Wanna Go On Vacation With Me?

If the answer is yes...I'm sorry. It's too late. I already went.

Last week I went on vacation. Yes, again. I know! That's three in one year! That's three times as many as most of the rest of my adult life combined!

Let me tell you how this came to be. Earlier this summer, actually right about the same time you've been reading in the desert tales, my dear friend Glen Mills invited me to come to Wisconsin to visit his family. (More on Glen and the family later.) As you may have gathered from reading desert stories, I was barely capable of driving to work. Driving to Wisconsin was clearly out.

But with the passing of time and the perusing of pictures of where they live, I thought maybe a trip to Wisconsin might just be the healing my heart needed.

So in a very unBekahlike move, I emailed Glen and asked if the offer still stood...and so began my Wisconsin vacation plans.

I decided to share it with you as it happened...day by day.

So.

Monday morning I packed - and I do mean PACKED - my car. Hey, cut me some slack. Wisconsin in October means a complete gamble on weather. I needed a substantial array of clothing and shoes.

How does Bekah travel, you ask?

I don't text and drive, but I do take pictures and drive. Expect several. I took a bit of a scenic route for the first leg of my trip. Destination A was Roscoe, Illinois, where my friend, Jenna, lives. (You'll meet her soon.) So I left home about the same time I'd have left for work, but instead of going to the office, I headed out on the open road. Along the way, I encountered a community in need of prayer:

I have mad skills in getting lost. MAD skills. I'd said to many people before leaving, "I sure hope I don't end up in Oregon."

Hee. Hee. Hee.

Part of the reason I did not end up in the STATE of Oregon was because my good friend Judy loaned me her GPS. His name is Larry. Larry and I had a love/hate relationship throughout this entire grip. Larry hated me until El Paso, Illinois. (That's three hours.) RE-calculating. RE-calculating. There IS a better route. RE-calculating.

About six hours after leaving home (and only one brief stop...I'm a stickler for staying on task), I landed in Roscoe to meet Jenna. Oh. And I was so thankful I had exact change for the toll road in Illinois. I was expecting a little booth with a grouchy worker. Not a funnel can that expected exact change. Good grief.

Okay. About Jenna. She was our student worker several years ago. We've been blessed to have many student workers who have proven to be good friends outside the office as well - and for many years after we part working ways. Jenna is such a friend. She and her husband have such a beautiful story of how God worked in their lives as they prayed to be blessed with a child.

And ten weeks ago...

...sweet baby Adelaide came into the world! I was thrilled to meet her. Shortly after I arrived, we all piled in the car and headed out to have some fun. Adelaide was sleeping in her car seat and I was next to her. She grabbed my hand and hung on. Loved it.

So our first stop was.....

Okay, okay, okay. I'll explain. Frog (that's her husband) and Jenna have a couple of side jobs. One is checking the lockers at an indoor water park near their home. They go when the park is closed and make sure the lockers are all in working order. So yes. I went in the men's locker room on my vacation. But never fear. No one was there.



Really? This has to be explained??

By the time we finished working at the water park, it was the middle of the afternoon and my "breakfast" had long since vanished. But people. OH people. Look what lives in Rockford, Illinois:

A Sonic strawberry creamslush. My day was complete. (There may or may not have been an accompanying order of tater tots, deluxe burger, and sweet tea.)

In other news of interesting side jobs, they also check the massage chairs in the mall to make sure they work. As a result, guess who got four free massages?

Another sign I found along the way. If you have to finance the pet, chances are good you cannot afford the pet.

On the way home, look who fell asleep against my hand?

My lovely guest room at Frog and Jenna's. Oh man, that was a comfy bed!

This reminded me of a vanity I had growing up!!

Monday evening, I went with Frog and Jenna to a small group meeting with some of their friends. They went out to a Chinese buffet for dinner first, but I was still stuffed from Sonic. So I fed Adelaide her dinner while everyone else ate. I did, however, score a fortune cookie. Is this not ironic?

Then we headed out to small group. I loved sitting in on their study, which was out of Genesis 30. (That's the chapter where Rachel and Leah are busy having their pro-creating competition.) One of the guys in the group said this, and it resonated with me given my past few months. He commented that in one of the verses, Rachel says the presence of a baby in her home showed her God heard her after all. She felt forgotten. And the guy said it was a good reminder for us as well...God hears us even when we feel forgotten.

And I say to that...amen.