February 23
Janalynn Doten-Ferguson
February 23, 2024
When Tari asked for volunteers to write something about travel, I knew exactly the story I wanted to tell. Adam did too. He said, "You're going to tell the story about the missing ticket, aren't you?" It is a great one. Funny, with a lesson learned (and handily enough, I already wrote it down). So I agreed that it was the story I wanted to share, I just had to find it. So I set a 30 minute timer and waded into the heaps of nostalgic papers that come with living a life. I didn't find it.
I did find condolence cards and memorabilia from my mother's passing. In just a week or so, she will have been gone two years. That is tender right now, and I set those items aside without looking at them. In continuing my search for the folder where I was sure the story was held, I found paperwork about my great-grandfather's brother trying to get benefits in retirement. I was reminded of how my great-grandfather was born nearly 100 years before I was - I had forgotten. And he was born at the other end of the continent and ended up in Southeast Alaska, a place that looked shockingly similar to the land of his birth. It listed his many siblings and the dates of their birth and I was reminded once again that we are here thanks to the love, and heartaches, and bravery of thousands. One of his sisters shared my grandmother's name, and I wondered if she was special to him - to give his daughter such a name. I set the documents in a place less out of mind and tried to stay focused as I headed up to the attic. My timer was ticking.
I had spent all of 28 seconds searching when I spotted Aaron's birth book made for us by my friend who was with us at the hospital. I opened the pages and suffered the warring feelings of being instantly back there, and seeing my husband looking much more like my son than his current self. I read the story of Aaron's birth through her eyes, and marveled at how much I looked like my mother in the two pictures she snapped quickly as my son and I stared into each other's eyes for the first time.
Those of you who have been married know about the challenging days and seasons. It has been one. And as I looked at this photo of my husband and myself, infants ourselves, really, I was reminded that we made it. That even being so very young (and we really weren't) we managed to raise a son and a daughter that we are so very proud of. Through love and faith, and help from family and church family, they are both nearly grown. So if we could do all of that, at such a tender age, when we knew absolutely nothing. We will be able to get through this new challenge too.
My point is this. Travel, in my experience, is exactly like my search for my travel story. You start out knowing where you are headed, and if you are willing to accept the twists and turns that the heavens throw your way, you will end up exactly where you needed to go.