So here you have it… Thoughts from our OBX vacation that ended early thanks to Hurricane Arthur.
It's 1:30 am Wednesday night/Thursday morning... I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a very loaded down Jeep... In tears as my week long vacation is ending 3 days early...
Hatteras Island faces a mandatory evacuation 5am Thursday... Ummm- I LOVE OBX but I have a strong dislike for lots of traffic AND for being forced to take the long way... Matt's dislike for those things is even more intense than mine... And so we packed and left...
And like any 31 year old- I cried...
This was an AWESOME vacation... Some very much needed reconnection time with the man I love... The calm before we begin our fertility treatment journey...
The OBX has always been our place- it was our first real vacation together and a place we have visited every year... Where we went on our honeymoon, and where we went after we lost TJ... It's just been out retreat from life- we love the slow pace, lack of "busy" things to do, and daily trips to the beach or sound... Not to mention its DOG FRIENDLY- Dutchess used to vacation with us!
This year was Clara's first trip... This year should have been TJ's first trip…
I was so busy enjoying the trip that my photos are limited… but here are a few...
We had fun taking Clara to bounce at the ocean!
We listened to Sundays message from LCBC while sitting on the beach (2 votes from the Dietrich's for a LCBC-OBX campus!)
We made a sand castle for TJ.
We rode wave runners! (Checked one off the bucket list!)
We spent hours floating over waves and sitting under the umbrella... Just relaxing- loving life!
We hit up our "must" stops- Howard's Pub & the Slushie Stand on Ocracoke (yay ferry ride), Top Dog, Village Conery (Clara walked there with us and had her first soft serve ice cream experience), and our last meal was crabs from Austin's South Island Seafood. It was good eating!
We broke in our new kicks.
OBX 2014 was all lined up to be an amazing vacation.
Until it was time to leave... Suddenly my heart felt heavy- like I was leaving without a goodbye- only what adult needs to say goodbye to the beach?!?
Then I remembered I had wanted to write in the sand...
All week my heart had been full, peaceful as I soaked up the beauty of God's creation. And then as I faced leaving it I felt a separation coming...
I recognized that heavy heart- it had been hiding for a while... Always there but kindly keeping to its self UNTIL NOW- 7pm as we pack to evacuate and end our vacay. Hello the heart if a grieving mother... There is not a moment that I don't miss my sweet angel, but this was intense!
I woke Matt from his nap, leashed up Clara and headed to the beach... This needed to happen
But first we found TJs sandcastle, in decent shape considering we had built it 10 hours prior.
It was perfect to see- but started the waterworks. We sat in the sand and talked about missing our boy... About how the beach seems to calm our hurting hearts... About how we weren't ready to leave- but were actually excited to have a nice house to go home to…
It was just a rough night... Even now- my heart has me wanting to just sob... The ugly cry- the cry from deep down that you save for the biggest of hurt...
The beach should have been so different... Life should be so different... Most days I do ok with the fact that it's not... Today wasn't one of those days...
Maybe tomorrow will be better...
And if you are reading this- it means we have arrived safely home and are hopefully sound asleep.
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