story taken from an interview with one of our girls

LISTEN TO OUR GIRLS PET THE STINGRAYS!

Spring Break is family vacation time at ACH. Your gifts help provide each cottage a fund (which they can add to with family savings) to plan a trip that best fits their family. It’s a time of magical-memory-making and family-relationship-deepening.

The first day, we drove down to Surfside. It took a looooong time. We stopped at this huge convenience store calle Buc-ees. The restrooms were awesome. When you squished the soap to wash, bubbles came up! And when we finally got to our house, it was right ON the beach.

A house on the beach, a dream Spring Break. It feels lavish, but when the extravagance is the result of a careful budgeting of family activity money and working together to deliver magazines int eh hot sun, it’s also a lesson in delayed gratification and the joy of working as a family to achieve a common goal.

I loved the beach. You couldn’t drag me out of the ocean. We surfed on belly board; I got tackled by waves; Jen and I were waiting for a wave, and I felt something pinch my leg – I grabbed it and pulled it up – I said, “Jen, did you know there are crabs out here?”

One of the days we went to the Galleria. I had saved my allowance and birthday money and got to buy an iPod from the Apple store (Did you know there’s an Apple store?!). And we went ice skating! We were really bad at it – then we got good. Once, Sarah started to fall – I forgot I had skates on and tried to catch her and we both went down! It was really funny – and really cold…

Life-experience is a great educator and travel, metamorphic. Change of scenery and pace mixed with adventure makes a person come alive and helps one learn about oneself and the world. You have gifted this to our kids!

We went to the aquarium and ate IN the aquarium right by all the big fish. I could barely eat… all I could do was look AND we got to pet sting rays! It was so cool. It was a little scary at first z- they look like they’re going to eat your finger… but they’re just getting to know you. They swim to you and WANT to be petted. After the, we went to the boardwalk and rode rides – it was so much fun!

My favorite part was just hanging out with people and getting to know them a little more. Everybody was nice on the trip – we were all making a special effort to get along and have fun together. It was really good to be away as a whole family.

Thank you for an incredible, impactful Spring Break! Will you help make summer magical as well? Your gift will provide daily opportunities for our kids to discover their God-given value and be forever transformed.