Disney World. Thank You.

Ahhh, Disney World.  Where do I begin?

First, I want to say thank you.  I have struggled for weeks thinking about what I was going to say in this post.  I mean, how do you begin to thank people for this kind of generosity!?

I do not think I will ever be able to convey how great of a gift this was for our family. To all who supported this trip and helped make it happen in any way, we will remain eternally grateful for your love and generosity.  We had an absolute fantastic time and we have a boat load of wonderful memories to keep forever. It was a wonderful week on so many levels.  Harlie did great, and only needed oxygen now and then versus all the time.  And, I suppose we have the Disney magic to thank for this, but she had NO accidents the entire time we were there!  It was a Disney miracle!

I am excited to share more details.  But, that will be a longer post for sure.  So, I'll start with this message of gratitude and just a few pictures.  I am going to try very hard to post more often now, with shorter posts.  It's my new year's resolution.  And today's the 14th.  Not a great start.  But, it IS a start.  And sometimes that's the hardest step.

Here we are at the castle at Magic Kingdom.  This was taken on Friday, our last day.  The first day we went to Magic Kingdom was Monday, but it was very rainy that day.  So, no pics.  But, despite the cold temperatures and the rain, we still had a wonderful time.

This is our entire group.  What a fun bunch!  Everyone was so helpful with each other and with Harlie.    

This was later on that evening.  The lights were on, and it was beautiful.  Later on, Queen Elsa "froze" the castle and it was awesome.  I'll share those pics later.

This was a magical moment - Harlie meeting Princess Tiana.  She is the princess from The Princess and the Frog.  She was the only person (or character) that Harlie wanted to meet.  Period.  We got so lucky and arrived at her spot right after she stopped for a break.  The cast member manning the line told us we had to wait an hour till she came back.  Then Laura said, "Well, my girls don't need to meet her, but Harlie really wants to."  And then she stepped aside and let him see Harlie.  He looked down at Harlie in her cute little wheelchair and paused.  Then he said, "Okay, go to the exit and you can meet her."  Yay!  So, we were the only ones there and she took her time with us.  I just can't say enough wonderful things about that woman.  She was so warm and caring towards Harlie.  I had to hold back tears the entire time we were with her.  Just look at this picture!  Harlie is making eye contact with her - with no instruction to do so.  It was so incredibly amazing.

Isn't she beautiful?!

When we were leaving her, I tried to get Harlie to sign "Nice to meet you."  So, Princess Tiana got down on Harlie's level and finger spelled it back to her.  That's over Harlie's head (for now) but she saw that she was signing and we were blown away.  It was a wonderful, wonderful moment.  I give Laura all the credit for making this happen.  Harlie was saying "no" to meeting everyone until Laura asked her and then made it happen.  She was a master at navigating Disney.  I gave Laura a list of what I thought Harlie would enjoy and she made it happen!  Thank you, Laura!

I have so many more photos and stories I want to share.  But, I will stop for now.  And I will try super hard to post again tomorrow.

Much Love,
Christy xo