The little girl wore a shiny sequined dress and thought she was going to a fancy dinner.

But because Make-A-Wish and the Disney Resort were involved, it was so much more than that.

“She’s going to live happily ever after,” said Nisha Morris, whose 7-year-old daughter Nathasha (which in Hindi means “hope”) was surprised Friday night at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel.

In the middle of a song and dance number celebrating 14 children who previously had their wishes granted, a camera focused on the unsuspecting Nathasha.

“Hi beautiful,” emcee Kristi Wilhelm of the Young Americans singing group said, and suddenly, the shy girl from Ladera Ranch was escorted to the stage and became the star of the show. More than 500 people who had come to the Disney Resort from around the world cheered and wiped their eyes when they heard about the little girl with the horrible illness. Nathasha, whose wish was simply to go to Disneyland, became the focal point of Make-A-Wish’s week-long global conference at Disneyland.

At the same dinner, the host organization, Make-A-Wish Orange County and the Inland Empire, introduced Luke Baca, a 7-year-old cancer patient from Texas, whose dream to visit Disneyland was the 100,000th granted by the national Make-A-Wish organization, which was founded in 1980.

Friday night, the dinner guests contributed $250,000 to the local Make-A-Wish organization.

“I can’t imagine what it is like for these kids,” said Disney Marketing Strategy Vice President Jeff Larson. “I know these wishes inject them with a new sense of hope.”

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Stephanie McCormick, CEO of OC and IE Make-A-Wish, was beaming when she announced to the crowd that a child would have her wish fulfilled during the middle of the fund-raising dinner.

“This is one of the most powerful and magical experiences a child could ever have,” McCormick said. “There is nothing more powerful than the smile of a wish child.”

Nathasha Morris was born with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, a rare disease that makes it impossible for her to breathe while she is sleeping.

In other words, if she falls asleep without the aid of a ventilator, she will die.

“We could put her in a bubble,” Nisha Morris said. “But we want her to live a normal life.”

Nisha, who is a director of media relations for St. Joseph Health, and Randy, who is self employed as a software architect, have a nurse in their home 16 hours per day to help them to take care of their daughter, who is unable to breathe.

Nathasha has a tracheotomy, an open hole in her throat, so she is susceptible to infection. Her wish to go to Disneyland won’t be completed until around Christmas because she’s had a sinus infection and pneumonia in recent months.

“I want her to be completely healthy,” her mother said.

Nathasha and her family spent Friday night at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel.

“She’s so smart,” Nisha said. “She is normal. She has friends. She spends her time laughing, playing, running. We have created a new normal, which is far more precious and beautiful.”

David Williams, the Make-A-Wish America president, said there is more work to be done. His organization grants wishes to almost 15,000 children each year. But there are almost 27,000 who are eligible (meaning they have a progressive, degenerative or malignant life-threatening condition).

“There are other kids out there we haven’t reached yet,” Williams said. “We can offer something positive that these children and their families never thought could happen.

“We offer the power of hope.”