Now that we are back, I can hardly believe that we were really there. In the 12 years since our family began, David has not been free to not work or study. In October 2013, David took his last test and passed it. He still works hard, but is more available than he has ever been since I have known him. He planned and researched and saved and set up a trip to Maui for 7 whole days. No work, no study, although he did end up at the hospital in the middle of the night a few hours before we left. We got on the plane and I couldn't believe it was really happening.
David enjoys tormenting, er, keeping the kids in suspense, so until the night before we left, we didn't tell them where we were going. We got up early in the morning, flew to Seattle and then got on a 6 hour flight to Maui.
11/2 hours into the flight we were served beverages and little packages of dried pineapple mixed with nuts and crackers. I was sitting with Anne, and made a serious misjudgment. I picked all the dried pineapple out of her package and mine and let her eat it. 60 seconds later, I looked over and she was scratching her tongue with her fingernails and saying "Mom, my tongue itches." Then her lips began to swell. I felt physically sick from fear, and prayed that God would keep her from a life threatening reaction. I also gave her Benadryl, and thought about the fact we had 4 hours until we landed, and even if we turned around we were still 90 minutes away from land. I clutched my ziplock bag containing two
Epi-Pens in it and thought about how they were supposed to give you a total of 40 minutes to get to a hospital for treatment. So I prayed some more, and watched Anne's lip grow larger. Thankfully, 30 minutes later the swelling began to subside and the itching was gone.
Because we started early, and because of the time change, we arrived on Maui at 11:00 in the morning! We quickly bought groceries for the week, and went straight to the beach.
All four of the kids took to snorkeling easily and we spent hours every day swimming and looking at fish and eels and turtles and coral.
We played hard and slept hard.
Even Anne and Pati swam out long distances and enjoyed exploring the reefs. What a beautiful place.
We wore rash guards and 110 sunblock and went inside for 2 hours in the middle of every day and managed get only mildly sunburned.
David is at home in the water and loves the ocean. We all gained a lot of confidence from just following him around, and looking at the things he pointed out to us.
We are grateful to God for the time we spent together, and for the beautiful place we were able to enjoy.
