Humility and Heartbreak

There are not many moments in my life where one sentence can change my perspective in a matter of seconds.  Especially when news I just received was about someone I will never have the opportunity to meet.  

My hometown has been shocked and shaken twice in the past 2 weeks by separate stories with incredibly sad endings.  Last week, while on Spring Break, Rick and his wife Laura were swimming in the ocean and got caught up in a strong under current.  Laura was able to escape the current and swim back to the beach; Rick was rescued by lifeguards but was unable to be resuscitated.  His wife and daughter are now left to pick up the pieces of this unexpected tragedy.  While I do not know this family personally, they have attended the church where I grew up for many years and my brother and sister-in-law had worked with Rick on their wedding invitations just a few months before...it hurts to see them hurting.  Many many prayers are still lifting up this family.  

The second tragedy is even harder for me to process.  On Saturday the kids and I were in the car with my parents - non-stop to the beach!  My brother called to let my mom know that a class mate of my sister-in-law's had been hospitalized with bacterial menengitis and they didn't think he was going to make it.  For all the obvious reasons, I began praying almost continuously for Adam and his family.  I have seen God perform miracles before.  I witness His miracles every single day as I see Ava alive and thriving...running and jumping and coloring and high-fiving (with her right hand)...throwing balls and doing cartwheels...these are all things we were once told she could never be able to do - and that was their "best-case" scenario for my then-17 month old the night they diagnosed her with bacterial menengitis.

By the next day my fears were confirmed; the testing they had done on Adam showed no brain activity.  He was only in his mid-twenties.  And though I was already incredibly heartbroken for this family, what I found out the next day resulted in a combination of shock and humility.  As I watched the sad news, and overwhelming requests for prayers make its way around Facebook, I found a friend explaining to another classmate what had happened. 

"He was feeling sick, so he went to urgent care.  He was dehydrated so they gave him fluids then antibotics...and sent him home.  After several hours he was getting worse and had a temperature of 106 so his girlfriend took him to the ER where he was then diagnosed with bacterial menengitis." 

The general facts in this explation could be word-for-word me describing the day they admitted Ava to the hospital.  We took her to the pediatrician that morning because she'd been so lethargic all weekend and was not eating or drinking hardly anything.  We were told she had an ear infection and was dehydrated.  They only admitted her to the hospital for fluids as she could have take the antibiotic for the ear infection at home.  The high temperature and lethargic symptoms Adam was also experiencing - exactly the same for Ava.  The only difference, and ultimately one of our biggest blessings, was that the hospital didn't send her home.  They wanted to monitor her for at least 12 hours before releasing her.  I literally Thank God for that decision every time I let myself go back to that day. 

I don't know why God chose Adam and Rick to go Home last week but I do know that His plan is always perfect, even when it hurts.  Through the illnesses and cancer diagnoses, through the losses of parents or grandparents, best friends and loved ones, through the complicated pregnancies and family trials...once you look through the pain and grief you will see God waiting to comfort you and continue to love you unconditionally.  "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Hopefully this promise can bring some comfort to the families and friends of Rick and Adam.  I am praying for strength and peace for each one of you!      


 

Cruisin' 101: Part 2

In case you missed my midnight posting last night, here's Part One of our recent cruise adventure! 
And the saga continues...

Not what I wanted to be wearing when it was perfect shorts &
tank top weather, but I also didn't want to burn anymore! 
Sidenote: the Key Lime Pie was amazing!

4. SUNSCREEN...LOTS OF IT! I know, this seems obvious. We left from Jacksonville, spent a day at sea and arrived in Key West on Wednesday, spent Thursday in Nassau, Bahamas followed by another day at sea on Friday before arriving back in Jacksonville early Saturday morning. Clearly it's going to be warmer, and the sun will be hotter than winter in Indiana. Case in point: it was about 25 degrees when we got to the airport in Indy Monday morning; it was 90 when we arrived in Jacksonville 8 hours later. But still, it's the first week of March so I figured the intensity of the sun would be similar to what it is during July-August in the mid-west. Wrong. I lathered on the SPF 15, found a comfy chair to sun bathe in and pulled out my People magazine to find out how Kate Middleton was handling the Royal Wedding planning. It took less than 3 hours, with sunscreen on, for me to become painfully burnt...and we were somewhere along the eastern coast of Florida not even halfway to our southern-most destination. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the week in either a long sleeve tshirt and long capri pants or, if I dared put on a bathing suit, I was lathered up in my SPF 15 and sitting in the shade! 



Warm Chocolate Melting Cake!  I actually made
this for Nick's birthday dessert last night.  Still
perfecting it, but it was a good first try!

