Well, that was quite a trip. Ten years ago Sandi and I were married. I have written here before about our engagement and what a blessing to find myself as crazy about her today as I was 3650 days ago. For our anniversary we wanted to do something special. Our plans morphed along the way. Originally we envisioned something like a long weekend on the North Shore in a cabin with a fireplace. But as 2010 came to an end and I had my best year ever in recruiting we decided to upgrade. Next thing you know we were trading winter snow for soft sand and booked ourselves for 10 days in Playa del Carmen at a 4 star, all-inclusive hotel on the Caribbean beach. Yowsa!
As exciting as it was to anticipate our trip it still came with it's own conceptual difficulties. We hadn't been away together on any sort of vacation (mea culpa, mea culpa)since our honeymoon ten years ago (which was at the same hotel in Playa). Despite assuring each other that we deserved it and blah-blah-blah we both had to deal with guilt and doubt. It seemed so extravagant compared to so much of how our ten year journey had gone. Couldn't/shouldn't we be making better use of the money this was costing? Should we really tear ourselves away for ten whole days? Are we being too lavish, irresponsible?
Yet, as time passed, we found ourselves immersed in the treadmill aspects of everyday life in this modern world stuffed full of time saving devices that save zero time. Bottom line, we were too busy to really dwell on the upcoming trip which did have the benefit of at least limiting the guilty, second-guessing junk.
We got down to the t-minus four days and I got sick. It was just a virus cold deal but a really bad one with enough flu symptoms that I wondered if that's what it was. I actually missed my second day of work in thirteen years as a gauge of how I was feeling. Now we started to wonder whether going would even be possible. It's about at this point that my buzzers finally went off...."The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy...". Perhaps a little slow to see it but duh!, we are living behind enemy lines, our lives are opposed, warfare is not an option, our enemy is not a fan of anniversary celebratory getaways. So the fight was on for our freedom, for this opportunity to enjoy what I believe Father had arranged for.
Called in my band of brothers for prayer support. Launch was now in only two days and I was being kept up at night with coughing that wouldn't quit. I sounded like death warmed over. I neither looked nor sounded like a vacation candidate. Decided to avoid the managed care, doctor appointment (our health care system is so broken....don't get me going). Opted for trying out a Minute Clinic for the first time ever with the goal of scoring a prescription for cough medicine with codeine, the one thing that I knew would restore a full nights sleep. Walked into Target, stepped into the alternative world of what they call "convenience care" and came out with a good report (no pneumonia) and the desired prescription for the magic cough elixir. I drew a line in the sand and told Sandi the trip was most definitely on and our butts were headed for our seats in 9C and 9D.
So we head off for the airport at 4:45 AM and enjoy the sweet, sweet feeling of making a break from all our familial responsibilities, from the good old-fashioned Minnesota winter that we had been having (I am no longer charmed in the least by any aspect of winter). We sat in the airport basically incredulous that this was actually going to happen, that soon our faces would be facing a warm sun, not the cold, dim orb merely posing as a sun in our Minnesota January.
Gosh, it was a fast, direct flight. A mere 4 hours later and we are going through customs, walking outside into the hot, muggy middle of what July is for us. Once again there are the smells of a living earth and active vegetation to replace the sterility of our frozen homeland. We got into the cab and just smiled at the crazy mariachi music blaring from the radio. VIVA la MEXICO!! Praise God for the wonder of jets that can transport you so fast from one reality into another.
Well, this is merely a blog, not a travelogue. Suffice it to say that the next ten days were wonderful, even gently spectacular. Within about a day or two my health was fully Restored. Still,I discovered that my type A personality seems to crave purposefulness mixed with down time in order to fully enjoy it. Our days were spent with sleeping, talking, people watching, eating, reading, drinking,...repeat. I was sometimes aware of being antsy. I chalked that off to being merely accomplishment withdrawal pains. On several long, long walks on the endless beaches I had some definite epiphanies. I would be appreciating the beauty, the warmth of the sun, the surf lapping at my feet, the way the sand collapses under your feet providing the best arch support ever. I heard in my heart Father's voice, "This is your agenda. To look, and walk and talk and relax and eat, drink and sleep. This is what I have arranged for you". I found myself breaking into tears and shouting out at the top of my lungs into the wind and the sea "Thank you Father, praise you for what you have given us". By the end of our time I was starting to get the hang of leisure a bit...with some more practice I may even some day be able to excel in this arena.
