Our last day in Florida we chose to spend at the Give Kids the World resort, which we had grown so comfortable at. It really felt like a home away from home for us. That place is magic. It is both beautiful and amazing and wonderful, and also heartbreaking because it has to exist at all for these kids. The complex holds about 100 families, and it seems to stay pretty full. It is run almost completely by volunteers (something like 30 to 1, volunteer to staff ratio). Everyone there had a smile for Elayna. A special way to make her day even brighter. A kind word or a tip for us about how to make our vacation the best it could be. It was a once in a lifetime trip and we hope to someday go back and pay it forward to other families by volunteering our time. Every day we spent walking and walking and experiencing Disney and at the end of the day, the time spent at Give Kids the World was almost always Elayna’s favorite part. She told me that she loved the parties because they made her feel “free.” It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?

After our last amazing day there, we boarded a plane and headed back to cold Iowa.
Now we are looking forward to warm temperatures again. More vacations, more smiles, more experiences. The sky is the limit now that we have treatment behind us.

This was the first place that Elayna got to mark off of “the list.” The list of places that all of her supporters held signs for her.
She has plans to see them all in her long lifetime and I have every intention of making it happen somehow. Thank you again to all of you who have rooted for her. She is doing so well and had such an amazing adventure in Orlando. We will never forget it. We are so very blessed.