Five Tubes of Sunscreen = A Great Vacation

My perspective on this blog is that it is a window into the daily life and ministry of Fishers of Men - the EMMC's and the staff and Zaragoza family here at Refuge Ranch. So, that can mean some rather raw and unpolished writing. Honestly, I am struggling with how to best share about our 10 day family vacation to Acapulco. To keep it short I can just say it was great! Beyond that I am afraid I will get too detailed! Then, I must pick out pictures. I have nearly 1000 pictures to choose from! One of each kid? That's 17! So, here goes my best effort at a short, interesting, blessed blog entry about a 10 day vacation with 17 kids...written in the next 15 minutes before they all start waking up!


First, the 10 day part....the first day we left at 6 a.m. on Wednesday and made the four to five hour drive to Acapulco -all 19 of us in a 15 passenger van with the luggage on top! The kids did great on the trip! Part of this adventure is that we had not been able to find a house to rent, so we basically drove to Acapulco not knowing where we would be staying. Finding houses for 19 people is no small feat, especially when trying to stay within a decent price range and not rent some Hollywood mansion on the beach!



Upon arriving in Acapulco, we went to see one house that a friend had found for us - definitely not! We then drove about 20 minutes north of Acapulco to see a house I had found the day before on the internet owned by a couple from the U.S. We loved the place! It had all we were looking for - on the beach (I love devotions and walks on the beach), a swimming pool with a shallow and deep end (a must when you have kids from age 2 through 17) and it even had a water slide, enough bedrooms to sleep all of us comfortably with most in a bed, a kitchen we could use and minimal staff - just a cleaning lady.




However, since the owners were currently at the house, they needed a day to move out into a hotel. So, after making arrangements with them we headed back into Acapulco to look for a hotel for that night for us. We found a place about a block from the beach and with a swimming pool and rented four rooms in a row! The evening, after unloading all of the luggage, we spent about a half an hour at the beach and another hour in the pool. This was the first time that our five new children had even seen the ocean or been in a swimming pool - so it was a fun, interesting, great first day experience.





So, the next morning Victor walked to the grocery store with "the guys" (Fidel, Josiah, Leo, Miguel and Caleb) and went foraging for breakfast! (The hunter instinct in men!) After cereal and yogurt we packed up again and loaded all of the suitcases on top of the van again. Then, it was time to go grocery shopping for the week since we would be doing most of our own cooking (eating out with 19 is never less than $50)! This required stopping at three different grocery stores in order to get the best prices....with all 17 kids in tow! After about three hours of grocery shopping we were ready to head to the rented house, where we arrived a bit after noon. Then, unload again, divide kids into bedrooms (the "Mom and Dad decide" versus "Let the Kids Decide" debate - either results in somebody not liking the arrangement!), unpack in order to prevent having to live out of suitcases for a week and then make supper.

I made supper the first night! Why do I write this in the blog? Because, if any of you know me well, I don't cook! I cooked for our family until we had 6 children. Then the Lord brought Pati along to do the cooking and now Rosa blesses us with her culinary ability at every meal. I actually enjoyed being in the kitchen again and having the opportunity to provide for and bless my family with a meal...except I didn't make enough! Oops - there's not six kids anymore, huh?! It was chicken salad on tostadas, so Victor came to the rescue and made up tuna salad! At least the incredible ocean view from our dinner table and the kids' anxiousness to get back into the pool distracted them from their mother's food miscalculations!



So, finally, on Friday, it felt like vacation was finally starting after basically two days involved in traveling, shopping and settling in. Friday was spent in the pool and on the beach and counting to 17 constantly to make sure that nobody had drowned! That is a slight exaggeration, but, seriously, many of my moments consist of making sure I know where everybody is, what they are generally doing, seeing if they are OK, need a hug, time alone, attention, a smile, etc. Aaron Marshall laughs here at the Ranch because he can ask me at just about any moment where everybody is and I can tell you! With the added danger of a swimming pool and five new children who had no idea how to swim, knowing where everybody was became even more important!



Here comes the honest part...by Saturday morning I was in a bad mood and totally drained! I remembered family vacations growing up as very relaxing! This had been anything but relaxing! An adventure? Yes! Interesting? Yes! Fun? So far, yes! Tiring? Definitely! You see, our ministry is our family - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! When I was growing up, Dad's ministry was church! Church didn't go on vacation with us! But now, the ministry goes on vacation with us because the ministry is our children! I love that, but it required my redefining vacation! I don't cook here at the Ranch. I don't do laundry at the Ranch. I do some, but not all, of the cleaning here at the Ranch. My "job" is to love the kids - caring for them, watching over them, disciplining them, restoring them. In all of those ways, the only thing that changed on vacation was the location - I still didn't cook, or do laundry, or clean, but I continued to love, care for, watch over, discipline and restore the children's lives and hearts....24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Only, now I was doing it poolside and on the beach, rather than in school and in the living room! Don't get me wrong...the location change was a huge blessing and a breath of fresh air, but the emotional, spiritual and physical energy required was the same as always and it actually took me a bit by surprise! Duh!

