Dave and I do not really get to go on a date very often. As a matter of fact, the kids and I were talking about it the other day that it has been over 2 years since we have hired a babysitter. Crazy, I know!! We decided that for our 14th anniversary (which was September 6th - yes, a very late post, I know) that it would be wonderful to do one last little getaway before we headed to GFA (which happened a lot sooner than we thought, more on that later).
We have been blessed with a couple of wonderful neighbors here and they were very willing to watch our kids over the long Labor Day weekend while we went away.
We decided to rent a cabin in Tennessee which was gorgeous! It truly was an amazing time together and something we so desperately needed :). Little did we know that it would last much longer than a weekend. About our 3rd climb up the mountain our lovely powerful GMC Yukon XL would struggle to make it's way up. I remember Dave saying that all these little tiny cars were passing us to go up the mountain and how he felt so silly that here he was in the big truck and it couldn't make it ;).
Well, if you remember earlier in this post, it was Labor Day weekend. Yep you guessed it - not a mechanic in sight (or for that matter out of sight) was open. I had a friend in the area who I had not seen in years but was thinking it would be nice to stop by - A huge thank you goes out to Tanya and Dave for not just allowing us to stop by but for them helping to try and get the truck fixed since by this time, it could not even make it up a driveway :(. Unfortunately after some work by Dave and Dave, the truck was still not working correctly. We decided to say thank you and head on our way to try and rent a car and wait to take the car to a mechanic on Tuesday since there were none open until then.
Dave and I traveled about 25mph in the truck to the nearest rental car place but wouldn't you know it? They had closed early for the holiday. By this time, we were at a loss - the closest rental car place open was at the airport and that was over 45min away and that was traveling the speed limit. Sweet Dave and Tanya got a phone call once again and they were more than willing to help. We dropped the truck off at a shop to sit until Tuesday and Dave drove us to the airport to pick up our rental.
But wait, the kids????? and the dog????? Since the kids were staying at a neighbor's house, they were coming home to take care of Samson. What now? Pat and Kim (our neighbors) had to work on Tuesday and their kids had school. Another phone call to our friends who we know homeschool and our kids were taken care of. And the dog, another call to another neighbor and Samson was all set too.
Oh, there was still this little problem of where we were going to stay since we were supposed to leave the cabin Monday -- another call and a huge discount and a couple more days and the our cabin remained ours!
In all of this, I struggled. What was God doing? Were we wrong in being selfish and wanting to spend time together? As we sat and prayed, it wasn't about us (and I thank my husband of 14 years for showing that to me). God had orchestrated all of this for something He had planned, something we would have never known about if it were not for our truck breaking down. He allowed me to have a friend in the area that even though we had not seen each other in over 20 years, they were willing to show love and friendship to us. He gave us neighbors and friends that were selfless and willing to help. He did not allow the cabin to be booked for the extra days that He knew we needed it. It is in these times that we need to know, none of this happend by coincidence - we know and serve a God who is sovreign in ALL things!! A lesson I for sure needed to learn and realize it's not always about me!
In the end, it wound up being the catalytic converter that broke on the truck and it was fixed and we came home on Wednesday - 2 days later than planned but I praise God because those 2 days mean the world to me now and God knew it and why we needed it even before we did! As it turned out, just 2 months later Dave would leave for GFA without us (more on that later).
This post would not be complete without a huge thank you to our neighbors and friends -- The Johnson's, Mrs. Cookie Lindsay, The Henderson's, and of course Dave and Tanya!
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