Zootour 2019

My boys LOVED the name. Let me tell you 😉 . Several months ago I started planning a family trip and this is the name I came up with. I didn’t get shirts made (they never would have gone for THAT!), but I did refer to our trip as Zootour. Just seemed catchy!

You’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Those of you on Facebook saw the many pictures, but most people don’t know the significance behind it.

As I wrote about in my last post (Graduation…we survived), June 8 was significant. It was the day Gabe should have graduated. He should have been sitting there in his cap and gown with his friends- but he wasn’t. The awful thing called Congenital Heart Disease stole that milestone and all the others. So we knew graduation would be a tough thing and we knew we would need something good after that tough thing.

We also knew we needed a vacation. Our family has been stressed. Continuing on with a child missing is HARD. It’s not something that’s just hard for the first year, or the first two years. It’s something that ebbs and flows and sometimes out of the blue it just seems even harder. There is no rhyme or reason to the hard. It makes work hard. It makes life decisions hard. It makes family life hard.

Before Gabe died we took few vacations. We really only had one big one, just us- and it was his Make A Wish trip. I think most people don’t realize it, but when your child has a chronic, life threatening illness vacations are not always a priority. There isn’t much money for vacations, and earned vacation time at work is limited. We had 2 children with complex medical issues, so there were twice as many what ifs and twice as many medical bills.

 

After Gabe died we took 2 vacations. One was 2 months after- a desperate escape to Tennessee that I think was more about escaping our reality than spending time together. It was actually terribly excruciating, arriving in the cabin with one missing and not having him there to share his excitement for everything as he always did. At the end of that year we took a small trip to Williamsburg right before Christmas, to keep busy in the days leading up to what we knew would be an extremely difficult time. That was slightly less painful but really still not a vacation.

So this year we decided we needed a vacation. We needed it for this family that has been through so much and is still here. Early this year I started planning and narrowed down where we would go. Why zoos? Because they are fun! And for me it was also about something Gabe would have loved. Gabe never forgot the name of an animal he met and I’m sure he’s surrounded by animals in heaven. I felt like visiting zoos would be a great way to still incorporate him into our vacation.

We left on June 9, which ironically was the same day that he had surgery in 2014. So it seemed fitting. Right before we left though I went through the house to make sure everything was turned off and couldn’t fight the tears. Because I don’t think any family trip will ever feel right again. Sure we will have fun. But it will never feel right. Because he should be here.

During the course of the trip we drove over 1,000 miles and visited 3 cities and 3 zoos. We fit in stops at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Rhythm Discovery Center in Indianapolis (it’s a percussion museum and it’s great!). The zoos we toured were Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Columbus. Our hotel rooms got progressively smaller unfortunately but the trip was great. There was little complaining, not much fighting, and I really think we all enjoyed ourselves. Our favorite was Cincinnati with Columbus as a close second. We saw so many animals. Since Gabe loved animals so much he would have loved it. We often talked about what we thought he would have liked,  so it was very bittersweet.

We’ll keep moving forward. We’ll keep remembering that amazing spunky boy who overcame some really hard things. And we’ll try to use that spirit to help us overcome our really hard things. But I know that sometimes no matter the fun and joy, it will also sting.

Some pictures from our vacation:

Cincinnati:

 

Indianapolis:

 

Columbus:

 

As you can see we had lots of fun, but by the end the boys were ready to go home. One more picture from the percussion museum. We miss you, Gabe!