Comfy Digs, Rising Waters, and Interviewing Survivors

Great Wolf Lodge

Some months back, our family embarked on an overnight water adventure to Great Wolf Lodge. Since we're rockin' the one income budget, we took advantage of a homeschool discount and didn't have to sleep in the car. Only the best for our people.

The amenities were great; non-dingy white towels, endless hot water shower after shower, and beds that felt nothing like ours at home, which was a very good thing. Ours are so broken in, we've probably raised generations of dust mites inside. There are some things you just can't think about, or you'll be led to strike a match to the whole thing and sleep on the floor.

In these comfy digs, I was content to stay in my pj's and fill up on pizza, snacks, and cable. The girls weren't having it, so off we went to the water slides. My anxiety level almost immediately began its ascent. I tried my usual rant of, "I'll just watch and take pictures of all of you making memories. You know, hold your towels and stuff" that is my go-to when avoiding a situation, like this overgrown water slide. 

It's not that I don't like water, I mean, I like how it cleanses our bodies, hydrates, and helps flowers to grow and stuff. It's just when it's paired with gravity and projected with enough force to propel a vulnerable four person raft through the length of a tunnel, into an open funnel, where it thrusts you downward into an abyss without a moment's notice, I have my reservations. 

YouTube

Before I could embrace this long trajectory, I needed reassurance that I would most definitely arrive at the other end, completely unscathed. Arriving both alive and smiling would be a huge bonus.

So, what's a girl to do when she feels forced to participate against her will? She searches out and interviews survivors, of course. That's right. I positioned myself at the end of the largest slide, and asked everyone who wasn't still blinded by the grand finale splash of chlorine-laden water, what their experience had been like; how it felt, what they saw, the whole shebang start to finish, and I wanted honest adjectives.

I even asked one guy with a GoPro if I could quickly review the footage he'd just taken while riding. I didn't know they didn't work that way, or rather, he told me they didn't. My family was horrified; at me, not him. I couldn't very well blame them. 

Ultimately, I chose the shorter slide with a visible start and finish, and was low on the fear factor. I'd resisted for so long, that it really didn't matter to my family what I did or didn't do at that point. They know my pattern of chickening out of the adrenaline rushers. 

Great Wolf Lodge

In life, often we're met with situations that we'd like to get out of line and not have to experience. You know, just head on back to the room for more of that pizza and cable instead. Let the next person go on ahead, they seemed eager enough! Sometimes we just don't have an easier option and must wade slowly through in faith, trusting that the Lord can see every dark turn and stomach-wincing drop. Our family's had a number of these seasons. They grew us and forever changed us, but oh, were they burdensome at the time.

Maybe you're doing some wading today. Maybe you're surrounded by uncertain waters there was no choice but to cross through. Know that He is with you, that He works all things for good, and wastes nothing that we experience for His glory. Not a single drop!

If you like a little feedback to calm your fears as I did, interviewing a few dozen survivors along the way, never hurt either. Just don't ask to see their GoPro footage 'cause we all know that's just weird. 

Here's the best kind of reassurance straight from His Word. These very verses have sustained our family and I hold them close.

Pinterest                                                                                                  Isaiah 43:1-3