Disney Day 2

Day two of Disney did not disappoint.  We are exhausted but it is a good kind of tired.  My makeup wore off hours ago after the different times I cried happy tears.  We started the day out early here in the village because Universal characters were here this morning.  We were pleasantly surprised that Woody Woodpecker was one of the characters. 

We were the first in line to for the character visit this morning here in the village.  We then went into the Gingerbread House for an amazing breakfast buffet.  The food here in the village is awesome!  It is all free here in the village.  I have already lost count how many times Mike has enjoyed some ice cream!  The ice cream place is open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. so ice cream and soda are available anytime you want it.  Here is sweet Hope with David's Mickey!

The Castle of Dreams is one of my favorite places here in the village.  Not only does it have a carousel that we can ride anytime, but on the ceiling is where all the stars shimmer and shine.  Each star represents every wish child that has ever been here.  One day while we are here we will decorate David's star and we will leave it in the castle.  Overnight the star fairies will put it in his permanent location and then leave us a card where it is so we can visit his star while we are here.  We might do this in the morning:)

David and Woody the Woodpecker and his girlfriend! After hanging out in the village this morning playing putt putt, playing with the remote-controlled boats, and eating we headed out to Hollywood Studios. 

Our first stop was the Beauty and the Beast show.  This is David's reaction to.....

The Beast coming on stage!!!  He was so excited and he sang every word and also knew every line of the show.  Clearly we have spent many hours in the hospital watching Beauty and the Beast.  We all enjoyed that awesome show!

This picture says it all! 

After that we headed to Toy Story Mania!  We all loved that ride so much we did it twice!  We are a highly competitive bunch so we kept up with out point totals.  Today I had to attend an hour long orientation here in the Village to get our tickets and to learn about this awesome place.  My head was full of information after that orientation.  Have I mentioned how awesome Give Kids the World Village is?  wow. 

At orientation I was given a special guest assistance pass that allows us to get in the fast pass line at the rides.  It literally saved us hours of waiting and we were not tied down to the times if we would have gotten fast passes.  When the workers here at Disney see David's Wish button (which he is making me wear) and our guest assistance card they have been so sweet and awesome.  Disney rocks.

Stepping out of Toy Story Mania for the second time, David ran into the soldier from Toy Story.  He loves those dudes dressed in green and he posed with them. 

Another highlight of the day for David and Hope was the Disney Junior Live on Stage show.  I found myself singing along with their favorite characters like Jake, Sophia, and Doc McStuffins!  Here they were popping bubbles that came out of the ceiling!

Okay, grab a tissue if you are tender-hearted like me.  Sophia the First is one of the newest characters from Disney.  The line to see her was crazy long and we were discouraged to even try to stand in line for her.  Then a worker saw us and motioned for us to come up to her.  She put us right in the front of the line and within minutes we were walking in to see Sophia!!!!  David made me cry happy tears when I saw him not walk up beside her and pose but he grabbed her hand and started slow dancing with her.  I could barely take pictures for wiping away happy tears!!  Have I mentioned how awesome Disney is to wish kids? 

This is the miracle pose of all!  HOPE is in a character picture smiling!!!!  She is petrified of characters but wanted to get close enough to Sophia to tell her that she has a new Sophia nightgown that she is wearing here for the trip. 

This was another character visit that was so kind to us.  Buzz and Woody always attract a crowd and the line to see them was out of the building.  It would have been 45 minutes at least to see these two.  Once again a worker allowed David to walk right in to see Buzz and Woody within minutes.  It was unbelievable! 

Toy Story Mania was a huge hit with all of us!  Here are Mike and Kyle racking up the points!  Mike of course was the high point winner in our crowd. 

Still smiling after a long but gorgeous day here.  The weather has been perfect! 

I am still stunned at how amazing this village is.  Tonight they had a pirate and princess party which we missed because we were at Epcot enjoying Soarin and our new favorite Disney ride-Test Track.  You simply cannot do it all here!  There is enough going on in the village to keep you entertained for a week and then to add in a three day park hopper to Disney, two days to Universal, and one day for Seaworld is truly mind boggling.  The generosity of this place is amazing.  They have 1500 volunteers here in the village per week to keep this awesome place so magical for these kiddos.

Last night there was a Christmas party and it actually "snowed."  One Mom wheeled her handicapped son under the snow machine and to see him smiling and enjoying that snow made me tear up happy tears.  Day two is done and this Momma needs to spend some time with God thanking Him for this opportunity we have had together as a family and sleep.  Good night from Give Kids the World Village!

Give Kids the World Day 1

Day one of our magical trip started EARLY,  like really early.  Like Mike was out in our street at 2:45 a.m. this morning helping the limo driver navigated our neighborhood early!

The kids were wide awake and ready to go at 2:30 this morning!  This enormous limo picked us up at our neighbors house because it was too big to fit on our narrow street.  Here is David's reaction to the limo! 

We really thought that they would sleep in the limo-not!!  They were SO EXCITED and wild that they enjoyed every second of that limo trip.  We got to our nearby airport at 4 a.m. and we were the first ones to arrive!  Our flights were smooth and easy and we arrived in Orlando at 9a.m. 

