In August 1997 Fred and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary by taking a trip to Hawaii.
A week there Island Hopping in fantastic weather was a real enjoyment for us.
Five years later we headed to the Bahamas for 2 weeks for our Silver Anniversary.
Then in 2007 we took 3 weeks and went to the East Coast of Australia with a layover of a few days in Singapore on the way home.
So August 2012 should have seen us heading off on another big trip but it just didn't happen.
Although we talked about how it would be our 35th anniversary often, we still never could decide where to go or when to go.
Then near the end of the year, our daughter Linda told us she was going to apply to go to South Korea to teach English for a year.
Months later all the applications, online courses, visas etc. had been sorted and she headed off in February 2013 (I wrote about The Day We had to Say Goodbye)
Okay then no prizes for guessing where we did go for our 35th Anniversary trip even if it was almost a year late.
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| South Korea |
We just had to make sure we didn't go when it is too cold, too hot, or too wet in South Korea, because it can truly be too cold, too hot or too wet - we experienced the "too hot".
Oh and shortly after she left she face-timed to tell us she had been allocated to a school on the Coast so wasn't that a bonus too!
We had a fantastic holiday together and when I say together it actually included all five of us.
Fred and I flew over and spent a weekend in Seoul with Linda and met up with an old friend, then this old married couple flew over to Hong Kong for 4 days on our own, and finally back to South Korea to meet our two sons as they arrived to spend the rest of the time with Linda and us in Seoul and also in Gangneung.
The boys wanted to come to visit Linda obviously but also knew that it would be the last time that this family of five would be together on a holiday as a family of five because later that year we had another special event when Daniel & Suzie got married.
At times during 2012 I had got frustrated because we just could not make a decision about where that anniversary trip should take us o when Fred would get off work to be able to go and sometimes when we can't make up our minds we just let the thing drift on and on.
But this time that indecisiveness was meant to be.
I am a firm believer in the fact that God sometimes holds us back
from doing certain things at certain times
because He has other plans for us
and of course
His plans are always BETTER because they are the RIGHT plans for us.
I'm also thankful to God for the way He provided everything for Linda and was clearly guiding her.
On other occasions I have wondered why I seem to procrastinate about something but in the end I realise that it wasn't just procrastination or laziness it was actually God keeping me from feeling ready to proceed with my original plan or thought; even in a small thing.
The more we acknowledge the importance of God's guidance and look for it in all aspects of our lives the more we will come to recognise the times we are meant to hold back and the times He wants us to proceed.
We will learn to know His direction day by day, bit by bit as we become content to be in His Hands and trust that He is the only one who knows what's best for us.
He really does know what's best.
If you want to read more about our trip to South Korea you can start here
