Recharge Renew

Life, as I observed on my Google+ stream last week, moves fast. The older I get, the more I am aware of this fact. Last February, Harold met with a team of people who we deeply trust. To put it in business language there were some vacancies that needed to be filled and our team wanted to know if we were interested in filling any of them. We were indeed interested in one specific church that we felt we could help out. So the seed of decision was planted with details to sprout at a later date.

In our church circles we don’t really make decisions in a vacuum. There are no “lone ranger” leaders. There are several reasons for this. One, we believe it is biblical to seek counsel from people who know us well and are, yes, wiser than us, before making major decisions. Two, there are too many lives at stake to risk making a decision out of vanity, tiredness, boredom, ego, etc. When I say “lives at stake” it doesn’t mean someone will get shot & die. It means we are leaders and when leaders screw up it affects the people around them in a negative way. Harold & I don’t want  that to happen to the people we serve and live life with. We care about them too much.

As could be predicted the time between February and now flew by. Trying to get time to have long discussions between my husband and I was next to impossible.  Late at night, when we were bleary eyed and not long on patience or thinking ability, we would try to talk about our upcoming move. There were so many questions to answer: when, where, what to take, what to leave, how to transition our special needs son, and more. Ugh!

So Friday afternoon we jumped in the car and headed to Des Moines, where we hadn’t stayed before, to get some time to talk, pray & rest. I will say here that Des Moines is a difficult city to eat in. We had a heck of a time finding anywhere to eat. It also rained all of Saturday, canceling our plans for the zoo and botanical gardens. We both do well walking and talking at the same time so we like to do that. 🙂 One of  the best things was the time spent in the hotel jacuzzi because it brought my fibromyalgia pain level way down so I could walk longer. Where did we walk? In a ginormous mall of course. There were Labor Day sales everywhere so we picked up so cool clothes cheap. But I digress.

Saturday morning we spent talking about and listing each other’s “Things I Absolutely Know About Myself” and adding to each others list. When you’ve been married for 28 years you know some stuff about your spouse. It was fun. Then in the afternoon it was on to “If I Could Do Anything I Wanted for a Job What Would It Be?”  and “How Does That Fit” into the possibilities where we are going. We talked about things that the other should consider. Harold thinks I should consider going back to college to finish up my degree. Hmmmm. I wasn’t real keen on that but I was also dismayed that I thought of it 10 seconds before he said it. Yikes.

Saturday night we found an amazing Italian restaurant. I had the most delicious wild mushroom risotto that I had ever tasted prompting me to find a recipe so I can attempt it at home. We had Baskin Robbins ice cream (their rocky road in my favorite ice cream of all time) for dessert. By the time we got back to our room we were all talked out, but felt more solid on some details.

Sunday we had breakfast at Starbucks, shopped a little more, talked a little more, prayed a little more and got home by late afternoon. We are SO blessed to have a wonderful adopted* daughter, Kristen, who stayed with Evan so we could go out of town. She is the absolute best sister he could ever have. They crack each other up which is great, and she can get him to do all his chores which is helpful also.

While you might not have life changing things to decide, should you consider taking some time out also? It was a great time for us and I think it would be for you also.

*Adopted here means in spirit. Kristen lived with us for a year when she was a senior in college and is now considers herself a herlastname-Forbis.