Our field trip, or journey, today was to Estes Park. After a long, beautiful drive, we ended up in a very busy little town. Of all of our trips, today was definitely the most crowded. We had lunch and then drove around in all of the traffic with all of the other tourists. There were NO VACANCY signs on every lodge we saw. Estes Park is a quaint town with a river flowing through the middle of it. There is a lot of shopping and walking around to do, but it started raining shortly after we arrived so we didn’t get to do a lot of that either. We saved our trip through Rocky Mountain National Forest until next time because of the rain.
All the way there, Rowland and I listened to Jia name the group or artist who sings the songs on the Satellite Disney channel in the car. I was amazed how many of them she knew. KeKe, of course, sang along with all of the words. The boys talked and played in the backseat. I always love that time with Rowland because he’s “trapped” and has to listen to me and answer all of my questions.
One of the things we talked about was Little Rock. It still seems surreal to me that we don’t live there. The thought of being there even seems surreal. As we talked about visiting again, we really couldn’t come up with a time in the near future when we could all get back there. It’s funny to me. I’ve always wondered how people move away and then just stay away. I’m beginning to realize that it’s not so much a choice to stay away. It’s more a choice to live life in the present, right where God has placed you. I suppose that over the last 1 1/2 years, that is what I’ve learned about myself - that I CAN live in the present, that I CAN live wherever God places me, that I WILL go wherever He leads us….It’s almost like a rite of passage for me. I think that I always wondered if I really could go wherever God asked me to go. I just never really thought that He’d ask me. It’s easy to say you’re willing to follow if He’s not leading you outside of your comfort zone. For me, moving away was WAY outside of my comfort zone. God has brought me here, though, and I can honestly say that I’m not sorry. I miss people, but I wouldn’t say that I ever really get homesick. After all, home is where my husband and my children are. And God has blessed me with friends close as family in Amy and Grant, who live only a mile from us. The kids miss their cousins, but God has blessed them with “cousins” in Cooper, Camber, and Cayden.
I guess, for me, the bottom line is that life is a journey, and I’m fortunate enough to be on this journey with my bestest friend, something Amy reminded me of right after we moved to San Jose. Also, distance doesn’t mean “forgotten,” and memories don’t really fade. The goal is to run this race the way that God wants me to, and sometimes that means that the path goes in a little different direction than I had planned. In the end, though, it really is about hearing, “Good job, Kitty!”
Our field trip today through the beautiful mountains and into the valley of Estes Park might seem a little disappointing when you look at how little we were able to do because of the traffic and the weather. For me, though, it gave me a chance to consider this leg of the journey and thank God for bringing me right where I am.