Adventure Travelin'

Rebecca and I are on another of our adventures. We call them adventures because sometimes these little trips can be challenging - we never know what's gonna happen or how conditions are going to be - so we've taken to calling our little expeditions adventure travelin' and it seems to work. Calling it that keeps everything in perspective and diffuses any frustration or roadblocks we might encounter. We get stuck in airports and end up in rooms with a frog crawling on the door - if we didn't laugh or make light of it we'd have a miserable time, all the time, and we'd miss out on a lot of learning and a lot of closeness. What would be the point then? huh?

She and I are currently in Columbia in a very nice hotel room... a pretty good deal if you ask me. She's taking a shower and then she'll dry her hair and we'll straighten it so she'll be that much closer to being ready in the morning. Tomorrow she is auditioning for the summer dance program I mentioned in an earlier post. She's worried she's gonna fall flat on her butt, literally. I'm sure she's worried about a few other things too - a perfectly natural way to feel I'm sure. Anything like this is a stretch, requires a person to push beyond a comfort zone of sorts. She's fine dancing in her studio with her friends... it's a little different in a room full of people she doesn't know. I'm proud of her though - she's really putting herself out there - and I couldn't be prouder of her.

I didn't have a lot of adventures growing up. We were tied to the dairy farm... life was about a lot of work and very little adventure. I can't really say that one way is more right than the other. I just know that I think being so cloistered stunted my ability to walk into new and potentially scary situations with any kind of confidence at all. The last several years of my life have been attempts at relearning how. I've really made an effort to take a leap or two of faith. Leaps of faith in myself if nothing else... and I've tried to model that to the kids... especially Rebecca, although I think Joshua has seen that it's ok if stuff happens and it's ok if we have to do something we're not so sure about - the truth is ultimatley we've really got nothing to lose except the opportunity.

And so... here we are - a hotel room in Columbia, preparing for Rebecca to take the grandest leap yet. Oh, there will be more I know... this one though will be the leap that other leaps are sprung from... just like all the little leaps before have led to this one. I can't help but think that this is what it's all about though...