1 Year

I can't believe it's been a year since we visited the ER with Kaelyn only to leave the hospital 7 hours later to pack up and head for Salt Lake to begin our journey in getting rid of her cancer. It actually seems like much longer than a year ago that all of this began.

Today, Kaelyn is practically back to herself.  We had her 6 month scans a couple of weeks ago which came back completely normal (Well, she was missing a kidney, so mostly normal). 6 months off of chemotherapy means we could stop the weekly antibiotics since her immune system is back in business. The only remaining side effect we are dealing with now are the effects of some of the peripheral neuropathy. She has not fully recovered, leaving her ankles less flexible than they should be. This causes her to easily lose her balance, and she is tripping all the time! The doc ordered physical therapy to get her ankles back to normal so we are currently working on some exercises that will help. So really, life couldn't be better. We are so blessed.

Kaelyn's most recent doctor's visit was a bittersweet appointment for us. Though we received such wonderful news as far as the health of our daughter is concerned, we also found out a sweet little friend of Kaelyn's, just a year older, had just received some bad news. A brave little 5 year old who has been fighting cancer for 4-1/2 years has just found his cancer has spread to numerous parts of his brain and is dying. This has been a very emotional time for me. It's difficult for me to understand why we were dealt the hand we were, given a cancer with therapy that has a high success rate, and this little boy and his family have it so differently. I have a testimony of our Father in Heaven's Plan for us, and I know that my mortal brain cannot comprehend his purposes. I'm grateful to know that this child will have the opportunity to be with his family again, to continue being raised by his wonderful parents. I'm grateful to know that he will be freed of his pain and suffering. I'm just sad that those of us staying behind, most especially his family, will not have the joy of his presence for the rest of our lives on earth.

There is so much tragedy all around us which continually leaves me feeling blessed and grateful for all that I have. This experienced has opened my eyes, and my heart, and I am grateful for it. Here's to the next year staying free of cancer!

Wish Granted

Before you decide to get into this huge post, know that you will be faced with a gazillion pictures. You've been warned.

DAY 1 - Travel
On January 8 we jumped on an itty bitty airplane to begin to Kaelyn's Wish Trip! It seemed like so long ago that these plans were being made, and now the time had come. We were all SO excited to spend some time in warm, sunny, Disney World!

Kaelyn was so excited to get to ride in an airplane. The Make A Wish Foundation sent a letter with us to give to the crew and they invited Kaelyn up to the cabin after our first flight! When I asked if she wanted to meet the pilots, she said "Arrgh matey!"

Isaac wasn't as big of a fan of riding airplanes as Kaelyn. All the noises and bumps had him freaked out, but luckily he didn't have anymore flights to catch because we dropped him off with family on our layover in SLC. You may be thinking, "Oh, how sad they didn't bring him along." No, actually, how glad. He's in one of those stages... :)

After 3 layovers and 4 planes we finally arrived in Orlando at midnight. Of course with all those layovers we had a lost bag, so we didn't get out of the airport until about 1, and with my poor navigation abilities we didn't get to Give Kids The World Village until 2. I guess that means I should be posting this part on Day 2!

When we arrived there was a hot meal waiting for us and lots of gifts for Kaelyn! She was pretty spoiled!

DAY 2 - Magic Kingdom

Before heading out to Disney World, we had Breakfast at the Gingerbread House and went for a horseback ride. Kaelyn loves horses!

Gingerbread House at GKTW

Insta-best-princess-friend on the ferry into the Magic Kingdom

First day of meeting Disney characters and princesses was so much fun for Kaelyn! Wish kids get to go straight to the front of the line. I felt a little bad, but also pretty thankful we didn't have to wait 40 minutes to see each character. Make A Wish kids get very special treatment from Disney, and we definitely felt the love. Crew members knew right away that Kaelyn was a wish child by the button she is wearing in all the pictures.

One crew member spotted us just as we walked in and walked us to each of the characters. She really made  our moments at Disney World special. Brock pointed out the Disney character pins she had hanging from her belt and asked about them. She showed the pins to Kaelyn and they talked about all the characters. After she showed us to where we could meet Snow White (obviously Kaelyn's favorite). After meeting snow white, this crew member, Shereese, came back with a lanyard with pins for Kaelyn! That was a gift from her alone, not Disney! And those pins are at least 6 bucks each. I couldn't believe she did that! I mean, she has to see a lot of Wish kids. We were so grateful. After this she showed us to where we could find Mickey Mouse, and we said goodbye. When we were leaving the building Mickey Mouse was in, another crew member approached Kaelyn and said "Are you Kaelyn? Tinker Bell just stopped by and asked that I give this to you!" It was a Tinker Bell pin for her lanyard. Seriously I was so impressed and grateful that these people really did care about what they do. This was probably my favorite experience of our whole trip!

Shereese is the awesome crew member in the background of this pic. So glad we have a picture of her :)

The rest of our day was filled with rides. We were scheduled to have dinner with the Princesses that night and Kaelyn got to have the first dance with Prince Charming. Thankfully she has some killer moves. It was a good ending to our first day at Disney World!

DAY 3 - Universal Studios / Christmas

Before heading out, Kaelyn and I spent some time at GKTW white Brock went searching for shorts! It was around 84 every day we were there. So nice! Anyway, while waiting we rode the train, played the free arcade games and rode the free car rides, went for a few rounds on the carousel, met Mickey and Belle, and ate some free ice cream.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was awesome! Kaelyn picked Hermione's wand from Olivander's. Kaelyn also loved the Dr. Seuss portion of the park. Lots of rides just her size!

After Universal we headed back to GKTW to celebrate Christmas!!

Winter Wonderland! GKTW celebrates Christmas each week. Kaelyn got to see Santa, pick a gift out of his bag, see snow in Florida, and make Christmas crafts. The big bunny is Mayor Clayton, the GKTW mascot.

Kaelyn got to see her favorite volunteer one last time this night. She came all the way from 

England to volunteer!

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom

It was a blast! Except we had to escape "A Bug's Life" before Hopper got us. Kaelyn did not like that!

Day 5 - Sea World

I love Sea World! We had lots of fun here too. Another gift to Make A Wish kids is to feed the dolphins! So the first 30 seconds we were with the dolphins I tossed in a fish and the dolphin spit water directly in Kaelyn's face! It was the funniest thing ever, but of course after that she wanted nothing to do with them! She just kept spitting and wiping her tongue trying to get that yucky salt water out!

We went horseback riding again before we left, and ended the night with a "Dive In Movie," (swimming and The Little Mermaid) and a yummy BBQ. It sure felt like summertime! There was some kind of balloon convention in town and they donated thousands of balloon to GKTW. Kaelyn has her parrot and bulldog here. She also had a Jasmine balloon and a snail. They had everything!

Day 6 - Last Day :(  Back to Magic Kingdom!

We had a few more characters to meet, most importantly Minnie Mouse, Kaelyn's favorite.

We had a great last day. We had a great entire trip! We are so thankful for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Give Kids The World Resort and volunteers, and Disney and the other parks for making this trip so special!

We left this wonderful place early the next morning and froze our buns off once we were home!! It was so good to have Isaac back with us. We are back to life as we know it!