A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Last week in Florida, all of Peter's most cherished dreams came true -- including the ones he didn't even know he was dreaming. 

There is no way we ever adequately thank the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the amazing staff and volunteers at the "Give Kids the World" village in Kissimmee, Florida.  We will never forget the hundreds of "cast members" and fellow visitors at each park who stopped to say hi, give Peter a high-five, and wish us a wonderful day.

Remember Cinderella's song, brought to life many years ago through the magic of Disney?

What do you say when your diabetic son begs for
cotton candy on his Make-a-Wish trip? "Of
COURSE you can!" and "God bless insulin."

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep.
In dreams you will lose your heartaches.
Whatever you wish for you keep.

Have faith in your dreams and some day,
Your rainbow will come smiling through.
No matter how your heart is grieving,
If you keep on believing,
The dream that you wish will come true.

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're feeling small.
Alone in the night you whisper
Thinking no one can hear you at all.

You wake with the morning sunlight
To find fortune is smiling on you.
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow.
For all you know tomorrow
The dream that you wish will come true.

When you can dream, then you can start.
A dream is a wish you make with your heart.

It will take me a while to put together a slide show that adequately conveys everything Peter, Leo, Annie and I experienced on Peter's "Wish Trip".  We walked in joy and were wrapped in love, every moment of every day.  We did everything Peter wanted to do, and he came home healthy and happy.

As many of you know, waiting in line for a ride at one of the Orlando parks can take an hour or more, and often the ride is only 2 or 3 minutes long.  With our Make-a-Wish t-shirts and buttons, we didn't have to wait in any lines.  When Peter said, "I wanna go again!" we could ... and did.

The most special part of Peter's wish was the chance to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure.  I can't begin to describe how just how astonishing TWWHP is for a first-time visitor.  You are THERE, on Hogsmeade, drinking butter beer (yummy!)  You are THERE, inside Hogwarts, with virtual-reality characters like Dumbledore shimmering in front of you, looking and sounding so real that you can practically smell them.  The paintings on the wall talk to each other.  Every detail is true, and crafted with exquisite care.  The "Forbidden Journey" ride (the most technological advanced virtual reality experience ever created) is more thrilling than the fanciest, scariest roller coaster.  You are swooping through the air being chased by Death Eaters, then diving among the turrets of Hogwarts to evade them, then following Harry at lightning speed as he goes head-to-head with Draco Malfoy on the Quidditch pitch, and it is REAL.  You don't just see and hear it, you FEEL it as your body is tossed about in perfect synchronicity.  I screamed so much in terror and delight that I am still hoarse almost a week later.

I had a special wish for our visit to TWWHP that Peter didn't know about.  On Hogsmeade, groups of 20 are ushered into Ollivander's Wand Shop to experience "a wand finding its wizard".  Lines are long, but we were able to join a group only 5 minutes after we arrived in front of the shop.  Once inside, we were asked to stand a little to the right of the rest of our group.  The shopkeeper went about his preparatory mumblings and putterings and greetings and then looked at Peter.  "You, boy -- come here."  And so it came to pass that Peter, who has memorized every moment of every Harry Potter movie, became the young wizard whose wand would, in a few magical minutes, find him.  I stood in the corner with smiles and tears watching him performing the shopkeeper's instructions, including casting the "Wingardium Leviosa" spell ... and seeing something happen.

The Wand Finds the Wizard at Ollivander's on Hogsmeade

You can see for yourself how much this meant to him.  And if it makes you shed a little tear, consider it an unexpected gift from Make-a-Wish to you, courtesy of my very special boy.

Hand me a beer

Peter will have a pain-free "Wish", and chances are he'll be home safe on the 11th. 

I finally found a hospital -- a good 40 miles away from the "Give Kids the World" Village -- that would accept our Illinois Public Aid.  It has a well-regarded pediatric bone marrow transplant center, headed by a talented doctor with particular interest and experience in genetic bone marrow failure disorders.  Unfortunately, the doctor wanted to see and examine Peter before giving him platelets. So the proposal was that we spend most of Wednesday driving to and from the hospital for the doctor visit, and most of Thursday getting the platelets.  Um, no.

