The New Road Trip

Sorry for the delay.  I was unable to get a blog post done before we left town to come down to Menard because I was trying to prepare four people for a week away from home.  It was chaos.  Then once I got to Menard, well, it's Menard.  Internet-y things are sometimes hard to accomplish.  But the important thing is that we are here and having a wonderful time.  Shepherd and Lydia are basking in the attention of Mamm, Pap, Uncle Bro, and Aunt Stephanie. 

BJ and I have always loved road trips.  They've been part of our relationship from the very beginning.  This November marks eight years since we started dating, and there have been many extended road trips in that time to Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and many places throughout Texas.  Basically, we have travelled all over seeing our friends and family.  As a minister's family, these little outings are restorative and necessary perhaps because we are going to see people who haven't always known BJ as the preacher and me as the preacher's wife.  We love our church family and our role within that family, but we sometimes need to take off those hats.

Of course, our road trips have made quite an evolution.  Used to, they were filled with BJ and I listening to our favorite music, finding NPR on the radio every time we neared a college town, talking, talking, and more talking about theology, politics, the meaning of life, and much more, and often reading books aloud to one another.  Our road trips are still all of these things, only now they are done against the background of our children screaming at us for restraining them in the evil car seats for hours on end and me occasionally popping to the backseat to try ineffectually to pacify their tortured cries. 

I had one moment Monday afternoon that really highlighted for me how much times had changed.  We had made a quick pit stop, not to get a drink or use the bathroom or get gas, but rather to change diapers, nurse Lydia, and let Shepherd run out some energy.  BJ and I both immediately got out of the van, retrieved the child that was on our side from the back seat, put them on our seat, and started changing a diaper.  When I looked up and saw this:

I knew our lives had really changed.  And despite the fact that we were standing over dirty diapers and children who had been screaming at us for the past hour, I couldn't help but feel a little happy that this is mine and BJ's life now.  And despite the craziness, I think I'm okay with the new road trip.