I am amazed how the Lord has perfectly orchestrated the details of the past week. His love and care have been evident in BIG and small ways, reminding me that when you are looking for Him, He will be found.
My husband, Mark, flew out to CA within hours of hearing of his father's passing. Our family had not gotten much sleep Thursday night so by Friday noon I was staring at the wall, unable to function. I decided to take a nap, but once I climbed into bed, my mind started racing. I decided to pray, hoping to quiet my mind. I think Friday's prayer was more of a negotiation, along the lines of one of David's prayers in the Old Testament. I was somewhere between begging and informing the Lord of my need to get my four kids and I to the funeral on my available funds of $1500. He knew we needed to go, right? I remember my last thought being, "If I have to rent a van and drive it across the country, Lord, I will do it."
I awoke a couple of hours later and went to the computer to check out Enterprise Rent-a-Car. I could rent a mini-van for two weeks for about $600. Ok. Then I decided to try Orbitz to find my college-age daughter a flight. There was no way she could be away from school for 2 weeks. The cheapest ticket was $750. Ouch. Not doable. I was thinking there was the possibility that she would not be able to get to the funeral, when I went back to the Enterprise site and decided to check out cheaptickets.com. I'm such a travel novice and figured that I wouldn't get much lower than Orbitz, but when the page loaded I found 7 different options of $283! Crazy! We hadn't found that price for Mark earlier in the day and who travels coast to coast at the last minute for $283? People who trust the Lord to make the way?? Hmm.
I ended up purchasing 5 tickets for that ridiculously low price, totaling $1570. I love how the Lord provides.
As we got closer to our Tuesday departure time I became more and more anxious. We had to catch a connecting flight through Kansas City. It didn't take a weatherman for me to know that IF we got to Kansas City in the middle of last week, we wouldn't be leaving the snowbound city. I was letting the worry get to me, but through my son's encouragement I kept my hair appointment on Monday. My beautician is an Arab believer and as I cried in the chair about my fear of not getting to CA in time for the funeral, she said these heart-piercing words, "The Lord knows what you desire. He wants you to desire what He desires." My spirit was immediately quieted as I realized that He already knew the outcome. He knew whether we would make it through that huge storm or not. I needed to trust Him!
I got home and thought I should just call the airline and ask if they could reroute me. I had no more available funds to spend on the tickets so if I requested a change, they would have to give it to me for free. I figured there was no chance. I called and talked to Peggy in Milwaukee. She said that she couldn't find another route at first. She checked out her own city, but based upon her local weather forecast thought it would be just as sketchy as Kansas City. I asked if she had any connectors in the south and she said, "No, but what about Denver?" We both got online to check out Denver's weather forecast and found that they only had 1-2 inches of snow coming their way. No big deal for snow-savy Denver. I asked her if there was any charge for the change and she said, "No, it's free!" I told her she was my new best friend in Milwaukee and then praised the Lord, letting her know that I had prayed the Lord would find a way for us to get to CA.
The following day while the Midwest came to screeching halt, we flew at 38,000 feet over the storm.
That's how I've felt most of this week. Soaring over the storm.
