Orlando | Lessons from my daughter

If you were to lose a shoe… Where would you prefer it to be?

Last May, when we traveled to Orlando for Emily’s Dream granted by the Sunshine Foundation of Canada, she lost a shoe!

If you are new to my blog, you can read about How we told Emily about her dream coming true and The day of the dream in my previous posts.

Back to her shoe!

In my house, we love shoes… We have lots of them and keep buying them.

Emily and I can share her shoes as her feet are slightly longer than mine. She can’t borrow my heals but I can borrow her flats.

Life is good.

On May 6th, we visited Universal Studios with our only objective to visit Harry Potter world.

We prepared for our visit by having a Harry Potter movie marathon in February.

We bought snacks… Lots of snacks!

And watched all the Harry Potter movies. We started Friday night and were done by bed time on Sunday.

What a waste of a weekend… Right?

We live in Atlantic Canada, this was my driveway the weekend of our movie marathon. Can you see my red car?

That’s how I justify our movie marathon.

Fast forward to May 6th. It’s a hot day for us winter people but that won’t stop us.

Emily and Jonathan are trying all the roller coasters they can find and I’m taking pictures.

The day was perfect.

Emily was laughing

We bought her a wand and a robe.

We bought her almost everything she asked for. It was after all her dream vacation!

On their second time on the dragon roller coaster, Emily came out looking like this!

She lost a shoe and the guy at the end of the ride told them that we would never see it again!

When we asked where we could buy shoes or sandals, we were told that maybe at the store by the park entrance…

Here’s a map for you in case you’ve never been there. Emily lost her shoe in the top right corner of the map and the store was in the bottom left corner…

She walked the whole way back asking me to give her my shoes so she would be more comfortable.

I said no

I don’t say no to Emily really often but in that instance, I said no repeatedly…

To every single person we passed, she said: “I lost a shoe”

Than looked at me and said: “mom, I lost a shoe, can I have your shoes?”

To which I said no. Again and again and again.

The walk probably took us 20-30 minutes… Maybe even longer.

I bought flip flops (sandals) and Emily got my shoes, finally.

We had to remind her before each roller coasters to not play with her shoes.

Emily loves to tell the story! It’s like an achievement.

So, let me ask you, if you were to lose a shoe… Where would you prefer it to be?

When the doctor told us we were having a girl, Jonathan asked what were the probabilities that he (the doctor) was wrong?

Little did he (Jonathan) know that a father’s love for his daughter can’t be measured.

He had no idea what was coming his way.

More than 17 years later, the bond Jonathan and Emily share is unbreakable. Regardless of Emily’s struggles or maybe thanks to Emily’s struggles, the love between them as flourished and continues to grow.

It has grown enough that Jonathan is comfortable being at an American Girl Store with his 16 year old daughter, looking at dolls and picking out outfits.

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that Emily loves American Girl dolls. Before this latest trip, she was the proud owner of 13 dolls. Some we bought, some she bought, some were bought for her from other family members… She has quite a collection of dolls, clothing and accessories.

On May 4th, when we landed in Orlando, Emily knew that the plan was to check into our hotel than get a cab and find our way to the American girl store.