Are We There Yet? part 1

Along with millions of others this past week, I loaded up the car with our family and traversed the countryside for a couple days of the good life with our family. My two girls are now almost 5 and 20 months old. My oldest, Melody, we have traveled with numerous times, and she has always traveled well. The younger on the other hand... well, let's just say we haven't and she doesn't. Melody is now at the age where she has learned the world-famous traveling phrase, "Are we there yet?" She anticipates the undivided time she will glean from the aunts, uncles and cousins present and can't wait to put on her best performances, as the world (a.k.a. my sister's house) is her stage! So, even though she has been told we won't arrive until well after dark, she is on an internal timer set to go off with the above mentioned mantra every 2-3 minutes-- beginning at the time of our departure, 3 PM.

Now this is somewhat manageable, however; the other child, although her verbal skills are not yet fully developed, has no trouble in relaying the fact that she loathes the invention of the car seat and is convinced that it was, by engineering, not intended for occupation beyond 15-20 minutes. We know she is adamant about this fact as she sounds off her opinion in crying, whining and pleads for momma every 15-20 minutes! Understand, this is the norm; however, the intensity of this song on our holiday voyage was raised a few notches as she was sick and running a fever.

Our trip was scheduled to take 7 to 7-1/2 hours in total. After 6 hours, we had just made it half way thanks to heavy Austin traffic and frequent stops to frees the inner ear canal of its new nemesis. We made the executive decision that it would be best for all in our exhaustive state to stop for the night in San Marcos. We woke physically refreshed but asking God why there was not a toddler's version of Dramamine available. The total trip down we squeezed 7 hours into 11 hours-- the trip back was only 10 (yeah!)! You parents reading this are most likely snickering thinking, "Yep, been there; done that!"

In the midst of my exhaustion I was not prepared for the lessons God had for me on this trip. Once again, in perfect and sovereign timing, He coincided, both circumstances, messages from His Word along with conversations and other readings to pull out the proverbial two-by-four to drive home a message I needed to hear desperately. I will expound further on this lesson tomorrow or the next day... to be continued.