Home Away From Home

Cabins, RV, VRBO. All of these could be a definition of what a home away from home could be.

Last year in February we took our first family road trip, that only included our family. We had gone on trips together with Aunts and Uncles, or Grandparents, or Friends. This trip was a trip that would be about just our family and what we wanted to do.

On this trip we headed on our way down to South Padre Island and the polar vortex decided he would tag along. The bitter cold followed all the way. The day after we visited the Alamo it snowed!!!! We got to our final destination where the temperature were a whooping 7 degrees. It wasn’t the warm sunny vacay we were hoping for, but it was a vacation that would become one of the most pivotal in our lives.

Since our family is a little bigger than your run of the mill families, we have opted to rent a Vacation Rental By Owner. We rented one in San Antonio and then another in South Padre. The one in San Antonio was a regular home much like our own at the time back in MN. However, the one in South Padre was a 4 story walk up condo. All the children needed to share a room and it was probably 1400 sq ft. As soon as the kids dropped their stuff they were off to explore their bedrooms for the remainder of our trip. Which by the way was extended twice due to power outages, water shut offs, Hwy 35 being shut down, and a run on gas!!!!

After exploring they all said can we live in a place like this at home? This question really surprised me. I said would you rather have a big house and all of your stuff, or have a house like this and have to get rid of some of your stuff. They said get rid of our stuff. Again I was surprised. I decided to dig a little more, “You know it won't have a pool right?” where they replied “That’s ok.” This conversation, although we didn’t know it at the time, would open a door of new possibilities.

Along with one other phenomena that happen pretty much throughout our whole trip. It seemed that wherever we were it felt like home. As long as we were altogether it really felt like home. The peace, comfort, and grace we felt even with the challenges of traveling with 6 children through the polar vortex and then hitting a blizzard on the way home. Even with all of this the same peace, comfort and grace of home stayed with us. It was so prevalent I turned to my husband when we were 12 hrs away from completing our return trip about this feeling of home. And he said he felt it too.

My point in all of this is it is not the container you live in that determines if you are home it is the people you share it with.