At Give Kids the World as he was getting ready to hang his star, Asher finally began to understand he wasn’t as alone in his medical struggles as he thought. Kari, his mom said seeing the thousands of other stars helped to give him perspective and meeting other kids like him throughout the village gave him a sense of belonging.

“It was a really emotional part of the trip,” Kari said.

Diagnosed with kidney and bladder complications before his early birth, Asher’s life has been a whirlwind of procedures, surgeries and hospital stays to keep him healthy. He was just a toddler when his kidney function became problematic enough to require dialysis, then a transplant. It was then that his family was connected with Make-A-Wish.

At the time, Asher was still a young preschooler, and the concept of a wish was hard for him to grasp. He was obsessed with superheroes and a trip to the Florida theme parks seemed a good fit for this brave little guy. 

Everything was scheduled for the summer of 2019 when a new complication requiring surgery came up, delaying his wish for several months. Just as they were ready to reschedule, the pandemic hit, and Asher’s wish was delayed yet again. During the years that followed Asher had several hospitalizations, but the anticipation of his wish never wore off. He’d get excited every time he watched the opening of Disney movies featuring Cinderella’s Castle. In the hospital again just three days before his rescheduled wish date, the idea of visiting the Magic Kingdom was what he needed to keep his spirits high.