A few weeks ago my family had the vacation of a lifetime. A little back story, in 2019 my family scheduled and booked a cruise to the Caribbean and we were all so excited, and then 2020 hit… everything was canceled. We were bummed but hopeful and rescheduled for a 2021 cruise. Actually, we got rebooked twice for a grand total of 3 booked and canceled cruises. After the third cruise got canceled we decided to look at booking a Disney vacation. Our Disney travel agent was amazing and we got a great deal. On the positive side was our flights were already paid for and the cost of the cruise was similar to what the Disney vacation package was going to cost. It seemed like a no-brainer decision. 

We booked our dream Disney vacation without telling our two daughters. That’s when I got to work, I made shirts for our whole family for every day while we were in the parks and ordered Minnie Mouse ears and hats. Once everything arrived and was created we placed everything in a big box and told them we had a surprise for them. They opened the box and were unsure at first but then realized where we were going! DISNEY! Then my oldest started to count how many shirts I made for each of them. She said “Five. Why do we have five shirts?” I didn’t want to just come out and say it. I wanted them to figure it out so I said, “why do you think you have five shirts?” Then it hit her, not only were we going to Disney we were going to all four parks and one of the parks twice! We always dreamed of going on a full-blown Disney vacation but it never worked out in the past and now our girls are at the perfect age for a trip just like this. Also, can I mention I was kinda stoked to not have to drag a stroller around with me the whole time! 

I might have been more excited than our girls to go to Disney because I’m a Disney kid through and through. One of my favorite movies as a kid was Lion King. The animated version, not the new live-action, not only because that version wasn’t around when I was young but also I’m not a fan of the live-action. If you are a true Disney fan and watch the new version you may have noticed that some of what I believe are iconic lines were left out of the script…. Ok, I will move on because I could tell you many reasons why it is not the superior movie. So as I was saying, Lion King was one of my favorite movies. One Saturday my dad was wallpapering the entryway in our home and while he was working all day on that project I got to watch Lion King. I was so excited but I’m pretty sure my dad knows the movie line for line, or at least he did. I watched it not once, not twice, but more times than I can count. These were also the days of VHS tapes. The continuing of watching and rewinding and watching again might have overworked the VHS to the point of no return. I don’t think VHS tapes were designed to be watched that many times in one day. With that one glimpse into my life, it should make sense to see how excited I am about being an adult and taking my kids to Disney.

We had an amazing time together, ate delicious food and snacks, and came back tired but so grateful to have an experience like this together. You know sometimes when life throws you a curveball you might just get to experience something new and better than you had planned. Our curveball was that our cruise got canceled three times but the outcome was we got to have the most amazing Disney experience. It really is the most magical place on earth. 

When the world throws something pretty crappy in your path, keep hope alive. My husband always says “we can’t always control what is happening around us, but we can control how we respond.” How we respond can demolish or bring to life that hope. And even better is as Christians we have hope in Jesus. He will never fail us. Sometimes we just need to be patient and wait on his timing, not ours. 

I pray that this blog today was an encouragement to you and can help in your daily life. Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer! 

Talk to you next Monday!