Disney day 1

Oh my gosh! We are having such an amazing time down here. I felt the need to blog about it so u can recall every amazing detail...plus I know a few people are interested in hearing all about Finn's wish. Finn did awesome on the plane.  He is such a well behaved boy! We arrived early Sunday morning, but we were all so exhausted from the early travel that we just napped and were kind of lazy. Ethan and I had to go to an orientation at Give Kids The World to get all of Finn's swag. They provide 3 day hopper passes to Disney with a special fast pass as well as 2 day Universal pass with a fast pass as well. Not to mention permission to use the VIP lounges at both parks, a picture card so we get all unlimited professional pictures taken of us at the park, a pin Finn needs to wear at all times so he gets treated like royalty...those are just the park perks. They have so many fun activities planned for all the kids that get to stay at GKTW. This is the most wonderful place filled with the nicest people you have ever met.

Day 1. I made everyone get up early bc according to our GKTW itinerary a bunch of disney characters will be at the village taking pictures and signing autographs!
Finn got to meet Mary Poppins, Mickey, Pluto, and Goofy! It was awesome to meet the characters at the village bc they took time to really interact with Finn. Finn was always trying to grab their noses! They took as many pictures as you wanted with them and there were like no lines to meet them!

After that we headed to magic kingdom where we were treated like royalty. No waiting in line for this party! We got to walk on every single ride we went on! And we rode a lot, surprisingly,  I was a little worried finn wouldn't be able to ride much. But he was and he enjoyed it so much. His favorite ride so far has been it's a small world...which is surprising bc everyone hates that ride. Haha. It's great to see finn have a great time, but one of my favorite things is seeing ethan have such a great time. He has never been to Disney before and never really had a desire to go, but you can't help but get sucked in to the magic here! Ethan's 12 year old self has been coming out to play and I am really enjoying seeing him have a great time!! Actually that goes for all of us! I think my mom got star struck when she met Mary Poppins!  I feel like we have already done so much and we just got here!!

Switches, the kindness of strangers, and Disney!

I want to start this entry by saying how amazingly kind people are in general to Finn and our family. I started this blog with its sole purpose to be an outlet for me to get a lot of things/feelings off my chest, to be a therapy tool to help me cope with this situation we are in. But the longer I do this I am realizing that this is a great way to keep people updated in how Finn is doing, what challenges we are facing, what he has accomplished, and the struggles I face as a mother to a special needs child. My target audience was of course family members who live far away from us, but I am finding out that way more people keep tabs on Finn than I realize. I have gotten such amazing feedback from people I haven't talk to since high school, friends of family members, and even strangers who have reached out to offer advice, words of comfort, and even gifts for Finn. Most recently Finn received this in the mail from someone I have never met.

I feel very lucky to have people in this world who are in Finn's corner and rooting for him and thinking of him. So from the bottom of my heart I thank each and every one of you.

Finn has started preschool in August and since then our schedule as been pretty busy.

 

 He goes to school 4 days a week on top of going to therapy 3 times a week. So he is always doing something. Our latest thing is getting Finn to communicate through the use of switches. It is amazing how awesome this technology is. He is learning how to find his voice and tell us what he wants and needs. Unfortunately, he is only able to use this technology once a week. I am hoping to get one funded so we can have one to use at home b/c he does awesome! We were at speech therapy this morning and just look how awesome he does with this technology! The first video is early in the session, and he hadn't had speech for 2 weeks so he was a little rusty, but the other videos posted are later that same session and he is speedy with his switches!

He does that well with only using this once a week!! Can you imagine how expressive and talkative he will be when he has one of these full time!? God, he makes me so proud!

Our family leaves for Disney in less than a week. We are really looking forward to our vacation. I know Finn will have such a great time, and I am sure I will be taking like 1,000 pictures that I will be sure to share once we get back!