Disney World - Act 7

November 16, 2011

Disney World - Act 7

Our final days were spent doing our favorite things. It was such a great trip and we were definitely not ready to see it end. It was a wonderful escape from reality and we made some marvelous memories with Waverly & Oliver.

Oliver hugging Pooh

Smiley girl

Waverly with her best bud, Minnie

The kids and I on the Tea Cups

Waverly & Oliver waiting to board Dumbo

Matt and Oliver about to fly

All of us on the carousel

Comments

Messy and Wonderful said…

I have just caught up on all of your Disney posts. What an amazing memory and I am brought to tears thinking about each day you hold so tightly to. I watched your step-dad on t.v. and it is so fun to see you on your trip. I really hope your house deal goes through soon!!!

November 16, 2011 at 11:37 PM

Kamarah said…

Thanks for sharing all the wonderful pictures Shannon - so many brought tears to my eyes - I'm so thankful for your opportunity to go and for the amazing time you all had together!!!

November 17, 2011 at 8:19 PM

Susan said…

Reading all these has been such a treat. Thanks for letting me vicariously visit 2 things I love: Disney and your kids! I am so glad so many pulled out all the stops for your family.

November 18, 2011 at 12:27 PM

Pamela said…

Waverly looks so happy in the first picture of her in this post!

December 6, 2011 at 3:28 AM

Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.