The Decade Before

Depending on what time of day you're reading this, you can close your eyes {which makes it hard it read, I know} and imagine your two favorite Shaffers cooped up in a car trekking to Florida for a WEDDING. Because four years ago right now, we were in the middle of doing just that.

 We played games and drank extraordinarily large amounts of coffee and pulled over at a rest stop for a quick 3 hour nap before resuming our trek.

And if you're reading this in the late morning or around noon, you can imagine us stuck in traffic for three hours, with no access to a bathroom or lunch. You can imagine a bride-to-be crying because she thinks all her cakes are going to melt in the backseat when she is literally less than five miles from her destination.

If you're reading this in the afternoon, you can imagine us taking our first peek at the beach where, in one day, we would exchange vows, or you can imagine me curled up on a bed trying to sleep off the sick yuck that came over me after 24 hours in a car with little sleep.

{You can also read all those fun stories here if you'd like.}

If you're reading this in the evening, you can imagine us at our "rehearsal dinner," which was a gathering of the family and friends who had come to town, all packed into the little condo where my parents were staying, eating delicious snacks prepared by a handful of my friends back at home.

It was a busy December 1, four years ago now.

But you know what else? There was a busy decade leading up to that.

This week, I organized my collection of journals, which date back to 1993 in all their embarrassing glory. As I put them all in date order, I opened one at random and read Ryan an entry from the summer of 1994, when I finally got my driver's license.

I say "finally," because I was the one teenage weirdo who actually did not CARE to get a license. Driving petrified me. I got my license because my mother {wisely} dragged me to the branch to take the test before my test waiver ran out. {I don't know if they even still do those anymore, but back then, if you had a high enough score in driver's ed, you could skip the driving portion of the test and just take the written portion. But the waiver only lasted so long, and mine was about to expire.}

I read Ryan the journal entry about how I'd been so nervous, I was shaking, but I got my license and it would not need renewed until 1999. And by that time, I wrote, I was sure I'd be married anyway and have a new last name for the license.

1999...2012...you know. Similar.

So I journaled about the happenings of my life until 2002, and actually I kept right on "regular" journaling even then, but I added a prayer journal to the mix in 2002.

And for the next ten years, God heard more than a few prayers. This many, actually:

{Overlook the hair. I hadn't prepped for a photo opp that day.}

These books hold my prayers, my wrestling, my questions, my faith, my offerings, my failures - all as I prayed for a husband I had yet to meet.

In these pages, God began to mold me in earnest to become the woman I needed to be. He had to do a lot of bending and breaking of my stubborn will, say many no's to my begging requests, and teach me much about Who He is and who He made me to be.

These ten years, in all fairness, weren't my favorite. And I'm sure some of the words attest to that. But these years were so necessary. Such foundations were laid in this time. And the girl who took the longest.car.ride.ever.to.Florida could only do that with such confidence because of the ten years represented in these fifteen books.

December 1, 2012 was a whirlwind of a dream come true. {Not the traffic jam or the feeling sick part. But the "carriage ride" to my wedding and the beauty of being surrounded by a representation of those who loved me.} But dreams come true because of the years leading up to them when God molds His children.

Don't resist the molding. {And I remind myself of this as I say it to you.} He has His holy reasons. You can trust them to lead to beauty.

Funny Things Happen When You Live in the Miami Airport For a Day

We pulled back into the Miami port as the sun came up on Saturday...seven days after leaving on our first cruise together.

 We finished packing our bags and took our final picture...

 They wanted everyone off the ship immediately, so about 9 in the morning, we had to stack up our suitcases and head for the bus area. We boarded a bus that would take us to our home for the day: the Miami airport.

 Okay. Here are a few things you should know.

I had just been on a cruise ship for an entire week, which was {as you've just endured reading about for the past many days} much fun! But as everyone knows, being away from home isn't the same kind of rest as being AT home, so I was a bit tired.

I hadn't slept for a good chunk of the week because of the aforementioned fan debacle.

I had only had one cup of coffee. {For you non-coffee-holics, this is a bad thing.}

I knew that when I arrived home at the end of the evening, I would be arriving home to NO hot water {this story yet to come in its entirety}, which, of course meant no shower and no laundry could be accomplished.

And while I wouldn't ordinarily tell you this on the blog, it did factor in significantly, so I will also tell you I had a nasty case of PMS.

You sort of get my frame of mind at this point, right?

So we settled in for the first part of our day in the lobby of a hotel in the airport. I was scared to sit there, knowing we weren't paying customers, but we were going to be in the airport for EIGHT HOURS, which meant I thought a little bit of time in a comfy chair might be okay.

Ryan played games.

 I worked on editing my over 800 pictures.

