30 days from today Inheritance of Hope will be welcoming 16 families from all over the country to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for a trip of a lifetime!!!  As I get to know these families, I am amazed at some of the similarities.  In my mind I already see the friendships developing between the children of similar ages and the parents with the same illnesses.

We even have two families that (when I google mapped their addresses) live just a few miles from each other! (It’s a small world after all….) These families are strangers right now but in a month they will be friends AND neighbors (literally)!

Although we serve a wide variety of families with a wide variety of conditions it always amazes me that the community that develops at our Legacy Retreats is very rich and unified.  These families may come from all over the country but they have much in common.

In honor of our upcoming Legacy Retreat venue and my title of this blog I decided to google the lyrics to the famous Disney song.  There is no doubt this song can stick in your head like no other!  Even though I have sung this song a million times and heard it a million more, I have never truly HEARD the words until now:

It’s a world of laughter, a world or tears.
Its a world of hopes, its a world of fear.
There’s so much that we share.
That its time we’re aware,
Its a small world after all.

CHORUS:
Its a small world after all.
Its a small world after all.
Its a small world after all.
Its a small, small world.

There is just one moon and one golden sun.
And a smile means friendship to everyone.
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It’s a small small world.

One of our primary goals at Inheritance of Hope is to bring together families with young children with a parent battling a life-threatening illness so they can know they are not alone! So they can encourage each other and share their burdens. Through our laughter and our tears the June 2011 Disney Legacy Retreat Community is going to make this world feel really small.

We are going to share our hopes and our fears.  Hopes to see Cinderella and ride Thunder Mountain with no line AND hopes to leave a lasting legacy for our children.  Fears to ride the Rock N Rollercoaster and Space Mountain and fears to leave our children without a parent at far too young of an age.

We are going to have fun!  We are going to build amazing friendships!  We are going to treat these families to an amazing vacation!

I can’t wait….30 days and counting.