**Be sure to check out the slide shows below!**
Back in July Luella made a wish and during the middle of October that wish came true. Make-A-Wish Minnesota granted Luella her wish to meet Belle! Our family left for Florida VERY early in the morning on October 15th. We had been counting down the days for a month and now the day was finally here. Everyone was ready to GO!
We stayed at an amazing place called Give Kids the World Village (GKTW) - a place especially made for Wish families. It was spectacular! GKTW really knew how to make our entire family feel special. When you have a child that has special needs it’s easy to get wrapped up in the daily grind. At GKTW we were able to really enjoy our time as a family and to not let the worries we often deal with get in the way.
One night at the village it was Christmas and after our turkey dinner the kids got to meet Santa and they each picked out their own Christmas gift! It even “snowed” in Florida! One of the kids’ most favorite things at GKTW was the Ice Cream Palace which was open from 7:30am - 9:30pm!! You could have all the ice cream you wanted anytime of the day for free! They were excited to get ice cream for breakfast one day and we all had ice cream for lunch once too!
Luella’s wish to meet Belle was granted on Saturday (October 18th). Luella met Belle in the Disney Wish Lounge and got to spend about 30 minutes with her. At first Luella was a little surprised to see Belle in her blue dress since she prefers her in her yellow dress, but she got past that quickly and thoroughly enjoyed her time with Belle. Belle read to Luella, they colored, visited and played and had a terrific time together!! There were many hugs and even a kiss on the cheek! When Luella’s time with Belle was over Belle left and a Disney employee came in and said that Belle would like to see Luella again later in the afternoon. She told us to be near the Guest Relations building during the afternoon parade and someone would come and find us after the parade to take us to Belle. We watched the parade and when Belle’s float came around she spotted Luella and waved and blew her a couple kisses! After the parade we were escorted to a private room where Belle (wearing her YELLOW dress) AND Queen Elsa were waiting!! Belle asked Elsa to join her because Luella’s sister (Ashlyn) was dressed as Elsa for the day and feeling a little left out. It was such a special time!
The girls got to spend about 15 minutes with their princesses! Luella had fun comparing her own little Belle dress to Belle’s REAL yellow dress. Belle has heart of gold and it was so incredible to see Luella’s Wish come true! Thank you so much to Belle, Elsa and the rest of the Disney staff that made our visit so special. They went above and beyond for Luella (and our entire family).
We had so many wonderful opportunities while we were in Florida! We would have had to stay there a month to do everything that was offered to us! We had to plan out our days and decide what was most important to do. We were able to spend three days in the Disney parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios), one day at Universal Studios, part of a day at Sea World and the rest of that day visiting the ocean at Cocoa Beach! It was a whirlwind of activity! It was long days and lots of excitement and activity and Luella did terrific!! I would have been extremely nervous letting Luella onto some of the rides she did before adding this latest medication. It has offered her freedom to do some of the fun things that would have normally triggered a seizure. We discovered that Luella LOVES roller coasters! She has no fear. She even did the roller coaster on Space Mountain!! After going on that one I would NOT let her do it again but she loved it! She got off that ride smiling and saying that was “super fast”! This momma said, “Yikes!”
Luella did have one seizure while we were in Florida. It happened on Sunday at Universal. That seizure was rather intense as it happened just after she fell asleep in her stroller and it took three doses of her rescue meds to stop. I should have had her buckled in. At the start of the seizure she fell out of the stroller and split her lip. :-( We were in the Harry Potter area at Universal and it was pretty busy. We moved off to the side to take care of Luella and a group of employees kind of formed a wall around us to give us some privacy and I’m sure to shield what was happening from the visitors as well. An EMT from Universal escorted us to a back alley area where Luella’s seizure finally stopped. An ambulance had already been called but since we felt Luella was stable at that time we declined services and got her situated in her stroller to sleep. She slept for about 3 ½ hours while we continued to explore Universal. She woke up smiling and laughing and was ready for more rides!
In addition to meeting Belle, Luella’s other favorite part of the trip was swimming in the ocean. She loved jumping in the waves and had fun playing in the sand! It was so amazing to seeing her enjoying her time swimming! She got to swim once at GKTW also! So incredible!
To wrap up our incredible week, the last day was Luella's 5th birthday!! She had a terrific time getting spoiled at GKTW before we headed home!
The whole trip was just magical! It was a blessing to our family and we will forever be grateful to Make-A-Wish for making Luella’s wish come true!
Photo Slide Show - All Things Belle
https://picasaweb.google.com/105439888189691194175/LuellaSWishAllThingsBELLEOctober2014?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Photo Slide Show - Make-A-Wish Trip
https://picasaweb.google.com/105439888189691194175/LuellaSWishOctober2014?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Additional photos of our whole family enjoying Luella's Make-A-Wish trip can be viewed here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/105439888189691194175/MakeAWishTrip?authuser=0&feat=directlink
