“Livin’ in a van down by the river”

Throughout our married life, when times were difficult, my wife and I have discussed the novelty of getting away.  I always borrowed a line from Chris Farley’s SNL character, motivational speaker Matt Foley, and quipped, “…and we will live in a van down by the river.”  Well, that has always been a fun game we played until the day it was taken seriously.  You see, with all of the turmoil we had been through and questioning we had been doing, the idea of packing our family (Us, three boys, a girl, two dogs and a cat!!) into a van and escaping sounded like a relief.  Maybe, then, we could live our life with the quality we desired.
Here is how my wife recounted that evening of July 15th to our children:

We’ve always joked about how we would love for Daddy to quit his job and live in a “van down by the river” so we could just “live on love” and spend time together. We do believe that if “a man does not work, he does not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10, so Daddy would continue to provide an income, but the idea of “living simply” became so refreshing, so liberating, so free….this is when the idea was born. I said to Daddy, just fantasizing, “Wouldn’t it be so freeing to sell everything we have and live in a van down by the river?” He said “YES! I’M SERIOUS!” Of course we decided we would live in a travel trailer, but we began to fantasize about our life with 6 plates, 6 cups, 6 bowls, 10 books, 3 toys per kid, 7 outfits per person, no yard work, no huge spaces to vacuum, no yard full of weeds, one toilet to clean, spending TIME with each other and you.

While still a fantasy at that time, the excitement grew quickly.  The only problem we now faced was the absurdity of our plan.  Who would do something so stupid, and better yet who would still be friends with that person.  Besides, normal people would never do such a thing, right!?