MAKE-A-WISH TRIP START..DAY 1....

we woke up at 3:30 am to get the last of the things done before we left....we had already gotten everything packed (stayed up till about 12am) and packed into the car....we got up soooo excited! everyone had taken a bath the night before so we could just get up and GOOOOO!!! well, after making sure we had matthews feeds and stuff ready, we woke up the kids and got them dressed, transfered them over to the car and TOOK OFF to the airport by 4:30 am!!!! oooooohhhhh....we were sooo happy and EXCITED!! following behind us was matthew's nurse, S, and i know that she was so happy and excited too!!! sooo, it was RAINING, LIGHTENING AND THUNDERING (we have been in a DROUGHT since FOREVER so we really needed this rain, but TODAY?!?!?!?!)!!! yes, not the BEST weather to be leaving in and i can say it made me NERVOUS!!!! I thought for sure that the kids were going to have an issue with it but NO...they all seemed FINE!! SOOO, we got off the car and have to unload ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE!!! our family ended up checking in 3 suitcases, and each of us carried on a carry on bag (4) PLUS we also had his feeding pump AND a camera case.....WITH A CAR SEAT, A WHEELCHAIR AND A STROLLER!!! unfortunatly, they were unable to get us more than one car seat in florida so we had to bring our own!! not a PROBLEM!! :) so we check in with PLENTY of time (5:15am) and our plane didn't leave until 7 am! so after doing all of that, we were able to move onto the security check point...boy, this was probably the part we all dreaded!!! the GREAT part about it is that we got to go thru the FAMILY LINE which made us FLY thru it all!! we were in and out of there within about 15 mins or less.....it was kinda funny...we had to all take off our shoes, take the baby out of his stroller, matthew too and just putting all of our stuff on the belts to get them checked....CRAZY!!! if you have ever flown with 3 kiddos and TONS of stuff, you know what i am taking about! then, because we had matthews cans of food, we had to be stopped and the cans checked to make sure for security reasons....matthew had a FIT because they had to to a CHECK his stroller and he HATES GLOVES so they made him soooo mad and upset!!!! well, we were done with that and now, all we had to do is WAIT to board...wowowowow...the excitement of being in the gate terminal....walking to our gate with ALL OUR STUFF!!!!! james and the boys decided to get some breakfast at LAS PALAPAS while we waited......it was such an amazing feeling being there...knowing that in a couple of hours you would be in another STATE with all of your kiddos!!!! sooo, we were able to board (after much mishap)....it took alot of manuvering because we had to take both stollers out and break them down, get the CARSEAT inplace to put matthew in and then get the rest of our gear (all our bags) and baby in!!! well, what we didn't know was that once you got IN the plane, you could NOT get OUT!!! sooo, when daddy, went to come back to get the kids, NOPE, he couldn't do it!!! sooo, we had to figure out how to get everything in the plane without JAMES to help! it was not fun....well, after all of that, we were FINALLY on the plane in FIRST CLASS, no less!!! THANK YOU GOD, we started a "bag check" and found out that we had LEFT HIS FEEDING BAG right there where the strollers had been left to put under the PLANE!!! OMG, HOW CRAZY AND SCARY that would have BEEN!!! ANYWAY, our ride went with out a HITCH and the boys LOVED THE PLANE RIDE!!! here are some pics of us on the plane...

daddy and josh....our lap baby!


matthew and his nurse S


me and my boys!!!


well, we landed in ALTANTA and we had about a 2 hour wait....unforutnatly, somewhere in san antonio, they did NOT check us in for the 2nd part of our flight and we were all SCATTERED around the plane for the 2nd leg of it....but THANKS to some AMAZING families in the plane, we were able to get our seats all together!!!

DADDY AND HIS BOYS...


mommy, nurse and matthew!!!


the second part of the flight went wonderful too...and before you knew it....WE WERE IN FLORIDA~!!!! james was SALIVATING seeing all the ponds, lakes as were flying over FLORIDA....he kept saying, we are COMING BACK just to FISH!!!! WELL, we got off the plane and after getting all our our carry ons and such together, we were OFF to find the GREETER...but first, we had to board this supper fast shuttle to get us to where the BAGGAGE area was....well, we get there and see the most BEAUTIFUL SIGN....our GREETER MOE holding up a sign that said, 'WELCOME MATTHEW!"...I can tell you this, it got me GOING and i started to get all teary eyed, emotional....you just don't have a CLUE unless you realize that your MIRACLE CHILD got a WISH GRANTED by the WONDERFUL PEOPLE at MAKE-A-WISH and we were THERE IN FLORIDA together as a FAMILY....the emotions of it all where just something else...we had gone thru SOOOOO MUCH with our son that to be there, in FLORIDA, getting ready to go on an ADVENTURE, a ONCE IN A LIFETIME THING together....no words can describe how it felt for us!!!

OUR GREETER with MATTHEW'S SIGN...


when we talked to our GREETER from GIVE KIDS THE WORLD (i will be using the abbrev GKTW), he told us that he and his other fellow GREETERS were meeting 36 FAMILIES that were coming over to GKTW!!!!! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW....

here are the kids waiting for our car with ALL OUR LUGGAGE!!!


sooo, we meet our greeter and he leads us on our journey to find our vehicle...a DODGE CARAVAN 2009....VERY NICE!!! it was so awesome and amazing...we get loaded up with all our carseats and baggage and off we GO...where??? well, to GIVE KIDS THE WORLD VILLAGE!!!! ok, i am SO SORRY i don't think i EVER mentioned where we were going to be staying and all i can say is AMAZING....I will write a post JUST on GKTW as soon as i am done and link it to HERE....as soon as we turned on the street, there it was....i started to cry again!! here are some pictures of the place...

here is the ENTRANCE SIGN there....TO WELCOME YOU HOME!


HERE we are in front of our BEAUTIFUL VILLA HOME!!


here are the boys tearing into the GIFT BAG of goodies that were left on our table for them!!!





sooo, we got HOME and started to unpacked and realized that we had had NOTHING to eat since about 6:30 in the morning!!! so, we were told that we could ORDER PIZZA whenever we wanted and they would have it delivered...and we DID!!! it was amazing...we paid for NOTHING....i placed the call and they were like, "how many and what would you like on it?" we placed our order they said, they would be by in a bit to deliver it and WHALA!!! they came by in their little cart and gave us our 3 pizza's!!!! AMAZING!!! and everyone has been just soooo nice....i can't express that ENOUGH! we ended up going to WALMART that was SOOOOO CONVINENTLY RIGHT DOWN THE BLOCK!!! to get some supplies that we said that we would get once we got to florida....soooo, i had to go to ORIENTATION that night at 7:45 pm...so we decided that the kids and daddy and S would go SWIMMING...while i went to the meeting....the meeting was so informative and we were given our TICKETS to our PARKS!!! we got,3 DAY HOPPER to DISNEY PARKS, 2 DAY HOPPER TO UNIVERSAL AND ISLAND OF ADVENTURES, and a ONE DAY PASS TO SEAWORLD!!! oooohhh, the GENEROSITY of everyone...no words again....

well, we all got ready for the next day so that we could GO TO OUR FIRST PARK!!! we are going to go to DISNEY ANIMAL KINGDOWN with a side trip to DISNEY HOLLYWOOD STUDIES!!! WOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!