Thanks to Disney Visa rewards points and a very generous Aunt and Uncle who live in Orlando, we were able to take an 11 day vacation and spend 4 days at Disney parks with a few beach days and relaxation days thrown in.
I told myself before we left that I was going to set the adoption aside in my brain and wholly focus on our family and the 2 children that were present with me. I think I did a fairly good job at this but I definitely had moments throughout each day when I was aching for Zaine to be with us.
I so badly wanted to see him having fun in the stroller with his brother and sister...
getting excited when he saw Mickey like Xavier was...
running around the water splash pads and squealing with his siblings...
riding rides with big smiles...
being a wild man at the beach with his brother...
the list could go on and on and on of all the times I yearned in my heart for him to be with us.
I instead tried to focus on the fun now and look forward to the fun when we get to return with Zaine in tow in the future. (We may have to take Mimi and Pop Pop as back-up help when we've got three of them at Disney).
Our CONA (consent of non appeal) waiting period was up on Feb. 26 which means we became a family of 5 that day! Zaine is officially ours in the DRC. We celebrated at Magic Kingdom with Mickey! Finishing CONA was a bittersweet feeling in my heart... don't get me wrong, we were OVERJOYED that Zaine is officially ours and we get the privilege of being his Mommy and Daddy. But it also means that he was an orphan - circumstances in his life led to the fact that he needed a Mommy and Daddy. He's been through a lot in his little life - things we cannot comprehend. We're excited to have him be a part of our family and cannot wait to have him in our arms.
Lots of people have been excited for us thinking we get to travel soon... oh how I wish that was true. We have almost finished with everything on the Congo side of things (just waiting on a few papers) so now we begin the process with the USA/immigration side of things. This is where the gray hair wait comes. You can be praying that we keep moving at lightning speed but it will most likely be late summer before Zaine is home with us.
Here are some fun adventures of our trip:
 |
| Chef Mickey breakfast |
 |
| This one makes me laugh - this was Xavier's first time with a character... He actually LOVED them after this one time of crying. |
 |
| They each got to pick out a stuffed animal at Downtown Disney - of course we had to pick one out for Zaine too. |
 |
| Mickey was excited to hear about Zaine... with our Waiting for you sign. |
 |
| We enjoyed the Harambe part of Animal Kingdom and thought a lot about Zaine here. |
 |
| Pretty sure he still has sand in his ears! |
 |
| We celebrated the end of our CONA waiting period for Zaine on Feb. 26 at Magic Kingdom. Zaine is officially ours!!! |
 |
| Poor kid fell asleep any old way! |
 |
| Xavier loved Jasmine's outfit and couldn't keep his hands off her! |
 |
| Mickey helped us celebrate that we were officially a family of 5! |
 |
| Several Disney employees saw our sign and insisted that we go to guest services and get "I'm celebrating" buttons to celebrate the occasion. |
No comments:
Post a Comment