Lord, today open my eyes to the blessing on the journey you have chosen for me!
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
How often have you said to yourself, "Well that didn't go as planned!" I have said this many times. Often things do not go as we had planned or intended them to go. I think about a trip we made to Jamaica a few years ago. We were in Dallas, TX awaiting out flight to Jamaica and I was checking e-mails. I had received an e-mail that our hotel was cancelled. It was the Christmas season and I panicked. We were already on our way. I joked that we were going to have to sleep on the beach like the homeless. My family did not find this amusing. I immediately called the hotel and they stated that they had overbooked and since the hotel was not paid in full, we were cancelled. I had put down a deposit for the hotel and was paying the rest upon arrival. I asked how they could do this? They said, it happens a lot. I was shocked! I asked if they could get our rooms back and they told me that it was booked, but they could get us in for a few nights. I took it. I didn't feel we had a choice. Once we arrived in Jamaica, I immediately talked with management who told me I would need to return in the morning. The next morning, I spent hours with management trying to figure something out. They told me I had to find another hotel, there was no choice. After a lot of tears and frustration they finally agreed to help research hotels for us. It was Christmas time! Most hotels were full! Finally, I found a hotel and called them and they had two rooms available for the dates of our stay. I told them of our situation, and they said that they had a deal going on for previous customers. I was able to book these rooms for a very reasonable rate as it was the hotel Mark and I stayed at 14 years prior. The original hotel we had booked set us up with transportation for that afternoon. We spent the next few hours packing up again and we also did some exploring of the resort. After our exploration, it was clear that this was not the resort that was portrayed online. It was dirty, broken things, closures of pools, bars, and restaurants. Maybe Covid had hit this resort hard, but it was clear we were moving to a better resort. We arrived at our new resort that afternoon and we had been upgraded to ocean view Jr. suites. The rooms were clean, and the resort was as Mark, and I remembered it all those years ago. Our crisis turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We had an amazing trip. We bonded with a family from Ohio and hung out with them nearly the entire time. Although things did not go as planned, it turned out better than we could have imagined.
I know things could have turned out worse. We could have had to rebook fights home immediately and been out thousands of dollars. We worked though the crisis and came to a resolution, and it was perfect. Sometimes you need to look at the silver lining. Sometimes you need to have faith that things will work out for the best.
Justine and Justin had a vow renewal and wedding reception on January 13, 2024. We had been expecting around 150-175 people. Mark and I always worried about the January weather, fully aware that North Dakota winter weather is unpredictable. The weeks leading up to the wedding, we had very little snow. We had had several icy days, which was unusual for this time of year. We watched the weather and saw that. massive cold front was hitting during the time of the wedding. Cold and North Dakota seem to go hand and hand, but I am talking brutally cold temperatures. Seriously, our temperatures were -50 wind chill. We knew this would detour some people from coming but we pressed on as things were in process and it would be nearly impossible to postpone. I picked up my sister Marci and Bailee and Tristan a couple days prior to the wedding. By this time, the weather had changed, and we were in a winter weather advisory. The cold and now the weather advisory forced most of the wedding guests to cancel. We ended up with only about 1/4 of the guests but we made it work! The makeup artist and hair stylists made it to get the girls all dolled up. The DJ even made it from a couple of hours away. We made do with what we had. This did mean a lot of left-over food, but we gave so much away to wedding guests as they left. Since there was not the number of people that we expected, we were able to visit with everyone who was able to attend. So often big crowds are nice, but not intimate. The smaller crowd made it much easier to visit and catch up and for this we are so grateful. We were able to enjoy the evening and the guests, and we had a great time!
The next morning, we had cinnamon rolls and left over muffins, bars, and cupcakes at our house. Our niece Krista, her husband Jer, and kids braved the weather and were able to attend so they joined us Sunday morning. It was so nice to get some one-on-one time with their family and Paislee sure enjoyed playing with the kids. Monday morning, I took Bailee, Tristan, and Marci back to the airport-but not before we loaded their suitcases with leftover food!
Yes, things did not go as planned, but I truly believe it all worked out and we made the best of the situation. Life throws all of us curveballs and this means we need to sometimes go with flow. Sometimes the curveballs are meant to hit you-to mold you, and to shape you into the person you are meant to be. So let that curveball hit you or just hit it out of the park and make the best of this life. We only have this one life, so go out and live it.
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