A supposed moon made of honey.

At least thats what we're looking forward too! But apparently, planning a honeymoon is not as simple as it seems.
Andrew and I decided that we should book our honeymoon soon, at least start thinking about it, so we went to the travel agent. We wanted to know what they had to offer us, how they could help us.
Heres how it went down.
We walk in, I announce "We want to buy a honeymoon".
We sit down with a lady, never met her before(Ive booked alot of flights through this travel agent, I know most of them). She seemed nice enough.
She asked what country we were considering, what time of year. We told her June, for a week or two, somewhere in Central America.
Then I said something that she was not prepared for:
"We dont want to do all-inclusive".
.............silence............
"ok."
..................silence............
"well there a great new all-inclusive resort being built in Costa Rica."
.......pause from andrew and I........
"Thats nice, but we dont want to do all-inclusive."

I wont take too long, Ill just simplify by quoting her.
"Well, see, the great thing about all-inclusive is that everything is included"
.......oh.....ok.......we didnt get that with the "All-inclusive" title!

Now some of you are probably saying "Whats so wrong with all-inclusive". What has all-inclusive done to hurt you.

Let me start by saying:
1. No offense to anyone who is a die-hard all-inclusive fan. I myself have done it and I very much appreciated it at the time. It was fun.
2. I do understand why its so popular. Its a vacation right?! Relax, dont do anything, have people serve you and cook for you, its all very appealing! I get it.

Here the thing though. Its NOT my thing, and thankfully, its also NOT Andrews thing! (phew!)

Heres how I see All-inclusive:








You might look at those pictures and see perfection, relaxation, life at its best! You might look at those pictures and think "wow, what a life that would be."


I look at those pictures and see whats not shown. I think to myself "I wonder what kind of people work in those resorts. What kind of life do they live. Whats their history, how did they end up there."


You see, when I go to a country, I dont want to hide behind the walls of a resort! No way! I want to be out there, among the locals, eating what they eat, speaking their language! I want to know what a normal day looks like to them. I want to experiance their country, not just be able to say Ive been there!
I want to learn from them. I want to taste what they taste (even if it is awful..remind me to share the dog-eating story later), I want to see what they see!

How incredible is it that we are able to go to different places in this world and meet these people, some who have nothing, some who have much! We get to meet them and talk with them, hear about their life-stories, their hurts and their victories!
I am so blessed to do that.


And so, for our honeymoon, we will NOT be doing an all-inclusive. We will not come home with pictures of us sitting at a swim-up bar with people from Spain(I have plenty of those from the last all-inclusive trip!), and lounging on some beach with blue towels and blue chairs.
So where will we go? What will we stay in?
We're not sure yet. Im hoping it will look something like this:

When it comes down to it, I just want to spend a week or two with my wonderful new husband. I want our honeymoon to be an adventure, a bit wild and unexpected. I dont want perfection, because I know Ill be let down. Life isnt perfect, this world isnt perfect, but through it all, God is good. He created this world for us to love and enjoy and explore. And thats exactly what Andrew and I will do.