The company was excellent. The food was divine. I was deep into a good book. Faith was loving the new scenery and faces. Grace and Jack were well behaved and cheery children. All of the cousins got along so well. We had three babies under the age of 18 months in the house, and at times we joked that we were residing in a church nursery. The babies were a new joy to have around as they were but an inkling in the 2004 Beach Trip.
Where the vacation breaks down, is that a few days into the vacation a little bug started flying around. Just a fever, and a sore throat. A few cousins caught it. A couple of adults were battling a different kind of bug. I myself had spent a couple of hours in the bathroom in the middle of one night a hair away from losing all of my cookies, but I attributed it to a very spicy crab cake. As we packed up the car to head to Florida for my family's side of the vacation, I couldn't believe we had survived the bout with illness. Our kids had been unscathed. This I had immediately attributed to only the Grace of God. We actually have a name for a curse that appears to be on our household over the last five years...as every time we go on a vacation we get some gut wrenching illness that spreads like wildfire.
So we hopped in the car and headed to Kissimee, Florida. Deciding to divide the ride up into two days, we settled in Savannah. The curse...followed. That night, Faith came down with a 102 temperature, and congestion. She was a furnace and it was a miserable night for her. Jack reacted to the mite infested sofa bed and needed a breathing treatment in the morning. We hadn't escaped. I had no idea what our week would have in store. It could have been just the beginning. It was also Faith's first illness (not vaccination induced).
I felt like an absolute heel that morning. I had to tell the children, we had to double back home. No Disney World. No Sea World. No Grandpa. I had to call my father on Father's Day, of all days, and tell him we wouldn't be coming down for the week. And my little girl had to endure more hours in a car, with a sky rocket temperature. I felt like I had been wrapped up in a blanket of guilt.
The children took it so well. They really did. I was so proud of them. They were disappointed, but I had ignorance on my side, as they had never been to Disney World or Sea World before, so they had no idea exactly what they were missing. Faith endured her high temps without medicine (meds make her puke) and the fever broke the following night. She still has the nose stuff, but the wee one is feeling much better.
So we're home. I feel rested. I've been able to find the blessing in that the Lord allowed our family to go completely untouched for the first week so that we could truly relax. I've come home to my favorite flowers (scarlet bee balm) blooming in the garden that I thought I would miss during my absence. I have to believe that there was a reason we had to come home a week early. The Lord wanted us back home. And here we are. After all of it, vacation and missed vacation, it feels good to be home.
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