Help Make Wishes Come True . . . Season of Wishes SPA

As a Wish mom I can attest to how being granted a Wish by Make-A-Wish impacts not only the Wish child, but their whole family.  When my daughter was 8, she caught an E.coli bug.  She came out of the hospital in kidney failure.  She was on dialysis for 9 months before she had the life giving gift of a kidney transplant.  My daughter was granted a wish by Make-A-Wish Midsouth.  When we first talked to my daughter about what she might wish for, it was neat to see her thought process and her discussions with her sisters about it.  Her first thought was Hawaii, and I thought, now that would be a great wish.  She then talked about a couple of other places ~and her sisters gave her input of course~ but we made it clear that this was her wish and she needed to wish for what she wanted.  She chose to go to Disney World.  We then had the choice of whether to go before or after her transplant.  We chose to go after because while she was on dialysis, she was weak.  Her doctor compared having kidney failure to having the flu.  She also went to dialysis 3 times a week, so that would limit our time at Disney.  What I thought was so neat though, was that Make-A-Wish had the ability to even take care of that detail for a sick child.  We found that having a pediatric dialysis unit so close to us at Le Bonheur was truly a blessing.

Her wish was granted by a local middle school.  They have a fundraiser every year that the students participate in.  Since we homeschool, we told the girls that we were going to tour a school that they might go to someday.  As the girls got their “tour” every stop had a Disney theme.  Our last stop was the lunchroom.  Inside were hundreds of students and they shouted to my daughter as she entered that she was going to Disney.  The look on my daughter’s face was one I would never forget.  Liz Nelson then took to the stage and announced that this school was funding my daughter’s wish.  They had gifts for each of my girls.  My youngest went up and down the rows of students showing off her swag.  The students just ate it up.  I will never forget all the kids that came up to my daughter and wished her well and hugged her.  She was hugged by boys and girls, both black and white.  It didn’t matter.  She even got up on stage and said a few words of thanks.  It truly gave me hope for our future, seeing all of those students and how they embraced my family.

While my daughter was on dialysis and during the transplant process, my daughter had the trip to Disney to look forward to.  Dialysis was so hard.  She was so frail.  She was so brave.  I am so grateful for all of the prayers and love that we received during this hard time for our family.  We wouldn’t have made it without our friends and family which included the dear people from Make-A-Wish.

Our magical trip started as we pulled into the parking lot outside the Memphis Airport.  This detail was even taken care of for us.  After we parked the van, we rode the shuttle to the airport.  A Wish volunteer met us and helped us get through security.  After he put us on the plane, we were on our way.  This was the first time that my girls had ever flown.  We were met by another Make-A-Wish volunteer in Orlando who helped us get our bags and took us to where we picked up our rental van.  With directions to Give Kids the World, ~which is the resort that specifically serves sick kids from several different organizations like Make-A-Wish~ we navigated thru Orlando traffic and found Give Kids the World Village.  Talk about a magical place.  My kids could have just hung out there and not even gone to Disney and it would have been a great vacation.  We were driven to our duplex in a golf cart.  After settling into our duplex, we went to discover the resort.  We went fishing, rode the train, and checked out the arcade.  They have a great pool, but because there were thunderstorms around we couldn't swim.  The first night, we went to the Pirates and Princess Party.  My youngest will tell you that she is a real princess because she was crowned at that event.  My girls danced with Shamu in the onsite theatre.  Everything at Give Kids the World Village is free.  They will even deliver pizza to your duplex and you can have ice cream anytime you want, even for breakfast.  My girls rode ponies one morning, had their pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie who brought along some of their buddies, Goofy and Mary Poppins.  My daughter even has a special Mickey stuffed doll that is signed by Mickey.  Every day when we got back from one of the parks, the wish fairy had been to our duplex and left gifts.  We had to buy a suitcase on the last night just to get all of our goodies back to Memphis with us.

We had four days of passes for Disney, two day passes for Universal Kingdom and tickets for Sea World.  We also went to a water park one afternoon.  While at the parks, we had special parking and express passes.  No waiting in line at Disney.  All we had to do was go in the Express Pass line.  Everywhere we went, my kids were treated like royalty.  They got to be a part of the show at The Lion King Show at Animal Kingdom.  Make-A-Wish even supplied us with a gift card so that we could get the girls souvenirs and we wouldn’t have to spend our own money for food inside the parks.  This was a trip that my family will never forget.  My youngest wants to go back to Disney.  The problem is that there is no way that we could top what we experienced on our Wish trip.

It is for this reason that I am having an on-line Season of Wishes Spa.  Every year, Make-A-Wish MidSouth raises money to grant sick kids’ wishes with their Season of Wishes campaign.  Not only does Make-A-Wish MidSouth grant wishes for local kids, they grant wishes for sick kids from around the world because of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.   Last year, Make-A-Wish MidSouth granted 242 wishes.

20% of all the sales from the Season of Wishes Spa will go to the Make-A-Wish MidSouth Season of Wishes campaign PLUS proceeds from the Season of Wishes Gift Bags will be donated as well.  We will also have daily specials on luxurious spa and anti-aging treatments.  There will be door prizes, too!  To shop, just go to my Beautipage and 20% of all orders thru December 12, 2014 from my website will go to Make-A-Wish Midsouth.

To join the fun on FaceBook, just click here.

Please spread the word so that we can make Wishes come true!