a/n: Sorry for keeping you waiting...school has been busy lately, but here's a nice long one for you. Please continue to pray for Lynnie, she isn't doing so well, and I know if we flood the heavens with prayer God will bless her with a miracle and give her her #1. : ) Enjoy the story. r&r

I groaned as I was jolted awake by the alarm. I turned over and saw the time on the clock. 6:00 am. My annoyance at being woken up soon turned to excitement when I remembered what day it was. We had a plane to catch. I felt bad waking up Jamie, so looked so peaceful. "Hey baby, I thought we could get an early start today, beat the traffic.

"Mmmmkay." she replied sleepily.

After loading the suitcases into the car, I found Jamie in the kitchen packing a cooler of sandwiches and juice. I walked up behind her and tugged on her ponytail.
"Oh, hey. Are we all ready to go?"

Yeah. The cars all packed. All that's missing is us." I picked up the cooler and led her out the door and into the driveway.

Jamie sighed and leaned her head against the window. No sooner were we off our street and she was asleep again. She slept all the way to Jacksonville, and I was relieved that I could avoid any questions as to our destination.
When we pulled into the airport parking lot, I leaned over and kissed her cheek, trying to wake her. She stirred and her hair shined a deep chestnut color in the early morning sun.
"Are we there already?" She asked finally blinking her eyes open. She took in our surroundings and gave me a questioning look. "Where are we?"
"Jacksonville. Albert J. Ellis Airport."
"Why are we at the airport? I thought we were driving...Virginias only a few hours away."

"We're not exactly going to Virginia." Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what I had planned. "Get ready to cross number 27 off your list. We're going to Disney World." It took her a moment to take in what I had said and then her face lit up as she broke into laughter.

"Landon! This is amazing! How did you do this? And you kept it a secret all this time?"
"I called the Make-A-Wish Foundation." I explained, pinning a button onto her t-shirt that read 'Ask me about my wish.'

"Don't worry, I figured you would want to use your wish to make the world a better place, so I also had some bibles sent to the homeless shelter in New Bern." If I thought she was smiling before, she looked like the Cheshire cat now.

She took my hand and looked into my eyes. "Thank you.", she whispered.
"No problem. You deserve it." I answered, kissing her lightly. "I hate to ruin the moment but we have a plane to catch." I smiled, opening the trunk of the car to get our bags out. Jamie cringed when I unloaded the wheelchair from the car. We hadn't used it since she recovered from her last hospital stay, but I knew how much walking this trip would involve and I didn't know if she could handle it. "We don't have to use it. I just thought you might want it in case you get tired. We'll be walking all day, and I don't know..."

Jamie looked down at the pavement before speaking. "Maybe we could just leave it in the car?" She asked uncertainly.
I knew how hard she was fighting, knew she didn't want to give in to her sickness, and for a minute I almost complied. "We could but then I would have done all this work for nothing." I unfolded the back of the wheelchair to reveal a glittered sign that read 'Just Married'.
"Okay, but I'm not getting in just yet. I think it works much better as a luggage cart." Jamie smiled, lifting a small suitcase onto the seat.

I had never been on a plane before. Landon, noticing my enthusiasm, gave me the window seat. I kept my face glued to the window, watching as the small cars and houses faded away and were replaced by clear blue sky. The sunlight beamed down and reflected off the clouds with a yellow glow. I wondered if this is what heaven felt like. "It's so beautiful up here, it makes me feel closer to God."
"Is there anything that doesn't make you feel closer to God?" Landon asked, handing me a bag of mini pretzels.
"No. That's the beauty of God...He's everywhere." My thoughts were interrupted by the pilot's voice coming over the speaker.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached Orlando, our final destination. Please remain seated until the fasten seatbelt light is turned off. Thank you for flying with us and enjoy the rest of your day."

I turned to Landon, remembering our first date. "How does it feel to achieve your number 1? Congratulations, you finally got out of Beaufort."
He smiled back at me and reached for my hand. "Maybe Beaufort had more to offer than I realized."

