May 2, 2014 – Dayspring Disciples

Smile because it happened.

That is what I have been telling ~~the kids~~ myself since we got off the Disney Cruise Line’s cruise ship, The Magic, on Friday, May 9th.

The cruise was, quite literally, a dream come true for me. In 2001, John and I took Stewart on a three-night cruise on the DCL Wonder. When we got off the ship we enthusiastically stated we would do it again. And… 13 years later, we did. We never dreamt it would take that many years to embark on such an adventure; but as our family grew and other things took precedence the cruise just kept getting pushed off.

In the fall of 2006, I was all but ready to make the down-payment for a cruise for the six of us. Late one night after I had reviewed the numbers and headed to bed I prayed a prayer that scared me. It was something like, “LORD, if it is not of Your will, please take the longing out of my heart for this trip.” I am not exaggerating when I say I did not think longingly about the vacation for YEARS afterward. In fact, a few weeks after that prayer the LORD led us to purchasing our new home – something that would have been exceedingly difficult to do if we’d had money tied up in a vacation.

I hope to share a number of vacation stories as time allows. With our school year all-but-done, I hope to blog a bit each day to both share our trip with folks who stop by the blog, and also to record it for our family’s memories.

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The old adage that getting there is half the fun is only party right. For me, the planning and packing IS fun. but it is far from HALF the fun. This time around it posed more work than normal as we were essentially preparing for a vacation (the cruise) within a vacation (the trip to Florida as a whole). We needed dress clothes (and pirate costumes) for the dinners on the ship, AND we needed ample ambling-around-clothing for the parks we planned to visit.

Thirty-six outfits for the kids.

A panorama of all that we needed to somehow get into the van.

We got it into five suitcases, one tote, one bag, one small box, and a very large cooler. My sister also had two bags to bring with her. (My mom flew to Florida.)

We realized three days before we were slated to leave that we just were NOT going to be able to fit everything we needed to IN the van. We could not find a store in town with a hitch hauler available for sale. Amazon couldn’t get one here in time. Thankfully, friends had one they were more than willing to lend. John had the adventure of getting it hooked into our hitch. Two files and two trips to Lowes and we were in business.

At 6:00 P.M. Friday, May 2nd we climbed in the van and headed out.

Johanna was also with us; she’s just too short for the photo.

Our travel plans were as follows. From 6 P.M. – 9 P.M. John drove and the kids just entertained themselves with stuff they’d packed in their back packs. From 9 P.M. – 4 A.M. it was “lights out.” I drove while John tried to sleep in the back row. The kids tried to sleep, and my sister sat up front to keep me company. Sadly, neither Johanna, nor Katriel slept well. Subsequently, John did not sleep well. But he slept some, and was able to take over at 4 A.M. while I went to the back row. I logged in about one hour of sleep between 4 A.M. – 6 A.M. We stopped at a Waffle House at 6:30 A.M. and then didn’t really stop again except for brief bathroom stops the rest of the day. We snacked on muffins, chips, and bottles of water. We made ridiculously excellent time all the way down. From 7:30 A.M. until we got there the older 5 kids watched movies…

Check out the set-up I’d made before we left…