Saturday, February 13, 2010

Day 3, Way 3: Chrissie's Make-A-Wish Disney Dream

Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Shirt: Simply Love
The Site: http://www.mycrazyadoption.org/, http://www.hopechest.org/
The Scripture: “Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”  Isaiah 1:17
The Story: My Crazy Adoption blogger mom has these fantastic adoption fundraiser shirts. Her heart is in Africa, and I LOVE the design of her shirts. For Valentine’s Day, Crazy Mom sponsored a t-shirt fundraiser for Hope Chest. With every Valentine’s Day Simply Love t-shirt purchase, an orphan in Africa was given a pair of shoes. Check out Crazy Mom’s blog to learn more about adoption fundraising opportunities and orphan advocacy, and check out Hope Chest to learn all of the things we can do to help orphans around the world. (Hope Chest has teamed up with Focus on the Family.) There are so many ways to help, and all of these ways are really quite easy, such as purchasing shirts, giving a donation of $35 to feed, clothe and minister to an orphan in Africa, pray for 5 minutes/day for an orphan with HIV.  There's so much to do...whatcha waitin' for?!

Our Day 3 Make-A-Wish Adventure, Saturday, Feb. 13: We spent 12+ hours at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom today. It was a VERY cold morning, about 35 degrees with strong winds, making it feel even colder. We slept in until 8:30AM, then had a continental breakfast delivered to our room so we could get out the door quickly. We bundled up and drove to Magic Kingdom where we were overwhelmed upon our entry to Disney World since we have never been here. Disney World is like its own city. Seriously. We’re from this little hick town in the hill country with just a few thousand people, including those out in the boonies, and we drove into this Disney city and were simply overwhelmed. WHOA!!! There were thousands of vehicles going in all directions to get to a variety of parks. It’s very well-organized, and even though we had to park miles away from the park, they have a tram that zips into the parking lot loading areas and zooms over to the entrance to the park…well, close to the entrance. (We parked in Daisy 34.) The tram dropped us off near the entrance, and then we had to hope on the monorail to get to the “real” entrance to Magic Kingdom. We felt much like cattle being herded through cattle shoots, and we had no clue what we were doing. We were frozen like popsicles, so we stopped into the first shop to look for warmer gear. Unfortunately, every other visitor was also in this shop, and there wasn’t any cold weather gear left except for a beanie hat for Sawyer, which weren’t even Disney, but atleast it was warm!

We happened upon a Mickey show in front of the magical castle. (This is the castle that is shown in all of the Disney movies.) Beautiful moment. Chrissie LOVED watching the show, and she kept saying that it was Chrissie on stage each time a princess came out. Too cute.

After the show, we headed to Space Mountain, but Chrissie wasn’t tall enough to ride it. So, she and Matt hung out while the rest of us rode. The wonderful thing about being here with Make-A-Wish is that they take you straight to the front of the line. There’s no waiting, which was the biggest blessing of the entire day because the park was beyond packed. I heard lots of people saying it was more crowded today than at Christmas. The park was open until 1AM. I don’t know what was so special about today and why so many people were at the park, but it was really insane. We had no idea what we were doing, and we had hoped to just leisurely stroll around the park and visit whatever we happened upon as we strolled, but with the crowds being so intense, there was no way to stroll!!! We had to fight to move an inch. City folks might be used to that, but we are SOOOOOO not!!! Everyone wanted to go home, but I encouraged everyone to stay and tough it out.

We decided to get something to eat, and that was a disaster as the lines were about 2 hours for food, and our Make-A-Wish badge didn’t help with that wait. We eventually got some food, which was not tasty, and we had to basically fight like vultures to get a seat at a tiny table for 2 with 7 of us trying to eat. In the process, one of our chicken sandwiches fell to the ground. Not fun. I was tempted to head home as well.

I was seriously wondering why anyone likes Disney, but it was all worth it when Chrissie got to meet the Disney princesses and characters. She was in awe, and it was just precious. I would have waited in every line filled with extremely rude people, bullied through the crowds of thousands and walked what seems like a million miles anyday just for the unforgettable look on Chrissie's face as she adored the beautiful princesses, one on one, face to face. Simply adorable. (I think Disney's Magic Kingdom is much easier to navigate when it's less crowded, so I hope my post doesn't deter you from visiting.)
The sun came out in the afternoon at Magic Kingdom, and, boy, was it bright!

We hung out in the Fantasy Land section which had a TON of stuff for little ones. Chrissie rode all of the rides, and we joined her in her fantasy moments. As we waited in the Fast Pass line at the It’s a Small World ride, we conversed with a mom whose daughter actually had the exact same heart condition as Chrissie, pulmonary artery atresia, only Chrissie has more issues than the girl in line. The girl in line was 9 years old, but she had her first heart surgery when she was 2 hours old. The lady couldn’t believe that Chrissie was still alive and had never had surgery. I heard a friend of hers say, “So, how is she alive if she never had surgery?” Then the mom said, “I have no idea.” God is so good to get to show off His miracles like that! :-)
Chrissie riding next to her sister, Mattie, on a ride.

Chrissie and Parker on another ride.

Chrissie called this guy (from the It's a Small World ride) Parker b/c he is roping! :-)

The Small World ride had some amazing sights!


Chrissie got to meet Ariel up close, one on one, and then she met Pooh, Tigger and Eyeore. It just so happens that Ariel is Meribeth’s favorite, and Eyeore is Mattie’s favorite, so they were thrilled. Then Chrissie got to meet Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty. As Chrissie hammed it up with them, the crowds kept saying, “Oh my goodness, she is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!” And she was. Chrissie got Daddy to buy her a princess ring for every finger and two princess charm bracelets, along with a princess purse and t-shirt. She was SO happy, and she wrapped her arms around us and exclaimed, “Thank you, Mom, thank you, Dad! I love you!”


In the afternoon, the sun came out and made things seem more bearable with a rise in temperature to about 55 degrees. We rode more rides with Chrissie, and she LOVED the little roller coaster. She rode it 4 times straight, and exclaimed with joy, “I LOVE THIS!!! I NEED TO RIDE MORE!!!” That little coaster was Chrissie’s favorite ride of all, and she squealed with delight as she rode with her hands in the air. (It was actually a pretty fast coaster, too!) Matt said, “Oh my goodness, not another roller coaster fan in our family!!!” (Matt LOATHES roller coasters!!!)

We were able to ride most of the rides in the park. We stayed for the fireworks display a the castle at 8PM, and we watch Tinkerbell fly through the sky from the castle. The fireworks show was great, and Chrissie enjoyed every minute of it. She had never seen fireworks, and she kept telling us that it looked like rain (lightning). After the fireworks show, we decided to ride a few more rides, and then around 10PM, we decided we just couldn’t walk another step. We took the ferry (instead of the monorail) to the parking lot tram. As we glided across the water, Chrissie exclaimed with delight, “I am so happy. I am so excited. I love this. I love my mom, and I love my dad, and I love Parkey, too. And Mattie. And Meribeth. And Sawyer. And I want to show Stephanie and Emily and Samantha my princesses tomorrow.”

Precious. Priceless. Thank you, God!



1 comment:

Kari said...

Lorraine,
I'm weeping!!!!!!!! You will never know how blessed I am meeting you in bloggy land. The photos are beautiful... you spread love all over Disney!! Thanks for letting a little part of me there with you!!
We are praying!!!
love,
Kari

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