City Girl Meets Cave

Below is what I shared with some of my friends about the big cave experience that ended up being the highlight of our 10th anniversary trip!  (For those who aren't into group/forum lingo, DH refers to my husband/dear husband.)

 

Have to share the biggest highlight of our 10th anniversary trip. Well, DH and I have gotten into geocaching. We found a cache in PA about 40 min from where we were staying that just piqued our interest. It was an Indiana Jones themed cache w/an "ark" and it's in a real cave. DH has been so into that but I knew from the start, "No way, we could never do that!" I'm not athletic and am as about as girly as they come. I don't like being in the woods or doing anything strenuous that involves the outdoors (and dirt and bugs). So, I wrote it off as a "maybe some day/probably never" type of thing. But, as time went on, DH would talk about this cave to the guys so I knew he really wanted to do it, but I was set against it (esp. since the cache description talks about boulders, needing climbing gear, being safe, etc.).

After caching all the way up to PA, I told DH the cave one is on the way to our hotel. And on a complete whim, we both decided to at least attempt it...esp. since we were so close. The hike there was your average hike through the woods (but pretty bcs the leaves were changing up there). We got to the "boulders" where the cave is located and DH was beaming and determined to find this cache.

Well, I'm 5 ft and have short legs and am um, overweight...so climbing up those rocks seemed impossible. Must admit that I did sit on the ground and literally cry bcs I knew I couldn't keep up w/DH and I knew how badly he wanted to find this cache. He went on w/o me and here I am in some strange state, in woods w/creepy bugs and left alone on the trail.  All of these fears of DH falling down into the cave and no help nearby started coming to mind. I decided it was probably better to pray than cry.

It was pretty cool, bcs God totally gave me the courage, strength and determination to climb the rocks to the cave and help DH search for the right part of the cave/opening. Couldn't believe I actually climbed the rocks (slid down one bcs I lost my footing on loose soil) and was still excited about the cache. DH finally found the entrance and you should've seen his smile! It made it worth it. But in order to get to the cache, you had to literally crawl in it and wiggle on your back between the rocks to get in the cave! Yeah right!

After seeing DH's delight and excitement and then realizing "hey, I'm actually doing this!" and the pure adrenaline of it all, I went right in the cave w/o hesitation. DH went in first and came back out to get me. He was so encouraging and patient and walked me through it step by step. He was so calm and gentle. And then when we got to the ark cache, it was just amazing! It was like, "WE DID IT!!!!!" It wasn't the cache, but the fact that we did what we thought was impossible and overcame! It was such a special couple moment for us and something I don't know how to express in words!

It was also such a powerful picture of our 10 yrs of marriage as we've faced life together and how DH has been there every step of the way. I so often fail to realize all the support that he is and take him for granted more often than not and forget how good I seriously have it! He's always so quiet and easy going about life...doesn't take much to please him and he's easy to get along with (lol, and that frustrates me more often than not bcs I want him to show emotion but he's seriously fine w/life...lol).

Together in that cave, God reminded me of everything that DH is and it was such a powerful moment together! The pure accomplishment of finding the cave cache was huge and I absolutely loved listening to DH's chatter all the way back to the car about finding the cache and his thoughts on it (it was probably the most I've heard him talk at one time in years)! It was like that impossible-but-possible feat set the tone for our whole vacation and made us see each other and our relationship through new eyes...we're worth fighting for, our family is worth fighting for, living as God wants us to live even though it makes us "odd" (aka homeschooling and standing up for various issues w/n the church, etc) is worth fighting for. Together, we can do it...we're a team and that's how we need to be approaching some of these challenges we've been facing!

This cave experience opened up the door for some special conversations and just a willingness to really listen to each other during our vacation and we even made a plan on how to keep "the cave experience" alive in our marriage (aka intentional date nights). It was just neat to rekindle that flame even if it meant going in a scary cave and getting all stinky, hot, majorly sweaty and dirty (messed up my favorite pair of jeans before we even made it to check-in at our hotel...a girl's gotta have her favorite comfy jeans on vacation...but I made do w/the stiff, uncomfy spare pair...lol). Anyway, even today, we were talking about the cave experience and how we couldn't believe we did it! It's one of those special couple moments that we'll never forget! ...Just had to share (pics coming)!

btw, I did make it clear to DH that this does not mean I've become Mrs. Wilderness by any means....it will be a lloonngg time before I do something like that again! Gimme my sidewalks and paved trails!!!!