Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Our Christmas Miracle

In December we went on my dream vacation.  My Grandparents, Parents, Bro and Sis-in-law, Jonathan, the girls, and I all went to Disney world.  At Christmastime.  Seriously.  My dream come true.  I may or may not blog about the actual trip later on, but today I wanted to tell a story that came about because of the trip.  Our true Christmas Miracle...

You see, I am a very positive person.  Nothing makes me more sad than being surrounded by people that insist on focusing on the negative of life.  Even with my "glass half full" attitude there are days when I wonder what this world is coming to.  It seems that people can just be so mean spirited.  I was thrilled when articles started circulating on Facebook and other forms of social media showing that people still take time to do nice things for each other.  Stories about people sharing their electricity after storms, or randomly paying for someone's food.  Little acts of kindness that to the person on the receiving end is anything but little.  This is a story that belongs in one of those articles.  I'm still so humbled that we were on the receiving end of such a kind and generous person.

It all started on the last night of our Disney Vacation.  We had experienced such a wonderful week and I was so sad that it was coming to an end.  We had returned to the condo fairly early to begin to pack up for our 5 am departure the next morning.  My mom asked me to take some video with our camera.  I went right to where I thought it would be.  It wasn't there.  I asked Jonathan where the cameras (video and still) were and he said probably in the car and went out to get them.  When a good amount of time had passed and he hadn't returned I went outside to check on him.  He was digging around in the car and my heart sunk.  I knew the cameras weren't there.  He told me he wasn't sure where they were, but perhaps we left them at the Hoop-de-doo Review, the dinner show that we had attended earlier in the evening.  I of course was in panic mode.  Our whole vacation, my dream vacation, was on these two little devices.  I begin quizzing him about the last place he saw them.  Was he sure we left them there?  Did we have them on the boat going back to the Magic Kingdom?  What about the monorail to the parking lot?  What about the tram to the car?  Goodness it could be anywhere!  First things first we headed to Fort Wilderness where the show had been.  They told us at the front desk that nothing had been found, but we still took the 30 minute bus ride to the back of the resort to see for ourselves.  No camera.  We filed a lost item report and was told to go to central lost and found at Magic Kingdom at 9am.  That would've been great except we were leaving at 5am....

Upon reading about the Disney lost and found system I became a little more hopeful.  There is story after story of people losing something very valuable to later have it returned to them.  After all Disney World is the happiest place on earth, right?  The next morning we called central lost and found as soon as they opened.  No camera.  The whole ride home my stomach was in knots.  All I could think about was all of those precious memories that we had managed to capture being gone.  I had been so excited to get home and  look at pictures, watch videos, and relive this trip time and time again.  We arrived home late Saturday night still with no word about our camera.  The next morning, Sunday December 15, 2013, our 6th wedding anniversary, I receive the most amazing email.  It came in though my blog and was a sweet, sweet lady saying that they had found a camera and believed it was our's.  WHAT?!?!?!  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Where did she find the camera and how in the world did she find my blog?  After a few emails back and forth we learned that they had found the camera bag in the parking lot of the Magic Kingdom.  It must have fallen out of the stroller while we were loading everything in the car.  She then went through the pictures.  Saw our last name on the shirts Carson and Jessican had made for us and the girl's names on their Minnie hats.  She googled and there it was, my blog.  She immediately recognized everyone from the pictures!  What a good detective.  I couldn't believe the time and effort she went through to find us.  She said that she knows how precious pictures are and after reading my blog she knew she had to find us.  On top of crying tears of joy knowing our camera would be returned I was also overwhelmed with emotion knowing that someone else was touched by Isaac's story.


Our camera arrived a few days later.  She had taken extra care to make sure it was all packed properly so nothing would be broken.  Everything was in perfect condition.  We had our pictures and our video back.  My heart couldn't have been more thankful!  My wish is that this story makes you smile and realize that this world isn't as dark and evil as we sometimes feel it is.  Also remember that no matter how small an act of kindness may seem to you, it could mean the world to the recipient.        

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