We have had a hard year. The kids have done great with the roller coaster ride of foster care. They have learned much compassion and made many sacrifices. They love deeply and care to much.
I decided to take them on a vacation as a reward. Family vacations are a wonderful bonding time for us. We love to travel and hang out together away from the stress of every day life.
We did some research on vacations.We wanted to celebrate some pretty big deal answers to prayers, while making fun memories.
We used to go camping, but no longer can due to unbloggable illnesses.
We have to have handicapped accessible, large family accessible, single parent friendly and allergen free vacation spots. Yes, I always ask "does the room/house have new paint, new carpeting, is it smoke free and is it pet free? Does it have room for 7 people? Is it handicapped accessible? Is there room to park a 15 passenger van with a side lift? Is it a safe area for a single mom and young kids"
We found the perfect spot. A large family, homeschool retreat in Williamsburg Va. It met all my criteria. Bonus, it was educational!!
I spend hours, making arrangements for Nesiah to stay at respite, for someone to care for our animals, for someone to dog sit, for transportation for Nesiah from respite to school, and for all foster care permissions to travel. Not to mention preparing food for the week, packing all the kids and all the meds, everything but the kitchen sink!
We made costumes for the boys. The kids counted down the days.. We were soo excited. I went to great lengths to make sure that the week prior to going was to be stressfree, so I could be calm and relaxed in prepping that final packing/prep work.
First someone reacted to cat hair brought in on our little kiddoe that we babysit. We had a rough two days. Then that same someone contracted pink eye. We visited the pediatrician on Wed.
We also had 3 caseworker visits, our monthly visits, and 3 days of snow and ice.
My birthday happened too along with the biggest snow storm of the year.
Friday I called the specialist and the pediatrician the illnesses were worse.. they continued to worsen over the weekend. There was little sleeping, lots of nebulizer treatments and lots of worrying. There was even a late night, on really icy roads, trip to the ER.
so Saturday morning we made the decision to postpone our vacation. The much anticipated vacation. The kids were heartbroken, but were fervently praying that we could still leave the next day. We packed everything into the van, dropped Nesiah off with a friend and made sure everything was ready to leave first thing the next morning.
Saturday night was awful. Really awful.
Sunday morning, we decided that it still wasn't wise to travel. The kids were angry. We unpacked the van.
Monday morning I announced a change of plans... We were going to do a "staycation" instead of going to Williamsburg.
More to come...
Happy belated birthday!
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