“A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you’re fast asleep. In dreams, you will lose your heartache. Whatever you wish for, you keep… A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you’re feeling small. Alone in the night you whisper, thinking no one can hear you at all. You wake with the morning sunlight, to find fortune that is smiling on you. Don’t let your heart be filled with sorrow! For all you know, tomorrow the dream that you wish will come true!”
– Lyrics from “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, by A.Hoffman, J.Livingston & M. David, made famous by Disney’s Cinderella.
“My true number one wish is that Jesus would return, but you probably can’t make that happen, sooo… My number one wish is to go to Disney World!!!” It seemed like only a couple weeks ago that Mercy had made her wish request to her Make-A-Wish (MAW) Michigan sponsors, yet here we were, Dan and I, in the wee hours of the morning, trying to decide if we could make breakfast reservations work at Be Our Guest Castle in the Magic Kingdom. (We couldn’t, but we had to talk it through. Mercy’s epilepsy is triggered by waking and sleep deprivation, amongst other things. The timing for this open slot wasn’t a good fit.)
A 7:00 a.m., us parents were busy bustling around in the kitchen, making breakfast, packing last minute items, and trying in vain – again- to contact the limousine service. Mercy had been counting on her first limo ride to jump start her Wish Trip, since they’d surprised her with their plan, months ago. I had been trying since open of business the day prior to confirm our pick up time with them, as instructed by MAW.
I’d called the number for the limo company several times, only to be directed to a full voicemail which was not accepting messages. I left my number on a pager for a return call. None came. Looking up the business online, I found their 1-800 number and called that, but was routed to the same full voicemail box. Writing them via their “contact us” link on their webpage resulted in an error message repeatedly popping up. (It was at about that time I noticed they had a 1 out of 5 star rating for customer satisfaction!) We left messages for our contacts at MAW, but by then it was past close of business on Friday night. So, I did what any desperate mama might do: I called my sister! She agreed to be our backup transportation to the airport, should the limo driver not show.
Saturday morning, we packed our luggage in the back of our van, just in case. A very important answer to prayer, Mercy’s absence seizures were manageable when she woke, even after excited jitters had kept her from falling asleep on time the night before. Now, we stood in the driveway craning our necks to catch our first glimpse of that stretched, fancy sedan: one bouncing, excited MAW child who’d dreamed of this moment for months, breathing excited puffs into the crisp autumn morning air, one toddler excited just because the rest of us were, running in circle bursts, and one mother praying for another small miracle: that this delinquent limo company would not spoil the start of my daughter’s one wish. Nine a.m., the scheduled pick-up time came and went. Daddy suggested we wait another ten minutes. Still no limo.
Mercy’s unquenchable excitement bubbled out in song! “This is the Day that the Lord has Made”, she crooned. We all joined in, and there were smiles all around! My heart was happy for my daughter for this gift of a gorgeous, low-seizure morning, of a wish coming true, of life. A half hour after our designated pick-up time, when we loaded the kids into the van, Mercy voiced her sadness and disappointed, but also determined to be happy that she was still headed on her Wish Trip. We couldn’t have been more proud of her attitude: my prayer answered, if not in the way I’d hoped. Off we drove toward’s my sister’s house on Transportation Plan B.
No limo. But, no broken hearts.
Wishes For Mercy 