The absolute miracle of watching my kids enjoy this trip together would not have been possible without Make-A-Wish. All the special moments, the love and attention from the employees at Disney, the visits from Make-A-Wish volunteers, the opportunity for the kids to hope and plan together - the value cannot be overstated. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for the most magical experience in the world. I don't know how we would have gotten the kids through the last five years without it.
Lucy's mom
Lucy was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was just a baby - 18 months old. Right away, they told us treatment would last roughly three years and that seemed unfathomable; how could we possibly keep this family going for three years of pain? The answer was that we couldn't, at least not alone. We needed the help and support and prayers of so many people to sustain us. Finding out Lucy would be eligible for Make-A-Wish came at a time when morale was very low, and it was the perfect bit of news to give the kids the strength to carry forward. The kids all talked about her wish, and taking a trip, and how fun it would be, and how that would be the perfect ending to her treatment, and on and on. It was wonderful to see something bring them joy when we felt we had only been handing out bad news for so long. Lucy's Wish was so much more than the actual experience - it was hope and excitement and the promise of a future the kids would enjoy together.
Lucy LOVES princesses, especially Sleeping Beauty and Elsa. When she was old enough to talk about what she might want to do, she talked about meeting the princesses and seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle, which led us to Disneyland. Disney movies, in particular the princess ones, were the constant background noise in our home and hospital rooms. I think most of the members of our household can still sing at least one song from each movie all the way through. Hearing those same songs at Disneyland as the kids played and Lucy was fully healthy was incredible.
The kids would probably name the rides as the best part (although George LOVED having a 'man-cave' room at the hotel). Lucy is a roller coaster daredevil and rode Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Rise of the Resistance, Goofy's Sky School, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad over and over again.
As parents, our favorite part was watching the kids be happy. There was a moment in particular when Chewbacca and Rey were meeting with the kids and spending so much time just learning about Lucy one on one. It wasn't a planned meeting, and the characters are always getting mobbed. I looked behind us at one point and saw that several Disney employees were lined up, turning guests away so the kids could be alone with Rey and Chewy. There was something about that visual - of so many people we didn't know protecting and sheltering their childhood - that was so moving. At the time, I was too emotional to see it, but that moment represented so much we weren't able to do for them when she was sick. We had so many tough, ugly conversations that no child should ever need to have and we couldn't shelter them from reality; it wouldn't have been fair or even possible - but at Disney, they got to just be kids.
Lucy's Wish was so valuable to us in keeping the kids focused on the end of the road instead of the boulders in our way. They spent years talking and planning and wishing and it was so incredible to see them finally take that trip. It helped it really feel 'over' to them. Planning for the trip, and actually going, was a huge bonding experience for all three kids. I really didn't realize how much they needed that until it was happening. Because of the kids' age and the pandemic, when Lucy was in the hospital it usually meant she wasn't going to see her brothers or whichever parent had stayed home with them until she got out. Her treatment meant a lot of time living as two separate families; time that robbed the kids of a lot of sibling moments - but when they talked about the trip, they were always together. They had so much fun finally going and doing it all. Any time they were allowed to sit together on a ride, they did it - always with Lucy sandwiched between "the brudders" as she calls them.
All of it was so healing; both for them as siblings as for us as parents. I can't imagine a better way to finally close that chapter of our lives.
