As many of you probably know, we’ve been spending the past few months in Hawaii. When we left home, I initially thought I’d have all this “free-time” to read, keep up on my journal, dive into the word, and blog. Ha, joke’s on me. It’s true when they say the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Well in this case, it literally is, but I still have no extra time. You get what I’m saying.
We’re only a mere few weeks from heading back home at this point, and I’m just now contemplating what this trip has meant for our family. We knew when we bought our plane tickets and locked in our Air B&Bs that this was going to be a big deal for us. Maybe miserable, maybe wonderful, but regardless it would make an impact.
The impact we hoped it would make is a sense of unity or what we call “the Waibel team” in order to interest our 4 year old into thinking we’re similar to the team of Avengers. We wanted more time with our kids. We wanted to put down our to-do lists. We wanted adventure, challenges, tears, and the chance to be grateful for all the things we take for granted at home.
But also, I was tired of feeling as though I was just getting by. The end goal of every day was survival the past year. I wasn’t enjoying my kids. I wasn’t looking at them in awe as they grew right before my eyes. I wasn’t enjoying my job. I was tired. No, exhausted. For a whole year, Bryson and I had very limited help. We’re raising two awesome, but energy-filled kids, (One of which was a infant for a majority of the year.), while balancing two full time, remote jobs, a house, and two dogs. To be honest, it’s a miracle the dogs are even still alive being pretty much last priority.
And maybe even our marriage. Sometimes I think the thing that bonds us on even the worst days is that we’re smart enough to know that even when we’d like to bury each other 6 ft under ground, we simply couldn’t do it alone. If we weren’t a team, our whole world would shatter.
Though our stay has had it’s fair share of “just getting by,” it’s felt different than the getting by we were doing at home. Here, we only have each other. And when one of us was barely getting by, the others were pushing them ahead. There’s been instances of wanting to return home, moments of fear, and heartbreak. But, there’s also been so much good. We showed up here as shells of ourselves, and now I feel we can say we get to leave with the innermost feeling of being alive.
We’ve had intentional time with one another every afternoon after work. We’ve had great visits from family. We’ve tanned our skin and lifted our moods. We’ve watched Auggie hike for miles, up mountains and beside cliffs always persevering. We’ve watched Eloise run in the shoreline as though she’s found herself in the waves. We’ve witnessed the sunrises, sunsets, and everything in between screaming at us just how beautiful and SIMPLE this world can be when we pause.
And pausing we hope to continue. We’re going to book our calendars with items that put our family first and cancel the obligations. Put our phones down. Opt for an evening playing with the kids rather than vacuuming the floor. We’ll put work down when the clock strikes 5, whether we have a big event the next day or not. And we’ll never underestimate the power of a few hours outside.
This all to say: We’re coming home soon! We’re excited to go home to what we know and heartbroken to leave the unfamiliar we’ve started to flourish in. We want to see you and join the “new normal.” Only, we hope our “new normal” can be the one we found here in Hawaii, just transplanted in Missouri. And mostly, we are just so thankful that we’ve had the ability to take on this adventure.