The place where dreams inspire hope and a permanent smile :)

On the 28th may 2014 taneshas dream came true we was sent by make a wish uk to walt Disney world in orlando florida to stay at the give kids the world village for a week it was a special week as it was also tanesha 5th birthday and she wanted to meet woody and buzz.
On the morning of the flight we was all very nervous as this was our first time I was feeling anxious and tanesha was happy as larry watching all the planes out of the window and to be honest it was pretty amazing.

The moment we stepped off the plane I felt this place was special and it truly was we had to take a shuttle bus to the departure and a wonderful lady with an angel badge on  was stood there holding up a large sign with taneshas name on it she held taneshas hand as I pushed the luggage trolly and she went to get our taxi to gktw , on the way I thought I was in heaven it was so beautiful palm trees everywhere the stunning buildings and the people was so nice but this was just a small piece of it.

As soon as we pulled up outside gktw a young man came out to greet us sat us down and went through the basics and gave us our cards which was our door key as well as our meal card he got buggy which looks like a golf cart and our bags and gave us a tour of the village explaining everything that we needed to know and giving me the times for the meeting later on I was gobsmacked this place was more than amazing and the smile on taneshas face from the moment she stepped through the house of hearts door was priceless.

        While I went to the meeting to get all the info of our shuttle bus and our park tickets tanesha went to try out the water feature with her sister and she had a blast I have never known a place like this ever so clean and beautiful the volunteers are so helpful and friendly and go above and beyond to help in any way they can even at meal time they carry your trays to the tables for you although we totally not use to this and felt bad we just let them get on with it they were very persuasive haha they are true angels.

Every morning we got up we had a good morning from everybody as soon as you step out the door to go for breakfast, the gingerbread house was an amazing restaurant place where they do your meals and its truly beautiful they have every Disney toy you could ever imagine around the top on shelves from teddies,cars,dolls tanesha loved looking at them all while we was eating and the food was lovely too.
One of tanesha favourite things was the carousel she rode the lion on there a few times a day every day without fail .

and I never seen her smile so much has she did on there and also meeting ms merry and mayor clayton,

she had a tuck in on her birthday, went to the mayors surprise birthday party, dressed as woody to the Halloween party, went to the winter wonderland parade , sat in front of the snoring tree, had fun in the pool and water feature, rode the train at amberville ,played mini golf in her own funny way dodging the water sprinklers along the way lol ,watched movies at the theatre she had a ball priceless moments that we will treasure forever.

 

 

ICE CREAM FOR BREAKFAST!!!!! yes you read right ice cream is served in the ice cream palace every morning and you can have it for breakfast in a cone on pancakes with syrup or a yummy banana split ( this was my favourite) as well as the rest of the day im surprised I dint put on 2 stone with the ice cream I consumed and tanesha had a cone every day and a banana split on one of the days yummy we now do this at home !!

Since I have started the chd journey with tanesha I have met many wonderful people some of which have become close friends ,I love meeting new people and hearing their stories this trip was no different, I have a chd friend that I have on facebook but we had never met as we live in different countries but gktw brought us together and I finally got to meet cherish wells and her husband and 2 beautiful children malaki and zebediah (sorry if the spelling is wrong) zeb is a heart warrior like tanesha and also has a brain condition but he is the sweetest little darling

and him and tanesha enjoyed looking at woody together and also spent a little time having there pic took with characters we will never forget these guys and miss them dearly.

my friends are important to me and have been a big part of my life since tanesha was born they become like my family  to me and  tanesha  before we went to gktw I got talking to a wonderful lady called Janine Russell  she is british but moved to florida years ago and is now a volunteer at gktw we finally met Janine and her husband john while there and shes truly is amazing she made us feel at home and introduced us to some of the other volunteers she went shopping with us for our souvenirs  and tanesha loves her we loved spending time with her and she will always be part of our memories of this wonderful place and also have a place in our hearts.

 

 







One of the most treasured memories that we have from the trip is a star that tanesha wrote her name on and it has been placed on the ceiling of the castle of miracles in the star tower there are thousands up there it is so overwhelming to see them and we will hopefully save enough to come back and see it in a few years time and also volunteer there ourselves we have one word for this magical place that gives sick children hope

 

                                                                     AWESOME !!!!