Joe's Wish Trip to Hawaii

This is the week that "a Wish with Wings" in Arlington, Texas is graciously granting Joe's wish to visit Hawaii to swim with the dolphins and take a helicopter ride to see a volcano. Our flight was scheduled to take off out of DFW on Wednesday but due to another predicted ice storm in North Texas that could delay our trip, Ms. Dominique from "a Wish with Wings" worked hard to rearrange our itinerary and send us out a day early. Thank you, Ms. Dominique! We are very grateful we did not get caught in the wintry mix in Texas.

First, Joe and family were surprised with a huge stretch limo that pulled up in front of our house. The kids went wild as they saw it approach and we are lucky we didn't leave anything behind as we scrambled out the door to see it. Joe and his brothers thought this was pretty cool and his wish was starting off great.

When we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by Ms. Dominique and Ms. Sarah from "a Wish with Wings". They took care of all our arrangements, got our luggage checked in, helped corral and entertain the boys, gave Joe (and family) a huge bag of goodies for the trip (including neck pillows and blankets that were great for the plane ride), coordinated our family to enter plane first and take pictures with the pilots in the flight deck and take care of every detail. Basically, Ms. Dominique and Ms. Sarah did everything and we followed along footloose and fancy free. This vacation was going really good for Mom and Dad, too:)

To help make the 8 1/2 hour flight go smooth for our boys, Kevin made a schedule for each of the them which included DS time, reading, drawing/coloring, lunch break, snack break, movie time, iPad time and rest time. The boys thought this was great and could follow along with each of their personalized schedules to anticipate what was next. I thought this was great because I could just check with Kevin as to what was next and no one complained. It was actually pretty easy until we had the dreaded vomiting. Both Caleb and Joe got sick on the plane about half way through the flight and each vomited a handful of times . Kevin took care of Caleb and I helped Joe. We went through all of our discomfort bags and had to get some from the people sitting next to us and more from the flight attendants. Thankfully, we didn't need the extra clothes we packed for the plane as each time we were able to get the bag ready in time. Despite being sick, both boys held it together and were still able to enjoy some DS or a movie in between vomiting.

On the plane, the captain announced that Joe and his brothers were on board for the wish trip. The captain came by to visit with Joe...before the vomiting:) A lady on board who heard about Joe being the special guest on the place sent back a special lei she had crocheted. Everyone was extremely nice and went out of their way to make this a special time for Joe and to help care for him when he got sick. We also got to take a picture with the crew at the end of the flight. Even though Joe didn't feel well he said, "this is all awesome."

The boys were exhausted by the time we landed. It was about 6:30 pm Hawaiian time and about 10:30 pm Texas time. We got on a shuttle that was waiting for us and headed to the wonderful Grand Waikikian hotel in Waikiki . Joe got sick on the shuttle one more time and I started to worry that this is more of a virus than plane sickness. After the kids all passed out in the lobby on their luggage, we got checked in and made it to the hotel. We have a gorgeous 2 bedroom suite with an ocean view. It has a kitchen, eating area and sitting area in between the two rooms and two bathrooms. We all love it. This is a great vacation for all of us!

Everyone slept great except for Joe. He continued to vomit the rest of the night and into this morning. He feels pretty good this morning but cannot hold down any liquids and is starving. Please pray that this passes quickly so he can enjoy his trip.

Thank you Ms. Dominique and "a Wish with Wing"...this trip is already so much more than we expected.