Let the fun begin MAW/GKTW PTR Chase June 23-29-2010

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself. I am very new to this board but have been lurking around and reading for 3 days!

My name is Leah and last year my beautiful daughter Selah got her very own wish through the Make a Wish Foundation. She loves princesses (of course) and DORA a trip to Disney made perfect sense. Selah was four when her wish was granted. Along for the trip were Courtney, my 14 year old daughter, Chase 3 (gets his very own wish) and my mother!

Background on Selah. I was a foster parent for 5 years and Selah was my very first placement. I had no intentions taking infants because my daughter was 9 at the time. I was thiking I would foster children close to her age. For some reason when I got the call for Selah, something in me said "Do it." I never blinked, never thought twice. Selah was born three months premature weighing 1lb 8ounces. She was on oxygen and an apnea monitor because she had stoppped breathing several times. When I met Selah she was one month old and still in the hospital. She had been transferred to a special "preemie" hospital so that she could get more individual care. I instantly fell in love

It was a very long road medically and our journey unfortunately isn't over. Selah suffers from a chronic lung disease and only has a few months out of the year that she isn't suffering. (a little of spring and a little of fall) I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to care for a sick infant, but everything fell into place, we developed a routine and with a lot of support from family and friends, we made it work. So much so that I often fostered two babies at a time!

Our fostering journey lead me to be able to become her forever mommy and for that I am eternally greatful. People always say how blessed she is to have me, but it is honestly the other way around!

I heard about Make A Wish through another family who had just returned from a trip. I honestly had never thought about a wish...I didn't know a lot about the organization. And like most people I thought that wishes were exclusive to termially ill chilldren.

This is getting long...I can ramble on and on. I'm going to come back shortly. I have so much to tell.

But I am really glad that I have found this place and so happy that my son will get a wish of his very own!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

So when my little Selah was 2 years old I got another call for a baby..fresh out of the hospital's NICU! A baby boy! My little Chase! I was excited and scared at the same time, I'd never fostered a boy before.

I was so excited when I went to visit him for the first time. He was tiny as he was also a preemie. He only weighed a little four pounds when I took him home. The nurses were all very nice and helpful. It was then that I found out that he was exposed to several harmful drugs before he was born. The nurses told me what to expect and what to look out for.

He was so tiny and thin that he had a lot of extra wrinkly skin around his kneees and elbows. But he was so precious!

Almost immediately I started to notice a few things that scared me. He did NOT like to be held. He would cry until you put him down. I had to swaddle him tightly so while we were in the house most of the times he only had on a diaper, booties, a onesie and a hat. He would not let me hold him while I fed him, I'd have to put him in his baby seat and hold the bottle. So I'd try to get as close to him as I could, I'd put my cheek next to his and just talk to him, hum to him and sing to him to try and keep him calm.

I noticed that he would not hold his baby formula down. Projectile vomitting is putting it mildly. I found out later that he had a problem with one of his valves and reflux. About one month into caring for him he began wheezing and he stopped breathing several times also. It was a very rough time but I found out that he too had a lung disease. So tiny, and fragile but at the time so strong. He has always been a trooper!

When he was around three months a family member was playing with him and she noticed that he would not make eye contact with her while she sang or cooed. I had explained that to her earlier and when she tried it she noticed the same. About three months later we noticed his eyes turning in. He is actually scheduled to have surgery to correct that this coming May!

During the time while he was an infant things were pretty difficult. He cried for the first five months of his life basically nonstop. But magically after around five and a half months he just stopped out of nowhere and then came the smiles! Oh what a joy it was to see my little guy happy! The bond was unbreakable by that point and I knew that I would get to adopt him very soon! I was overcome with joy to learn that his adoption date was actually schedule on National Adoption Day! What a blessing!

Be back later with more!

 

[tinytreasures]

Welcome
I can't wait to hear all about your wish

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Thank you tinytreasures! I can't wait for things to really start happening. I guess things are actually moving along pretty well because.......

I got a letter in the mail today from Make a Wish! Our wish granters have been identified AND they are the same two wonderful women who did my daughter's trip!! How awesome is that????? So the letter says that they will contact me within 7 days to schedule a day to come out and talk to Chase about his wish

Hmmm..so where did I leave off? Okay so after I adopted Chase (his nickname is DJ <---long story, I will fill you guys in one day soon!) Things were going very well. But I knew between the two little ones and my biodaughter who has mental health issues, I had my hands extremely full!

I am a single mom and I just really felt that I could handle the three children I had very well...but to continue fostering, would put a strain on the house so after a lot of consideration I decided to close my home. It was sooo bittersweet. I never thought that I would adopt one..let alone two precious angels. My goal was to help as many children for as long as I could until they could return back home to their families.

But you know what they say...if you want to make God laugh...make plans! He truly had his own plans and I am more than happy to continue to be a vessel!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

So I have decided that after I get the information about the dates etc. I am not going to tell the kids! I want it to be a surprise. I'm not going to say one word. I'm going to pack their things while they are not around and the morning of the trip I am going to get them up and surprise them! I really hope this works.

