The best Soarin' ever.

Chris and I are childfree - by choice - which really freaks a lot of people out.  We are one of those couples that had the discussion early on...


"Do you want children?"
"No! Why? Do you?"
"No."
"Okay, good. We can keep dating."


And it took forever for our parents to accept the fact that they would not be getting grandchildren from us. Thank goodness my sister provided two grandsons, and Chris' sister provided two granddaughters.  So, we are an Aunt and an Uncle, and we enjoy that role.  Have fun with them, but give them back.


We have a lot of people try to convince us of all the wonderful things we are missing out on by not having kids - and in turn, we have a lot of parent's sighing by the time we explain how wonderful it can be without them.  There is no right or wrong answer here. I wholeheartedly believe as long as you  make the decision based on your true feelings, all will be well.


I will admit that there are times when kids get on my nerves. My tolerance for screaming and crying is a lot lower since I have not had the opportunity to learn to deal with it (or tune it out).  But there are also times when I watch a child and my heart just fills up with love and joy for the sheer innocence and beauty they possess.  One such occassion happened to us on Soarin'.


As we were standing in line watching the boarding video, there was a kid who was about 5 years old talking really loudly to his dad asking him if he was going to go in soon.  This was one of those "on the nerves" moments.  He just kept asking and asking..."are we going in, Dad?  are we going in, Dad?"  You could tell he was excited, but geez.


So we go in and strap ourselves in for the ride.  I was on the left end of one section, the little boy on the far right end of the next, so we were across the aisle from each other.  He was still a little too excited for me, but the ride was about to start.  He was sitting on his legs so he could see and he had his hands placed on his knees. For some reason, I saw this and thought it was really cute. You could tell he was ready to go.  As we were taken up for our Soarin' adventure, that's when my heart absolutely melted.


As the wind started to hit his face, his first word was, "WOW!"  As we started to fly over the trees, again, "WOW!"  At every turn, "WOW"  Then it really happened. He starts telling his dad, "WOW! Dad, I'm flying!  I'm really flying!"  And his dad said, "Yeah, you really are, buddy."  Goodness, I'm getting as choked up and teary-eyed now as I did that day. At this point, I was no longer even watching the screen, I was watching that little boy and his dad share his son's real, first flight.  I had NEVER seen a child so fascinated and excited over anything.  He kept telling his dad he was really flying and his daddy assured him he was.  I was in tears.


As we landed, he was still so excited and he couldn't stop talking about it.  After we unbuckled and started to walk out, I walked over to the little boy and asked him, "Did you like that?"  He looked up at me and had the most beautiful and sincere look on his face and said, "oh yeah.. WOW!"  My eyes were still so full of tears. I looked at the dad and told him, "Thank you for letting me share that with y'all.  Your son just made that the best ride ever for me."  He looked at me like he was a little embarrassed, but his son was saying, "daddy, I flew!"  and I think he got it.


I looked over at my husband and his eyes were full of tears as well. So, yeah - those are the things we know we are missing out on by not having kids.  Those are the special moments for parents.  We walked out and down that walkway hand-in-hand without saying a word. It was a special moment.  Then we got outside and my husband said, "Are you ready for a beer?"  "Yep."