a long time coming

I have read all of the books and had tuned in to the advice offered by others. “Make your marriage a priority. Go out on weekly date nights. Get away, just the two of you.” I would nod my head in agreement. Of course, these things were all of utmost importance and absolutely necessary to a thriving marriage.

But then came baby. And another baby. With another on the way from Rwanda. And we became the quintessential all-too-busy family with two part-time jobs and one full-time seminary student. With little spare time, a tight budget, nursing babies, and family living hours away, we have been guilty of putting date nights on the backburner.

Recently, two of our close friends at church approached us with an offer we could not refuse. They knew how much we needed to get away sans kids, and they insisted that we allow them to stay overnight with Carson and Mary Grace for us to invest in… us.

It took us no time at all to write this into our calenders. Location: Wilmington, NC. Why? Well, I have always wanted to go. Ever since I became engrossed in the WB series Dawson’s Creek in high school, I decided that I absolutely had to see where this show- and so many others- were filmed. It also didn’t hurt that we could take advantage of a stash of hotel points leftover from Matt’s days at Deloitte.

Yesterday morning, we packed our bags, kissed the kids goodbye, and gave a nod to my “so you think you want to spend the night with the Allison kids?” list left for Sarah and Lauren. Because that’s all the instructions they needed. There are few people in this world that I would trust more with my kids than those two amazing women. Off we drove in Lauren’s hybrid, gifts in hand from the very individuals who had already sacrificed two days of their Christmas vacation for us. We have been beyond humbled.

Yesterday was an amazing day for us. We meandered through quaint downtown Wilmington (reminiscent of Cary Town in Richmond but larger and prettier) while I hummed tunes of Dawson’s Creek. We hit up an awesome sushi joint for half-price sushi happy hour… and I even tapped into my wild side and ordered a Diet Coke with dinner instead of my typical water with lemon. Matt took me to Old Navy to spend my Christmas gift card. And I even agreed to watch Criminal Minds with Matt last night… until I got too freaked out three minutes into the show and made him change the channel. Some things never change. Plus, what’s less romantic than watching a show about serial killers? For real.

Of course, vacation or no vacation, the wiring of my body clock is just a little off, so my eyes were wide open at 4:58 this morning. And so, I sit here on Matt’s laptop, cup of complimentary mediocre hotel coffee in hand, refreshed and renewed and ready to face 2011. This date night may have been a long time coming, but it was precisely what this two-some needed.