I know that they will know we are going somewhere, especially my oldest. She's 14 and she knows that Chase got a wish. She is going to be sooo excited!! I really hope I can keep this secret!!!

Anyway, today is a beautiful day! The sun is shining and it's almost 70 degrees. After the long winter we had, this is definitely a welcome change!

Now I said I would explain why we nicknamed Chase, Dj! Well when I found out that I could adopt him I was looking forward to changing his name. Since he was still a newborn when I found out I would be able to adopt we had never called him by his biological name. It was a very old fashioned name. So trying to find a name for him became a real challenge. My oldest daughter Courtney came up with a name that she liked and we thought it would stick. Dallas Jordan. So we called him DJ for short. That worked really well. But whenever we called him Dallas....it just didn't seem right. So we came up with the Name Chase Jordan about a month before his adoption was finalized....so you ask why didn't we just call him CJ? Well...he doesn't look like a CJ..and that didn't fit either, lol. So we call him Chase...or DJ for short!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day today! I am taking the kids to get their pictures taken this evening.

By the way, I would love to post pictures here but I have NO IDEA how to go about doing that. Any assistance would be great!

Thanks!

 

[Mtopher4]

Hi... Yeah another wish trip.. WOW a single Mom with 3 kids and special needs ones at that.. You ROCK

Looking forward to reading more

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Thank you Mtopher4! It's hard work but I love it!

Now onto some more good news! I got a call this afternoon from one of the wish granters! They are going to come out on Monday morning! YAY!!!! I'm really excited and looking forward to meeting with them again.

I have no plans for the weekend at all. Too much running around during the week so I'm actually looking forward to the down time.

I hope everyone is well!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

So far this weekend has been extremely nice! I took the kids to the park and let them play themselves silly. They got so dirty I couldn't wait to come home and give them a bath!

1 down...two to go. My little Selah is sleeping soundly! I think it's really awesome that Disney Channel is showing a lot of classic movies today. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is on right now. Mulan comes on next.

I'm really looking forward to meeting with the wish granters on Monday. I didn't even tell the kids they were coming!

 

[cmp1111]

Wow. You are one special lady. My biological twins were only 8 weeks premature (I say only, compared to your situation, but...) and were born around the 4 pound mark. Smaller, and with issues, and on your own... You're fantastic.

I never feel like I explain this well, but here's the picture process:
1. Upload the pictures to a photo sharing site. I like photobucket.com - it's free and very easy to use, and you can make it private. Because the DIS is so large, we just can't "store" all the photos the members would put up, so you can't upload your pictures directly to the DIS.
2. If you use photobucket, under each picture you should see a link to "share" photos. You want a direct link, with a full http://www address.
3. Keeping the photobucket and DIS windows open on separate tabs, copy the web or sharing address, then click on the little "mountain" icon you can see in the DIS window, at the top of where you type your posts.
4. That mountain will open a window where you copy the full web address of the picture.
5. Voila, once you post the post, the pictures should turn up.

For more help, see:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1977120
on our Tech Board.

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Thank you very much cmp1111! I'm going to try my hand at posting pics of everyone tomorrow!

I've heard of photobucket before. I'm kind of challenged when it comes to some things so hopefully it will work well.

Aww twins! I LOVE babies. Caring for preemies was definitely a challenge. But I so loved watching them grow and get healthier! It continues to be such an exciting journey!

Well, tomorrow starts me and the little ones 100 book challenge. We are participating in it through our local library! So we will see how that goes! Courtney, my oldest daughter, already does something similar at her school. I'm pretty excited to see how it will turn out!

I hope everyone has a wonderful night!

 

[tinytreasures]

Yah for wish granters coming
you have to have 10 posts I think to post pictures

we just told the kids we were going to Disney world on monday they didn't have a clue we were leaving on sunday to get there

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

I LOVE that tinytreasures! I'm really excited. One of the wish granters called to say that the other wish granter needed to change the day to Tuesday! Which is actually better for me! I'm still very excited!

I just want the kids to be surprised. And the two little ones will understand that we are going somewhere, but until we get on that airplane I don't think it will sink in.

Now my oldest, Courtney??? She definitely is excited and I already told her that I'm not sure what his wish will be or when we are going. I told her that I wasn't going to tell her the date and she LOVED the idea of being totally surprised!

I sooo hope I can pull it off. It will be hard keeping it a secret. But I have you guys to talk to about it!

Oh, thanks for letting me know about the 10 post mininum! I already started putting a ton of pics on photobucket! So as soon as I reach my goal I'll give it a try!

 

[mrsksomeday]

You are a wonderful person for being a foster parent then adopting . It is really fun surprising someone with a Disney trip. Good luck on Tuesday, I can't wait to read all about it and see your pictures.

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

I am sooo hoping this works!!

Here is a picture of me and the kids!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Hoping this works!!

Selah, Me, Chase and Courtney!

 

[mrsksomeday]

You and your children are gorgeous, what a beautiful family!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

baby chase!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Chase and Selah before his first haircut!

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

Little Miss Selah

 

[wish_upon_a_star35]

After looking at these pictures, I realize how much I miss when they were this little!