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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

lessons learned in 1400 miles

Back in December, 
we started praying about taking a special little road trip. 
The Lord had introduced us (for real, it felt like that) to some precious friends and it felt important to meet them and spend some time with them and so we prayed about it.
And decided, yep! 
We need to go. 


So we took our precious little blessing of a Corolla to the shop and they ok'd her for the 1400 round trip drive to Indiana. And we packed some toys and a borrowed car DVD player and woke up at the crack of dawn two Wednesdays ago tomorrow and just did it, 
just went for it. 
Columbia, South Carolina to Fort Wayne, Indiana. 


And here are some lessons I learned in those 
11 days, 1400 miles, and 30 hours in the car. 




- The whole "if we leave at 4am, the kids will sleep the first 4 hours" may not work on our family. But my kids are SUPER cute at 4am. On our first gas station stop (at 5:03am), Glory asked if the gas station bathroom hand dryer was for her nails. 
- PS: speaking of sleep. Slumber partying it up with friends for 11 days may mean your kids fast from sleeping (for spiritual reasons of course). It's still worth it. 
- Also, road tripping with your kids CAN be super fun if you decide it will be. I think we talked to our kids more than we ever have and REALLY talked to them. It was such a blessing.




- Roadtripping is the perfect excuse to restaurant hop. But, if on the way back, your new friends have woken up at 4am to pack you with a cooler full of food, Diet Coke, and your coffee just the way you like it - just Praise God. The trip was worth it. 
- Buying the cheap Walmart gloves without waterproofing will NOT work in Indiana. 
- There is such a thing as too much coffee. Between four adults, I think we went thru about 8 pounds of coffee in 9 days. Bahahahaha. And I'd do it all over again. 


disclaimer: this pic of Glor is not from our trip, but it was too cute to leave out
- If you think you'll be blessed by some new friends, just wait till your kids meet their kids. My children are now not opposed to the idea of 14-hour-car-trips-just-for-the-sake-of-playdates. 
- Doing motherhood  in the home of a new friend who is super wise and showing you gobs of hospitality is humbling & encouraging & sharpening. 
- I really, really love my husband because the Lord has made him incredibly easy to love. And it would be wise for me to follow him on whatever adventure the Lord calls him to. 




- Bob Evans has something called a "Biscuit Bowl". It's a biscuit, shaped like a bowl, filled with bacon, cheese, eggs, and hollandaise sauce. It's not appropriate to eat if you're a healthy eater/semi-vegan lady. Thankfully, I was too tired to remember I was any of those things when i ORDERED IT AND ATE IT IN 3 MINUTES. 
- Here's a lesson I really, really learned. Well, I started to see how much I need to learn it:  
Grace, true - scandalous, overflowing, undeserved grace --- It doesn't need to be feared by any human standards. And it doesn't lead to more sin. It leads to a deeper desire for righteousness. And that might seem random, but it's a huge lesson He started chipping into me on this trip. 




- I realized that if your trip gets extended for a day or two due to snow, you only ACT disappointed when inside you're thrilled since you were sad to leave in the first place. 
- I realized that my kids have an instinctual reaction to seeing snow in ANY FORM, which is to immediately stick it in their mouths. Immediately. Gross. (think like Glory: "oh! see that snow over there on that stranger's boot! I should go eat it!")
- I realized if you're attending a church where the pastor's wife can look out the window and see some interns shoveling snow out of her her driveway without anyone asking them to, you can praise God for Gospel Community. 




- And the Lord reminded me that we see such a small part of His plan. And that is such a great blessing. Because we'd sure plan some messes out of lives if we could. 
- And of course, of course, of course - no matter how great a trip is, 
it's always good to go home. 


{{ more on our trip later this week. can't wait to share more. }}

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