The Not Really a Vacation; Vacation

I love to say to my kids "When we are on a family vacation, Mom and Dad don't stop being Mom, or Dad."  Were still doing our jobs, not to mention that anytime we go on vacation, disaster strikes somewhere in the world and My Knight in Shining Armor's phone is glued to his hand the entire time.  I never sleep well, and I sleep less well on vacation... unless I have my own room and can't hear my daughter, creating huge long term dental bills er um I mean grinding her teeth all night. I wonder how does her sister sleep with that?  It must be the reason when she is asleep, it's like trying to wake the dead.  

I'm so grateful for family and church family that houses us when we are out and about, but really nothing beats a hotel room alone... with the kids parked at Grandmas' (thanks Grandma!) for pure blissful sleep.  I wonder why? Is it just the lack of children needing me every moment, or rather every moment I want to spend privately?  Funny how that works isn't it. I'll be puttering in the kitchen for an hour and decide the houses quiet, I'll go hide in my room to rest.  Not five minutes later one child is knocking on the door "Mom can I?" and 3 minutes later  the other child is asking "Mom are you in there I need X Y and Z."

I know this is only a season in our lives. Some day soon I will not be dragging 2 kids though airports keeping track of iPods and luggage with one eye while seeking a bathroom with the other.  I love being able to free my spouse from the job of parenting while he finds a plug that works, and spends the 40 minutes before boarding running his department from afar.

And altho we took vacation days for this trip it is as much work as it is fun. I loved going to our sending church on Sunday but I also found as much heart ache as I did pleasure. I think that is one reason we have always loved it there so much, the people are so real.

No matter where we go or what we do people are people. As I was looking down over this great land of USA from my porthole in the sky. I kept thinking how much everything is really the same; farm lands, small towns, cities, rivers, plaines, mountains, great lakes, small lakes, tiny tanks to water cattle. If you cut us we all bleed red. We all have hurts, sorrows, joys, happiness, secret idols, secret sins, people we are honest with, people we hide from, people we love so deeply their loss makes us cry. We are humanity and God sees it all. He rejoices over our love, he shares in our suffering, he knows us better than we know ourselves.