Hello friends – it’s been a while since I’ve had a moment to write like this. As many of you may know, my life was upended when I birthed my little baby boy, Winston. We found out mid-pregnancy that he had several congenital heart defects and if he didn’t have surgery after he was born, he would not live very long.
That entire ordeal is another story for another day, today I wanted to share our Make-A-Wish journey. When we were planning, I found it difficult to find recent information specifically about the MAW trip to Florida. Thankfully, I found some great videos on TikTok to give us a sense of what we were about to experience. But before we get to that sunny destination, let’s start at the top.
After Winston had his Fontan procedure, our cardiac surgical nurse wanted to refer us to Make-A-Wish. At first we declined – we told her that while we were so grateful for the consideration, we wouldn’t want to take a wish away from someone who needed it more. She clarified that Make-A-Wish was not only for terminally ill children, but also for children who were battling critical illnesses – and, congenital heart defects going down the Fontan pathway was considered one. She respected our wishes and told us to sleep on it – that we could always revisit the request at a later time.
For a few years, we had it in the back of our minds, but we were also starting to prep Winston for Kindergarten – which took up a lot of our time and energy, but at our yearly cardiology appointment, we spoke to our nurse and she and our cardiologist happily put in the referral for us.
It all happened fairly quickly, our wish coordinator reached out to us via email and we spoke a few times on the phone and through video call (as we were still in the waning COVID times at that point).
We filled out a form that gave her a better sense of who Winston is as a person, but also how we were as a family. She wanted to talk to Winston directly and asked him what he truly wanted, so we had a video call where Winston enthusiastically said he wanted to ride a “space train”- which we had to explain as a combination of two loves: space and trains. Our wish coordinator helped guide us to what would later turn out to be the official wish – a vacation for our family to visit NASA and riding the train at the Magic Kingdom at DisneyWorld.
Before we got to that point, it was almost another year that passed – as we were unsure about the long trip (Winston’s never been on an airplane at that point) and whether it might make more sense for us to go to California instead. The problem with going to California was it would be Disney but not NASA and, at the time Disneyland had to put a temporary pause on fulfilling wishes (they would not open up again until the following February of the next year).
So during this time, we decided to take a mini-trip to visit our friends up in Kelowna, a 40-ish minute flight from Vancouver. We brought Winston several times to the airport before the trip to get him excited and familiar with the busy environment. Additionally, his school team helped him prep for the upcoming trip as well.
It went incredibly well and Winston loved the feeling of taking off and landing – he was all smiles!
We felt a bit better about flying for 6 hours to Florida.
In the later half of the year, our wish coordinator wanted to check in with us and we told her we were ready to make the big leap.
Itineraries were locked in and we had several documents we had to sign, along with a check in with our cardiologist to make sure Winston could fly and participate in all the activities that were planned.
Generally speaking, our itinerary was to fly direct to Florida from Vancouver, pick up a rental car, stay at Give Kids the World Village and visit NASA, DisneyWorld and whatever attractions Winston may be interested in as well. We were all excited and I started making our long packing list.
With about a month to go before our trip, we were contacted by Make-A-Wish for a special drop off – Winston’s Make-A-Wish box! The friendly volunteers asked us what Winston liked – to watch, eat and do. They showed up at our door with a bright blue box with Winston’s name on it and he was super excited!
They also brought some Mickey themed Oreo treats that he absolutely loved. The thoughtfulness of the gifts inside the box was so endearing.
We were all very touched with the love put into it. We’ve kept the box (not sure what we plan to do with it) as a memento of this special time.
On our family calendar, we had a countdown to our special trip, and as every day brought us closer, Winston was thrilled.
He talked about it at school, with his grandparents and anyone who would listen to him. For the special occasion, we also bought him a brand new luggage – a Lego themed one! He was so excited for it, he packed about a month before our trip was even supposed to happen.
The day finally arrived, and our flight became an afternoon flight with a quick stop at Edmonton.
We woke up early to prep and double check that we had everything and then we were off to the airport. We lined up through security and many people wished us a good trip when they saw our Make-A-Wish t-shirts.
Our first leg of the trip went well – Winston loved the airplane ride. However, he had a bit of a hard time when we went through security at Edmonton (as they have a port of entry there). He was all fine until they asked him to remove his shoes and he got scared and tried to run away. Eventually, Brian was able to carry him and hold him while they quickly swabbed down his shoe. We took a bit of a breather after all that in a quieter part of the airport and Winston felt at ease. I’m thankful to hear that the need to take off your shoes has been lifted recently, as this will make it easier for us when we travel in the future.
It was finally time to board our last part of the trip from Edmonton to sunny Florida – Winston was ready.
We went over what to expect and while we were ascending into the air, there was an announcement made that welcomed Winston as a Make-A-Wish child travelling to Florida – the entire cabin clapped for him and he received a small gift from the WestJet crew.
They also told us if he wanted any candy or anything, to let them know! They were so kind.
About 4 hours in, Winston started to get antsy. He never had to sit in one spot that long and he just wanted to land. Even though we brought new toys to entertain him and a fully charged iPad, he was just not happy. He ended up falling asleep for the last half hour before we landed.
When we landed, it was already quite late at night – our flight was also a bit delayed but nonetheless, there was a Give Kids the World volunteer waiting for us – and cheerfully, might I add. He made sure we retrieved our luggage and brought us all the way to the car rental area. He gave us some helpful tips on how to get to the village and also some tips about Florida as well. He gave us a map with driving instructions, brought us to our vehicle, helped us pack the back of the car with our luggage and sent us on our way – we were so thankful for his kindness.
When we arrived at the village, we were greeted by another volunteer and he said he would take us to our home for the week – he hopped onto a golf cart and we followed him to our very own spot. He gave us a quick run down of the village but knew we were tired and said whenever we were ready in the morning, we could call and another volunteer would come to go through everything with us. They also had pizza and refreshments ready for us in the fridge – which was perfect as we were hungry!
Winston explored our space before promptly passing out for the night.
Stay tuned for Part 2…
