A little over a month ago, we escaped this dreadful Chicago winter and spent a week in Cabo San Lucas. Even more importantly, we spent the week there alone. Just Jon and I. Me and Jon. Just the two of us. Alone. We didn't go with anyone else, so no one else is in any of our pictures. It was just us. Dos Personas. Did I mention that we didn't bring the kids along?!? Like none of them.
If you're wondering why this is such a big deal, its because we have never taken a full week's vacation since we had kids. 7 "sleeps" without kids. 7 days and 7 nights. That's 168 hours of no responsibility.
Its been a few years since we've had more than 2 nights away (specifically May 2010--not that I've noticed).
While the trip itself was amazing and full of treats we don't experience on a regular basis in our "normal" life like leisurely two hour dinners at four star restaurants, parasailing, reading by the pool, walking hand in hand with each other, fresh avocado at EVERY SINGLE MEAL, sleeping in and uninterrupted conversations.
I was struck even more by how many people in our lives made this trip possible. When you get married, you have your friends and family stand as witness to your vows to each other and God. In fact, a lot of the time, the officiant has the congregation agree to do everything in their power to uphold the two who are getting married. When we got married, it was very important to me to have as many of our friends and family with us as possible.
What I'm learning is how much more important than their presence on that day, is their presence in our everyday lives supporting our marriage in real ways. Support can look very different for each couple.
For us, it looked like this in January: Grandparents that drove 6 hours round trip to pick up two of our children and then keep them for 9 days; A brother & sister-in-law who kept your school-age children on the school days we were gone including packing lunches, doing their daily reading and washing their clothes so you don't return home to endless laundry; Another set of grandparents that kept our older two kids on the weekends and checked on your house to make sure that the polar vortex didn't burst our pipes; A friend who gave you the use of her timeshare in Mexico so that you can actually afford to go on the trip; Friends who encouraged me to take the time away with my husband and not worry about the kids; Friends who stepped in and covered my job responsibilities at church; Friends who watched my kids before we left so I could run errands and pack.
Without this community, a trip like this would have never been possible. Trip or no trip, these are our people. Our people not only say that they want us to grow stronger in our marriage, their actions support their words. These are the people who are not only there for us in the hard, difficult times, but the ones that truly want the best for us and celebrate in the good times.
The people who celebrate our milestone of 10 years of marriage. Some of our people were there on our wedding day and some weren't.
In the long run, it doesn't matter where they were on May 23rd, 2003 because they are here now bearing witness, encouraging us on and supporting us as we seek to honor those vows.
I feel incredibly blessed to have gotten a week away with my husband. We both love adventures, so visiting a new place together, trying new foods, and meeting people was right up our alley. It was relaxing for both of us and refilled our tanks.
It gave us hours to spend with each other instead of minutes. It gave us new shared memories. It gave us time to just be and not be "doing" all of our normal responsibilities of keeping a family of 6 going.
I also feel incredibly blessed to have the kind of family and friends that we have---ones that make something like this possible.
We had to wait a few months to celebrate our 10th anniversary (it was in May and our trip was in January) but it was totally worth it! Here's to another decade in the making!
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