This particular story was not part of my "list", but it's a special memory to share...
When I was pregnant with DearDaughter1, DearHubby planned a surprise, one last, outing/date just for US. He took off of work early on a Wednesday afternoon and took a day off on Thursday. I picked him up from work and the adventure began. We drove a couple hours up north to New York's Kingdom Bound. This is sad, but I was just introduced to Michael W. Smith's music that past 1 1/2 year or so. Anyway, DearHubby knew how much I had grown to like Michael W. Smith and he was playing in Kingdom Bound that evening. After the concert, we drove another couple hours west into Pennsylvania and spent the night in a motel. The next morning we had breakfast at the motel and then DearHubby took me to a cave where we had a boat ride tour. We then had lunch at Denny's and that was the end of our "JUST US" weekend. Well, it was such a special time for me and I thought that we should plan a "JUST US" weekend for DearDaughter's last moments with Daddy and Mommy.
This Saturday we took DearDaughter to the zoo. I woke up early to pack up our lunch food. We invited another family to come along with us and they met us at our place at 8:30am. We headed off and got to the zoo right at opening...DearDaughter was amazed to see all the animals that she's only seen in her books in real life...However, I think the best time she had was just the opportunity to run around without much constraint and with a little friend. It was so cute, as they held hands several times during our tour...After the tour of the zoo, we found a picnic bench outside of the zoo and had lunch. It was a good 3 hour outing...
After lunch, DearHubby and I had planned to just go home so that DearHubby would have time to work on some things at home. Our DearFriends mentioned they were going on to the beach since we were so close to the shore. I thought, "I can't believe our FAMILY weekend is over...Now, that's a real Family Day!" Our DearFriends actually invited us to go with them, but since we had already planned to return home, we stuck to our plans.
When we got home, DearHubby found that he really had nothing "pressing" to do for the home and so he asked me if he could actually work out in the garage to finish his motorcycle project. I wasn't very pleased with this request because I then thought about how we could have gone to the shore with our DearFriends, but I didn't argue with him about it either. Instead, I aked him if we could make a deal. The deal was that if I gave him time to work on the garage, then he would give me a lot of time to rest on Sunday...
So, Sunday morning came and I actually wasn't feeling too tired at all and I thought that instead of resting by sleeping, how about a family picnic after church. I really wanted to go down to the shore for this picnic, but when I mentioned the picnic idea to DearHubby his idea was a local near-by park (at this point, I didn't mention the shore because I just knew that DearHubby wouldn't go for it at all). We both didn't have a clue where a nice local park was and so before church, he said, "Well, we'll just have to make sure to find someone and ask them if they know where a nice park is..."
Sunday School and church went by and we were on our way to pick up DearDaughter from her class. DearHubby poked me from behind and reminded me to ask someone about a park to go to. Well, as we walked into DearDaughter's class, our DearFriend from yesterday came out with his daughter. So, I asked him how their day went at the shore on Saturday. He said they had so much fun that they were returning that afternoon...and they found a nice free beach...He described how the water was not brown but blue and the beach itself was clean...Now DearHubby is spoiled...I was born and lived in Hawaii for a time and so we've been down to Hawaii a couple of times for a visit. He loves the beaches there and so no other beaches on the Main Land have compared to them, which is why he dislikes going to the shore. I saw DearHubby's face light up and so I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask our DearFriend if we could go along. I explained how we had packed up our cooler for a picnic but we hadn't decided on a place to go yet. DearFriend was excited to have us come along...
We actually ended up eating lunch at home because our DearFriends needed to stop by their home to change, however, we still had a fun time at the beach...We forgot DearDaughter's sandals at home and so she had to walk around bare-footed. I was concerned that she wouldn't want to do that, but as I took her out of the car, she looked at the ground and I assured her it was ok. When she finally got out of the car, I applauded her and told her that she was a good girl. I was also concerned that she'd be too scared to go near the water, but DearHubby and I stood on each side of DearDaughter and held her hand. We all played near the water for a time and then went back to where we set up our stuff and just sat and played in the sand...
Our parking meter was about to run out of time, but the "FREE" time was also coming up too. Our DearFriends asked us if we wanted to stay longer. Initially, DearHubby and I thought it was a good idea, but then, we changed our minds and decided to head on home. It was 5:20pm by that time and it was another 1 hour drive to get home. We normally start DearDaughter's bedtime routine at 6:30pm and so we went with our "better" judgment and treked on home. Well, we got home around 6:30pm, but since we were all sandy, I decided to give DearDaughter a bath. DearDaughter ended up going to bed about 30 minutes later than normal, so I am glad that we did go with our better judgment because who knows how much later would we have gotten home. (In addition, this summer, we've had a few ants invade our home and I've had to clean up the kitchen right after dinner so that we won't have an ant problem. [I used to leave the dishes on the counter for the next day to clean-up] I didn't get done with clean-up until 9pm and by that time I was beat.)
So...that was the FAMILY weekend that I had hoped for and God worked it all out...This is one of those occasions that will stand out because there are a few things that only God could work out...First, I am one to just impose my ideas on my husband and if I want something then I will put up a fight. I actually really wanted to go to the shore with our DearFriends on Saturday, but for some reason, God gave me a peace about returning home and even "allowing" DearHubby to work out in the garage. If I had imposed my idea on DearHubby on Saturday, I know that we would have had an argument in the car and then not have enjoyed ourselves at the beach...Then, I am glad that God allowed me to be patient about the location of our Sunday picnic. God truly allowed me to trust in DearHubby and to "take his lead." God opened up the opportunity for DearHubby to give me the "responsibility" of asking for ideas from someone else. Therefore, I was at peace when I imposed an invitation of ourselves to our DearFriends and DearHubby was not opposed to the idea. If I had mentioned the shore earlier in the morning, DearHubby would have truly opposed the idea and would have probably been close-minded to it all day. We probably would have had an argument about the picnic location and then not have enjoyed the day at all. Lastly, God truly worked out wisdom in us by deciding to return home when we did. Rather than trusting in our own heart's desires, we used "wisdom" to make a good and I believe right decision. By trusting that God would work all things out, at the end of the day, DearHubby said that he really enjoyed his time...He expressed how he was also impressed with the beach we went to and that he truly felt it was restful. I, myself, could not have been able to impress that idea on DearHubby and I thank God for His grace for allowing us a wondrous FAMILY weekend!!!
Lastly, the weekend was the perfect time since the weather was soooo beautiful AND Sunday was DearDaughter's 19 month birthday!!! Praise God!!!
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