I am so very thankful for the 10 day trip we were able to take to Walt Disney World. It was always a dream of ours to take our girls there. The girls are the perfect age right now as they will all remember it. I just wish we could have gone on the trip for a different reason. I am, however, thankful that we did it now as it’s getting more difficult and painful to move around.

Lots of people have been asking how the trip was, so let me start off telling you the people behind the scenes that helped make it extra magical. I’ll do at least one more post about the trip telling about other things.

First of all, we used Rachel from The Magical Mama as our travel agent. She took care of all our arrangements with Disney, at no extra cost, so we didn’t have to worry about that. She also made us all Disney journals, gave us an adorable scrapbook to put our pictures in, AND made us matching Small World t-shirts. How amazing is that! She went over and above to take care of us. I am so thankful for her.

Second, my friend Cathy from high school, who works at Disney World, knows people in housekeeping at our resort and they took great care of us. Thanks for making our time at the resort more magical Cathy.

Next, 2 friends, Jenny and Christina nominated me for a WHO Dream from The Valley Girls and Guys. Tina contacted me 4 days before we left and let me know we were being granted this dream!  She asked what we already had planned and then her and her team got to work to add some magic to our trip and WOW! They sure did!

I have no idea how Tina and her team pulled all this off in 4 days, but they did. And our trip was definitely more magical because of it. I had booked our casita at the Coronado Springs Resort, booked our flights and rented a car for us. This is what they added to it. Hold on……it’s crazy!!

• $1,000 cash
• $1,000 in Visa and Disney Gift Cards
• $1,500 on their hotel account room for food, spa or whatever they desired.
• $400 paid for Family photos on April 12th with Abigail Nilsson Photography (see below)
• $125 Custom Ears were delivered to our room from Ears for Each Other
• Limo to and from the airport from Rainer Limousine
• Meal and drinks at Club 33 donated by Holly and family – This was a dream come true!
• 7 hour VIP tour donated by Holly and family – This was INCREDIBLE!
• Ashlee Alexander – made 2 sets of 5 customized shirts
• Cory McDonough – 3 Alaska airline lounge passes
• Ears for Each Other for putting us at the top of the list and making customized ears for all 5 of us
• Amazing drawstring bags for each of us with snacks, fans, ponchos, chap stick, hand sanitizers….all the little fun necessities for the trip.
• Basket full of scrapbook and supplies to make a scrapbook of our trip when we get home

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The family photos turned out so cute and I’m so glad we had matching shirts and ears to wear!

When Tina was telling us about the dream at the airport, she just kept going and going and going. I couldn’t believe it! All of this was added to our trip. So many people who we have never met, donated specific things or money to the non-profit so that our family could have this time away together. How do we even go about thanking them? One way is to walk in their #BeTheHopeWalk fundraiser in July. This fundraiser will help raise money so they can help other families like ours. Click here if you’d like to walk with us or donate. This was a trip of a life time. Thank you, thank you, thank you Valley Girls & Guys!!!!!

In addition to all of that, we received cash and gift cards from friends, teachers, doctors and family. Even while we were on the trip, I was getting gift cards emailed to us. My Oncologist even ordered flowers in a cute Mickey mug and had them sent to our room. Thank you all so much for caring for us in that way. That was generous of you!

Thank you also to everyone that was praying for us! While it was a fun and great trip, it was also hard, both emotionally and physically. Thank you for praying for my body that I would be able to physically do the trip. Thank you for praying for my emotions as I processed what this trip meant for our family. Thanks for praying for rest and quality family time. And thanks for all the other things you prayed for. I am so thankful and grateful for your prayers!

In other news….

I’ve been in a lot of pain and very tired since we’ve been home. Today, my pain is much more under control, and I’m very thankful for that. It’s been very painful to move for the past 4 days.

Looking ahead to this week, I start my new chemo on Monday. It takes longer to infuse, so I think I will be there from 11 am until 4 or 5 pm. Please pray my body responds well to this new chemo and that it will kill the cancer and relieve some of the pain I’m currently having. As always, thank you so much for thinking and praying for our family.

I’ll write more about what we did on our trip in a few days.

Lastly, if you are local and are able to help with meals, dates are up for May. This takes a huge burden off of Tom and we really appreciate them.