Lessons Learned

Where to begin? That is always my challenge when writing a blog post. I have so much on my mind & so much that I want to share. I will begin with our summer holidays. We planned for weeks to try to make this the best holiday it could be. I made travel binders for the kids to keep them occupied on the 9 hour drive. There was no need to use the DVD player because they were busy following the map, doing a word find of each town as they passed it and coloring. At one point our 8 yr old son said, "Mom, there hasn't been any fighting today".

It was a great start to our week long holiday until...... 7 hours into our travels, our van began to over heat. We were in the middle of now where. Phone call after phone call & we then had plans for a taxi ride to Wainright, which was 45 minutes north of where we were, the opposite direction of where we were heading. The taxi ride made me feel uneasy in itself then we had to leave our van with all of our belongings. I told myself that 'it is just stuff, at least we are all together'.

Things could have been much worse yet it was still so disappointing. We were feeling down. We had checked into a hotel with no belongings so we walked over to Walmart to have a bite to eat (our van had 2 coolers of food) and just kill some time. None of us felt like shopping. We were leaving Walmart at the same time as another family. The other family was my distant cousin(our grandmas are sisters). I had no idea they even lived in Wainright. They gave us their phone number & we went our separate ways.

I had prayed that God would send someone to cross our path while we were there.I was thinking of someone that could help us with the van. We were still feeling "bummed" yet our spirits were lifted. We went back to the hotel & the kids were not happy at all. We kept explaining to them that this is not what we had planned but we had to make the best of it.(it is easier said than done - I was telling the kids yet having a hard time to do it myself)

I am a planner, organizer, type A personality that likes to be in control. I learned that I can't always be in control. God is in control and everything happens for a reason.

We ended up spending Monday to Thursday in Wainright at my cousin's house(along with his wife & 2 kids). What a blessing this was. No West Edmonton Mall or Heritage Park but we were safe & we were together.

It is hard to not to ask why things happen but through this all I kept asking God what it is I should learn through this all.

I am linking up with The Better Mom today.