At this point I went back to my park-touring plans and reviewed every single thrill ride.  There were more than I remembered in the "virtual reality" category -- your chair throws you around a little while 3-d video makes you feel like you're hurtling through space.  I visited a few sites to figure out exactly what kind of movement would be the most dangerous for Peter and learned that any kind of g-forces (rapid acceleration and deceleration) were by far the worst.  Then I Googled "Orlando rides g-forces"  and sure enough, up came a list of the major thrill rides at each park with an estimate of the g-forces exerted on riders.  That made it easy to figure out which rides had to be "off the table".

In the course of hopping around the web I also discovered that there is a YouTube video (or three or four or 50) of EVERY SINGLE RIDE at EVERY SINGLE PARK in Orlando.  For rides that were on my "maybe" list, I watched the videos from start to finish to get a sense of the motion.  I also found a couple of ride review sites which rated the "scariness" of the rides.  Half of the "maybes" turned out to be just fine (or at least no more risk than riding a bike or having a football thrown at you, as Peter did this afternoon).  A couple of others had to be moved to the "no fly" list.  The remaining "maybes" are a little more vigorous than some might choose for a kid with low platelets, but they do not have substantial g-forces.

Then I went to Peter -- with a little support from Leo and Annie -- and told him that I had good news.  "Guess what!! You're not going to have to go into the hospital on Sunday for platelets, and you won't have to go when we're at Disney, either!"  (Peter: "YESSSS!!!")  "The doctor says you don't have to have anything at all as long as you stay off the really big scary rides.  (Peter: "Awww!! It's not fair!")  "Well, OK, if that's really important to you, we can go ahead and put you in the hospital twice.  It's your choice!"  (Annie and Leo: "Hey, WE'RE not going on those rides ... you'd have to go all by yourself anyway.")  (Peter: "hmmmm ... [pause] ..... YAAAYYY!!!!  No platelets!!!")

It's a beautiful thing.

Tomorrow at this time we will be all moved into our two-story villa at "Give Kids the World", with our rental van in the driveway.  We may be sitting by the pool with our legs in the water, watching the evening extravaganza.  Or we might be getting ice cream at the "whenever you want it" ice cream parlor.  Then again, Peter may be hanging out by the monster train layout with all sorts of buttons to push to control the trains, or sitting at the end of the dock fooling around with radio control boats.  He might be fishing at the pond where someone will bait his hook for him and make sure he actually catches something.  But probably not.  My guess is he'll be in the computer/ videogame/ arcade area, playing Wii for all he's worth.  And Leo and Annie?  They will probably have filled the fridge with cold beer, so we can sit on our front porch in our rocking chairs with a cold beverage.

Florence of Arabia and her trusty steed

This is NOT the hat and poncho
I will be wearing in Florida!

The limo comes at 6 tomorrow.  They send a "stretch", because it thrills the wish kid, who gets to sit up front with the driver.  Everything is paid for.  We have a debit card from Make-a-Wish with enough cash on it for all of our meals, souvenirs and incidentals. The bags are packed.  The kids are psyched.  Yeah, I guess I am too.  I never imagined in a million years that we would be a Make-a-Wish family.  It was something that happened to other kids in other families.  I'd give it up in a heartbeat if it would bring back the 95% of Peter's bone marrow that's gone.  But, since that isn't an option, we are going to have a BLAST.

It's supposed to be stormy most of the week in Florida, but I went out to Wal-Mart and got (for $5 each) some colorful ponchos to keep us dry in the rain -- AND when Shamu uses his tail to soak the audience at Seaworld.  The same ponchos go for $20 in Orlando.  I have an enormous quantity of sunscreen and my "Florence of Arabia" hat, which protected me so well in the Peruvian Andes this July.  The kids claim that they will all be wearing paper bags over their heads saying "we don't know that dorky lady".  Don't care don't care don't care.  I'VE got the debit card!

More from Florida ...
Chris