Make-A-Wish Trip - Day 1

October 26, 2009

3:00 AM

Eric and I rolled out of bed, and I stumbled into the shower. Not a second after the bathroom door clicked shut, Alex came bounding out of his room.

"We're going to Disney World!" he announced to the world. He had obviously slept about as much as we had. Eric and I joked that we were the people from this Disney commercial.

The limousine arrived at exactly 3:30. Alex helped load all of the luggage into our ride, and we headed to the airport. Now, I wish we had taken a picture of it, but I think we were all only semi-conscious at that point.

No car seats were required, and Alex *really* enjoyed riding "like a big boy", while Tessa-Lynn was buckled with me sitting on my lap.

I talked to my Mom and Bob on the phone once we were on our way - it turned out the only other car on the road at that time of the morning was their shuttle to the airport.

When we arrived, one of our wonderful Make-A-Wish Fairies was waiting for us. We got our luggage checked in, and managed to get through security with everything and everyone.

The plane was on time for a 6am departure, and with me between the kids, and Eric across the aisle, and two Grandparents behind us, we were off on Alex's trip!

The plane we were on had TV screens in each seat, and my brilliant husband brought a 3 way splitter for ear phones, which meant we only had to pay for one of the TV's (as long as we agreed on the show...).

The ride was pretty uneventful, until about 1/2 hour out of Houston, TX. The plane was hitting quite a bit of turbulence, and I started regretting not taking a Dramamine pill before we left. Alex was fine. Tessa, bless her heart, waited until she was buckled into her seat and we were starting our decent before she decided to upchuck about 16 ounces of full fat milk. GROSS - that's all I have to say about it. GROSS. Did you know that dry coffee grounds really help eliminate the smell? It works - trust me.

When we landed, we had only one hour before our next fight took off. We grabbed our stuff, put Tessa - clothed only in a diaper, in the stroller and headed for the next gate - halfway across the airport.

Now, I had prepared by having a change of clothes for Tessa in our diaper bag, which made it easy for Tessa to get changed all nice and pretty once we were in the airport. Her CARES seat belt harness, not so much. My mom and I spent a while trying to get it clean enough, and dry enough for the second leg of our flight.

After scrambling to get to the next gate, we were informed that it was going to be an hour late.

OK, not so bad...

Then, oops, now the flight is 2 hours late.

OK, not the end of the world...

Then, this airplane is grounded, we are shuffling you off to a new gate - back near where our first plane landed.

OK, at least they aren't putting us on an unsafe airplane...

Then, the plane was coming in from London, and needed to be refueled, cleaned, restocked, and checked before the next flight.

OK, at least we still have our seat assignments...

Then, with 10 minutes before we are to board: "everyone please approach the desk for new seat assignments"

OK, at least they will put us all together on this bigger plane...

Then, daughter Tessa is sitting in seat 9A, son Alex is sitting in seat 20B, Eric is sitting in 21C, Sara is sitting in 20F, and Grandma and Grandpa are separated as well.

OK, THAT'S IT! REALLY?!?!?!

The ticket agent tells Eric who is trying to explain that Tessa-Lynn and Alex are minors, and will NOT be sitting by themselves - "SIR, I did the best I could" - and actually dismissed him.

Then, it was time to board the plane. As we went down the ramp, I was just about in tears with frustration over this - our child is on his "Make-A-Wish" trip, and he won't even be sitting with us on the plane? Well, the people on board the plane must have been from the planet "we love our customers", because they sat us all together - to hell with the seat assignments.

After 3 hours of delays, we finally got ready to make it to Orlando. Eric's Mom, Carol was meeting us there, and we left her messages to alert her to our delay. Eric took the first shift with the kids, and I got to sit by myself. Sweet bliss - I looked at my phone as I turned it off, and noticed that we should be pulling away from the gate in about 5 minutes. Hmmm, the plane was only half full. That's OK, it was a much bigger plane. I think I'll close my eyes for a minute...

DING, DING: "Attention passengers, the maintenance crew has found a problem on the plane, and will need an hour to fix the issue. We have stopped boarding at this time. If the delay is longer, we will let you know."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Eric and I pondered unstrapping Alex and Tessa and letting them run wild in the fuselage out of spite for our predicament. Our love of our fellow man, and the fact that we would be stuck in a tin can with these people for hours showed us the light. The kids stayed put.

The hour slowly passed and finally a trickle and then a flood of people entered the airplane. Not a single seat was empty by take off.

The flight itself was uneventful, until Tessa decided that she wanted to improve upon her performance on the way to Houston. She blew out her diaper about halfway through the flight. At this point, I only had a change of clothes for Alex. So Tessa changed into her brothers pajama top, and his jeans.

We arrived in Orlando at 8:30 at night (5:30pm Pacific Time), and were met by a nice woman from Give Kids The World, and Carol, who had been waiting for hours! We got luggage carts, and headed down to baggage claim. We were traveling with another Wish Family from Oregon, who was also staying at Give Kids The World. We were all exhausted, and ready to begin our adventures.

AVIS upgraded us to a Mini Van, and the grandparents rented a car. We drove to Give Kids The World, and entered a wonderland.

Our first stop was the House of Hearts. We were greeted by warm volunteers, who gave Alex a big Mickey Mouse doll, and Tessa-Lynn a Shamu the Whale doll. Paperwork was minimal, and were were shuttled to our Villa. The picture below was taken once we finally arrived at around 9:30pm (6:30pm Pacific Time).

Give Kids The World was aware of our delay, and had dinner delivered to our Villa soon after we arrived. The food was great, and the Villa was charming. There was a big basket of gifts for Alex and Tessa on the coffee table, and Alex did not wait to tear into it. It was the first of daily "gifts" left by the Gift Givers that roam Give Kids The World (GKTW)

As we were getting ready for bed, Grandma Diana noticed that Grandpa Bob's suitcase was full of golf shoes. Perplexed, she had Bob look over his bag, and determined that OOPS! It wasn't his bag. After taking a few minutes to decipher how to dial out, and what Continental Airline number to call, we were informed that Bob's bag was still at the airport. Eric and Bob took a drive back to the airport to retrieve his bag.

Once we were all back together at the Villa, we all tried to get some sleep, knowing in the morning, Alex's Wish really started to come true. Eric and I slept in one room with the kids, and Grandma Diana and Grandpa Bob slept in the other bedroom. Grandma Carol slept in the living room on the pull out couch (which she decided not to pull out).

Next: Day 2 - Disney's Magic Kingdom, and the wonders of Give Kids The World.