“Atypical Adventures: An Introduction” – Nathan
Hello again, friends! I know it has been a while since I have updated everyone on what’s going on in our daily lives. Well, I will be the first to say, things have been a bit hectic this summer, but the craziness is welcome and we love the way that our lives are evolving!
So, what has changed? Perhaps it would be better to start off with what has not changed. For one, we still have loads of appointments, medical juggling, and the everyday hustle and bustle that everyone else has. We also still have a full schedule of therapies and a full docket of in-home nurses that join us on a daily basis. Now, if you think that this sounds a bit like all my other posts, you would be correct, but what has changed is that we have found something that we never knew
A Stacked Deck
I will be completely honest and say that before we started our own adventure, we scoured the length and width of the internet to see what others had done. What we found was a large number of amazing people who sought out and found some amazing adventures that stretched from coast to coast and beyond. While these super upbeat bloggers showed us an inspirational picture, we realized quickly that no matter how adventuress they were, they didn’t share our situation. Don’t get me wrong, we found a few large families who set out on adventures and we even found one or two families with exceptional kids who set out to explore, but when I reflected upon the size and situation within my own family, I almost counted us out. Now, all of this pondering and research took place when I was living by myself far away from home due to the needs of my job so our judgment may have been slightly skewed, but despite trying to come up with reasons on why we couldn’t do it, Jennifer and I had already decided that this was something that we needed to do.
Planning
We are a big complex family; and big complex families, like trains or large ships, take a long time to change course or direction. We didn’t fight this time requirement as we shopped for a vehicle that could haul everyone in our family, and a camper that could serve as our adventure central. After a lot of looking
A Measured Approach
We really wanted to jump headlong into camping, but we knew better. What we had was an awesome canvas but without adequate preparations. We knew that any attempt at camping would probably not end well. Mixed with school, surgeries, and other inconveniences, we slowly prepared both the camper and Suburban for the tasks we would ask them to perform. The suburban got the usual tires, fluids, and other maintenance items along with a completely upgraded cooling system to handle the hills and high temperatures. The camper also received a large amount of attention. The bunk room transitioned to a space that is capable of safely containing our three “Creatinies,” their pumps, and their big brother to supervise. We also added some additional cooler space for medicines, rack
Catching Our Groove
While we are still complete and utter adventure newbies, we have successfully taken our family of eight on three different trips without a single regret. We have taken bike rides, roasted marshmallows, and made memories as a complete family. It would be easy for us as a family to accept the complicated situation we find ourselves in and rationalize our inability to travel, but we don’t feel like that would be how we would thrive. We want to allow each and every one of our kids to experience a wide array of what this world has to offer them. We want to see deserts, forests, oceans, lakes, and everything in-between. We know that this is not always going to be easy or completely smooth. There will surely be challenges, setbacks, and hardships, but those are things we expect to have anyway so we might as well find our adventure in the process, regardless of how atypical that adventure may be! Stay tuned, ask questions, and find your own Atypical Adventures!