Nate and I recently came back from a week-long trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It’s the closest thing we’ve ever had to a true vacation with one another. We’re blessed with having friends all over the country to visit, an amazing second family in the Dominican which we work alongside with every year, and many, many family weddings to attend, but most of those travels are far from relaxing and certainly not time in which Nate and I get to really just enjoy being with one another. So this week, while there was definitely work to be done and family to see, was a little closer to our dream of one day “getting away together”. 

Saturday night we drove down to Philadelphia to stay with our cousins, the McCarthy family. Jon and Wendy have three beautiful, talented, incredible children and they live in the inner-city of South Philly. They also have some new additions that we got to meet during our quick stay - chickens! Wendy is committed to using their small concrete slab of a backyard for organic gardening and these chickens (which she received in the mail!) help eat pesky bugs and negate the need for pesticides. They also do worm composting in their kitchen. It was wonderful and encouraging to see them so committed to actively caring for the earth, even with their hectic schedule and even in the inner-city. It made me think about how we are on this earth but not of this world; how we are called to live counter culturally and how we have the choice to engage in an economy where produce gets delivered across the country causing pollution along the way. We are so blessed to have such inspiring family.  

We drove all day Sunday and arrived in the Outer Banks - the only ones staying in our 5 bedroom, three-story house that night. After saying hello to family staying in the surrounding houses, Nate cooked me a delicious steak dinner with Chocolate Stout Wine in an attempt to get me to relax and get into vacation mode (it worked). And the next day, the craziness began. The week was filled with fun adventures and quality time with family we see far too seldom. And I’m proud to say we stayed right on top of our marathon training (though running through the heat and humidity was an unexpected challenge). I also had an incredible moment of deja vu as I walked along the beach in Buxton. I had been at that exact same beach, in the exact same location four years before. I was visiting Hatteras with a friend and had sat on the beach and prayed fervently for God to put a man in my life to let me love, a man whose heart was more focused on God than it was on me, and I prayed that God would make me certain beyond a doubt when this man did indeed appear.

(Photo credit: Brad C. Wilson)

It was a confusing time in my life and, looking back, I’m so grateful for the way God carried and steered me through it. The Lord, of course, did answer my prayer through Nate and standing there in that spot, a wave of new gratitude swept over me. How often it is that we don’t realize when God has answered our prayers. How often it is that we don’t know God is brewing a better outcome for us than we could ever dream of, even when we feel as though we’re drowning. I did feel as though I was drowning when I prayed that prayer four years ago and remembering it served as a reminder to me for the next time I feel that way - God has a hope and a future for us. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. 

As the week progressed, it was on to wrapping bridal party gifts, creating seating charts, and writing name cards (no small feat when half the guests are Burmese). Nate’s brother Ben married our wonderful new sister-in-law Maya on Saturday in front of Pamlico Sound and the people they love. It was a beautiful celebration and I am thankful they asked me to be a part of it, both creatively and during their ceremony. Since Maya was dating Ben before I began dating Nate and I have never known Nate’s family without Maya, it feels now like something has been made complete. What a blessing in the past few years that I would marry into an incredible family so devoted to the Lord and many life-giving pursuits, but also that I would have a sister who is brilliant, fun, care-free, and passionate. She inspires me to live in the moment and to carefully pursue that which my heart desires, for that’s what she has done throughout her life.

After the wedding (which ended sometime around 3am after some late-night swims - or throws - in the pool), we caught a few hours of sleep and then proceeded to begin our 15 hour drive back to Boston. I adored driving through North Carolina and Virgina, seeing the rural towns, run-down abandoned farm houses (another post on that topic to come soon), and billboards that display a different kind of lifestyle (“Get your cigarettes, tomatoes, fireworks, watermelons HERE!”). Part of me so badly wants to sell all we own (which is exactly what Jesus says to do) and move into a little trailer (but there’s nothing about trailers in the Bible) in a small town in order to breakdown the fast-paced, anxiety-ridden, hype-productive part of myself. When we entered New Jersey and realized the 70 degree weather was far behind us, we were sad indeed. We rolled into Boston around 2:30am, showered, and crashed. I dreamt of the sound of the water lapping at the dock (as it had in our room at the Inn on Pamlico Sound), of being carried by the waves, of finding seashells, and of new beginnings.