Walking through the huge Orlando airport we spotted a Give Kids the World volunteer who was waiting for us!  She was holding a huge sign with David's name on it.  She helped us get our baggage, escorted us to the rental car station, and gave us directions to Give Kids the World.  AMAZING!!!

We arrived at the village and we were greeted at check in with gifts for each of our kids!  Here is David getting a mickey at arrival.  While we waited for our villa to be ready, we went and had lunch at the resort.  All of our meals are covered here at the village-amazing!!

Then we were escorted to our own villa!  It is two bedrooms and two baths and it is beautiful!!!  Here we are by our Welcome Home Robinson sign:)  This picture is so precious to me because we were all so excited for our adventure to begin. 

Inside our Villa the gift fairy had already been here and left gifts for our kids.  Apparently the fairy comes every. single. day. here. 

Our first stop was Gatorland in Kissimmee.  We have complimentary tickets to tons of area attractions and with David's obsession with Swamp People and Gator Boys, we knew we had to hit this attraction.  It did not disappoint!  He loved it!

The alligator wrestling show was so awesome that David....

wanted to wrestle a gator!!!  He posed with this tame yet real alligator! We were shocked that he did it!! 

David did not want to wear the snake or hold the baby gator, but he did want to pose with it!  This is our sassy boy!

The gator feeding show was another hit for our family!  Here are alligators jumping for raw chickens. 

I am too tired to blog tonight about this special and amazing village.  I will do more later, but just know that this resort is only for wish kids and their families.  It is amazingly run by volunteers, and there is enough to keep us busy here for a week!  I have teared up many many times already today. This place is awesome. 

Tonight was the Winter Wonderland party with Santa!  There were games, gingerbread house making, a parade, pictures with Santa, and a dance party on the main avenue here at the resort.  It actually "snowed" here tonight during the dance party.  This place is all about making magical memories!! 

This boy has already had a lifetime of fun in just this one little day!  After your visit and picture with Santa, you got to visit the gift shack!

All three of my children got to pick out a new toy for christmas!!! 

 

One of my childhood family friends, Meg,  lives here in Florida.  Today I sent her a random facebook message inviting her to come hang out with us in the village.  She came over and we had the best time!  David of course loved her and it was so good to catch up with her.  She is a genuine person who has a huge heart!  David did not want her to leave us tonight!  Thanks Meg for taking time to come hang out with us!! 

 

My lack of sleep is catching up to me but just know that our hearts are full here and that we are having a blast!  We are so thankful and blessed for this time together.  Today was only day one and I already have a lifetime of memories in my heart.  Wow. 

Disney Send Off Party!

It is hard to believe that a little under two years after David's initial diagnosis and hearing the term Make-A-wish in reference to our son, it is finally happening!!! We are a few days away from our big trip to Disney and we are over the moon excited. It is a super busy time in our household packing, cleaning, lesson planning, kids homework that they will miss, errands, and more packing! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!

To add to the excitement, our amazing Make-a-Wish volunteers helped us organize a send off party this past Sunday. It was so emotional, fun, precious, and awesome all wrapped up in one big emotion.

Of course the party had to be Disney style to go along with our trip! We had Mickey cupcakes, tons of pizza, David's favorite of oatmeal creme pies, popcorn, and drinks. Those are all David's favorite foods:)

This picture makes me smile because we were blessed with family friends that came to help us celebrate. These friends have been there with us through the whole ordeal-they have prayed for us, made many trips to UVA to visit with us, housed Kyle, kept Hope, and now helped us celebrate this dream vacation for our family. We are a blessed household to have these friends by our side.

Here is David receiving his shirt, button, and backpack from the Make-A-Wish volunteer. He was SO EXCITED!!

This is the packet that has all of our travel information in it. We were so excited and chucked when we saw that the limo will be picking us up for the airport in the middle of the night. Seriously. It is going to be something!

At the party each of my kids got a present and even GG and myself got a special necklace. It was so sweet and of course this Donald has been with Hope since David got it.

Here is our family with our amazing volunteers. We are so overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving that after the nightmare our family has endured that we get to set aside a week and just play and be together making memories. I could cry right now thinking about how blessed we are because of Make-A-Wish and Disney. We have learned throught he nightmare that memories and experiences trump stuff and money anyday and this trip will be such special family time for us all.

I know that several people have wondered if David's prognosis has changed and that is why he is getting to go on a wish trip. Amazingly there are certain diagnosis that automatically get to make a wish and cancer is one of them. He is still cancer-free as of now and we pray that he will remain with us for a very long time. Make-A-Wish is so amazing that your participation in their wish program is based on diagnosis instead of prognosis. They do have the ability to pull a wish together very quickly (in under 48 hours) if a child's medical status changes, however, we have waited over a year for our turn for this wish. We are so grateful for this family time together and look forward to the people we will meet, the adventures we will have, and the memories we will make together as a family! Watch out Disney, David Rock Star Robinson is on the way!!!