A first day for the books.

I guess it's an understatement to say we've been anticipating this vacation for a while. Ever since the day we booked back in February it's been the talk of our household. Counting down the days until the three of us can pack up the car and skip town for a while. More than a while, for an entire week. Longer than any of us have been on vacation in years. Days went by and the excitement grew as June approached and this past Saturday as my brother walked the stage at his graduation it had finally arrived.

We gathered our things in the car, and said goodbye to Surry County for a while. A well deserved vacation we worked hard for. No trouble with anything. We were ready.

Until the "no oil pressure" light came on.

We were about 3 hours away from home, and had just passed through Raleigh when this happened. Solutions came fairly simple, until we couldn't make it to the repair shop to be checked. The car was done for.

95 degrees and 4:30 pm.

We called a tow truck.

At this point my anxiety has spiked.

Dyllon is worried. I'm crying. And Jacob is quiet, but positive.

We waited for two hours for the tow truck, were towed to North Raleigh only to be told our car can not be repaired until Monday.

Our only option is to have it towed home.

And to spend the night in Raleigh.

Vacation comes to a grinding halt and "I can't believe this is happening." Is an understatement.

This is when blessings start to shine through..

We made it out of the heat. Though not ideal, there was a hotel across the street from the car lot and we found a place to lay our heads.

The next morning a dear friend of ours picked us up from Raleigh and the tow truck followed us home.

Driving this truck was a man who brought his wife and kids along, to pick us up and take our car home for us, on a Sunday, which happened to be his day off.

Blessings are blinding at this point.

We were able to pay the monster tow truck bill with our emergency fund that, with the help of Dave Ramsey, were able to save. Stress free.

We were able to switch out our gear and change cars and drive back down to begin our vacation without a problem in sight.

Needless to say, this is not what we planned. But things were definitely put into perspective.

Day 1 of our vacation is going to be the day I remember the most. Not because of the beautiful house, fun in the sun, joy and relaxation.

Day 1 was overheated, dehydrated, humbling, exhausting, and seemingly never ending.

But we made it through together.

The three of us stuck through and God really showed us our abundant blessings.

Though difficult we figured it out.

Though upsetting, it got better.

And that was a life lesson.

And a true bonding experience for my husband, my brother and I.

Sometimes you have to just breathe for a minute (though for me it was so hard) and work through the problems.

God knew how strong we were and knew that we would overcome. That once we got here we would be so thankful, happy, and relieved.

And this was all only the first day.

We were shown that we are never alone in a bad place.

We have people like Chase to carry us home, my mom and her calming voice, the lady at the auto shop who up with my break down, the tow truck driver who went out of his way for us.

No matter where we then we will always have the best help.

And through there are struggles, they never last forever.

We are here and we are thankful.We are grateful for every moment.

Even the bumps in the road.