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Christmas at our house has always been a big deal. This year we got to experience some Christmas magic Make-A-Wish style. One of the local radio stations, KBER 101 to be exact, sponsored a ride to the “North Pole” on the Polar Express for the Make A Wish kids and their families.
Of course we had to sign up. We all met at the radio station early that morning and boarded charter buses, headed for the mountains here in Utah and the “Polar Express”. The ride is about 40 minutes from Salt Lake into the little town of Heber. Of course we watched the Polar Express movie on the ride before stopping at McDonalds for lunch.
Some back story here. Back in the day Heber City was a big stop on the train lines. Over the years as cars have taken over train travel, they still preserve some of that nostalgic train stuff. Years before, you could take a ride on the “Heber Creeper” and experience what it was like to travel in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. It is fun to see some of the things that you may have only seen in movies before. They have different class cars, the first class ones have fans and fancy paint, snack cars and the lower class cars which are still in great shape. Over the winter, they have turned the Heber Creeper into the Polar Express. You board the train and take a ride over the river and through the woods to Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole! Expensive most of the time, but fun for the kids.
After lunch we headed to the train and boarded. It was a wonderful day with plenty of sun! Riding the train was a fun time for all of the kids. They spent the time rehearsing their Santa speeches and getting their letters ready. What better way to get the stuff you want for Christmas than to give your letter to the Man himself? The train is fun on its own too, the conductor punches your tickets and they get to blow the horn at every street crossing. One of the DJ’s from the radio station came around and led us in Christmas carols.
Finally, the train stopped but we had no idea where Santa’s workshop was. It seems that he needed to move into some nicer digs and so was up the road a parcel, where the train didn’t quite reach. So we hit the buses again for a short ride. Then we were in a rather nice lodge with some great pictures of the 2002 Winter Olympics on the wall. And there was Santa as well as a bunch of people from the radio station.
Again, the people who do things for the Make A Wish foundation are so great. This whole party was brought about by KBER, its employees and the listeners. And it was fantastic. No one went without toys, hot chocolate or cookies. No one felt isolated. All of the staff and volunteers were very nice and helpful to all of the kids. It is a wonderful feeling to go to a place where people don’t see kids with ‘something wrong” they just see kids.
Amelia has some great scars but they don’t show when she is wearing clothes. Many kids have physical problems that are obvious. Some are on ventilators, or have tracheotomies; some just have various types of dystrophy that keeps their bodies from looking like something in a magazine. I will tell you, those kids are strong. They are some of the hardest fighting people in the world. They live day in and day out with people staring at them and walking the other way. They live with people giving them odd looks, or being sympathetic when these kids just want to be treated normally.
We had some of this when Amelia was on dialysis. She had a feeding tube in her nose and a catheter in her chest close to her neck. Sometimes this catheter would show. Now these are simple things and not scary and not as dramatic as some kids have. You wouldn’t believe the looks we would get for a baby with a feeding tube in her nose. People would walk the other way. People would start to talk to us and jerk away when they saw it. It was a horrific thing to see the catheter. And it was all bull. There is no reason these kids can’t be treated as normal. And that is what they got up with Santa.
We waited in line to get to Santa and we got to see him. I am convinced he was the real Santa. He held each and every kid. He talked to each and every one, no matter their infirmity or disposition. He took kids from their wheelchairs to hold and get a picture. He did whatever seemed the best idea at the time. He was fantastic.
When our turn arrived, the kids took their letters to him. With Cameron on one knee and Amelia on the other he read both letters and talked to them, not in a hurry for them to get down or wanting to rush them. It was special for them all. And they took some great pictures that are not only in our Christmas stuff now but were up on the wall at KBER as well.
The kids then got to pick out a toy from Santa’s sleigh. They each took their turn and got what they wanted. We then colored pictures for the radio station to say thanks for everything. After that, it was back on the buses and back to Salt Lake.
The kids will never forget that trip. They will never forget any of the things that Make A Wish does. **Disclaimer- this blog is mostly about Make A Wish and our trip through. I have not forgotten HopeKids; we still attend things with them as well. They will always hold a special place in our hearts and we have not forgotten them. This blog is just about this Make A Wish journey. There will be more about HopeKids here and there as well as on other blogs. They were first for us and we will always be with them.**
It is nearly overwhelming the outpouring that we get from Make A Wish. I can see how it would be so easy to get greedy and just want to take, take, take. Fortunately, our family is not like that. We have raised our kids to be humble and thankful for things. HopeKids and Make A Wish are organizations that give so much, with their main goal being to make kids happy.
We are continuously humbled and overwhelmed by the “giving” that goes on with both of these organizations. It is sometimes hard to accept the generosity and to feel that we actually “deserve” it. Part of that is because Amelia is healthy and doesn’t act like she has a transplant or a lifelong disease. She is here, she is alive and healthy. That is all we have ever asked for, and then we get more. All we can say is thank you, again and again, thank you.
<—-the calm before the storm..again. 
