I’m going to post a lot of random chit chat in this paragraph to force my Facebook fans to come to the blog to see what my announcement is. By posting a lot of random chit chat, it doesn’t show up on the feed and they have no choice but to click on the link and come to the blog. It’s kind of mean…. but I really love my Facebook fans. If you haven’t checked out my Fan page yet, you should. I interact with my fans all day long on it. We have random chit chat, share frustrations, and talk about anything else that I want. And you can also become my friend on Facebook if you’d like to learn even more about me….
Go here to join my Facebook page.
Now on to the major personal announcement….
As you know, my family has been through a lot of trials this year. My daughter Emily’s appendix ruptured on August 27th and we had no idea. By the time we got her to Children’s Hospital on September 5th, she was in pretty bad shape internally. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her. She cheered at a game the day before we took her to Children’s! She spent 8 nights at Children’s (I never left the hospital) before she was discharged in the care of home health. I had to administer IV antibiotics 3 times a day for 10 days. Finally on September 27th she was cleared and her appendectomy was scheduled.
But then the unthinkable happened….
My pregnancy was normal. We were so excited on October 11th to find out the sex of our baby. We were shocked to find out that he was measuring behind. They scheduled me for a level 2 ultrasound 4 days later. And they didn’t prepare me….. when I went in for the ultrasound I found out my son had passed away. My heart was so broken. I carried him 3 days after that before they induced labor. It was a very hard thing to go through, but honestly I’d do it all over again to have those 3 precious hours with him.
I gave birth to Andrew on October 18th. It was October 30th before we were able to have his memorial service (here in town) and November 6th when we were able to lay him to rest with my father-in-law (in Georgia). And then my sweet Emily had to have her appendix removed on November 11th. She spent the night in the hospital and returned to school today.
Praise God that we survived this as a family and came out on the other side. I feel like I can finally breathe again.
But we need to heal as a family. And we want to celebrate Andrew’s life. And what better place to do that then……………. Disney World. You totally saw that one coming didn’t you? It’s not that hard to guess since I am totally obsessed with Disney World.
So on January 1st (or 2nd) we will leave Birmingham and travel the 8 hours to Disney World. We will be spending 7 nights at Pop Century. We will spend 6 days in the parks (no park hopper this trip b/c of low crowds) and we will have the quick service dining plan (pays for lunch and dinner). We will eat breakfast in our room.
Our grand total….. $1707! Not bad for 2 adults and 2 kids.
We will be keeping the cost of the trip right at $2000. We plan to purchase a pair of Mickey ears for Andrew and just spend the week enjoying our family and reconnecting.
This is NOT the Couponing to Disney trip. That trip will happen in November of 2011. This trip is being paid for out of my husband’s yearly bonus. I know it doesn’t really fit in with the whole “Couponing to Disney” mission. But this is something that we NEED to do. When we found out that we had lost Andrew my husband asked me what I needed. I told him I needed a trip to Disney to plan. As I plan the trip, I am able to take breaks mentally from my life and this pain. It helps.
So the fund I have now will not be touched. (As most of you remember, the fund has not grown like it should. We found out that we were surprisingly pregnant not long after our May 2010 trip and due to medical bills we weren’t expecting (pregnancy and Emily’s surgery), that money had to be re-designated. But that’s the great part about saving money. It’s there when you need it.)
So I do hope you will join me in celebrating my family and my son. And if you are going to be in Orlando when I am…. let’s meet up! I love meeting my wonderful readers.
As my husband said “We might be going to the happiest place on Earth, but Andrew is in the happiest place there is.”