May 6, 2008 All of our prayers were answered!!!!

Hello Everyone! WOW!!!! We are just so excited to share our story with family and friends! Our Make-A-Wish trip to Orlando / Disney was truly AMAZING for us all!!! We realize that we will never be able to have another time together like this one because it was just perfect!!!! Some of the unexpected WONDERFUL surprises for us were: -- Make-A-Wish truly took care of everything we needed or could have anticipated! -- Give Kids The World was awesome and unbelieveably accommodating and kid focused. -- Give Kids The World staff waited on us hand and foot. -- The Make-A-Wish financial support was more than adequate for meeting our needs. -- Give Kids The World delivered an amazing bag of age appropriate goodies (movies, toys, snacks, etc.) - EVERY DAY! The kids really looked forward to this each morning! -- Characters at the Magic Kingdom appeared to "seek us out" which the kids thought was great! -- We actually did not have to "ask" for things - the pin from Give Kids The World and the Make-A-Wish hat for Erik were recognized and highly honored. We were able to walk right up to characters for autographs and photos, walk right up to rides and even ride them twice if we wanted to! -- Parking and stroller rentals were taken care of which saved us quite a bit of money. -- The giving continues for us even now. Give Kids The World has arranged for us to have free admission at Global theme parks for the next year! This will encourage and motivate us to continue to venture out with the entire family. As for Mr. Erik . . . he was a trooper! He had absolutely NO SEIZURE activity the entire time we were away! This is unbelievable and completly God's answer to our prayers for this because he has been having 2-3 spells of some type weekly. Also, he hung with us all day long without any napping and was still ready to go at 10:30 at night! He LOVED it! Erik's favorite thing was the trains we encountered. We have been told multiple times that because of the brain damage he has sustained over the years he would not be able to grasp cause and effect relationships. Each time we witness him showing that he has this ability (recognizing family members, expressing protest when he knows we are laying him down for bed, etc.) we know that this is a gift to us from God. He got to the point on the trip that when he heard the train coming (not the whistle - just the train sound) he would start vocalizing and smiling. He knew what was coming! He also loved the fireworks which we were uncertain of what his reaction would be! Thanks for all of the prayers you each offered up for us prior to and while we were on our trip. It was truly a trip we will never forget and the kids REALLY deserved the wonderful treatment they received after the challenging journey we have had with Erik's health. It was an irreplaceable and un-re-creatable gift for us to see the smiles on the kids faces as they were catered to and we could never have imagined it would be like this! Thanks again and we hope you will continue to partner with us as we pray Erik to complete restoration! We plan to post photos from our trip for you to see soon . . . Love in Christ, Erik's Family