Where the Magic Begins....

I am not a supersticious person, but I did not want to write anything.... until we had our tickets.

Well, now we have them, so I can share our news:

We are going to Orlando!! 

Some very generous people have made it possible for us to go and we are SO EXCITED!!

We have not had a real family vacation for ten years! 

The last time we went to Orlando, we were on the way to my brother's wedding.  We couldn't really afford it then either.  But I had just gotten over a year of post-op infections, following a "simple" hernia repair that turned into a nightmare, including two month long hospitalizations:  the first time for sepsis (by the time my best friend convinced me to go to the ER, I was already going into shock); the second time coincided with Pesach, which I spent in the hospital, away from my kids.  Having such a serious infection (I did not realize I could have died until months later), made me understand that "life is short."  So we went to Disney and Universal and had a magical family experience.

Our kids were really little then.

For years, we have dreamed of taking them to Orlando when they were older.  But we could never justify the expense.

When I mentioned this dream, during one of my visits with our oncologist, he told us "don't wait"  -- not because I have cancer, but because you never know what the future will bring....

Moshe and I LOVE Disney and Universal.  They are our favorite places in the whole world (besides Israel). We went there, for the first time, on our honeymoon.

Moshe's fantasy job is doing programming for Disney (and working in the underground studios).  But you can't work in Orlando and live in Israel.....

I wanted to wait until the Harry Potter park opened, but that will not be until the spring.

The thing is, right now, my chemo is in pills, so traveling is much easier.  We don't need to worry about infusions or how to get them or how to transfer the medication.  But, we don't know for how long this chemo will work.  No one knows what drugs I will be taking this spring....

So, we are not waiting.

If we could, we would go once a year.

There is so much to do in Orlando, and we are such little kids (don't be fooled by these "grown up" bodies), we could play there forever!



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA