the year ari was sitting at a desk and making an x with a green crayon. but best of all he began to expand his sign language(Ari cannot speak and has a hearing loss in both ears he usually wears his blue and green hearing aides) he began communicating in ways that i only dreamed of. and we were happy, we were moving forward and we were proud of all the hard work Ari was doing.
Ari is now 8 and he continues to work so hard every second of every day to achieve what most kids take for granted. His sister rosie is a gem. She truly is a trooper! She didn’t know what hit her when ari was born! But now she is like a mini therapist! Although there are a lot of times when it is very hard for her . like when ari has his dr apps. Or when ari acts out( he has been diagnosed now with add//adhd )yup along with his extra chromosome why not add to his reseme!!lol . today ari goes to a great school in
delray beach that has a aac class that is augmentative communication devices are used by all the kids in his class. Although ari loves his dynavox. He communicats so nicely with his sign language. He can sign maybe 150 – 200 words!!!! And the school has given him his own sign interpreter(I wish she could go everywere with ari! Just so she can help others who don’t know sign to understand ari.
Because of a lot no known on trisomy 9 mosaic ari is closly watched my geneticist, neurologist, cardiologist, gastro, developmental pediatrician, neurosurgeon, orthopedics, ent, and his audiologist. Some appts. Come once a year , some dr like to see us more often- it’s a life long thing here! And that is why aris genetist signed ari up for make a wish foundation.
Within a day they had called us to say ari was eligible to recive a wish and then the granters would contact us with in a week.
It is now april and its been a whirlwind of excitement! We met everyone on aris wish team and got right to work in playing his sign game to see what his wish would be.
Ari wished to go to Disney world with his family and to orlando to meet blues clues his all time fav.!!! And he wants to color with him- and look for blues clues! And so fran his wish granter waved her wand-made the phone calls and the wish was granted! Our trip date is may 9th and we are counting down the days. We are excited and starting to plan the send off party(any ideas are welcomed) . we will be staying with give kids the world and from what I have heard – we are just speechless at the kindness that the show to the kids there.
We are working hard to make sure that rosie is not left out- in a way- she deals with so much more then ari, because she understands so much more! Hopefully everything will be magical.
So there is our story- a shortend version at least(could u imagin the long one!!!!

Wow that is awesome that Ari is doing so well... I love it when people do better than the dr say they will!!!... I hope he continues to thrive and to break records!
 
hey gang!

today was big time excitement at our place! the "sunshine ladies" came to our house to deliver evan's wish trip itenerary. they also brought a HUGE mickey mouse doll, balloons, and a homemade mickey mouse cake!:lovestruc

i had gotten out the extra mickey plates and stuff from ev's bday,and some chips and snacks. they stayed for about an hour and talked and visited, and asked a lot about evan and what he wanted to do on his trip. he wowed them all with his listing of the princesses, and dwarves, and other characters. he sang a few songs, and at the end gave them all big hugs and "i love you bunches, thank you"s. he even fave miss patty a kiss:love:

one of the neatest things was when i asked about how the wv chapter of the sunshine foundation was formed...you can all read the story about the national organization on the website, but the wv chapter was started when their former pastor, i think her name was betty wilt, was on vacation at ocean city maryland. she saw a group of really small children playing and was drawn to them. it turns out the all had progeria, a condition that causes children to age at a very rapid rate. the sunshine foundation sponsored reunions of the progeria families every year. when she came home, the pastor was moved to start a chapter and that is how the wv chapter was started. also, i learned that the sunshine foundation is almost all volunteer. they have a really small "staff". so all these folks do this work, just because they want to...that makes me smile!:)

that is all for tonight! hope you all have a great weekend...i am going to pick up our new doggie tomorrow!!!
 
Was there someone who can give you the expected crowd information for your trip? (Maroo?) I've always used Tour Guide Mike in the past, but don't really want to pay $21.95 just to use the crowd calendar. Budget is a little tight, the $21 would be better spent on a new travel bag for Aleah! (She's 7 I figure she can start hauling some luggage herself! LOL)
There are a lot of websites that deal with crowd levels. I will try to research some for you, but Maroo is really the best resource.

Remember that, during the school year, Epcot is busy on weekdays for field trips, slow on the weekends. MK is the opposite.
 
hi ,my son has been granted a wish from make a wish - and we are going may 9th! to disney world! we are so very excited. my son has trisomy 9 mosaic. i would love some help and advice or pointers to help make this trip even more magical for my husband and i along with my son who is 8 and daughter who is 12. we will be staying with give kids the world and would love to hear u guys:earsboy:
Check out the threads in my signature for planning tips and such.
 
hi everyone - my son ari is 8 yr old and has trisomy 9 mosaic. ari was granted a wish from the make a wish foundation in south florida. we will be going to disney world on may 9th for a week and we will be staying at give kids the world. i am new to disboards and would love some help in trying to get some pointer ,advice ,hints and hidden known secrets that might help me make our trip as magical as it can be. my daughter rosie is almost 12 and is the biggest justin beiber fan around! she has been having a hard time with this whole wish thing- she even had the courage to go to ari's wish granter and ask what about my wish? my heart fell into my stomach and it ached for her. we explained it to her that this was ari's wish but it was really a wish for the whole family. if anyone has any ideas to help make this trip special for rosie too. ari also loves blues clues and hopefully his wishgranter will be able to arrange a meet and greet and ari can help blue look for clues!
Siblings are as much a part of the wish trip as the wish kids. Especially at GKTW they will be given..... well I don't want to spoil all the surprises. They will be treated wonderfully as well. Be sure to include many of the favorite rides, attractions and characters for Rosie as well. There will be time for it all.
 