 5. ENJOY THE EXTENSIVE (and Extremely Tasty) CULINARY CHOICES! We ate breakfast in the main dining room most mornings because that's where they served their awesome omelets and Belgium waffles. Lunch was on the Lido Deck where we could get burgers (the veggie burger was delicious!) and chicken strips or some Mongolian fare. The Pizzeria was open 24/7 – the Le Chevre (I think, it was goat cheese and mushroom) was sooo good!! We opted to eat dinner in the main dining room each night because, again, that's where you could find the best food! The selection was excellent, 5 or 6 different main entrees to choose from each night along with several soups, salads and side items that also varied nightly. There was always some variety of seafood (the lobster was my favorite) and an Italian dish because all of the Carnival ship captain's are Italian. (Your strange but interesting factoid of the day!) One night, while enjoying the live music on the Lido Deck we were treated to a midnight Mexican Buffett. In general, I'm not sure how good Mexican at midnight is for the digestive system but the food was amazing and the desserts were even better! Speaking of dessert, Nick also discovered his new very favorite dessert: warm chocolate melting cake. Essentially a chocolate brownie with melted milk chocolate inside topped with powdered sugar, it was a huge hit with my chocoholic husband! By Day 3, Nick didn't even have to order dessert; our server just looked at him and laughed and wrote down his order. One of our fabulous tablemates even found the recipe online, so now I guess I have to try replicate this to the high standards the kitchen staff has set for warm chocolate melting cake! 

6. PACK LIGHT AND CHOOSE CAREFULLY. While most of my cruise wardrobe consisted of shorts, tee shirts and bathing suits I was very excited for dinner in the formal dining room. Honestly, when was the last time I got to wear a dress (and my favorite peep toe wedges) and not have to worry about how impractical it would be for chasing three kids? Plus, I was proud of my newly toned body thanks to P90X so I was sure to pack my skinny jeans next to my bikinis! A word of advice: don't pack anything that may be a little too snug if you gain, say, 5-6 pounds in 5 days because all you are doing is eating and drinking and laying by the pool...including (and especially) skinny jeans. I tried to be good, honestly I did. I took my running shoes and 3 days worth of workout clothes. I got up on our first morning on the boat, ready to get my heart rate up. After a healthy breakfast (egg white omelet and English muffin) I hit the gym...and waited for almost 10 minutes before someone vacated one of the ellipticals. I would have gotten on any cardio-centered machine; this was just the first one to become available. Finished my 40 minute workout feeling great and quite pleased with myself for following through...but never made it back to the gym the rest of the week. Given the number of calories I consumed that week, I should have been going twice a day!



The platform we were on was shaded, so the water was pretty
cold - very grateful for the wetsuit!



7. BOOK AN EXCURSION...or just show up and hope there's an opening! Acting on the advice of a friend who'd recently been on a cruise, we choose to explore one port on our own (Key West) and book an excursion at another. By far the coolest thing we did on the cruise was an excursion in Nassau that took us to Blue Lagoon Island, a private island that's about a 15 minute ferry ride from Nassau. Blue Lagoon is home to a picturesque private beach as well as the Dolphin and Sea Lion Encounters. I had tried to book the Dolphin Encounter two weeks before our departure, only to find out 3 days before we left for Jacksonville that the excursion (through cruises.com, where we booked our cruise) was full. Completely disappointed, we decided to head over to the island anyway to hang out on the beach for the day. When we got to the ferry pier, we saw a Dolphin Encounters office.  We went over, checked it out and found out there were still openings for the next encounter. YAY! After a rather bumpy ferry ride over, I was ready to see some dolphins! Though the water temperature in the sun was in the high 70's, maybe low 80's, our platform was in the shade and therefore very cold. Thank goodness they provided optional wetsuits! (Although I voluntarily let a strange man “size me up” to determine which wet suit I needed, and that was a little creepy, somehow it magically fit so he must have done something right. After our dolphin, Andy, did some tricks for us, he swam over to our platform and I got to feed him and dance with him, feel his teeth and super smooth skin, even give him a hug and a kiss. Yes, I actually kissed a dolphin on the mouth...and, of course, it tasted a little fishy. But it was awesome!



Andy - the star of the show!



8. GET TO KNOW YOUR FELLOW CRUISERS!  This was easy, especially at dinner since we sat with the same 2 couples each night at our assigned table.  One of the couples is from Evansville (his dad is a long-time professor at my parents' alma mater...small world!) and the other is from Atlanta.  We felt old when we discovered both couples were on their collegiate Spring Breaks, but that didn't stop us from having a great time together.  We enjoyed two comedians at the comedy club with one couple and a few evenings of live music or other ship activities (including the Midnight Mexican Buffett) with the other couple.  So fun!  It was amazing how often, on a ship full of possibly 2,000 people, we kept running into several of the same cruisers throughout the week.  One of my favorites were the two couples we met in the hot tub one afternoon, one from Green Bay, the other transplants from Minnesota to Jacksonville...some good-natured NFL trash talk (one guy thought if he could convince me to trade Peyton to the Jags it would actually happen) ensued. 



Our new friends and our amazing servers!



