Making a Wish

Some of you may have read about Angela's original Make A Wish. I think it was back in May or June that the people from Make A Wish came to the house. Our representative's name is Hannah, and this was the very first wish she'd done, so she was accompanied by Make A Wish of Minnesota's president.

They really enjoyed interviewing Angela, finding out all her likes and dislikes. For an interview with child, it was quite thorough! Angela made it pretty clear that her entire life revolved around Zack and Cody

Wish kids make 3 wishes. A travel wish, (assuming they're healthy enough to travel.) a "closer to home" wish if travel is difficult, and an "at home" wish if travel is just out of the question. Angela's first wish was to meet Zack and Cody at the Disney Studios in California. Her second wish was a playhouse in the back yard. She wants something along the lines of this
and her 3rd wish was a new bedroom. (I think, oh my gosh, now I don't remember!) We were told that the wait for Zack and Cody would be up to a year long, as they're very popular right now, but we could go with her second wish instead of waiting. We weighed the options and decided to wait it out. A play house is something we could potentially do on our own, but Zack and Cody? We could never make that happen without divine intervention! So, the waiting began.

Today a friend of mine on downsyn posted about their recent trip to Give The Kids The World village in Kissimee, Florida. The had a wonderful time! I went to the website and was looking around when Angela came into the office and stood behind me, "I wanna go there!" she yelled into my ear. "That looks really neat, doesn't it? But we're going to meet Zack and Cody, remember? This place is for kids who don't want to meet Zack and Cody." She seemed satisfied with that answer and walked away.

Reading about their trip reminded me that I hadn't talked to Hannah, our MAW coordinator, since August, so I decided to give her a call and see how Angela's wish is coming, and what the time frame looks like.

HELLO! There is a WRITERS STRIKE!! She said she couldn't believe I called at that very moment. In her lap sat a list of families to call, all of whom had "Meet a star" wishes that, because of the writer's strike, would now be postponed a year or more! Shew as going to be asking them to choose another wish, something that is really tough to do if you have a really seriously ill child who may not have much time left and had been holding onto that wish to keep them going. I asked her about the GKTW village and she said "ABSOLUTELY!!!"

When I got off the phone I called Angela into the office. I explained to her that Zack and Cody are kind of on a vacation right now, and since there are a lot of kids in line, it would be a very long time before we could meet them. Would she be interested in going to GKTW village instead?

The smile and twinkle of excitement was my answer. "On a PLANE? Do we fly up high on a plane? You, me and Dean ON A PLANE? See the Ocean? And Dolphins? And Disney?"

Tonight after she went to bed, she hollered from her room, "Mom? Hey Mom? Don't forget to pack my swimming suit!"