 And that's when the lady from the hotel came over and asked if we were ready to eat in the lounge. When Ryan told her no...we were okay...she said, "Well this lobby is for customers of the hotel and lounge, so if you're not either of those, you'll need to move to the real comfortable chairs around the corner."

I had just been kicked out of a hotel lobby {please keep in mind all of the aforementioned issues} which brought the ultimate in embarrassment. I made mental notes to never patronize THIS hotel. {HA. As if I could even afford it. They had concierge. I can't afford anything with concierge.}

We went around the corner to the "real comfortable chairs" {that lady is a liar!!!!} and settled in for the rest of the day.

We actually were pretty fortunate. The chairs could have been worse {though I would not stoop to call them comfortable} and we had an outlet right there to keep our phones and laptops going. Ryan was sweet to purchase the 24 hour internet plan so we could both log on and catch up on blogs, Facebook, email, and all that. He watched a movie in his computer and I worked on various tasks on mine. We ate pizza and drank Starbucks and all in all, the day spent in the Miami airport wasn't so bad after all.

And to prove it:

Two hours before our flight, we packed up and headed toward security and I thought to myself, Bekah, you've done a great job in not panicking today. You're calm, you're ready to get through security, you're ready to fly, you're not panicking, you're GROWING UP.

Oh how pride goes before a big. fat. fall.

So we got in line for security and got through the boarding pass/ID check with no issue. And therein came the first issue. I thought our gate was much farther down than it was when we began this adventure, so I had not yet pulled aside to drag my bag of liquids out of my carry-on to put them through the x ray belt.

I rounded the corner toward the belt and signaled to Ryan that I needed a minute to get into the suitcase to get out my bag...when I saw her.

The little girl {ten or so??} doing a face plant into a trash can.

Oh my word, people. My stomach is churning even TYPING this story to you.

One thing I cannot handle is the sight, sound, and/or smell of vomit. I mean seriously. Any one of those three and I am done. Absolutely done. Pull me up a trash can because I am next.

Apparently I was super fortunate that Ryan was walking first because he caught the whole show before she even got TO the trash can. He {in his ever helpful state} was trying to flag down someone to help the girl because evidently her mother was consumed with holding her hair back and her dad was not doing a thing besides taking up space.

And I, if you can even picture this, was trying to keep the eye closest to the girl shut, plug the ear closest to her, not breathe, talk to Ryan, AND dig in a suitcase while carrying a jacket and a purse.

I don't care how good you are. This cannot be done. It just can't.

He was still trying to flag down help and I was baffled as to why he wasn't pulling out some cape to shield me from the entire scene. {I'm nothing if not irrational in emergencies.}

I hauled everything onto the conveyor belt {literally shaking by this point from all the chaos and the newly-birthed fear that I am one step away from throwing up in the Miami airport}, unearthed my liquids, threw them and my shoes into a doggie dish and went through security.

As I'm still shaking and trying to reassemble all my belongings, I see the TSA agent say to another, "Can you help me get this suitcase? We have to search it."

Oh yeah.

It was mine.

The two of them - TWO of them - proceeded to haul that thing like it weighed 800 pounds. Oh please, ladies. I carry more weight than that to WORK every day. You do not need two people for this suitcase.

Ryan was still getting through security, and I'm at a side table, puke girl still in my view, shaking from head to toe, with a TSA lady gloving up to pull out my Bible, my underwear, and all my worldly possessions.

She picked up a bag and said, "What's in here?"

I burst into tears "Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd from some beeeeeeeeeeeeeachhhhhhhhhhhhhhhesssssssssssssssssss."

She gave me the same look I would have given me if we'd been flipped, but it was just eight straws past the final one. Ryan came running over, "What's WRONG???"

She gave him a look like, "This your wife? Man you're so outta luck." I said, "It's the saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddd."

He didn't see the same sense of urgency in the situation that I did, which only made me cry more.

Because, you see, I had so carefully gathered that sand for a Pinterest project and one look at that TSA lady told me she did NOT have a Bekah-appropriate appreciation for Pinterest.

She really was sweet, and she did not call over dogs or anyone bearing handcuffs and was kind enough to let me repack my own bag.

And that undid every shred of courage I had gathered within myself. I had hot flashes and stomach churns and had to text back home to some of my prayer warriors to get me through that last flight.

The flight, by the way, was storm-laden and Ryan got to experience the labor-like death grip through some of the turbulence.

I really shouldn't have watched that first season of Lost.

Key West, Baby!

We sailed all night and were to our first port by Monday. We didn’t have specific plans for the day so we just headed out to see what we could find!

I should also mention – it was raining AGAIN. Seriously, Florida! What is up with morning rain??????

