Make a Wish Day ONE

A few months ago Erin visited the Make-A-Wish Wishing House

and made her special wish

To Meet Disney Princesses.

Her wish finally came true this last week.

Day 1

The kids could hardly stand the wait to get on the airplane.  When we landed in Orlando, Florida our 4 year old son yelled out in the airplane, "we're going to Disneyworld!" 

We were greeted by a Give Kids the World employee and she showed us to our rental car.  The car rental people were all smiles and told us to be sure to bring our car back with an empty tank of gas.  Erin picked out our car for the vacation...she first asked for a red car, but they didn't have any red ones so we settled on a charcoal colored minivan.

We arrived at the Give Kids the World Village and were greeted by this cute sign.

The Village is the MOST amazing place, it covers 70 acres and is magical at every turn.  It was founded by Henri Landworth, who spent 5 of his childhood years in concentration camps wondering from day to day if he was going to live or die.  I am so grateful for his sacrifice in creating a place for our family to feel burden-free.  The entire village is FREE for wish families...meaning that we never needed money for anything.  It is staffed by 1500 VOLUNTEERS each week.

We registered and got oriented at the House of Hearts.

Then we were escorted to our villa

in the Fairytale Forrest.

Across from our villa was

a life-size candyland playground!

 Of course, we hit the playground first.

It's looked like we were living in a fairytale.

We made our way to the Ice Cream Parlor

We could have ice cream any way we wanted it all day long!

(I had an Oreo milkshake...ahem...everyday)

Erin had a lot of chocolate ice cream cones

throughout the entire trip.

Erin received a special invitation to visit the Star Fairy

and wake the sleeping owl at the Castle of Miracles.

She decorated her star.

The magical star fairy placed it on the ceiling of the Castle of Miracles.

There are over 100,000 stars on the ceiling in the Castle of Miracles.

It brought tears to my eyes to realize that each star came from a child just like Erin.  Some have made it and some have passed on.

Next she woke up the sleeping owl who lived in this tree.

The kids got to make special wishes

and then three little pillows magically appeared

just for them.

Visiting the Castle of Miracles was a beautiful way to end the first day on our magical vacation.

John put the kids to bed while I made a quick trip to WalMart to pick up snacks and supplies to keep us going while we visited the parks on upcoming days.  As I drove back to our villa I just couldn't help but cry a little as I thought about how amazing and wonderful we were being treated.  Every time we turned around we were treated like royalty.  The whole village has a special spirit about it.  Everyone smiles and there is a very distinct feeling of service and love there.  It is a special place and it will forever be a place of some of my most favorite memories together as a family.