We just left a wonderful stay at Lake Eufaula State Park in Oklahoma. Our spot was on a bluff overlooking the lake on multiple sides. It was breathtaking... until it was crazy windy. Then it was also breathtaking but it came more in nervous gasps.
Windy conditions aside, we enjoyed our time. The campground was mostly empty. Crinkly leaves covered the ground. We rode bikes, tried our hand at fishing, walked the lake shore, and built a fire by the water using nothing but driftwood and a fire starter stick.
It was a wonderful rest. We enjoyed our shorter stays at Harvest Hosts but it was a lot of travel.
The day after we arrived at Lake Eufaula everyone was experiencing some emotions. Lots of them. Loud ones. Hard ones. We took inventory and realized we had not given each of us time to process. "Defragging" would be a digital equivalent.
Joshua and I also realized we had some small corrections to make. We sat the kids down and explained that we had been treating them as passengers on this voyage when in fact they are crew. Passengers are just along for the ride. Crew members have to work. Welcome aboard, kiddos! It's time to work.
To their credit they accepted the change well. Even joyfully. They have been making their own lunches, taking trash to the dumpster, helping wherever they are asked. I'm incredibly proud of them. We spent a fun afternoon at the laundromat with a quick stop in at the local library across the street during the wash cycle. (Check out the stack of books Madelyn fully intended to read in the 20 minutes we were there.) The kids pitched in with loading the machines, folding clothes, and then putting theirs away when we got back.
We've found that the work has helped with the emotions. When they started to feel like invested members I think it helped to ground them. And the sharing of the workload helped Josh and I as well.
I had emotions of my own to process. There may or may not have been a day where I unceremoniously dumped lunch makings on the picnic table, announced I would not be making lunch, and then hiked to the camp bathroom a quarter mile away. It was not my most perfect moment. But I did come back. Calmer, able to communicate. And it reminded me of a quote from Ruth Bell Graham:
If I cannot give my children a perfect mother I can at least give them more of the one they've got--and make that one more loving. I will be available. I will take time to listen, time to play, time to be home when they arrive from school, time to counsel and encourage. -Ruth Bell Graham
My mom used to say, when I was growing up, that as she couldn't ensure that all of the time she spent with us would be quality time she would focus instead on quantity time, trusting that quality time would happen. And it did. I'm trusting that same thing - as quantity time is what we've been gifted during this adventurous season. And perfection is no longer my aim.
I had three or four more paragraphs written out and then the internet burped and they were deleted. I don't remember what I wrote so we will let those thoughts go for now. It's all part of the adventure!
There are other parts of this adventure that are becoming a bit clearer. We've been operating with a "just the next step" mentality and it has been a wonderful exercise in faith. We have found ourselves on a path we wouldn't have sought out and yet are delighted to be walking.
On the shores of Lake Eufaula, the kids, Josh and I built an Ebenezer. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept it is from the Old Testament scriptures and it was a way of remembering/commemorating something that God had done. They would build a pile of rocks at the location so that in the future times, when they walked by with their children, the children could ask "what is with that pile of rocks?" and they would be able to say, "thus far, the LORD has helped us."
Thus far, the LORD has helped us. And we are trusting Him with whatever lies ahead.
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