Special Wish Eve

It is Special Wish eve for Miss Ally Barnett. She was just tucked into her bed in her own room on the 14th floor of the Hollywood Renaissance hotel, a beautiful 4 diamond hotel. I am sitting in the other half of our suite looking out upon the Hollywood skyline. We are in the corner room and have windows from floor to ceiling. Down below, at the Graumann's Chinese Theater, the red carpet covers the sidewalks as a movie premiered at the theater tonight. I just finished painting Miss A's nails, as we leave about noon tomorrow for the Hollywood Center Studios. We will be viewing about a half hour of the taping of the Wizards of Waverly Place. This is a Disney show featuring Selena Gomez. Ally has always been enthralled with magic and spent many of her sickest days watching this show. Since she decided upon her wish, well over a year ago, Selena Gomez's stock has shot up. She is now the "it" Hollywood girl of choice amongst the younger girls. Hannah Montana is out and Selena Gomez now seems to have the top spot. She has several songs in the top 40 and just released her new album last week. She is in several movies as well and even started her career at a very young age on the show Barney (which I can guarantee you Ally watched).

Apparently, after the taping, there will be a surprise for Ally. There will actually be a surprise for all of us because I wouldn't let anyone fill me in on the details. I wanted to be surprised too. We have waited long enough and I can certainly wait to see what it is. I do hope I can sleep tonight. It seems a bit like Christmas! In my thoughts, as always, is the gratefulness for how far we have come. Not for the Hollywood glamour trip, but for the fact that we have made it through 18 months of chemotherapy and we have a happy now nine year old girl. That was my wish...Mommy's wish. I am eternally grateful that the leukemia is in remission and praying that it always stays that way. I am grateful for all the good that has come my way and the support of so many people who carried us through.

But yes I am glad for the wish coming true too. At times, I feel guilty that we are even doing this, but then I quickly remember that Ally so deserves this. Her wish got her through so many of the bad times. If anyone deserves a day filled with sunshine in Southern California it is her. And Evan. And Carly. They have all been through it. So far we have enjoyed going to Disneyland and another one of their parks called California Adventure (which is kind of a cross between Epcot and Universal). Ally rode her first major roller coaster that goes upside down! She couldn't get enough of the big rides and I have loved watching her (try to) run from one ride to the next. I always chuckle when I see her try to break out into a run....1 because she didn't feel well enough to run for oh so long and 2 she really lacks the muscle tone/coordination to run and looks silly trying. It makes me so happy to see her having fun. We also travelled down closer to San Diego and went to Legoland.....the joy in Evan's eyes the entire day was priceless. He LOVES legos. Ally too. It was a great park. They also really enjoyed the beach. We went to Laguna Beach, which was quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been. Up in the mountains, cliffs leading down to the beach, flowers and natural beauty everywhere. I have taken something close to 600 pictures already. I will have to pare them down a little and share on the blog.

I will update more later. For now, I wanted to mention one thing coming up this weekend. Saturday, at Wright State, the men's soccer team will be hosting "Ally's Army" night at their game. I would love if anyone would like to come to the game and welcome Ally home from her wish. The game is against Butler and will be at 7pm Saturday night. The soccer fields are just behind the Nutter Center, down the road a bit. All of the proceeds from the tickets etc will go to Ally's Army...and we will in turn be donating it to a worthy cause. We are hoping some of our army will make the trek to the game and show support to WSU and Ally's Army! We may be jet lagged, but we will be there in our orange!

Praying the Wizards is all I hope it can be for her......