Anna's first trip to Disney World!

I'm sitting and writing this post from  a wonderful balcony overlooking the ocean. Tomorrow we will be heading back home to enjoy the rest of summer vacation and to get our house prepared to welcome Samuel this fall.  A few months ago this trip seemed so far away.  With school schedules, adoption paperwork, K.C.'s work travel, and lots of home improvement projects I wasn't really enjoying my life as much as I would have liked to. In January, before we knew we would be adopting Samuel, we had promised ourselves and our kids that this year was going to be a vacation year.  The last two years of preparing for Anna, bringing her home, and adjusting to life with a little one with special needs along with K.C.'s work and travel schedule increasing had taken their toll.  Anna's adoption and medical care left us with little money or time left over for vacation. But vacations are important. They help you get away from the everyday stresses of life and connect as a family. So we decided that despite the fact that we were embarking on another adoption we really wanted to keep that promise to ourselves and our kids and we wanted to go to Disney World! Anna is at such a fun age, and the older kids hadn't been in years so we decided to just go and enjoy ourselves. Thankfully we still had 2 day tickets left to Disney we had purchased 8 years ago and with the miles on Southwest from K.C.'s business trips we were able to fly all six of us to Orlando for free.

While we were at Disney World I mentioned to K.C. that I felt a little guilty spending money on this vacation while we are in the middle of an adoption.  I was so blessed by his response, " You should never feel guilty about adopting a child."  That was the grace I needed. Adoptions are so expensive and it is so hard to figure out how to afford all of it, but God always provides. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need.  I know that right now, for us, we needed to go to Disney World. We did it as frugally as we could and we enjoyed every minute of making memories with our kids. At the end of our day at the Magic Kingdom we were riding the monorail back to the parking lot and a very sleepy little girl looked up at me from her stroller and said, "Mommy, that was fun going to Disney World." That was all I needed to know that we had made the right decision. In a few months Anna's life is going to change dramatically. Right now, spending time making her feel special and loved is very important. Taking time out of our busy life and just enjoying time together as a family is something we have all needed and it was worth every penny.

Here's a little slideshow of some of our Magic Kingdom fun.

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