Road Trip Day 1 & 2

I woke up early this morning in our hotel room, dark from the black out drapes, (if I were going to have an affair...it would be with black out drapes...they complete me:)  I think it was a headache that woke me up and after making a hot pack (hot towel in a plastic bag from subway, genius!) I climbed back into bed and laid away thinking and pouring out my heart to God, thanking him for our family.  I'm sure it has more to do with the fact that they are ours and no one elses, so I have a front row seat to their dreams, hopes, laughter and see first hand how they live out their priorities with such conviction.  Today I was especially focused on the courage they display.  The character stuff, that is was gets me, what tenders me towards them and makes me so grateful.
Each one in their own way, and on their own path have and continue to face challenges that require an extra measure of fortitude, and they keep walking.  Sometimes the call is to make the right decision and sometimes, to make their decisions right.  It isn't unlike what their parents have also experienced and the grandparents before that...its just different to watch it in your children, and its hard in the dark and the quiet, not to soak a pillow with early morning tears of gratitude and love.

2011 will be marked as a year of great adventure and new things, and the grace and manna God has stored up to serve us each day is more than sufficient!

This road trip adventure began with a marathon of driving and we tried to figure it out last night, but I was way too tired to calculate the number of hours we had driven in the last 24 or ratio of sleep to awake considering time zones and trip odometers and gas stops.... this would I think require something above Mr. Rigsby's Algebra 2 class in 1978!  I do know we recorded 1000 miles and 4 states, 2 sandwiches, 2 salads, way too much coffee and gas prices ranging from $4.99 a gallon to $3.67.  We played the guess who game, the matching game...an eye spy game of sorts, watch Franklin videos, heard hours of legos going on in the back seat, road an Alpine roller coaster...twice and opened a couple of items from the prize box as the eye spy points accumulated.  A 4 year old is good for me.  Who else, but a grandchild could make be go from Jacuzzi to pool at 8 oclock at night, performing a dive move from the 70's? 

Today we are headed to Cheyenne.  Can I just say God and I had a moment yesterday driving through Wyoming...I'm not sure what he was intending for this flat, brown state, uninhabited for miles and miles... no animals, no homes, no plants really...except perhaps he wanted to keep some land for himself, as though he is perhaps some sort of "green" wanting to preserve some creation from the development of an industrial people.  Mission accomplished, Lord, what you claim for yourself is yours to admire, though I have to say it reminds me of the Israelites desert and makes me want to stay on course, lest I be sent to Wyoming for 40 years to wander!

We woke to a car covered with about 2-3 inches of snow, the roads look clear, but we are hoping the Ranch in Cheyenne full of the promise of animals, a train and a pond stocked with fishing success, is open and waiting to greet us.

Until next time...