So, I got up Saturday morning and headed to the beach for devotions... another, duh! The Lord and I spent some quality time on that beach and I literally felt the heaviness lift off of my shoulders and heart. I can honestly say that is when my vacation began!


From that morning on I didn't miss any of my morning appointments with the Lord! The Lord, the beach and I...a perfect combination (Oh, and don't forget the fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee!) From that point forward, I truly enjoyed each moment. I never even opened the book I had taken along to read, but I fully lived each moment with Victor and each of the kids. This was only possible by the grace of God and His presence in each of those moments!

What makes me laugh about this in hindsight is the following conversation that Martita and I had early on in the vacation. I went to her bedroom to say goodnight and she asked: "Mom, what would happen if I wouldn't read my Bible at all during vacation?" I thought for a minute and responded: "Martita, what would happen if you wouldn't eat during vacation? The vacation is a week long. You really don't have to eat anything and you would survive. But, you would get back home skinny, malnourished, week and feeling miserable. Well, if you don't read your Bible during vacation that is how you will feel spiritually." What did I try and go and do? I didn't spend my time with the Lord for several days and I became spiritually famished, which resulted in emotional barrenness and physical exhaustion. So, this Mom had to pay attention to her own advice and spend some time with the Lord. It made all the difference in the world!

Check out Leviticus 6:12-13. There the Lord commands the priests to keep the fire burning constantly on the altar. In order to do so, the priests had to be diligent about putting new firewood on the fire every morning. I was reminded, once again, that if we want the fire and passion in our lives to continuously burn we must put firewood on the fire every morning. We must spend time speaking to our Lord through prayer and listening to Him through His Word everyday...even on vacation!

"The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out." Leviticus 6:12-13

Beyond that lesson learned, here are some of my other favorite memories from this vacation:

• seeing two dolphins jump through the air in the ocean as Angie and I were riding the waves
• taking long walks on the beach with my oldest girls
• building sand castles on the beach with several of the younger kids (Ana and I built a princess castle, complete with spiral sand decorations. Miguel and I, on the other hand, built a knight's castle with enough defense towers and fences to keep an army out! Of course, the knight's castle was next to the princess castle because the knight has to protect the princess!)
• horseback riding down the beach at sunset with Victor (Sounds romantic, huh? Well, it started out with nearly all 17 kids walking behind us...until we sent them back to the house with Angie!)
• two bonfires on the beach with the entire family at sunset roasting hot dogs and marshmallows
• eating at Applebees all together (There are only a few in the whole country, so when we are near an Applebees we like to treat ourselves!)
• seeing the kids relax and be very creative with their freetime - swimming, napping, reading, playing board games together, helping with making meals, walking with each other on the beach
  
• swimming after dark in the pool with some of the older girls
• watching Fatima relax and be a normal 10 year old, rather than feeling responsible to be the mother to her siblings
• eating breakfast at the Fatiana Restaurant (several mornings Diana and Fatima got up to make breakfast for everybody..hence the name "Fatiana")
• meeting a new Mexican Christian friend on the beach during devotions
  
• just being together as a family for so much time!

One other thing that really impacted me, and for which I am very grateful, is the way that the kids play with each other. Having five new children I really expected them to create groups and cliques, but they haven't! I never know who I will see playing with whom, which is so refreshing and encouraging.


The last night we held a bonfire on the beach and the kids expressed their gratitude to God and to those who support this ministry and made this vacation possible. Their thanksgiving included gratitude for a great house to stay in, the pool and ocean to swim in, enjoying "our best vacation ever" and having time with their family. This last comment may appear to be rather common. Of course a kid would be glad to have vacation time with his family. However, in our family, this comment is huge proof of the restorative power of Jesus Christ in the fact that the kids consider us their family. Praise the Lord!

I am so grateful to the Lord for this time with my family and with Him! And, yes, we went through five entire tubes of sunscreen. But, thinking about it, that isn't that much sunscreen for 19 people for 10 days...maybe that's why several of us are burnt! We should have used even more tubes of sunscreen!


This was Josiah's effort at keeping Miguel afloat! He put on nearly every floating device we had! Or maybe he is some strange alien from a water-infested planet!

OK, so the blog wasn't short and it took a lot longer than 15 minutes to write, but I pray that this entry was interesting and blessed and encourages you as you witness the transformation of our children's lives...and ours too!