Jacob's Disney World Trip

Hello World, this is Sarah Gaskins. My 9-year-old son, Jacob, has Cerebral Palsy. While Jake is bright, beautiful, and fully cognitive, he is also non-verbal, bound to his wheelchair, and has very, very little control over his body. He has to be fed through a g-tube in his stomach and his spasticity can make some days pretty difficult. Still, no matter what, Jake always finds a way to smile through it.

Jake loves Disney. When he isn’t in school, or having therapy, he’s watching Disney. It’s always there, in the background. Often when he goes to sleep he wants us to leave the Disney Channel on. He has the most infectious laugh and those shows never fail to make him crack up. For years I’ve been promising him that one day we’ll make a trip out to Disney World. My hope is that we can make that trip before he is too old to enjoy it.

Our plan is to drive there from our home in Austin, TX, with a hotel stop on the way. Staying in the resort or a very nearby hotel would be ideal, as we considered transportation to and from the park, diaper changes, and the fact that he can get pretty hot in his chair and might need to retire to the room from time to time. Still, just getting to Orlando would be a blessing. We plan on using the money for gas, hotel, tickets and possibly bringing one of our caregivers along to help.

We haven’t told him about the possible trip (we don’t want to get his hopes up just yet) but would really appreciate any support you are willing to give. Thank you so much in advance and we promise to update as soon as possible. God bless!