For Thanksgiving this week we are travelling once again to see family in another state. This means eleven of us, my husband myself and our nine kids will be in the big van together for at least ten ours.

There will for sure be sibling fights, there will for sure be noise, there will for sure be sights to see and car games played and memories made and stories to tell…

When we get where we are going there will be family to hug, luggage to haul in and board games played and lots of good food and a warm fire and more memories made and more stories to tell.

We hope for safe and happy travels, we hope everyone stays healthy, we hope the roads are clear and we hope we do not get lost or have car trouble.

We have had the experiences of sick kids in the car, of driving in white-knuckle, tense shoulder blizzard conditions, we have been lost, and had car trouble in the middle of nowhere and of course everyone can’t be happy all the time.

But we hope for the best.

We are glad we all get to go.

We are thankful for the technology that will get us there.

We are thankful we do not have to rely on our four year old for directions, although that makes for a story to tell too.

We travelled to a niece’s wedding without Shane one year and our youngest girl turned four while we were there.

He called the day before her birthday to visit with her. And I got to hear the four year old’s side of the conversation…

It was something like this:

‘Hi dad….yes….uh huh…are you coming to my birthday?’

I imagine he tried to explain that he was 3000 miles away and even if he left right then, it would be the day after her birthday by the time he arrived where we were.

But to a four year old time and distance are nothing.

I listened and watched as she told him just how to get to her birthday…

With one little hand on the phone and the other little hand waving and pointing in the air she confidently told him:

‘You just gooooo, and then you keep coming, and then you go around the corner, and you turn this way…and you will see a mailbox and a blue house, and we’re right here!’

So simple.

And with that thought and the melancholy feeling that comes this time of year when you have loved ones in heaven, I wonder;

Is that what they would tell us still here?

Would they say ‘Just go… and keep coming…and We’re right here!’?

Because time and distance are nothing to them either.

If you are travelling we hope for as safe and happy of travels as possible and if you are missing someone, we hope you are surrounded by loved ones.