We finally connected with Make-A-Wish shortly before Christmas. The initial phone call was interesting, to say the least.
They wanted to know some basics, like Babygirl's age and diagnosis, and how many people would be involved in the Wish. They wanted to know if she is aware of her diagnosis (well, it's tough to keep it a secret when we have to hook her to a machine all night every night, but I understand why they are asking). And then the heart-stopper: "Is this a Final Wish?"
I'm really stunned by the number of times I've been completely blindsided by a question, a piece of information, or a random thought. I keep thinking there can't be anything left that will leave me breathless, speachless. But there always, always is.
"No. We have time." At least, I hope we do.
Last night the Wishmakers arrived at our house with a lovely package for Babygirl - Valentines socks, pencils, journal and erasers. One of them went off with Babygirl to explore with her what she might Wish for. She had four questions. "What do you Wish to be? Where do you Wish to go? What do you Wish to have? Who do you Wish to meet?"
She really doesn't have an answer for the first question. For the second, she has an entire list! She wants to go to France, see the Eiffel Tower and EuroDisney and the Riviera. If she can't do that, London. If not that, California, to see the redwoods, visit cousins and maybe hit Disney. If we do that I'm suggesting an RV rental since we love camping and it would allow us to tote her dialysis machine with us. The third question: a horse. The forth? Selena Gomez or Josh Groban. (Too bad it wasn't Adam Sandler, we hear he does awesome Wishes!).
They asked her to narrow it down to one Travel Wish and one other Wish. So - Paris (or California if the docs won't let her go overseas) or the horse. Yikes. Um, we live in a city. Yeah, despite that, it's doable.
While Babygirl was off discussing her Wishes, the other Wishmaker was working with us. The Wish includes ALL travel. They come, takes us to the airport, and so on. They asked if we needed luggage. They asked if we needed a camera! LOL! Hubby and I really did laugh - we have some really terrible camera karma, so yeah, we DO as a matter of fact need a camera. Do we need a full kitchen? What can she eat? They'll take care of it all. They will handle passport acquisition, if needed.
I was impressed by how comprehensive the program is, and appalled by how many kids in our area Make-A-Wish serves. They told us that they average 6 referrals a week for our 13 county section of the state. All but two of those counties have no towns of more than a few thousand, and in most, people are outnumbered by dairy cows. Sadly, we are in good company.
They will contact the doctors, discuss the Wishes with the program directors, and get back to us.
DeeDee
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