We decided to be as intentional as possible about this break. I will add that my “morning nausea” which often came at night sometimes made this difficult to do our nighttime routines but I think we’re off to a great start overall. We read a devotional about “refocusing the drive” while we were on our physical drive and we decided we wanted to use that as a theme as we set our intentions for this trip. The way the devotional explained it was this… As humans, we have an inner drive toward securing greatness which in larger terms, means a drive for our own excellence. Jesus taught his disciples to refocus the drive when they were burdening themselves with this thought as he said in Luke 22:27, “I am among you as the one who serves”. His life is what we should mimic and refocus our drive to follow. Not our own excellence, or job, or money, or our own envy. Here we are at a time where we’re physically redirecting our lives as well, we wanted to do just that. We had one other devotional that popped up in another book but very timely that stated “Being far from home is hard. But as I continually seek God, He opens doors for me that confirm I am where I’m supposed to be.” (5/8/18, DailyBread, Julie Schwab)
Although we typical had most nights together after work this past year, it’s been a long time since we felt like a normal couple. You may not think 5 months of IVF is and waiting for a baby for a year before that is “long” and its definitely relative but let me tell you it sure did challenge us to not make our lives about it. Yes, we wanted a baby really bad but we still had our health, our family, our jobs, each other and most importantly our amazing God. I think we did pretty good balancing it all but it had been a WHILE since we just held hands and just walked casually with no timer on. Or to have conversations about life and feel like we were dating again getting to know each other. Don’t get me wrong, we talk a lot in our relationship on an on going basis and love to chat about bettering our selves, our lives and loving more. But these talks were different. All day talks or set down our books and have a spontaneous talk because God put a memory on one of our minds. Simply put… dating my husband again. We went to Italy last August on our last vacation and although it was a blast, we hopped, skipped and bounced around from city to city so much that it was hardly a relaxing experience. It was traveling. Yes, we have traveling now, but we have made it more about relaxing and not moving!! Baby Mays is already enforcing that on us literally taking my breath away and reminding us you don’t always have to be in a hurry or fill every day with plans to see EVERYTHING. Sometimes it’s nice to just let the day take you. This has been so fun and different than our average every day life so far! (especially being a professional event planner myself)
So this trip has been just that. Relaxing. Refreshing. Redirecting. And fun! Everything turned our perfect! We had a blast on our drive down and explored Charleston for the day. Walking in and out of shops with no time table and buying ice cream whenever we wanted. Every store gladly let us take Cadbury inside and one even held her for us so we could shop and cool down. Then we stopped by to see an old friend in Florida and had a great time catching up and squeezing baby knowledge from them! Then it was on to the beach! Our RV park was across the street from the beach and they gave us the closet parking spot. The pool was always empty it felt like our very own. The weather was PERFECT and I think the pictures describe the beauty of the beach. Austin has never been the “beach bum” that I was more raised as (let’s say we have opposite skin tones) but I have seen that man relax and enjoy this more than I’ve seen him in a long time. He even said once, let’s do this more often! So, we extended it another day! It’s been one of the best weeks of my life! And that’s AT MY PEAK pregnancy sickness time. Sometimes I told Austin, ignore me if I start crying.. I’m just so darn happy. I’ll never forget this week at the beach.
We’re still praying for open hearts as God keeps redirecting and refocusing this journey for us and in a sense redirects/refocuses our life to whatever he has in store for us next. We could be at home worrying sick about getting a job that will cover all the baby expenses and safe insurance for delivery. But we’re not. God has protected our hearts and lowered our anxiety so much to just enjoy this time, we are very thankful.
Have we found Joy in this Journey so far? I’d say it’s living up to it’s name. We’re excited for the journey to continue. I want to encourage you to enjoy your life. Leave work 5 min early to meet a friend for happy hour. Spend that money on family vacation rather than a digital device. Talk to your spouse/kids/parents and really be there for them. Give a listening ear more than a talking mouth. Stay home sick to just lay in bed and recharge yourself if needed. Find what Joy you can in your Journey. These are all the moments.
I don’t know why people say they want to find themselves. I wanna find God. Through him, is where my Joy will be. Up next, we’re searching him in the mountain!
Bloopers: Locked our bathroom door shut somehow and had to take handle off to get it open. Accidentally poked small hole in rv while lowering jack. Got overheated at beach and had to be cooled down in every way while almost causing a scene. Ran out of gas in generator for our one night dry camping. Didn’t pack batteries for our battery operated fans. Couldn’t find anything appetizing at nice seafood restaurant so ordered a side of fries.
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