need or want

As you may recall, this past weekend a few of us retreated to camp in the woods. Our excitement and expectation level crested if our food and supply planning emails were any indication.
Weather forecasts predicted cooler temps.
Visions of perfectly roasted marshmallows and personally appointed sandwich pizzas spurred on us. (Okay, some not so perfect sandwiches tarnished that vision a tad bit. But still...)
Fireside chats after the kids settled in their beds were also hoped for. We imagined snuggling deep into our bags after a satisfying day for great in-the-woods sleep.

Friday night transitioned into a gloriously sunny Saturday. (We were "forced" to get ice cream, early in the day, and of course Casey gets her own cone!)
Sunlight danced on the lake. The sights and sounds of summer begged our interaction. The lure of the lake was so great, kids fell in sans swimsuits.

Smiles lit faces as we experienced what we hoped for.
Camping!
Campfire cooking!!
Campfire conversations.
Sandy beaches.
Warm lake water.



Until the sprinkles descended.
Rain.
Rain through the night Saturday.
Rain through the day Sunday.
Rain through the night Sunday.
Rain all morning Monday.

I pleaded with God.
"we have six kids here Father. I know we need rain, but please, please, please, could it be sunny on Monday? Could you let the rain rest?"

We tried not to complain. So much of life is better if one reacts in a good mood. Karen's comment on Sunday night, "I think that must be the last of the rain," inspired hope in all of us. (Even if we couldn't resist throwing that back to her Monday morning as the torrents pounded us in our feverish attempts to pack up tents and fold tarps and take down.)

We did make the best of it.
We did have fun together.
We really enjoy each other's company regardless of the weather.
But we longed for something different.
Still, I wonder, what if what we wanted was not what we needed?
Certainly the ground was desperate for rain. In fact, things were so dry, on Friday night, the rangers came around to insure our fires were not too high because the threat of forest fire was so severe. Farmers everywhere were praying for rain. Perhaps we needed to deal with the rain to see how we reacted (it was not a repeat of last year's 10 inches in five hours with all of us crammed in one tent). Perhaps it was necessary to see if our attitudes toward camping would sustain the rain?

As with so many things, I have more questions than answers.
I'm still glad we went. And I'm really ready to do it again.
I'm holding out hope that some of our dreams will still become realities.
If that's what we need...