Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season

Who doesn't love a vacation to the Sunshine State? Considering I grew up there and my parents still live there, I am always up for a vacation without having to pay for a week's stay in a condo. This year the husband and I decided to take our bicycles with us so we could ride down on 30A, a beach road east of Destin in South Walton County. It runs through some of the cutest beach towns and has a great view! But before I get to the fun part, the week started out in typical Florida fashion... with a tropical storm. Sunday was cloudy and a little rainy, and Monday was cloudy and pretty windy with very rough surf (you gotta love the tourists who refuse to stay out of the water when there's a double red flag flying, even if it is illegal and extremely dangerous). Good ole' TS Debby decided to park herself in the gulf and not move for a day or so. We were beginning to worry that our whole week would be yucky weather-wise. My brother and sister-in-law who live in St. Petersburg were getting slammed with rain and wind, which was a present for my brother considering he LOVES tropical weather. Since my sister-in-law grew up in eastern KY, this was her first experience with tropical weather, and with my brother during tropical weather. I'm not sure which was more traumatizing. Luckily for the husband and I, by Monday evening the skies were clearing and Debby was headed east and away from our much-needed beach vacation. A present for us!

My Dad was in Washington, DC at a business conference for 4 days while we were there which was a bummer, but we did get some quality time in with my Mom. My Mom and I have become closer than ever since I moved to KY almost 10 years ago and especially in the last couple of years. I think moving away was the best thing that ever happened to us! I love my Mom and it was good to spend some time with her. We also got to meet our friends the Wilson's new baby, Jude. They have been prayerfully waiting for over 2 years to adopt a baby from Ethiopia and he is finally here! He is beautiful and talkative and perfect and I'm so thankful they were on vacation in Destin while we were there and we got to meet him just a few days after they brought him back from Africa. God's timing truly is perfect. What a wonderful present.

When Dad finally got back from DC we had about 24 hours left before the husband and I had to leave, so we wanted to get as much flying time in as possible. I soloed our family's airplane, a Piper J-3 Cub just over 10 years ago, but it is taking me a while to move from student pilot, which means I can fly by myself or with a licensed pilot, to private pilot where I can take passengers. My airplane, teacher (Dad) and flight instructor are all in FL, a good 500 miles away from me here in Beaver Dam. Now that I am settled and not in college anymore it's time to get serious about getting my PPL. I'm so thankful for the husband, who encourages me with flying and wants to learn to fly himself! After he finishes school in a few years he can focus on that. For now, we are figuring out how I am going to finish up my PPL considering I don't have an airplane or instructor here. Both of those things are expensive, so we will see what God provides. There's not a lot of opportunity in Ohio County to learn to fly, and not many people around here do fly. I think the expense is a big part of that, so maybe God has plans to change that in the future. I loved growing up around flying and want others, including my own children to be able to have that experience. Flying is one of the greatest presents I have been given, and I hope to share it with others like my Dad has been doing his while life. He has story upon story of getting to share the gift of flight with people for the first time. What's the point of God giving us presents if we don't share them with others? Exactly.

All in all, we had a good week. We got some family time, some friend time, some beach time, some flying time and some biking time. Here are a few pics to recap the trip.

These are from the bike path on Hwy 30A in South Walton County. They have gorgeous dune lakes along the path and an awesome covered bridge! We rode for a while in the morning, stopped and ate lunch along the way, then ended at Grayton Beach State Park for a lovely quiet afternoon at the beach.

When we got back to KY and the 100 degree weather, we went to the wedding of a former co-worker and current friend of mine in Louisville. It was a beautiful wedding even though the bride's sister lost her 8-month old daughter suddenly 2 weeks ago. It was obviously a sad time for the family but it was such a testimony to see the bride singing "How Great Thou Art" at the top of her lungs during the hymn at the end of the ceremony. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, may the name of the Lord be praised! Feel free to check out her blog here.

God has presents to send you even in the hard times. You just have to open them!