Today is Good Friday.  I believe that this is the most tragically beautiful day of the year.  It is today that we acknowledge the fact that God allowed His son to be brutally tortured and murdered on our behalf.   It is a day that I, you, we, do not deserve.  But it is a day that I whole-heartedly accept and embrace.  For without today, there would be no healing.  There would be no grace.  There would be no completion.  There would be no Easter morning.

Romans 5:6-8

“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatsoever to him.”

Today was also about as gloriously beautiful as a spring day in Washington DC can get.  And…it’s the end of spring break for my my 3 oldest children.  After a week filled with adoption happenings, we decided to escape our little world and make the most of our time together.

First thing on the agenda: A practice run to Andrews.  We are planning to fly out of there on our way to Germany in nine days and we thought it might be nice to know our way to the terminal.  Chad ran in to ensure that all will go as planned and immediately upon his entry, he was approached by a secret service agent who asked if he’d like to meet the President.  Apparently we arrived just before Air Force One was scheduled to land and they were trying to find a crowd to welcome him.  Chad presented the opportunity to the kids and in typical kid fashion, they declined and insisted that we head out for destination #2. Sorry, Mr. Obama.  You lose to colossal milkshakes.  We did enjoy seeing the belly of your plane as you flew over heads while landing.

Destination #2: The infamous “Chick & Ruth’s Delly”.

Being fans of Man vs. Food, we have a list of establishments that serve ridiculously large portions of food that we hope to visit.  It just so happens that the entire family is also a huge fan of milkshakes.  Chick & Ruth’s Delly happens to be the home of the six pound milkshake.  It also happens to be a short 45 miles from our house.  Yes.  I took photos.  No.  I have not yet uploaded them.  Yes.  We conquered the shake.  Okay.  I have to be honest.  We were actually pretty intimidated by the six pound shake.  That thing is enormous!  We settled for two, much smaller, 33oz shakes.

I think I’m being called to a fast.  It might not be God calling me, but my swimsuit is definitely pleading.

Chick & Ruth’s is located right on the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, MD.  Between Mother Nature dishing up the best she had to offer and 4lbs, 2oz of shake in our bellies, we were inclined to walk along the bay.  It was glorious!  Have you ever been outdoors and found yourself just blown away that God created such a perfect environment for us to live in?  Yeah.  It was one of those moments.

Destination #3: fishing

The original plan for the day was to go fishing.  Last summer we learned that the Naval station at Annapolis rents boats.  A quick Google search confirmed that they do indeed rent them and that the rentals are very affordable.  A phone call yesterday to reserve a boat taught us that the affordable boat rentals will not be available until the end of May.  Sigh….

Unfortunately, Chad and I made the mistake of discussing our fishing plans within earshot of little ears.  This mistake led to moaning and groaning and high hopes of catching the big one.  Seth even suggested that we sell all of the big fish we were going to catch to help pay for the adoption.  I love him.

After our attempt to burn off some miniscule amount of the calories we’d consumed, we gave ourselves a tour of the U.S. Naval Academy and began searching for a spot to cast our lines.  We found a sweet spot behind some abandoned buildings and spent a fishless hour or so engaged in casting practice before calling it a day.

The sweet spot will be revisited.  So will those sinful colossal shakes.  And perfect grace.  And healing.  And all the gifts and beauty that are possible because of this day.

Today was indeed a Good Friday.