Reunited and It Feels So Good

You remember the lyrics by Peaches and Herb. Well, that is if you listen to 80's music. Or was it 70's, yikes!  Now that I have that song stuck in your head, let me share with you my last two weeks.  LLYC's slogan "Best Two Weeks" says your camp experience will be....."best two weeks of your life".  I would have to beg to differ because what we just did was one of the best two weeks EVER.  William and I have come to the conclusion that when we go somewhere we want to go where some if not all our girls are or can join us.  It is an amazing phenomenon watching the girls as they reunite.  The hugging, spooning, out and out howling, borrowing and fun they all have is more than any entertainment package anyone could put together.
If you have not discovered Vacation Rental by Owner you should.  We have experienced it now two or three times and love staying in peoples homes.  This place in New Orleans had a salt water pool and was fantastic.  We had a dinner party with future in laws, hung out and watched tv, took naps, and the house was close to everywhere, clean, and big enough we could all stay there and never feel on top of each other or the owners who were upstairs......and just had a new 5 week old baby.  IT WAS FAB.  My point is it just felt good to all be under one roof.  It was like old times when everyone lived at home.
God was doing a work in me on my 3000+ mile road trip, if I count when we drove to Raleigh, NC and then the drive home from NOLA.  My 4 days of driving across America taught me a lot about my oldest, about myself and about other people we would encounter others.  Most everyone you meet is pretty nice if you just smile at them. I never met anyone who did not respond favorably to smiling.  It was fascinating for me to see God's handiwork in all the different landscapes.  He has such a variety for us to enjoy.  All that He has created for our pleasure and enjoyment.  So why don't we enjoy it more?  Why are we not taking better care of it?  Why do we overlook what is right in front of our faces most days?  It is highly unlikely I will drive that drive again, but highly likely I will never forget what it looked like.
I fell in love with discovery.  In love with falling in love over and over agin as love kept growing more love.  What God was helping me with and showing me was the difference in loving and letting go.  That I can let go and that is still loving.  Hanging on too long with training mode with my adult kids, let's call them what they are, and thinking they wanted to listen was what I discovered most about them and myself.  A fine line to walk.  I am learning and hoping they will ask for my opinion or advice without my usual piping in as it tells me in Ecc. 5:2 "letting my words be few", or not keeping my seat as it tells me in 1 Tim 2:2 to "lead a quiet and peaceable life".  Quiet here literally means "keeping one's seat".  O how I love to jump up.  Something I have come to realize is that I pipe in, jump up and speak out more times out of loneliness for adult conversation and fellowship.  The search for significance, if you please, in conversation with another who affirms me and my ideas. Wanting them to remember me as the Carrie Underwood song goes, "Don't Forget to Remember Me".  All they have to do is look in the mirror and they can not forget......there I am in many ways in many faces.  He is teaching me to be affirmed in Him, find my source in Him and trust He will always listen even when I am alone.  As much as I, we, have worked to train, impart, teach, love, help our children they were teaching me how much I love discovering God more through them.   What they were sharing with us and each other opened my eyes to His fruit from the seeds that were planted so long ago.  It was so fun to hear them encourage each other, to love each other, to embrace each other as adults, sisters in the family and sisters in Christ.  The older ones don't want to be trained anymore......all of our labor is seeing blessed and tastey fruit.  Why do you think they call it labor and delivery?  We labor and God delivers!

I am seeing a difference in the way they react, respond and receive what I have to say.  They have already heard it. Why do I think they haven't?  I guess I just miss the engagement.  I miss them.  I miss us as a one unit family.   I think I just slip back into that mode without realizing it.  He is teaching me now just to be myself with them, like a friend.  They patiently and sweetly hug me, tell me they love me, thank me and do all the things I adore.  The thing is, I did not teach them that, He does.  I now get to reap the blessings from this fruitful family tree as we will shortly be all over the world.  It takes work, hard work, to stay connected the way we were when we were all under one roof.  That is what this weekend felt like.  The journey getting there, 3000+ miles for some of us was a challenge.  Some of us it was 10 hours and for some just a couple blocks, but all the roads led us home together.  Home was a vacation rental by owner that did not matter the address cause it was where we felt, heard and saw the heart of God in each one who crossed its threshold.  Memories of our time will have to sustain us til once again, wherever that may be, we meet up again, we run home to discover more of what God has uncovered since last we met.