When we got to our hotel, The Polynesian, it felt like stepping into another world. The main building was surrounded by tropical foliage and towering tiki statues. I stopped on a bridge over a small pond realizing that it was filled with enormous goldfish. "Landon, aren't these the most amazing fish you've ever seen?"
"Geez, if I had known you wanted to look at fish, I would have taken you to an aquarium. Just wait. It gets better."

After checking into our room, we found our way to the monorail. We had decided to make the magic kingdom our first stop.
"This is so much fun, I could ride this all day, I've never seen anything like it before."
"Just wait. It gets even better." Landon replied, sliding over on the bench as we stopped at another hotel to pick up more tourists. "Look over there, Cinderella's castle." I stared in awe as we approached the theme park. It was even more breathtaking once we got inside.
"Where do we start? There's so much to see, it seems like it goes on forever..."
"Splash Mountain. I think you'll love it."

"And you said this is supposed to be fun? Are you sure about this?" I shifted my glance between Landon and the 80 foot drop into the briar patch at the end of the ride.
"It is fun. I promise. You can't come all this way and not try it." He ducked behind me when a log boat plunged into the water below us and splashed the bridge with water. I was surprised at how fun it looked.
"Let's go." I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the entrance to the ride.
Landon wrapped his arm around me as we settled into the log boat. As soon as we saw the singing animals we both burst into laughter, and didn't stop for the rest of the ride. Finally the boat slowed and came to a stop.
"So, what do you think?"
"Way better than the Beaufort carnival. Can we go again?"

We soon realized that having the wheelchair with us had its advantages. It got us into a special entrance that cut out an hour of waiting on line. Two hours later we stepped out of the boat for the seventh time.

"Why don't we take a break and dry off for a little while? I don't think I can take one more singing rabbit. Besides, you look like someone tried to drown you." I brushed a dripping strand of hair out of Jamie's face and kissed her nose.

We spent the rest of the day watching parades and eating ice cream. Jamie's eyes grew wider with every attraction we visited. Being with her made me feel so...alive. Her love and enthusiasm for life and the world around us was contagious.
We got back to our room around 10, after the parks had closed for the day. Jamie stretched out across the king size bed and I lay down next to her.

When I awoke the next morning, Jamie was already up. She was sitting in a chair by the window looking through a pile of theme park maps. She was wearing a lavender sundress and casually playing with her hair while she studied the brochure on Epcot. "Close your eyes.", she instructed me, while fanning out the brochures in her hands. "Now pick one." I reached down and pulled out a map of MGM Studios. "I was hoping you'd pick that one.", Jamie said happily.
"Okay, now it's my turn. Close your eyes." I knelt down and kissed Jamie, holding her face in my hands.
"Mmm I think I like your game better." She replied, and leaned in to kiss me again.

The air was already thick with humidity by the time we had eaten breakfast and gotten to the park. "So what'll it be?" I asked Jamie, as I discretely eyed the Tower of Terror. I couldn't ask Jamie to go on it, it looked a little rough and it didn't really seem like her style.
"Do you want to go on that?" She asked innocently.
"No, that's okay, been there, done that." I tried not to look too interested.
"Oh that's too bad, because I kind of wanted to try it."
Jamie was thoroughly entertained by the scenery of the abandoned hotel leading up to the ride. We were seated in the front row of the elevator car and Jamie clung to my arm as we plunged 13 stories.

When we got off the ride, I noticed Jamie looked a little queasy and had her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Hey, are you okay?", I asked her.
"Mmhmm. I guess it wasn't the best idea to try that after taking my medicine. But I'll be alright in a few minutes."
"Oh baby, I'm so sorry. I'm just not used to remembering that kind of stuff yet..." I felt so guilty for making her sick.
"Don't worry, it's not your fault. You shouldn't have to get used to thinking about those things." Jamie looked away and we walked on in silence for a few minutes. I looked at the brightly colored buildings we were passing. Gift shop, candy store, ice cream shop... Jamie turned to me and smiled.

