Posts from — September 2009

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Yesterday afternoon Serenity and her oldest sister, Talysa, were in a car accident. The Isuzu Rodeo that Talysa was driving rear ended a dump truck on the freeway. They hit pretty hard and the Rodeo was totalled.

Talysa was knocked unconscious and had multiple lacerations. Serenity has a few facial cuts and quite a bit of bruising from her car seat straps. She hit the side of her face and has some facial swelling and bruising but she was able to leave the hospital late last night. She is in a lot of pain today, and is having a hard time moving around or standing. Talysa stayed overnight for observation and is also in considerable pain, but will probably be discharged today.

We know we are very fortunate that the girls are going to be ok, and we’re so grateful that they weren’t severely injured.

The most magical part of our vacation (in my opinion) was the place where we stayed, Give Kids The World. I am not eloquent enough to describe what a wonderful, magical place this was. Before our trip I had heard people say, “Make sure and do every activity at Give Kids The World, even if you have to give up time at Disneyworld.” Other people spoke of wanting to return, and what a neat place this was, and how everything was free. Even then, after listening to them and browsing the GKTW website, I was unprepared for how very special this place was.

I encourage you to visit their website to read the inspiring story of Henri Landwirth, and how he built this dream come true.

Give Kids The World is a place for children with a life threatening illness to stay, along with their families. It’s a 70 acre resort that has helped over 95,000 families, from more than 65 countries.

Everything is free. The rides, the food, the gifts, and the activities. They have photographers on staff to photograph your child, and you’re given a CD of all the photos upon checkout. Our villa had free sunblock, free laundry soap & dryer sheets, a fridge stocked with drinks, and the kids all received T-shirts and stuffed animals. There are several restaurants on the property - all free - offering pizza, cafeteria style cooking, cookies, pastries, Boston Market meals, and even all you can eat ice cream. I think we ate ice cream every single day. (Some days more than once!)

Our family participated in many of the activities, including: playing Candyland on the life-sized Candyland playground, horseback riding, Village Idol (a talent show similar to American Idol, where the kids are the judges and every child wins), Mayor Clayton’s birthday party & dance, a dance for teenagers, Winter Wonderland parade, meeting Santa Claus (every child gets to choose a toy), and meet & greets with various characters from Disney and Nickelodeon. Just as we’d been told, there was far more to do than time to do it!

In front of our villa:

Horseback riding:

Safari Theater, where several of the activities were held:

Christmas with Santa and his elves:

Disney characters:

Meeting Barney and Dora inside the Castle of Miracles:

With Mayor Clayton and Miss Merry: (Serenity misses them so much that she kisses a picture of Miss Merry every day)

Breakfast with Mayor Clayton:

Dancing with Miss Merry at Mayor Clayton’s birthday party:

Each of these stars represent a child who has stayed at Give Kids The World. It’s both beautiful and sad to see the ceiling covered with them.

It was a wonderful trip - beyond anything we’d imagined - and none of us wanted to leave.

I just wanted to post a quick update to let you know that we are home and our wish trip was amazing. I feel bad we didn’t keep up with the daily posts but there was so much to do and we were exhausted every single day.

Give Kids The World is an incredible organization, as is Make A Wish. We had the time of our lives and the kids begged to be able to stay. They never wanted to come home!

We will post some photos and write more about our trip soon.