We had a wonderful time and I would highly recommend cruising as a very low-key, but fun-filled way to vacation.  The best part about it?  Unpacking once but enjoying different locales, the amazing food available 24/7, the never-ending activities and contests so you can be as busy (or as lazy!) as you choose and the fact that you and your spouse/friends/kids are all on the same boat so each person can plan on whichever activities suit them best without the hassle of coordinating who's going where and when.  The one major downfall to cruising is that, unlike practically everything else on the boat, soft drinks and alcohol are not included.  Nick and I are not big soda drinkers, so we did fine with water/tea/milk during the day along with the occasional adult beverage.  And of course, the drinks aren't cheap plus they automatically add 15% gratuity to each drink order to ensure the bartenders and servers get paid.  So suddenly my $7 frozen drink was closer to $8.50 - but the server came over and took my order and delivered it to me without fear of losing my cushioned lounge chair so I'm not complaining too much :) 

Formal Night!!

Key West

Nassau, Bahamas (and the Atlantis resort)

Nick's ideal vacation: this hammock and a bottom-less Corona

Blue Lagoon Island, home of the Dolplin Encounter

Midnight Mexicab Buffett!  SO GOOD!

Cruisin' 101: Part 1

We made it!  First night on the boat!!

As many of you know, Nick and I just returned from our first cruise – a joint birthday present to ourselves! While I felt like I did some pretty extensive research before we left, there are several lessons I apparently had to learn for myself before I took them to heart!

1. GO THE NIGHT BEFORE! Really. Everything I read recommended arriving in the port city the night before, even if your ship is not due to depart until 4 or 5pm. Somehow, I missed the urgency of these warnings. We booked an 8am flight out of Indy for Monday morning with a layover in Atlanta and were due to arrive in Jacksonville by 11:55am. Our boat was due to leave port by 4pm – plenty of time, right? I basically grew up in an airport, so I factored in at least an hours worth of delays (late planes, weather delays, quick-fix mechanical problems, etc.) plus extra time to pick up our checked bags and take the 15 minute ride from the airport to the pier. I really thought we were in good shape. Unfortunately, I did not account for all of these unexpected problems happening at once. The weather in Atlanta Monday morning had canceled a 6am flight, so our flight was overbooked as it was. We board the plane and are ready to go when the captain announces that the plane-equivalent of the 'check engine light' won't go off, so maintenance is coming by to check it out. Twenty minutes later they can't get the light to go off, so they have to deboard and wait for a new part to come in from Cincinnati. Now we have two flights worth of passengers trying to catch the next plane to Atlanta – and many, like us, also trying to make it there in time to catch the connecting flight to their final destination. I'll save you the sad details, but we didn't leave Indy until after we should have arrived in Jacksonville, effectively missing our connection by hours. The next flight out of Atlanta arrived in Jacksonville at 3:55pm – if it was on time, and that was before we had to wait for our bags and take the 15 minute ride to the pier. You don't have to do the math to figure out that I had to start mentally preparing myself to miss that boat. I figured this was God's way of affirming my nervous, guilty feelings that it was too soon to leave my kids for 6 days. We had a lot of direct and indirect communication with the pier from the moment we were delayed in Indy; it is no small miracle that the Guest Services Director of the Carnival Fascination held that boat for nearly an hour after she had been cleared to leave, waiting on us and another couple on our same flights out of Indy and Atlanta. And for her we are eternally grateful!!

2. REALIZE THERE WILL BE TEARS...AND THAT'S OKAY. The tears I'm referring to are mine, of course. We met my parents for lunch on Sunday to do the kid-swap and I had not really prepared myself for what it would be like to leave them, knowing I would not see them for 6 whole days. Nick and I have taken one trip, a long weekend to Tennessee, when the girls were 2 ½ years old, without kids since we've become parents. The kids have stayed with their grandparents a few times for a night or two when we had an out of town wedding or other event. After Christmas I remember my parents took the kids for a couple days just to give us some time to unwind from the holidays, my brothers wedding and prepare for Drew's birthday party. I remember those two and a half days going way too fast! Somehow it was infinitely different this time. As the girls loaded in the back of my parents' new minivan – an Odyssey like ours, but cooler! - they barely noticed that Mia and Jeeps were up front rather than Mommy and Daddy. Drew cried briefly, but more out of exhaustion than anything. I, on the other hand, had to get it together just to avoid the questioning looks from my girls so I could hug and kiss them good-bye. We'd been on the road about 5-10 minutes before I was able to collect myself enough to start my packing list. 

   

   Comfy Chair + Book + Floppy Hat = :)

   
   

3. UNPLUG. IT'S GOOD FOR THE SOUL. As much as I missed my kids, for me it was easier to not talk to them every day. I had my phone, but using it on international waters would have been very expensive. We could have paid to use email/internet on the boat, but that isn't the same as talking to them so we opted to unplug for the entire week. The only exception was when we were ported in Key West, I could use my phone as usual and we talked to the kids for a few minutes. (We also attempted to Facechat, but I probably should have figured out how to do so before we left!) It was definitely a weird feeling to know we were completely unaware of anything going on outside out little cruise bubble, but it was nice to know I couldn't/shouldn't be checking my email, updating my Facebook or sending texts when I needed to be laying by the pool, reading a book (that had nothing to do with parenting techniques) and enjoying the sunshine :)

   

   Enjoying my surroundings while unplugged!

   
   
   
   
   Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon!!