[deep breath]

Whew, can you believe it? It's time for that breather that I blogged about so long ago. We are packed and ready to go on our vacation, leaving our house tomorrow morning at 6am for an 8:30 flight. We fly to Hong Kong and will spend a week there, enjoying time together as a family as we visit Starbucks, Disneyland, and the world's only life-sized replica of Noah's Ark, eating western food all along the way. We are excited!

Well, at least, as excited as you can be when you are preparing to travel with two sick children. Christin was running a high fever over the weekend and then suddenly developed a hoarse, barking cough. We did research online and found that her symptoms were spot-on for croup. We've been treating her accordingly and she seems to be feeling much better, though I am still giving her some medicine for it. Unfortunately, Chloe suddenly came down with the same thing yesterday and is having a harder time. She was up numerous times during the night last night, choking on the excess phleghm in her throat and upset about it. She did a little better today so hopefully she'll be feeling even better tomorrow. We'll take things easy the first few days if we need to. She herself is also excited about our trip, so that may overcome a bit of her discomfort. Both Chloe and Christin's voices were affected--it's so pitiful to hear them trying to talk with hoarse, raspy voices!

So, we're off to have a much-needed rest for a week. I'm hoping and praying that it will be a truly restful, vacation-y week, but also have learned from past experiences not to let vacation be an idealistic idol in my mind! The truth is, even on vacation, kids can be naughty, there are still meals to figure out, the weather can be yucky and even, (gasp!) people can get sick! That's just life and reality in this not-yet-perfect world. So I am learning, slowly learning, just to enjoy the time away, make the most of it, but not to get my hopes up impossibly high. After all, true rest still remains for the people of God, and it will be a perfect rest, a ceasing from the stressful strivings of life and sin, in a place so impossibly beautiful, whole and perfect that our words will fail to express how wonderful it all is. It may sound silly, but the Hope of heaven comforts me in this and helps me just to enjoy our vacation, not being disappointed that everything isn't--and can't be--"perfect."

We're thankful for the opportunity to get away this week! I won't be taking my computer, so look for updates when we arrive back home. Have a great week!