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A Cedar Hill mom received a magical surprise on Friday: a free trip for her and her family of 15 to Disney World.
Paula Cornelius is a foster mother to 13 children and the community liaison for The Lullaby House, a nonprofit that helps pregnant and parenting teenagers. Cornelius joined the nonprofit to help out her sister, Alexandrea Horsley, who started the Dallas-based organization.
On Friday morning, Cornelius and Lullaby volunteers were at Horsley’s house preparing for a baby shower. But waiting outside the house was her family and a Good Morning America crew who surprised her with the Disney news.
“It was a total shock,” Cornelius said. “That took me totally by surprise, I was just shocked and just speechless to what was going on.”
Paula Cornelius is a selfless mom who adopted 13 children and formed an organization to give back to parents in need.@janai surprised her and her family with a five-day trip to @WaltDisneyWorld to celebrate her incredible kindness! ❤️#DisneyPlusDay https://t.co/wMIa9aAXpK
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 12, 2021
Cornelius was a social worker before she started fostering children over the years, eventually adopting 13 kids with her husband, Michael. After being a stay-at-home mom for 23 years, she began working at The Lullaby House a few years ago to help her sister.
It was an easy segue since she has children out of the foster system. While she’s never looking for any kind of reward for doing the work, she has to admit that the trip will be a nice break.
“We are giving to people who need it,” she said. “You just do it because of them not because of you.”
The five-day trip will also include Horsley, their brother and their niece’s family as well. The group received free roundtrip tickets from Southwest Airlines on a special Disney-themed plane.
Horsley reached out to GMA almost two years ago to nominate Cornelius for a special celebrating mothers. She didn’t make it on that program, but the show still wanted to surprise Cornelius with a gift.
However, two days before they were set to surprise her in 2020, everything shut down due to the pandemic. Horsley kept in contact with producers, hoping they could still surprise her sister when the time was right.
Around five weeks ago, Horsley was talking with GMA representatives and shared that the whole family had planned a Disney World trip earlier this year, but that it was postponed due to her own cancer diagnosis.
Horsley, who is now cancer-free, said she is excited to do something for her selfless sister.
“You talk about giving people their flowers while they’re living, and that’s what I wanted to do,” Horsley said. “She is just a pillar of the community, she’s always touching lives.”
Cornelius said she is looking forward to a big family trip that will be something special for all.
Beyond the trip and the celebration, Cornelius is just happy she gets to work with Horsley as they touch young mother’s lives everyday. Before she was a social worker or a mother, she was a big sister, she said.
“[Horsley] was my first love as a baby,” Cornelius said. “Being 5 years older than her, I jumped on it and just have not looked back since then. It’s been a blessing for us all.”