Don't Worry Baby

Around the Workman household we have many rules. Some of these rules are for safety, some of the rules are for fun, and some are to ensure good family relations. One of these rules is that we always schedule our next beach trip before we pack up and return home from our current beach trip. It is our rule to stand on the balcony as a family, stare at the ocean, and plan the next family trip.

Let’s start with some history…in the Anthony household growing up, my entire family’s dream was to spend a week at the lake in a houseboat, a tent or camper, and riding all sorts of skis, wakeboards, tubes, and plastic turtles behind a boat going really fast, holding on to a rope for dear life…but my dream…my dream was to spend the week at the ocean. I love the ocean. I love the sand. I love sitting in a beach chair, listening to my ipod and reading a good book. I love the smell of saltwater. I love the sunshine. I love no sun screen Friday's. I love the sound of the ocean waves crashing into the shore. Oddly enough, I don’t love swimming or heat but I do love walking along the ocean’s edge, letting the ocean waves encircle my feet and having an ocean breeze to cool me off. I love picking up shells and thinking of the creature that lived in the shell.

Don’t get me wrong, I did have fun (sometimes) on the DHL trips…things like hiking to accordion bluff (when we didn’t get lost), singing to the Beach Boys on top of the houseboat, and meeting guys in the middle of the night who have lost their wallet on the peninsula where we were docked and camped and apparently were “real bad drunk” the night before. One of my most vivid memories is the afternoon that Jenny and I actually survived a tornado at DHL…in a truck camper (which gives a whole new meaning to “if the camper is rockin’ don’t bother knockin’)…while our parents were rushing our brother to the Livingston ER because he had drowned and been revived right before our eyes. That’s a whole post for a different day!!

There are tons of good memories: fried pies, volleyball games, and bike rides to the dock for ice cream. And unfortunately, I know that I made more than a few trips miserable for myself, my parents and our families. Deep down, I think it is because I did not want to be at DHL for vacation…I wanted to be in Panama City, Destin, or Hawaii!

As I got older, and could work and drive, I was able to go to the beach a couple of times. Rob, Bebe and I headed to Panama City once…I will always remember that middle of the night stretch of interstate/median in Alabama in a Toyota 4x4, “I think I need to stop and get coffee.” and that romantic dinner at Capt’n Anderson’s. Then when I was a senior in high school, my parents let me, my 3 besties and George Clark jump into the Buick and take off for Panama City Beach for Spring Break. By the way, did you know that I am the world’s master at packing 4 girls, 1 boy and 1 boogie board into the trunk of a Buick Century?

All of those trips were fun, but going to the beach became my ultimate vacation when I met Ryan Workman. On our first lunch date, we talked about our love of the beach. He told me that he had grown up going to the beach every summer. He told me about the Olds Folks Home and about the times when he and Alan had spend entire days digging holes in the sand. He also told me that his mom owned a beach condo. Cha-ching!!! This guy is a keeper. His mom owns a beach condo?!?!? That means we can go to the beach condo anytime…Woo-Hoo!!! And that’s what we did, 6 weeks after our first date we headed to Gulf Shores, AL, for the first time as a couple. After a little bit of a rough start…I was letting Ryan drive my car…a Mitsubishi Eclipse Turbo…and he got pulled over by a cop…the cop accused Ryan of racing…Ryan proceeded to mention that the speedometer of my car went up to 140 and if Ryan was racing, he wouldn’t be doing 50 in a 40, he would be doing 100…and then, he proceeded to ask the cop to see his “radar gun operators license” and I was pretty sure that he was going to end up in jail and I was going to end up in the middle of lower AL without a boyfriend or a car…ahhh, sweet memories…but after the rough start, a few beautiful days at the beach, and no sun screen Friday…I went from being Ryan’s girlfriend to Ryan’s fiancée. After several margaritas to calm his nerves, he lovingly and tenderly bent down on one knee and said to me… “Dawn, will you marry me?”…and I lovingly and tenderly replied… “I will, but my name isn’t Dawn!” HE WAS MORTIFIED!!! There were lots of apologies and laughs and to this day, people who know sweet Ryan can not believe that he actually committed this faux pas. But I loved him anyway and married him and he fulfilled my dream of going to Hawaii…we did that on our honeymoon.

We’ve been to Waikiki Beach, Waimea Bay, the beaches of Maui, the beaches of South Carolina, the beaches of lower Alabama and Florida. We’ve gone to the beach just to relax, to celebrate a new job, to cry because we weren’t pregnant yet, but it was the beach trip of October 2008 that would changes our lives FOR-EVER!!!

We had BEAUTIFUL weather on this trip. We practically stayed on the beach from sun-up to sun-down every day of the trip. It was just the 4 Workman’s and Bebe. The kids and Ryan swam in the ocean, Reid learned to boogie board, we all took walks, Bebe took the kids to the indoor pool at night, I held down my beach chair with a good book and my ipod…one of the best beach trips EVER!!! That was until Ryan decided to talk a walk and pray.

For several years, Ryan had the desire to get out of consulting engineering. His job was tedious, keeping up with each and every 15 minutes of his time, no one was ever happy and he was stuck in an office all day and after 15 years of consulting, he was just ready to be done with it. It was our last day at the beach and we had stood on the balcony as a family and planned our next trip to Orange Beach, just like the Workman family rules state. We decided same time, next year, next fall 2009…we would come back to the beach as a family.

Ryan took his annual last walk on the beach before leaving. He stood at the rock wall along the inter-coastal waterway and prayed. He cried out to God. He cried out to a God that loves him and listens to him. And this was Ryan’s prayer, “Lord, I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be doing the same job next year that I’m doing now. By next year’s beach trip, I want to be doing something different.”

And I’m sure that this is what Ryan was thinking at the time of his prayer…because believe it or not...he thinks in song lyrics too!!!

Well its been building up inside of me
For oh I don't know how long
I don't know why
But I keep thinking
Something's bound to go wrong

But she looks in my eyes
And makes me realize
And she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright

Ryan did not tell me about this prayer until the summer of 2009, about 9 months after he had prayed it for the first time, he actually had been praying it ever since…And that’s where our story begins…

Melissa