Getting Ready for a Family Pilgrimage

Hey guys!

I figured I’d put together a quick post as I work feverishly to make sure we have all the loose ends tied up for our upcoming trip.

It’s going to be a full time job to get ourselves out the door and on that plane in a week’s time — but it’s always worth it in the end.

Somebody please tell me,  why is it so hard to get ready for a family trip?  Yikes!  It still feels a long way off, but we’re beginning to feel the excitement of it all.

We have made the conscious effort to make every family trip a pilgrimage of sorts — why waste all the grace that you can glean from all that suffering, sleep deprivation, hunger, thirst, and complaining along the way, am I right?

Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling with my family.  It is always an adventure full of laughs and beautiful moments, and that is why we put ourselves the insanity that comes with it.

The beauty of making our trips a pilgrimage is we usually try to go to Mass and holy sites wherever we visit anyway, but also it give us the opportunity to offer the challenges up for intentions that we have as a family.

I have a few intentions, but one is always the people who visit my blog.  So, if you’re reading this, know I’ll be bringing you and your intentions with us along the way.

I really appreciate your encouragement and the fact that you take the time to read the silly things I have to write.  So consider yourself part of our upcoming adventure!

We’re starting to feel the excitement of  following in the footsteps of some of the great Irish Saints who have inspired our family, including St. Patrick.

We’re really hoping that walking in their footsteps will somehow rub off on us and makes us more heroic in our love for God and the people around us.

Getting excited to see the beautiful sites and appreciating the glory of God’s creation.

Hopefully we won’t be falling off of any cliffs, please God and our guardian angels!  I’m getting a little nervous about our hike up to the Cliffs of Moher.

And yes, we’re looking forward to frequenting a pub or two along the way.

And John and I are both happy to know that we’ll be able to share with our kids the love story that brought them here in the first place.

Ireland has so much to do with it, and we want them to know that their story begin with our love story in a far off place.

I will keep every person who has ever visited this little place on the internet in my prayers as we embark on this epic family adventure!  Please pray for us.  We are going to need those prayers!

Looking forward to our return.  (Not really, because that means back to school — boo!)

~Moira~