Disney Revisited!

So i am finally recovered from our Disney trip yesterday and able to blog about it. It was so fantastic I don't even know where to begin. First off, as many of you know I worked at Disney from the age of 18-20 as a KID OF THE KINGDOM...(think teenage mouseketeer/cheerleader with dancing Disney characters around me). I was very very very happy working as a singer/dancer at Disney and left after I had an abortion during my time there in Orlando and couldn't cope with my post abortion stress. So, years later I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl...When my daughter Sam was 5, I visit there for the first time since i left 15 years earlier there grieved and depressed after the abortion of what I believed was a baby girl. So, in 1996 I took my 5 year old girl to Disney and Mark and I had a great day. When we left Disney to head back to NY I was so grateful to the Lord for His amazing blessing with Samantha and our time in Orlando. I felt like we had come full circle in having visited with my real live daughter hand in hand through the streets of the Magic Kingdom and in the same town I had aborted years prior. Six weeks later after we return to NY I discover that I conceived my son Andrew while there on my first visit back to the place where I had aborted my daughter 15 years prior. So, God was incredible in creating a miracle in my life....flash forward to yesterday. I had finally reconnected with some of my Disney friends in the past year. Yesterday, one of my Disney friends got Mark, myself and 5 kids into Disney on a park hopper for the day for free. I had some mixed feelings about being concerned and sad about being there remembering things etc. But i honestly only felt JOY JOY JOY!!!! There I was with 5 of my 6 children ( 4 of whom have not visited). The weather was 80 but comfortable, the lines were short and I found myself in happy happy tears many times. We watched the Kids of the Kingdom in front of the castle. We heard one of my vocals that I had recorded years ago over the loud speakers during one of the shows. We traveled through SMALL WORLD and found the dolls from Africa and Guatemala (Ella said the African angel doll was her mother). The kids were well behaved and elated. Jared and Ella both were arbitrarily picked to be in the High School Musical 3 performance. We laughed, there was very little whining (a miracle in a big family).

All I could think of was the GRACE of God. I know the economy stinks, business is slow, finances are tight but i can't help but be overwhelmed by God's extravagance on my life. I had aborted my baby years ago at Disney because of the fear of losing my job and the joy I had felt when i was singing there. Post abortion I lost my job (quitting because of deep depression) and the joy that I thought I was trying to save by having an abortion in the first place. And then years later my joy is returned to me and multiplied via my husband and kids. And not only that but I can watch and sing along to the happy Disney tunes and really remember the happiness and appreciate Disney as a part of my history in a positive way. I know at times in life our happiest and saddest times can somehow collide in the same time frame but I also know now that I can be happy of my time there and glad to have been able to sing happy songs in one of my favorite places ever. I love this scripture and find it very DISNEY although we know it is from the bible:

^{Isaiah 61:3} and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.

Cinderella was working in the ashes and became the beloved Princess, finding her Prince Charming. She had been given the glass slippers to dance, she was taken out of her dire and sad situation and identified by the Prince to be worthy to be adorned in a beautiful gown and moved from sleeping with the mice to living with the King and Queen as their new daughter. The entire community wanted a glimpse at her and avoided condemning her because they knew that the Prince saw her as a valuable prize.......I am in awe at how we can be embraced and given a "garment of praise" by our true beloved in spite of His knowing where we come from . To Him we are worthy of dancing and singing in front of castles and being truly a KID of the KINGDOM of Heaven forever leaving our grief and mourning behind as we glow with the oil of gladness wearing a crown of glory just like sweet Cinderella....I am truly living the dream my heart made years ago and I praise God for it.....