Make-a-Wish Star Raising

The end of August Erin received an invitation to visit the Make-a-Wish "Wishing Place" to raise her star.  I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of Erin's star raising.  It was such an emotional time for me.  I felt so much joy knowing Erin was through with cancer and raising her star was a signal that we are completely through with cancer (we always pray that she'll stay in remission).

Erin at the Wishing Place with Renee and Cris.

Make-a-Wish hangs up each wish child's picture with their wish.

First, we went outside to the wishing pond and each of the kids were given a special token to throw into the pond and make a wish on. 

Erin throwing her token into the wishing pond.

Our family in the Make-a-Wish gardens.

Then we went upstairs in the Wishing Place and looked around and remembered what it was like to be there the first time to have Erin make her wish.

The kids outside the Wishing Tower.

Erin putting her key into the Wishing Tower door.  I have such vivid memories of being inside the Wishing Tower the first time.  Erin's wish process was such a magical experience.

Erin was given a purple star to color.

She drew her name on it and decorated it. 

I wrote her name on it too.

Our family just before the star raising.

Getting her star ready to go up.

This is one of my most FAVORITE pictures.

A video of Erin raising her star.

Looking up to see her star.

Each wish child gets to raise a star up to the ceiling of the Wishing Place.

There were so many stars, it's beautiful to think of the hope many families have received from Make-a-Wish.

We had cake!

 Erin's wish granters put together a book of Erin's princess party.  She worships this book!  It's been 3 months since she received the book and she still looks at it regularly.  Just the other day I caught her writing her name on one of the pages.  :)

Finally, every wish child has a scrapbook page at Make-a-Wish. 

This is Erin's page.

We are so thankful for the Make-a-Wish organization.  It was last December when we found out that Erin was accepted as a wish child.  During Erin's treatments we used to wish and hope so much that she would be accepted by Make-a-Wish.  We needed something to look forward to during that very difficult time.  I don't think it is possible to show how much we have loved our experience with Make-a-Wish.  They gave us so much hope, they gave us memories we will NEVER forget, and they gave us laughter and joy at a time when we mostly wanted to cry.

Thank you Make-a-Wish and all of their volunteers who give their time to make wishes come true!

Make-a-Wish Royal Princess Ball

A little behind schedule, but still worth the wait.

Last June, Make-a-Wish threw a Royal Princess Ball for Erin.

It was a farewell party, sending us off to Disneyworld to Meet the Princesses. 

Renee Lyman (Erin's Wish Granter) escorted the kids outside.

We had a carriage ride around the parking lot.

Some of our princess friends came along.

Erin in her princess gown.

Our family and Erin's cake

Erin got a surprise visit from Prince Charming (our good friend Cris)

And a surprise visit from Cinderella (our friend Shay)

Our friend, Brenda Hult, who made Erin's dress.

The Royal Gathering

Cookie decorating!

The Sky View Student Body Officers who helped our wish granters pull the whole thing together.

**A special thanks to Betsy Thompson for the pictures!**

Make-a-wish day SEVEN

Day 7

 Our last day

 It has been hard for me to blog about our last day of Erin's wish because we were so sad to come home.  We spent the morning in the village enjoying every last minute of our time together there.

We met up with Diego (too bad Dora wasn't there - our children worship her)

We did some last minute surfing. 

And we couldn't miss out on another trip to the swimming pool.



After we packed up our suitcases we browsed through some of our favorite Village things.  Caleb loved the Amberville Train Station and remote control boats.

We did a quick trip through the Dino Putt miniature golf course.  This mini golf course is seriously the best one I've ever seen.  It was completely interactive and had a huge amount of creativity. 

Check out these dinosaurs at the Dino Putt.



...and these dinosaurs. 

I love how they catch the kids off guard.  It was such a surprise, we all jumped the first time.

We found an employee in the office to let us into the new Give Kids the World Museum, it wasn't quite finished, but we really wanted to see it.  We were the only people in there.  There were displays on each of the buildings in the village and stories about how the building came to be.  I think I cried at each display as I read each story.  The stories talked about families with a child with cancer who wanted to give back to the village in some way.  In almost every story the child died from their cancer and the buildings were built as memorials for that child.

It was inspirational to read about the strength the families had while loosing their child.  It was also so scary for me because I just don't know how I could handle loosing Erin.  I really have a hard time reading any story about children with cancer nowadays, even if they survive.  It is just too real.

We all cried as we left the Give Kids the World Village.  The kids were bawling and saying that they wanted to live there forever.  John and I were crying because the time we had there was priceless and we will never be able to recreate the amazing time we had together with our family.  Our hearts were full.  Erin's whole wish trip was truly incredible.  I cannot thank enough those involved in making Erin's wish come true.

We were all so tired and Caleb developed some kind of sickness/fever at the airport (Erin ended up getting it the next day).  We searched all over the airport for children's Tylenol, but they didn't have any, all we could find was extra strength Advil gel caps.  I called a nurse at our pediatrician's office and she said we couldn't give it to him.  Oh well, he fell asleep before we boarded the plane and then he didn't wake until we were flying over Utah.  Some of the people around us were asking if we had drugged him.  It was nice to not have the wrestle all the kids during the flight, but it was too bad he wasn't feeling well.

The girls had fun playing my little ponies on the flight, but once in air they both conked out.  We were so worn out from all of our fun, but it was well worth it.





Like I said before, it has been hard to express the thankfulness we feel for this most amazing trip for our family.  Erin's heart was full of happiness and joy every day.  All three kids were so kind and loving and enjoyable all throughout our trip.  There were few fights or tantrums, we just had lots of fun and made a ton of memories.

Erin talks about her wish trip to meet the princesses nearly everyday STILL.  It was a huge gift for her.  Even though she is young, I think she'll remember it for her whole life.

Thank you to everyone who helped make Erin's wish come true; our wish granters, Make-a-wish, Sky View High School, and the many others.  Thank you so much!