We have been wanting to take our kids to the ocean for years but 1 income + 8 kids = not a priority. A year ago we decided to make a trip to Florida a priority. We booked a rental house and began saving. The kids worked hard selling vegetables from our garden and homemade pies at Thanksgiving. Everyone was counting down the days to warm sand and cool ocean breezes.
A few months before our scheduled vacation we received notice that our vacation rental had been cancelled due to the sale of the house. We were all a little disappointed especially when we could not find a suitable replacement within our budget. We finally found a rental but it was not available during our planned spring break dates. We booked it anyways choosing to move our vacation back by almost a month even though it meant the kids would miss a week of school.
A few weeks later Cyrus developed type 1 diabetes. I was devastated, crushed and shocked that this was happening to our family for the third time in ten years. After a couple weeks the fog began lift and it occurred to me that if we had kept our original vacation dates we would not have been available for either newscast which meant we would not have met Jillian or her amazing supportive community of followers. Our vacation would have most likely been less enjoyable because we were still tweaking Cyrus’ insulin and carb ratios while still taking care of our other kids. I know too that mentally and emotionally I was still in the thick of grieving over a third diagnosis and depression would have dominated a lot of my feelings during vacation making it harder to enjoy.
As I write this post, the kids have just come back from the beach followed by a dip in the pool. We are enjoying the air conditioned comfort of our gorgeous rental home and looking forward to getting ice cream and watching the sunset together this evening. I can honestly say that all of the sour leading up to this trip has truly made it sweeter than it would have been otherwise.
No Comments