Heading home

Today we said our goodbyes to our villa and all the people and places that make up Give Kids The World Village. It is such a wonderful gift for wish families to stay at the village and to participate in so many of the village traditions. From breakfasts served by angels in the Gingerbread House to the nightly parties on the avenue, from early morning ice cream to bed time tuck ins, we were so humbled by the kindness from all the volunteers that make this place function. For every one paid worker at the village there are 30 volunteers!!! The village fills over 1,500 hours of volunteers (known as Angels) each week. Most of the "angels" we met take a vacation to the area just to volunteer their time each day!!

Yesterday in the La Ti Da Spa I met an angel who gathers all her friends each year to volunteer in honor of her birthday! Yesterday was her 31st birthday and she was at the village doing Alyssa's nails and makeup!!!

Another couple we met flew in from Michigan for two weeks to volunteer, as they have done every year since their grandchild was a wish child at the village.

So we said goodbye to all these lovely people. We had our last ice cream and gathered up the souvenirs. We were told to bring an empty suitcase for all the goodies we would be getting. We thought we could manage, but they were right, so we had to buy an extra bag at WalMart to get the gifts home.

We picked up our last lunch at Katie's (funded and cooked by Boston Market) and checked out with some additional gifts. We had time before our plane trip home, so we decided to make one last day of shopping at Downtown Disney. With all the extra goodies packed away the kids seemed to forget how much we already had. But we picked up an Illustrator's Edition Belle doll for Alyssa, a Stuffed Stitch for Richie and a Stuffed penguin for Reese along with some special trader pins to add to their collections.



One of the check out gifts included a service that will convert our pictures into a paper scrap book for us for free. As a digital scrapper who hasn't made a layout in several years (I guess I am a former digital scrapper then) I am just so excited to see this!!! GKTW and Disney gave us all our digital pictures taken at the Village and in the parks on disks. These included all the ride photos, you know the type where they catch you at the most dramatic moment of the ride!! Some of them are hysterical! After awhile, knowing we would get to have them all, the kids began trying to "pose" for the shot. . . Purposefully looking bored or silly. Once I get them loaded I will find a way to share them here.

Well, just thinking about our week has me a little teary eyed. I think I will have some reflections tomorrow or Sunday with the gobs of pictures, but for now I will just say goodbye as I try to give you some of the highlight pictures for the day!!!