Dreams do come true....Spiderman

Thanksgiving has come and gone and so has Ian's wish to meet Spiderman. Over Thanksgiving week, Ian's wish was granted....and what a wonderful week it was. Give Kids the World Village was our home for the week. Arriving at the Village was amazing. We were greeted my more volunteers. The kids were given a stuffed Mickey Mouse, which was just the beginning of the gifts they would be given. Each day a new gift would appear in our villa. The villas were amazing, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. The kids room and bathroom were bigger and better then the adults. After all the village is for the kids. The first day, we just hung out at the village, went to Matthew's Boundless Playground...completely handicap accessible and designed as a Candyland board. We were given 3 day hopper passes to Walt Disney World, 2 day hopper passes to Universal Studio/Island of Adventures and a day pass to Sea World. Every day at the village was a special day from character meet and greets to horseback riding to Christmas. There is an Ice Cream Palace which is open from 7:30am till 9:30pm...yes the kids did have ice cream for breakfast. One morning Becca even had a banana split.

Being at the parks was incredible, Ian was given a button, which he had to wear it everyday along with Brian and I being given a badge to wear every day as well. Between Ian's button and our badge, we never had to wait for a thing. From rides to meeting characters, all we had to do was go to the exit and show them either one and up to the front of the line we went. Staff members would see the button on Ian and stop to talk with him and Becca. 

Our Spiderman day, Wednesday, topped it all. When we arrived at Islands of Adventure, we went to the Spiderman ride. We had some time so Brian and Becca went on it, Becca was the ride girl, she loved them all. Spiderman and 5 other super heroes have a show 4-5 times a day. They come out on ATV's,waving to the crowd. After the ride, they do a public meet and greet for about 15 minutes. During this time, the 4 of us were escorted to the spot for our private meet and greet, not only Spiderman but the other 5 super heroes as well. Ian could not wait, Becca was pacing back and forth and reporting back to Ian if she saw them coming or not....well the smile on his face once she reported they were coming was just the beginning of the priceless experience. To this day, I am still not sure I remember it all. They came riding back on their ATV's waving at Ian....Spiderman was the last one to arrive...once he was off of his ATV, he did not leave Ian's side. He was down at Ian's level, talking to him, signing his autograph book, his "spiderman" AFO's as well as his stuffed Spiderman we had purchased just for this occasion. The 15 minutes seemed to stand still while at the same time it flew bye...Ian still talks about it. In fact once we were home, we were visiting my parents and Ian was telling them about it...he looks at my father and said: Pop, I just realized that it was Peter Parker in that spiderman suit."

For Becca, the best part of the trip was meeting all the princesses and the fairies. Oh and all the rides. She also enjoyed the swimming and everything that came along with the whole wish trip.

The rest of the trip was incredible...every Thursday at the village is Christmas...yes we did participate. Everyone was there, from Mrs. Claus to Santa Claus to the Christmas Princess. They even made is snow. Another special thing they do for the kids, each wish child is given a star. After the wish child writes on their star and it is placed on the ceiling of the Castle of Miracles, a letter appears in the villa letting the family know the location of the star. It was incredible to see his star on the ceiling along with all of the other wish children who have come before him....their starts will be on the ceiling until the building comes down. Anytime we go back for a visit, Ian's star will be one of the many things we visit. Yes the tears came when we saw it.

I could continue to go on about our wish trip; while the wish is for the child, it is for the family...we were all made to feel special. There are not enough words to thank Make a Wish and Give Kids the World for all of the wonderful work they do....I know our family will always have a very special place in our hearts for them and will go out of our way to do for them as they did for us....
http://midatlantic.wish.org/
http://www.gktw.org/aboutUs.asp?a=1