Road Trip: Spring Break 2006

Part of adopting a child, and I guess part of bringing any child into a family, requires family visits to show off the new baby. A couple of dear friends and family members had not yet seen Emily, so we hatched a wild plan: to visit friends in Jacksonville and family in Georgia. The plan started with an idea Deborah had to use an unused airline ticket for her to take the girls to see our friends in Jacksonville. The original idea was to give Dad a little "alone" time without the girls over a long weekend.

But Dad got just a little jealous about the whole thing, perhaps even a little nervous about letting the girls out of his sight. And, frankly, he simply did not want to miss anything. So I suggested that we all consider going down to Jacksonville for the weekend. Not so fast, however, was the response from our travel agent - the trip would cost little to nothing for Deborah and the girls, but adding my ticket would turn the trip into something a little more expensive than we were prepared to pay.

Not to be deterred, Deborah and I conceived a brilliant plan: over my spring break from the University of Richmond, without classes to encumber my schedule, let's take a road trip to Jacksonville to visit our friends, then to Albany to visit my parents, then to Cedartown to visit my grandparents and uncle, then return home a week later. And all of this with two little girls, one age three and one age 15 months. Brilliant!

And to top it all off, we decided we should start our journey the very same day Deborah returned from hosting my sister and her huband's baby shower in Louisville! So we planned the journey. We consulted our maps, printed directions, even did an online TripTik at AAA.com (pretty cool, really, but turns out the directions were a little outdated). We decided to drive half-way on Sunday, March 5, then arrive in Jacksonville Monday afternoon. We'd then travel to Albany to visit my parents on Wednesday afternoon, stay until Saturday morning, then head to my grandparents' home in Cedartown. We'd then return Sunday; we'd stay somewhere along the way if we needed to, but we'd hope to make it all the way from Cedartown to our home in one day.

So we set off to visit our Jacksonville friends, Jeff, Leslie, and their adopted daughter Isabel. Sydney and Isabel were from the same orphanage in China, so they are great friends and love to spend time together. We left at 3:30 PM on Sunday and arrived in a hotel in Fayetteville, NC, around 10 PM that evening. The night was rough as the girls both fell asleep in the car, then awoke fully to check into the hotel and remained awake until after 1 AM. Monday morning, we set off around 9 AM and arrived in Jacksonville around 4 PM, tired of riding but otherwise pretty happy.

A note about long-distance travel with the girls: turns out videos are good, but movies don't yet work for them. The girls' favorite videos were Baby Shakespeare, Barney, and The Wiggles live concert. We've nearly learned all the words to every Barney song, understood all the silliness of the Wiggles, and we just about understand what these Baby Einstein products are all about. The Baby Shakespeare video, though only 25 minutes, emerged as the favorite of the entire trip, so we heard it over and over and over. After five or six times, it starts to sound really good and soothing!

Our visit in Jacksonville was wonderful. Sydney and Isabel had a wonderful time, while Emily enjoyed the attention Jeff and Leslie showered upon her. Sydney loves to play with other friends, and Isabel really is a wonderful friend for her. We thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit, and we look forward to more opportunities for Syndey and Isabel to get back together.

Wednesday, we traveled to Albany, GA, to visit with my parents. We arrived Wednesday afternoon, so we joined Mom and Dad for Wednesday Family Dinner at their church. This gave my parents a long-awaited opportunity to show off Emily and Sydney to their friends in the church. We enjoyed our traditional Southern fare and the girls thrived and flourished on the attention (and the dessert).

While visiting with Mom and Dad, we enjoyed a pleasant surprise: my Aunt Faye and Uncle Furman (my dad's sister and her husband) stopped through Albany on their way from Birmingham to Tampa. Faye and Furman had just returned from a year and a half of mission service in Hawaii, running a Baptist camp and conference center, so they had not yet visited Emily and had only seen Sydney a couple of times. We were able to enjoy a couple of meals together, and a little shopping, before Faye and Furman continued their journey. Faye and Furman are my godparents and have always offered me my home away from home. They mean a great deal to us, and the girls seemed to really enjoy getting to know their great-aunt and great-uncle a little better.

Saturday morning, we arose early and hit the road for Cedartown, GA, where my mom's parents and her only brother live. Nannie, Papa, and Benny had yet to see Emily, so we wanted to be sure we took advantage of the opportunity to visit with them for a few hours. Cedartown is about 4.5 hours away from Albany, so we only gave ourselves the afternoon to visit. But my grandparents are nearing 90 years of age, so a brief visit that doesn't tax them too much is normally a good idea. Sydney and Emily slowly but surely attached to them and to my uncle; Emily more quickly than Sydney. Importantly, we were able to get good photos of Emily and Sydney with Nanny and Papa. These precious moments needed to be captured for the future, and we are so pleased to have spent the time with them. I think the entire trip would have been worthwhile just to give Nanny and Papa and opportunity to meet Emily and see Sydney again.

Sunday morning, we hit the road to return home. We remained unsure about whether we could make the trip home in one day from Cedartown, but we decided to try it. Turns out the choice was a good one. Although we were certainly tired of riding - especially the girls - and if we heard Baby Shakespeare one more time we might have lost our marbles, we were able to get home at 9:30 that evening, 13 hours and 675 miles after we started out. We all collapsed into bed Sunday night, exhausted but able to sleep in our own beds and awaken in our own homes to re-establish our normal routine.

The journey took us 1,920 miles from Virginia through North and South Carolina and Georgia to Jacksonville; back into Georgia to Albany and Cedartown; then back through Tennessee to our home in Virginia. We saw beautiful country and spent time in the car talking, laughing, singing, and enjoying (most of the time) our own company. We loved seeing our friends and family, and we are very glad we took the trip. We imagine this was the first of many family road trips we will make in the coming years.