A social worker a couple of years ago told me this. I had expressed some uneasiness at accepting the wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation for Gage. I remember thinking to myself at the time that this was for really, really sick kids…kids that could die.

When Gage went on dialysis we met with the social worker who went over all of the services that were available to us and she said that Gage was eligible for a wish to be granted. She said the people at Make-A-Wish would get in contact with us. They did, and we decided at the time that we couldn’t travel because of Gage’s dialysis and so we put off thinking about the wish. We knew then he’d wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building and we thought we could do it during winter (for the fun), and then the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade came up and well, that is what we settled on. Then last summer by the time we thought about NY and the Macy’s Day Parade it was too late to plan it, the flights (blackout days) weren’t working with our work schedule and so we put it off. We never told Gage.

Then around May or June I thought about it again, I called the Make-A-Wish and made contact with someone, who told me our volunteers were AWOL and we’d be working direct (usually there is a volunteer go-between). And so, Mary Kate has been planning our trip for a few months. She’s been working with the NY office. We learned that a company wanted to sponsor the trip – The Bowne Company.

The sponsoring companies of wishes sometimes like to have a send off party or such for the recipients and such is the case for us. I told Mary Kate that she needed to be warned that Gage isn’t likely to be engaging or outspoken. She asked if there was anything they could do to make him feel more comfortable and I said, get him an Indiana Jones action figure for 5 bucks. That might do it.

She called back with a date and news that someone in the company also likes Indy movies and they were planning a themed scavenger hunt. Gage is mightily excited about that!

Anyway, this trip isn’t about me. It’s about Gage. Gage getting to select something he wanted to do and then someone taking care of that wish. This isn’t a trip we would take. It just isn’t. We have a week off during summer and we hit the beach. We have the week off between Christmas and New Year and we stay at home. We go to the PKD Convention and when the kids come, I can’t say it’s a true vacation (with the exception of Disney) but it is important because they get to meet kids just like them.

So this trip? Is about Gage. And it’s been amazing to watch him be excited about something that is just for him. You should have seen his face yesterday when I told him we had very special “VIP” tickets to grandstand seating at the Macy’s Day Parade. Seriously.

It will be a priviledge to be there to watch him.