Disney Madness!!!

Disney Madness has arrived!! Now that the end of school is near, and our trip to California is fast approaching, the boys are starting to get excited about our vacation. But today they received a special package that REALLY got them into the spirit...and made me feel very humbled.

Not only are we going to Disneyland out of the kindness of a blog reader's heart helping us go at no cost, but another blog reader and long time adoption email friend offered to pay for one night at a hotel there (it is quite a drive from our mom's houses) and sent along some gifts for the boys to take on the trip. Matthew, Kenny and Josh each giggled with glee at seeing the package with their name on it, and raced from the car into the house to open it up as fast as they could. Their faces lit up when they saw presents with their names on it and they opened them to find new baseball hats, sunglasses, baseballs, autograph books and Disney Dollars as well as real dollars for spending money for their once-in-a-lifetime adventure. As Matthew said "Wow Mommy, we have everything we could possibly need!!". They then all proceeded to put on hats and suglasses and pretend they were "cool dudes"...and I have to tell you they don't pull off the "gansta" look all that well (thankfully!). I don't know, perhaps it was the Lightning McQueen and Power Rangers hats that kept them from being able to seriously look like vulgar rap lyrics were going to stream from their lips at any moment :-)

I really want to publicly offer our deep, heartfult gratitude to both of these families who have reached out to help our kids do something I doubt we could ever afford to do...and to do it in such high style!! As the kids and I talked in the car on the drive to school today, we feel so blessed to have not only our needs met...but to have this special "want" be possible as well. Kenny chimed in from the back seat "God takes very good care of us!!".

Indeed, He does. Thank you so much. Now I just have to live with 3 wound up little boys for another week until we actually get there! I am not sure they will sleep at all tonight as they peruse the guide book we were also sent in our special package and imagine all the rides we will go on. I have to admit that even I am super excited about this!!

I have had many readers over the past year and a half say how much they appreciate the blog, or the phone calls I have had with them, etc. But I must say that the support each and every one of you has shown our family during this amazing time has helped in ways you can not begin to know. It is not necessarily about this wonderful gift of a trip that others have combined to help us have, or the blessing beyond words with help trying to bring our girls home...it is in the emails written late at night by someone who wanted to tell me to hang in there when the going got rough, it is in the prayers many of you have sent up for our family as we traveled and transitioned, it is in the blog comments letting me know that something I said touched you.

It all means so much, and we are a little community here with tentacles reaching out further than you know...prayers for Amir, prayers for 2 girls, prayers for our now adopted buddies Turat and Askar, prayers and help for John Wright as he helps others. Mainly though, it is support for one another as we walk a road less traveled, and it is a two way street. I offer all I have to offer, which is our experiences and honesty about what this is really like. You offer love and encouragement...and sometimes action.

As I hit 30,000 blog hits this past week, as I received an email from our Disney Queen helping us, as I opened our care package this afternoon....I felt so connected, so "carried" by others. I only hope that others have received the same back from me in ways I could offer it over the years.

Thank you, all of you, so very much for everything.