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Skydiving was never, ever on my bucket list. 

Do you have a bucket list?

What’s on it?

If you were to ask the people closest to you how they would describe your life, what would they say?

Would they use words like inspiring?

Fun?

Joyful?

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So if you’ve been here recently, you know we have been talking about breaking out our comfort zones.

It’s only the second paragraph, but because you’ve had to wait a long time for this blog, here’s the answer to the title right now:

Demolishing your comfort zone

can exponentially

improve the fun factor of your life.

Why does this matter?

A full joy bucket means you will have more to give.

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I’ve shared two parts of a 3-part story. It’s the story of surprising our son with a family skydiving trip.

Did you catch the part about how skydiving wasn’t on my bucket list?

That’ s my story.

But as this series has unfolded, I’ve been asking you questions about your story. 

Hearing about the fun other people are having is one thing.

But don’t you want to do something about the fun factor of your life?

Your life isn’t going to change until you consider how you can get out of your comfort zone.

You wanna know how?

Let’s have some fun!

The time has come to tell you the end of our skydiving story. 

Hopefully my mom will forgive me for dangling the carrot for the first two parts of the series!  Love you, mom. 😘

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So, after we kidnapped our son on his 18th birthday and drove 4 hours, we told him that there were TWO surprises:

1. he would finally get to skydive, and
2. we were ALL jumping. 

Skydive Windy City Chicago was waiting for us.  With bad news.

Despite frequent checks of their high-tech weather equipment, they were not able to predict that a massive fog would roll in.  It had come out of nowhere and settled for miles around.

They apologized, knowing we had taken off school and work.

The fog was heavy, and they didn’t know when or IF it would lift that day.

We waited, in disbelief that we were actually there,

aware of the fog,

but fully believing we would jump together that day.

We talked about what it would be like, with the butterflies in our stomachs going crazy.

Finally, we were told it could be a few hours.  We decided to kill time in town.

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When we returned, hoping for good news, we learned the fog was not moving.

There was a good chance we drove all that way and wouldn’t be able to jump.

But we had a vision to do this crazy thing together no matter how long we had to wait! 

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So we killed more time. We did our best to distract ourselves with shopping (hello, outlet mall!) while the anticipation grew.  Eventually we went to the shore of Lake Michigan, one of our family’s happy places.

As we sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in, eventually we began to see small openings in the clouds over the water.  

We called the hangar, so happy to report that good weather was headed for the airport, only to be told the day was wrapping up… and the skies probably wouldn’t clear enough to jump safely in time.

Disappointed, we got on the highway for home.

We chalked it up as God’s plan, trusting that He knew what was best, even when we had other ideas.

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And then we got the call!

The skies opened up quite suddenly over the airport.

After a whole day of waiting, we could jump! 

I have never seen my husband do a U-turn that fast. 

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With hearts pounding and excitement making us shake from head to toe, we ran inside. 

We got our harnesses on.

We went through instruction.

And after 4 hours of driving and 8 hours of waiting, we all GOT INTO THE AIRPLANE! 

We had the whole plane for our family and our tandem instructors.  And the pilots, they came too.

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Here are some of our OFF-THE–FUN-FACTOR-CHART memories:

• The absolute thrill of the moment when our plane lifted off the ground.  We were actually doing this thing!  Whose idea was this?
• The freight-train sound of the wind when the skydiving door opened in flight.  It felt like my stomach fell out of the plane when I heard it.
• How strange it was to watch my husband just disappear out the door. One minute, he was sitting on the edge dangling his feet, and the next minute, he was gone.  Like, HE WAS GONE.
• Shouting “I love you” to our kids and big-time trusting that I would get to say it to them again on the ground.  So much prayer.  So much trust.
• The indescribable feeling of free falling at 120 mph. I don’t have words.  One. Hundred. And. Twenty. Use your imagination!
• My mouth being frozen open in “YAY” position from being so dried out during the freefall.  Imagine aiming a leaf blower at your mouth.  Next time, I’ll close it!  Miraculously, no bugs made it in.
• The fact that it was impossible to jump up & down with excitement during one of life’s most joyful moments.  When I watched the video after, I realized I had subconsciously clapped, air-pumped my fists, and busted out disco moves as a substitute.  For the first time in my life, I had nothing to jump on.
• The beautiful silence after the chutes opened: Everything was so still.  After the freefall, the peace was such an intense contrast.
• The tears rushing to my eyes, over and over.  There was no other way I could process something that awesome.  Gratitude and wonder kept welling up. Just remembering how it made me feel brings tears to my eyes now. That was two years ago and it still affects me. Wow.
• Seeing the silvery glimmer of the sun sparkling all over the mass that is Lake Michigan. Getting to see the skyline of a city we love at the same time was such a bonus.
• Watching the people I love most spread out all over the sky, floating down like leaves on a fall day, experiencing indescribable joys of their own. My cup runneth over!
• How cold it was to go through clouds.  And the realization of “Oh my gosh, I am IN a cloud!”
• The amazing gift that comes from blessing someone we love with something that never would have been asked for or expected.  Surprises are our favorite and this one will always be high on the list!
• The fact that we chose to rise to the occasion together as a family.  We will get to talk about this and relive it together for the rest of our lives.  Our family has always been a unit, and experiences like these are like cement. 
• Thanking God again and again for making such a beautiful world.  And for letting us have the experience of seeing it in that way.  And for giving us a family that loves each other. And for letting us live to call our parents and say, “Hey, guess what we just did?”  I wish I had a dollar for every thank you prayer that went through my heart. I’d buy more family skydives with it.

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I had fun learning video editing software from the ground up to be able to share a video with you.  Twenty-five minutes of footage are edited into this short video. It won’t win any awards, but it tells our story!

I hope you enjoy it, and you feel like you were there with us. 😄

More importantly, I hope that coming along on this journey inspires you to get out of your comfort zone and expand your bucket list. 

If you really want to improve the fun factor of your life,

think of it as a JOY BUCKET list!

I’d really love to hear what makes your joy bucket list.

What’s on it?

What are you doing about it?

Your ability to give to others depends on the fullness of your joy bucket.

Your life’s fun factor – your joy bucket – is dependent on the choices YOU make.

Choose joy!

Until next time, go forth and be joyful!