Day 15: Port Arthur

I feel like I’ve been transported to another planet!  I have never seen anything like this outside of the movies!  Acres and acres and acres of beautiful grounds—gardens, a church, a graveyard, stables, barracks…there’s just so much!  It’s incredible!  And to think that it started as a penal colony.  It's like I stepped into a Jane Austin novel!

Or Jurassic Park!

The history of the place is fantastic, but the best part by far has just been the company.  I feel like a broken record but really, being here with Cathy and her family is a dream come true.  Chatting about the similarities and differences in our childhoods, in our parents, in our perceptions of our history and our life—it’s positively heavenly!

Then I turn and see my children romping with their cousins, even with two decades difference in age, and my heart melts and I thank the Lord for my blessings.  I’m overcome with emotion as I see them forming relationships with one another—what I have always dreamed of.  The idyllic setting, the incredible sites and history and people, they’re all secondary.  They’re amazing, but the real sites, center stage, is the conversation we have after the kids are all tucked in bed.  After the sites are seen, the photos taken, the experiences enjoyed we sit around and talk.  We connect.  We get to know each other. 

It’s late and I feel like I’m rambling so I’m going to close.  I am so thankful that families are forever.  That we have eternity to get to know one another—not just the few weeks we’re down here.  God is good!