Interesting thing about Key West – we found it was either really nice or really not-nice. We walked through some pretty slummy areas – and we also passed some areas that appeared to be straight from a movie. And sometimes they were all of two blocks apart.

The chickens were EVERYWHERE. Even on mail delivery.

We ran into a woman selling coconut drinks {literally a coconut with a hole drilled in it so you could drink the water out through a straw...}, so Ryan decided to try one. Our thoughts…

As you can see…I was both thrilled by the weather AND the taste of the drink. Please excuse my drowned rat look.

One of our attractions in Key West was visiting the southern-most tip of the US. 90 miles to Cuba, baby! We heard one of the tour guides driving by say we were closer to Cuba than to a Wal-Mart. LOL!! That can’t be a bad day!

And then, y’all, we knocked off one of my bucket list items! I GOT TO SEE {AND GO UP IN} A LIGHTHOUSE!!!!! I’ve wanted to do this forever and I was so excited to have the chance! We saw this one from the cruise ship and went in search of it.

Remember that day I worked a concert in Wauseon, and the cashier at the Arby’s gave me a senior citizen drink? Well the old lady look must live on because Ryan and I got to go up in the lighthouse for the senior citizen price! We would have complained about the principle of the thing, but we were too excited about the discount.

I might take this moment to mention I am PETRIFIED of open heights and closed spaces. So the trip up the 88 steps of the lighthouse was an exercise in quoting Psalm 56:3 over and over. We made it to the top and had a great time taking pictures {Ryan} and walking gingerly around {me} enjoying the view of…well…a long, long way.

This was a huge highlight for me. I was not expecting to be able to cross off a bucket list item, so this was a sweet surprise.

OH! And guess what??? We made a video of that!

We also found out from the coconut lady that there are no natural beaches in Key West. Say WHA???? It’s an ISLAND for crying out loud! But we did enjoy the man-made beach we found between the lighthouse and the ship:

And that was it for us in Key West. A great time together – especially after the rain cleared up!!

And We're Off!!!!

Sunday morning in Miami was a warm RAINY morning. Yes, rainy. Are you kidding me? I get to take my first ever cruise and you’re going to RAIN on me?? Sigh. 

The hotel recommended a shuttle company to take us to the ship, and y’all, we both thought we were going to die during that ride and never even SEE the ship. It was a 15 passenger van, transporting yours truly and the hot husband known as Ryan, and we were pulling a trailer that carried the luggage. That driver was all OVER the four lanes of the road…speeding, cutting corners…and our prayer lives increased significantly. He was in a HUGE hurry to get us to the ship by 11:15 so we could make it on board for the 4:30 sailing, apparently. LOL!!!!

 The next part was a little hairy for me. I don’t really like crowds all that much…mean security people scare me…and being in situations where I don’t know what’s coming next really unnerves me. So pretty much boarding a cruise ship for the first time is the trifecta of nerves.

After getting yelled at by the suitcase Nazi {we did not want to surrender any of our bags because we’re territorial like that} and having my personal space invaded more than some doctor’s appointments, we made it through security and sat in the waiting room for our chance to board the ship. 

We actually got on the ship fairly quickly and were able to see our room for the first time. Want a little tour? {Just in case you've never been on a cruise and might be curious what their rooms look like!}

I took this picture standing in the hallway looking into the room – the bed and our balcony straight ahead…the closets/TV/refrigerator to the left and the bathroom to the right.

Our bed took me back to the days when my own bed at home was made up of two twin beds pushed together…big ole crack in the center. 

Our couch…not the most comfy thing in the world, but it was really nice for the times we wanted to eat in our room!

Our closet/getting ready space – and our TV!

And the bathroom. {With me. Probably the only time I’ll ever invite you in the bathroom with me. HA!}

And if you don't like the still version - howsabout the video version:




We were hungry, so we grabbed a quick lunch on board the ship and spent the entire afternoon exploring our new home for the next week. 

The water park area. {Where Ryan may or may not have REALLY enjoyed spending time...}

The theater. {Loved the little couch seating option!}

Ryan trying his hand at stand up comedy. {Not really. It was a photo opp.}

 Guy Fieri’s burger joint. {Probably our biggest source of withdrawal, post-cruise.}

The pool.

The adults-only deck. {YES!!!!}

And then after our exploration was complete, it was time to set sail. We discovered, during our exploration, that there was a little open-air deck on our same floor, right at the front of the ship, so when it was time to set sail, we went out there…and enjoyed a great view with just a handful of people. Way better than the masses on the main decks, I’m sure. The view was great – right out of Miami and into the ocean.

And that was how Day One of our cruise came to be!