Catch Up: SC Times Three

Sprinkled throughout the posts I bring your way, is going to be an effort to share the happenings of the time this space sat dormant. I've got a stack of index cards with things all planned out, a year's worth of pictures, and the words to tell the tales. 

First up, are the three trips I took to SC. There was the trip I took in August of 2018 which was planned at the last possible minute because my Dad had been on me allllll summer to come and make use of his pool before he closed it up for the season even though he knew I had been planning a trip that same November for my brother's birthday. The price and timing were right and one last bit of warmth before a North Idaho winter set in sounded pretty fantastic, so I packed my bags and went. I timed that trip so that I could celebrate my Dad's birthday with him as well. We traveled to Greenville and Asheville and ate cake and cooked out and met up with my Mom's side of the family. I accidentally ran into Robyn after countless tries to see each other when I've been in the area. I got to see the place were Zelda Fitzgerald died and the window where Scott looked out his window on the guests coming and going as he worked on his latest scenes.

Then, came THE trip I had been looking forward to all year (the pictures from this trip, are mostly on my phone...I need to figure out how to add them to this post). Summer was long gone, fall had set in, and I was about to celebrate my brother's birthday with him for the first time in 9 years. We were both beside ourselves. Little did we know that trip was marked by the beginning of a brand new relationship that would end up changing the course of well...everything. He says he totally called it. I was quite clueless and wondered when God was going to show me (or the guy) that it was time to walk away. I finally got to meet Renee and we sat in a little DD sipping hot drinks and chatting until the last possible minute about all that God was up to and totally enjoying sitting across the table without miles and keyboards in between us!

Then, following that relationship continuing and progressing to the point of getting engaged and planning a spring wedding, my sister and I made what we dubbed our "last hoorah trip" in April. That trip was marked by the three of us (my brother, sister, and I) driving out to Charleston to see the sights and the faces of ALLLLL the cousins we have down there.

It's crazy to me that I can sum up those momentous occasions with three paragraphs and a handful of pictures. I guess that's how life goes. The memories and fondness live on. Those three trips, each at the end of one season and beginning of another (literally and figuratively) will stand as major mile markers and times I'm increasingly grateful for. Every time I say my see you laters on the East Coast, there are two questions on everyone's mind, namely, "When will she be back?" and "Will she ever be back for good?"

Each time my visit begins winding down, I go over them again and again. I wipe the tears from my eyes as I've done for 24 years this day after Christmas and I shrug my shoulders and take a deep breath and rest in the fact that while I really don't know, He does. I'm no closer to knowing than I was before. A number of things have kept me on the West Coast all these years and behind every one of those things is the God who establishes the steps of my visits and my residence.

I say see you later trusting that there will be a later and that my home for now is granted me by Him. I text and call and flip through the pictures and make the food and the tea and remember. I thank Him for all the love and memories the East Coast holds and work hard to believe that I'll always be right where He means for me to be.