"Would you like some ice cream?" I guess she was feeling better.

The rest of the morning passed uneventfully while we visited the various rids and attractions. In the afternoon, we noticed crowds gathering on the edge of the street to watch a parade. I picked a spot on the sidewalk and sat down. Jamie leaned her back against me and stretched her legs out into the street.

The Florida sun was stronger than I was used to, and I found the heat made me tired more quickly. I was glad to have an excuse to sit down and rest for a while. Cinderella's carriage passed by, pulled by two white horses. "When I was little, I wanted to be Cinderella when I grew up." I laughed remembering how I used to wear high-heeled shoes that had been donated to the church thrift store, pretending they were glass slippers.

"I wanted to be spider-man." Landon said with a grin. "I'm still thinking about applying for the job after college." He joked.

The rest of the day passed all too quickly for me. By the next afternoon, I had forgotten about time altogether. I had never been this happy in my entire life, and I knew that it was a happiness that would continue even after the honeymoon was over and we had returned to Beaufort. We had just gotten off the safari ride in Animal Kingdom and it was starting to get dark. The park was closing for the day and Landon suggested we go back to the hotel for dinner, where they were having a Hawaiian Luau.

The waiter slipped a yellow flowered lei around my neck and led us to a small table in the back corner, lit by a torch on the wall. On the table was a big bouquet of pink roses.
"Happy one week anniversary." Landon whispered, encircling me in a hug. "This has been the best week of my life. Every day with you is better than the one before. I love you Jamie."

I leaned my forehead against his and kissed him softly. "I have something for you too." I said, handing him a picture of us riding Splash Mountain, going down the waterfall. "Thank you for making all my dreams come true. I love you too." I didn't notice any of the other people around us that night, but I knew I would never forget the image of Landon's eyes sparkling in the dancing firelight.

We slept late the following morning, and when we awoke, we quickly packed our bags in preparation for our flight home late that night. We left our luggage neatly lined up by the door and decided to spend the morning in the Magic Kingdom. I still hadn't been inside Cinderella's castle, and Landon had insisted that we couldn't leave until I had done so. After riding Splash Mountain one last time, we boarded a bus to Epcot. The day passed quickly, and the sky faded from blue to pink to purple and we looked like typical tourists as we took in all the sights. The sun had just left the sky when we suddenly became aware of time again.

"We have to be at the airport in two hours." Landon informed me, glancing at his watch.
"Perfect, we have just enough time to watch the fireworks." I replied, leading him to a bench overlooking the lake. The sky over the water exploded in bursts of color while music from various Disney movies played in the background.
"I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid. Tell me princess now when did you last let your heart decide?" Landon moved closer to me on the bench as he sang along with the music.
"I didn't know you were a fan of Aladdin." I giggled.
" Well I might have seen it once or twice..." he shrugged. "Hey we should get going...don't want to miss our flight. Then we would have to live in Disney World forever."

Navigating through the crowds took longer than expected and we were a few minutes behind schedule by the time we reached the airport. We were running through the terminal when our boarding call was announced. "Final call for flight 323 to Jacksonville, North Carolina." The door to the plane was closed just after we entered and we quickly settled into our seats. When the plane took off, I was amazed at how beautiful the world looked lit up below us. I could not take my eyes off the window, it seemed like I could see every star in the galaxy. I was about to point out my star to Landon, when I noticed he had fallen asleep on my shoulder. I tried not to wake him as I stared out the window in awe, amazed at how the stars seemed so close, yet so far away at the same time. I was struck by the vastness of the sky. I thought of 1 Kings 8:27 "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you." I don't know when I fell asleep, but the next thing I knew, I opened my eyes and Landon was standing in the aisle, stretching.

"Welcome home." , he said with a yawn.