Stephanie's Wish - 2012 Make-A-Wish Foundation


*See update for August below - wish has changed from Jewel to meeting Disney Princesses at Disney World!*

As I've done many times in the past, this past March (2012) I watched a commercial which mentioned the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  I've researched the criteria before but had never actually put in a request.  This time however,  it really struck a chord with me.  With all the medical challenges Stephanie is facing right now, I thought she really deserved something special.  I applied online and within a couple of weeks her neurologist had approved that she medically qualified for a wish!  We promptly had volunteers at our door, bringing Stephanie her very own Make-A-Wish bear and wanting to find out about all of Stephanie's favourite things...and of course, what her wish would be.  Anyone that knows her knows how much she loves two things...Miss Piggy from the Muppets and the singer/songwriter Jewel.

In July 2010, when Stephanie first was in the hospital for 3 weeks for Intracranial Hypertension, her vision was damaged and she couldn't see much of anything.  During this time, the Child Life Specialist brought her a CD player and plenty of music to listen to.  Once we were discharged, I had to stop at the drugstore and pick up her medications for home.  While inside I saw a display of various children's music and lullaby cd's.  I saw that Jewel had produced her own lullably cd and I thought Stephanie would really enjoy it.  Sure enough, she loved listening to it and started to learn Jewel's name.  Each time we returned to hospital, the Child Life Specialist would bring a CD player and music for Stephanie.  She even went so far as to make sure to purchase the Jewel Lullaby cd for their library, so that Stephanie always had access to it.

After that, Stephanie was hooked and always wanted to print pictures of Jewel and loved looking at videos on the computer.  She enjoys talking about her makeup, jewellery and beautiful clothes.  As you see from the picture below, Stephanie learned that Jewel had a new baby and she now she loves discussing how Jewel would take good care of this new baby, by dressing, feeding and rocking the baby to sleep with a lullaby.

I will sequence the events of the wish as it unfolds below:
 
 
November 22, 2012
Home Sweet Home!  What a wonderful and amazing trip to Florida's Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios!  I can't say enough about the people, the characters and the unbelievable treatment that Stephanie received by all involved...even complete strangers!  Here are some highlights, although I do have a few hundred pics, I don't think I could post them all!
 













 


October 17, 2012
What a wonderful visit with Make-A-Wish volunteer, Christa, and Wish Manager of the Alberta Chapter, Carolyn!  They dropped in today and were bearing many wonderful gifts for Stephanie.  Stephanie was first presented with a travel bag courtesy of WestJet, filled with extras such as a pillow, blanket, cards, waterbottles, and headphones.  Then she was excited to open her new backpack which held great gifts such as a new Miss Piggy, her friend Kermit, a Make-A-Wish Barbie, a Sony Cybershot camera, Sony headphones, a Jewel drawstring bag, a movie, a gift card, etc. etc. etc.  Stephanie also received a beautful handmade blanket embroidered with the Make-A-Wish logo.  We all received logo tshirts to wear while we are travelling, which should surely bring us attention!  I was even presented with a very generous amount of spending money so that we could truly spoil Stephanie on her trip, which will be my most favourite part!










August 25, 2012
After some discussion this week with the Make-A-Wish Southern Alberta Chapter, my husband and I have decided to change Stephanie's wish from meeting Jewel to meeting the Disney Princesses at Disney World. Although she still enjoys listening to Jewel, we thought Disney World might be more memorable and easier to comprehend.  Well today the flights were confirmed! November 12-19th my sister Karen and I will be taking Stephanie to Disney World!!!  We will be staying at a wonderful resort that was built specifically to provide families and children of such wishes an enchanted place to stay - Give Kids The World Village.  This resort in itself is 70 acres and has an incredible amount of activities to enjoy but we also will receive a 3 day pass to Disney World and it's different parks, a 2 day pass to Universal Studios and a 1 day pass to Sea World!  Stephanie will get to meet some of the princesses during our visit to Disney World.  She is beyond excited now and thinks that when we get in the car each day that we are going to Disney World.


July 27, 2012
Christa made a visit to the hospital during Stephanie's recovery from her corpus callosotomy surgery.  I was sorry to miss her as I was on my way home to shower and get a change of clothes.  But my great husband remembered to take a picture of Christa giving Stephanie a new Jewel CD!  Thanks Make-A-Wish and Christa for putting a smile on Steph's face today!




June 25, 2012
We had a great visit from volunteers Christa and Cody today and they brought Stephanie a nice gift, a Jewel t-shirt, in order to pass the time until the big day arrives!


  
May 25, 2012
Just received an update that Jewel has granted previous wishes and the Foundation is now working on the particulars of making Stephanie's wish come true.  Since this can still take months to a year, in the meantime they expect to be sending the volunteers over to our home again with some Jewel merchandise for Stephanie to enjoy while she is waiting for the big day! How great!
  

March 18, 2012
Here is the moment that Stephanie received her Make-A-Wish bear from the volunteers Christa and Cody. 




February, 2012
Stephanie doing what she likes to do, line up pictures of her favourite things, Miss Piggy, Jewel and any other beautiful dolls.
 















No comments:

Post a Comment