Good Morning,
Today I am writing from home surrounded by things I am familiar with, especially my mug of Door County Cinnamon Hazelnut Coffee.
I have been writing about "aiming high" and something my wife Rene and I had been planning for a year now. If you prayed for us, I say thank you.
Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in every situation, make your requests know to God with thanksgiving by prayer.
I gave a hint as to what it could be in my opening line. Yes, we planned a trip last year in the middle of a Covid outbreak, saying if the Lord is willing, this is what we would like to do. We planned a trip to Virginia. It wasn't our first choice, but it was our last. You see, we had booked a trip to Florida Pre-covid and then it happened, Covid struck, no flying, no resort was open, and we could only reschedule the trip three times before we couldn't reschedule. As it went we were down to the last reschedule. So we planned it out, far enough, hoping a vaccine would solve our problems. We thought we had it beaten until this latest wave hit us. Covid numers were rising as of late. We prayed!
Mind you now, this trip included our daughter who lives in Georgia. She is very busy, so time off for her was at a premium. The trip had to happen last week or it wouldn't happen at all. We needed for the three of us to be together. It had been too long for us to not see each other and spend quality time.
As it got closer to "launch time" we noticed just small things happening that caused some stress on our end. My duties at church had some issues. The fence addition in our yard could not take place. Nothing big, but just small things that were annoying. Then our daughter let us know that our grandson couldn't make it. We suspected that would happen when he started a new job. Then the company she works for landed a huge contract and she could come, but would need to work a couple hours each day.
But then it happened. The night before we were to leave I received a text message that our flights had been cancelled and our new flights would be a day later. Not good. After three hours on the phone with an airline rep we were rescheduled for the right day, but had to fly 900 miles out of the way just to get to our destination. It was a long day of flying. Our daughter sat in an airport for three hours waiting for us. We had made our original flight arrangements to coincide with hers. But at last we arrived and were greeted by the car rental person with a surprise. The car we ordered was not available. Yet I was not discouraged because the three of us were together. He did however have to give us a larger vehicle, which proved to be a good idea. The main goal was to be together. I prayed.
The week went by fast and each day our daughter worked feverishly either on the phone or online to keep her employer happy and not cut in on our time together. She did a marvelous job balancing all the balls she had in the air. Then as the week closed, I received another text from the airline, that our return flight was cancelled and moved to another day, a reason why was not given. This would be a huge inconvenience, as we would be a day late getting home, we would incur the expense of having to stay in a hotel, and would either need to stay near the airport or have to rent another car. Our daughter needed to get home. Another hour on the phone and lots of prayer produced a new flight, much later in the day. But we could make this work. We took our daughter to her flight on time and prepared to hunker down in the airport, reading books and getting by. This worked until we were notified that our return flight was postponed two more hours because of weather. Eventually we would make it to the connecting city, before going onward to the our home town. But there might not be a connecting flight. We just decided to be closer to home would be great. We would get home somehow. I texted a friend for prayer knowing they would be praying last night.
The airline held our connecting flight although the plane had no air conditioning and the temperature on the last link of our trip in the plane approached 98 degrees. We were headed home.
To kill this story. We made it home late last night! Although the airlines were used to discourage us, and get me to want to quit right out of the gates, they couldn't ruin what we had prayed for and God gave us. I was very close to cancelling the trip the night before we left. God gave me peace of mind and the will to keep going.
I will never forget this trip and to say the least, it was amazing to spend 7 days with our daughter and enjoy doing things together, like days of old.
Have a great day. Aim high.
Marty
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