I'm going to come right out and say it. I'm depressed when I come home from the beach. I love Delaware, I love the ocean, I love vacation, but what I really love is the people. My family. My parents, my seven siblings, nieces, nephews, etc. I don't get to see them often. Some only on these trips which happen every other summer. I look forward to our next trip from the second one ends. We plan, talk about it regularly, make paper chains to count down the days. We anticipate and we dream. Then it's over. It's over and I'm sad. I realize that that may sound awfully negative for some of you. Yes, I'm grateful that it happened. I feel grateful and I feel blessed, but that doesn't mean I'm not sad. I love my family. I crave time with them. I laugh harder with them than anyone else. I cry harder with them. I feel more with them. I feel more FOR them.
Spending a week with 40 people split between two houses is chaotic to say the least. It's a good chaos though. It fills me up. My siblings dote on my children. I see my children doting on their tiny cousins. We laugh and eat and swim and play games and love eachother. Some of my family members are battling some pretty tough things right now. Others are facing huge changes in their lives. Those two houses were full of support, encouragement, service, and warmth. I talk about loving Fenwick Island. The beach. And I do. I love the sounds, the tastes, the beautiful ocean, amazing sunsets sitting on the cool sand, the boardwalk, searching for shells. Really though, Fenwick Island represents something else for me. It represents family. Unconditional love and acceptance. It's a place I never want to leave because it's filled with people I never want to leave. It doesn't hurt that my kids were all at such fun, easy ages this year. It was easy. It also doesn't hurt that the temperature never climbed above 80 degrees the whole week. The humidity was low, the skies were blue and crystal clear. None of that even matters though. I'd sit through pouring rain or on a 110 degree beach if I got to sit with my people.
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