The Heart of Our Journey...: Disney Magic

We are officially back from Disney World. Ok, we have been back for nearly a month! We had the most amazing trip! We went to Disney in 2010 when Pierson was 2 and he had a great time then (as did we) and talked about it all year long. We booked this year's Disney trip back in December, a whole 6 months before we ever knew anything was wrong with Pierson's heart and when we found out there was something wrong with Pierson's heart on June 23, it was one of those things that went through my head when I was thinking about what all we were potentially about those lose... "There goes our Disney trip this year..."
But Pierson was beyond well enough to go and we went!
Our first stop was to see Buzz and Woody. The line was super short this year and Pierson was growing more and more excited every step closer to him that we got. When it was finally our turn Pierson took off in a sprint towards Woody, arms fully extended. What happened next was just magical. Woody extended his arms and scooped Pierson up and swung him around three times! Pierson was just in awe. Then Buzz did the same thing. He talked to them for a bit and I couldn't understand what he was saying. Then Woody gave him another big hug and Buzz joined in. Then Woody picked Pierson up and sat him on his knee. Jeff snapped the perfect picture. Pierson was gazing lovingly in to Buzz's eyes.

It was amazing. We hadn't even been at Disney World for an hour. In this very moment I suddenly became overwhelmed. My eyes filled up with tears and in my head I thought "This is one of those moments. And we get to live in it." What I mean by "one of those moments" is one of those moments that I don't know that we would have had if Pierson's CHD hadn't been found and corrected just in the nick of time. Pierson's aorta was in bad shape and the total health of his heart was too. But God provided us diagnosis and treatment and recovery and here we were, revelling in this moment. We got to be here in this place experiencing this moment with our boy and his healthier than ever heart. We got this gift of getting to celebrate and live in this very moment. I couldn't do anything but cry. We were just so grateful. I will never in my life forget that moment or how I felt in it.

Every part of our trip was amazing. Pierson was really in to rides and games this year which added a whole other element to our trip. What's was funny was that he kind of had an agenda this year too. He was absolutely a part of the planning process and he knew what he wanted to see. He had a lot to talk about with the two guys above! We had the time of our lives. I just kept looking at him and thinking "Praise God." "Thank you God!"
So a few weeks before the trip Pierson started talking about how he wanted to show Mickey his scar from his heart surgery and tell him he had heart surgery. We weren't sure where he came up with that but he had an idea that that was what he needed to do. Our second night there we ate dinner at a really fun restaurant called "Chef Mickey's" It is a super yummy buffet and all of Mickey and his friends are there dressed in full chef gear and they come from table to table to visit with all the kids. It's a "must do" for us at Disney World. It was at Chef Mickey's that he decided that it was time to show Mickey his battle wounds. It's easier to use the pictures below to tell the story:

Our trip was filled with meeting all of our favorite characters, riding the tea cups over and over (one time we rode them 3 times in a row without getting off --- then mommy and daddy had taken all the spinning we could for the moment) watching the giraffes are zebras outside of our room and OH! Speaking of animals! We met a very special animal on our trip. Right before left on our trip I read an article about a new baby elephant that had been born. Elephants are his favorite animal by far so I called him over to the computer and read off the story about this animal. When we got to the part about the meaning of the elephant's name "Jabali" I was a bit taken back. Jabali in Swahili means "strong". That's what Pierson's name means too. I told Pierson this and he thought that was too cool that they had the same meanings of the name. "I'm strong too!" We had no idea how appropriate Pierson's name would be for him when we decided on Pierson but it is. So below are pictures of Jabali and his "pack" Jabali is the smallest elephant in the pictures. He was only a few weeks old when we saw him.

We also got to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party while we were there. Pierson decided he wanted to go as Mike Wazowski. He also told Jeff and I that he wanted Jeff to be Sully and me to be Cecelia Weelia

Pierson as Mike! Having a blast at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

In front of the Laugh Floor during the Halloween Party

There's no way to capture the magnitude of this parade. It was incredible!

There aren't enough words to describe to you how special this trip was so I will try to sum it up in a few words then finish the blog off with a bunch of pictures that will hopefully tell a better story than my failing words.

This was a peace of heaven for our family. When we booked this trip in December we had no idea what was ahead for Pierson and our family. We are thankful that we were financially able to take this trip and that Pierson was healthy enough. God is good to us. That being said. Please please please consider contributing to 2 charities who help send kids to Disney World. Kidd's Kids was started by DJ Kidd Kraddick. Every year they send terminally and chronically ill kids and their families whose parents can not afford a trip like this to Disney World. We have donated to them in the past grateful that Pierson was perfectly healthy, not knowing that we would soon be just like so many of those families who know what it's like to have a child with a potentially life threatening condition in the children's hospital.

We have another trip coming up soon (not to Disney -- booo!) but we will post about that. In the mean time please be praying for us as we approach P's next cardiologist appointment in a week and a half. We will be checking to make sure Pierson's heart muscle has healed and is no longer thick and also we will be looking at the aorta resection to make sure it is growing with him and hasn't recoarc'd. We have no reason to believe any of these things have happened but we still get anxious as the appointments approach because it is always a possibility. I leave you with a few more pictures!