Yesterday I took a wonderful walk down memory lane here in blogland. It started as a search for a particular story that I had recorded here in this blog of mine, but turned into an afternoon of pondering, laughing, and being blessed by precious memories. Ok, there may have also been a tear or two. :) There are so many wonderful memories written in the pages of this virtual book of mine. Funny stories, cute kid sayings, fun adventures, hard times, good times. But throughout all, and most importantly, memories of God's faithfulness in all things. As I read, I stumbled across this post... http://momssongbird.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-hard-decision.html. And there it is again. A reminder of God's faithfulness. And not just God's faithfulness in the things we would expect or hope Him to be faithful in, but His faithfulness in providing for our dreams, our pleasures, frivolous though they seem at times.
That post was written four years ago. The saved money has been long gone, resaved, reused for other purposes. The bank bag still sits in my drawer; still collects my cleaning money, and now my Jenteal job money too; still builds and declines, builds and declines. Boy am I thankful for that bank bag and the ways it has blessed our family over and over! (Not to diminish my thankfulness for the way God provides through all of Reid's hard work!) The air miles mentioned in that post were used too. Our whole family got to go to Haiti on a mission trip the following year! What an incredible experience to be able to do that as a family! And just like the bank bag money, air miles have been saved and used, saved and used.
Last summer, we realized that we had once again saved up enough air miles to fly all six of us to Disney World again. So we took a leap of faith, booked tickets and an Air B&B, and hoped the rest of the money for park tickets and food would magically appear. :) We found dates in February where the girls would only miss two days of school if we went for a week, thus avoiding holiday crazy in the parks. We checked to see if Cam would be ok with missing 4 days of college. His response was something like "DUH!". :) And the plans were set in motion. And guess what else?! Reid got a consulting job right around the time of the trip and it paid for those park tickets and food! Coincidence in timing? I think not! God's faithfulness on display once again!
And then it happened! WE WENT TO DISNEY WORLD! I know that some families do this or go to Dinseyland regularly, or go to Hawaii regularly, or travel to other wonderful places regularly. But that just hasn't been our experience, so this was a very big deal. And we had a very wonderful time! At ages 14 (Natalie turned 14 the day we left! :) ), 15, 17 and 19, our kids were such fun to travel with! They got along famously, never complained, enjoyed all the sights and rides from the little kid rides to the roller coasters to the Harry Potter rides at Universal, to the World Showcase in Epcot. I might have to write a private post to myself someday recording all the fun memories, but for now, let's just suffice it to say there was much laughter, many fun experiences, new private jokes made, family time and bonding that will be remembered for always, and more. I thank God that we had to wait four years to make this dream a reality. It made the experience all the more precious. It was so much fun to be there with our older kids. Four years ago would have been tons of fun too, but I truly feel that because they were older, it was much less stressful, and even more enjoyable for all of us. And because I had thought it a dream lost, to have it actually happen made it extra special.
Once again, God made His faithfulness real and known in our lives - even in the frivolous! Thanks, God, for Your gift of a trip to Disney World for the Kisling family. And more importantly, thanks for showing Yourself generous and faithful in a way that the kids (well, all of us) can always remember and look back on when we need a reminder.
No comments:
Post a Comment