Can someone explain how the Universal tickets work? I know you get tickets for 2 days. Are they "park hoppers"? If we start at IOA in the morning, can we visit Universal Studios in the evening? Or is it only good for 1 park a day?
They are park hopper passes. We only used one because we were able to do both parks in one day.
 
There are a lot of websites that deal with crowd levels. I will try to research some for you, but Maroo is really the best resource.

Remember that, during the school year, Epcot is busy on weekdays for field trips, slow on the weekends. MK is the opposite.


http://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar looks like a good place to check out crowd levels for each day.

coasterq.com is a great site. It will give you real-time reports on what the ride line waits are at each attraction. Folks text in their real experiences and that feeds into the site. When we went to Disneyland last spring, we checked out each of our favorite rides and were able to figure out the b est times to go. Of course with a GAC that is kind of unnecessary.
 
Wow Spring muyst be here .... it's slow here on the boards this week! I think spring is finally goign to hit here in full force... we are getting a warm rain!.... But Kaleb has been having some bad coughing and isn't sleeping too well..... once he gets a cold it holds on for dear life! and Nathan is having a few issues too. I hope and pray that they will be well by next weekend.... But today is his PARTY!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!
 
Wow Spring muyst be here .... it's slow here on the boards this week! I think spring is finally goign to hit here in full force... we are getting a warm rain!.... But Kaleb has been having some bad coughing and isn't sleeping too well..... once he gets a cold it holds on for dear life! and Nathan is having a few issues too. I hope and pray that they will be well by next weekend.... But today is his PARTY!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!

Prayers out to Kaleb and Nathan! I hope they stay well since your trip is so close! Hope you guys have lots of fun at your party tonight!!! :banana::banana:
 
Wow Spring muyst be here .... it's slow here on the boards this week! I think spring is finally goign to hit here in full force... we are getting a warm rain!.... But Kaleb has been having some bad coughing and isn't sleeping too well..... once he gets a cold it holds on for dear life! and Nathan is having a few issues too. I hope and pray that they will be well by next weekend.... But today is his PARTY!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!

Oh!! I know all about those colds!! We are having that problem with AJ...He gets this EVERY year!!! Must be the change of season...I am so looking foward to reading about your PARTY!!!! :banana::dance3:
 
Amber and I are headed to Disney for her Cheer Comp in 18 days. She reminded me of the postcards we received when we got home from another DIS board member.

SOOOOO....
We would like to send postcards to anyone who would like one for your child while we are there!!

I have not been able to keep up much on the board because of Haylee's issues lately (so I don't know everyone's kidos anymore)
BUT....
She is getting her trach out on TUESDAY morning!!! YEA!!!:cool1::cool1:

SO if you would like a postcard sent to your kido please PM me with:
Your Child's name and address
Favorite Characters
and message (like-had fun seeing you, can't wait to meet you, feel better soon) whatever you would like. We will send them our before we leave on May 2nd.
 
Wow Spring muyst be here .... it's slow here on the boards this week! I think spring is finally goign to hit here in full force... we are getting a warm rain!.... But Kaleb has been having some bad coughing and isn't sleeping too well..... once he gets a cold it holds on for dear life! and Nathan is having a few issues too. I hope and pray that they will be well by next weekend.... But today is his PARTY!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!

It's been chilly here in Cali! I will never get used to the constant changes in weather here (a couple of weeks ago it was in the mid-80s!). I hope Kaleb and Nathan feel better soon, being sick is no fun especially on PARTY day!!!! Make sure you take lots of pics, I can't wait to hear all about it!
 
You MUST come check out the THINGS we got in the mail today!


BigGives005-5.jpg
 
looks like it was a fun send off party!!! i was wondering, im trying to plan our days in disney gktw what day to do what and what parks can u do two in a day? we will have tickets to the disney parks two universal and sea world. how do u fit it all in? and from what i have read on the posts gktw is a park all in itself!! is there away to get the pamphlets to the park befor hand so we can plan? :mickeybar
 
looks like it was a fun send off party!!! i was wondering, im trying to plan our days in disney gktw what day to do what and what parks can u do two in a day? we will have tickets to the disney parks two universal and sea world. how do u fit it all in? and from what i have read on the posts gktw is a park all in itself!! is there away to get the pamphlets to the park befor hand so we can plan? :mickeybar

You can print about all the maps for each park, but disney.com you can get maps send to you!! We are first timer and leave in 4weeks so I don't know much, but I've learn a lot reading other PTR and TR.
 
looks like it was a fun send off party!!! i was wondering, im trying to plan our days in disney gktw what day to do what and what parks can u do two in a day? we will have tickets to the disney parks two universal and sea world. how do u fit it all in? and from what i have read on the posts gktw is a park all in itself!! is there away to get the pamphlets to the park befor hand so we can plan? :mickeybar

There is a free planning CD available, but it might not get to you in time for your vacation if your dates are soon. However, everything about the parks is available here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/. Might also be worth ordering your own customizable maps of the parks (you pick what attractions you want to appear on the map). They send them to your home for free (again, I'm not certain how long it takes to get to you!), but might be worth having to help you plan what interests you. http://customizedmaps.disney.go.com/

And, as for GKTW, you are right! Sounds like the place has all kinds of activities for kids--from pools to horseback riding, from carousels to dinosaur mini golf and train rides. So, be sure to explore the resort and maybe plan an evening there. I understand that there is nightly entertainment too--a Princess and Pirate party, a Winter Wonderland party, Mayor Clayton's Birthday Party, magic shows, movies...etc. Take a look: http://www.gktw.org/pre/Village/schedule.asp?p=village

The schedule might be able to help you plan your days a bit better when you know what activities you want to be present at.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top