But the thief wasn't going to stand for all this joy without a struggle. About midway through our time, Sandi was hit by sudden nausea. It got worse and worse and she got weaker and weaker. At one point she was literally too weak to even turn over in bed. So, we prayed for relief/healing and just stayed in the room. I curled up next to her and, as if it were a bit of a consolation prize, it rained. It was as if the PAUSE button had been hit while Sandi recuperated. About 30 hours later, Sandi was Restored and we were able to get up and hit PLAY...GAME ON. We quickly got back to the grueling work of eating, sleeping, reading, walking on the beach and drinking. Did I mention drinking?
Alas, all good things do eventually come to an end and it was time to go home. We had a blessed, uneventful flight back home. Sandi quickly checked her vm on the cell phone that had been dormant for ten days. As we entered customs, where phones had to be turned off, she said there was a message...something about the heat in our house. Roh,Roh! That set off some major red lights on the dashboard of my 'Get-er-done' mentality. I felt like we were in slow motion going through all the steps necessary to clear customs and get to where we could communicate once again with the world.
The information was startling. Our furnace had stopped working the day after we left. Our house had been unheated for the last nine days. The message said not to worry, the water had been turned off in the hopes that it would prevent the pipes from freezing. There had been attempts at emailing us, a phone attempt, but nothing got to us and we were left blissfully unaware of the travesty going on back home. I came into our home at 10:00 PM on Saturday night. It was 30 degrees inside the house. The freezer had stopped working in the kitchen and there was a smell of rancid meat. It was as if the enemy was physically present, taunting, jeering with a vicious welcome home. Re-entry was not going to be gradual at all. I found myself in the midst of a full-blown homeowner crisis. We'll get back to that....
Meanwhile, went back to work on Monday. There were three projects that all looked to be sure deals that should have successfully closed while we were away. Within the first three hours of returning to work I discovered that every single one of them had crashed and burned. I sat there as in a coma, in disbelief at the tenacity and viciousness of the enemy's strategy to yank back all the joy from Mr and Mrs Santiago's Mexican getaway.
The title of this used the word Restored. Let me compress and brag on what all God did to thwart what the enemy designed for evil but what God meant for good. (How incredible to experience Jesus as my bodyguard and watch him slap down every move of the bully enemy on our behalf.) So, after the thief failed to get us to cancel out with my sickness, failed to shut it down in the middle with Sandi's sickness he now sought to crush with huge problems upon coming home.
Sitting in a 30 degree house trying to call in a furnace guy late on a Saturday night felt surreal. Nontheless, by 12:15 AM on Sunday the furnace had a new inducer motor and was blowing hot air into the cold house. Cost to us: $0 (furnace still had warranty left!) By 9:00 AM on Sunday morning the house was 60 degrees. I talked to a friendly plumber about coming over to supervise whatever disasters I might be facing when I tried to turn the water back on. He talked me out of it (his Sunday fee: $280/hr!). He gave me a couple of tips instead, I gathered together Sandi and 3 neighbors to watch for leaks at different points in the house and I slowly brought the water back on....NO LEAKS, NO FROZEN PIPES! Restored!
On the work front, as said earlier, all of my likely projects had died. Then on Wednesday of that first week back to work I received a call. The biggest client/project of the three I was hoping for called to say that on further review they were going to go ahead and add an additional position. By Friday they made an offer to my candidate and I now was on the scoreboard for 2011! Restoration!
Let me just say that all glory and honor and praise go to my heavenly Father who both provided an incredible vacation to Sandi and I but then went on to protect his gift from every effort of the enemy to plunder our joy upon returning. I brag on you Father! I bless your name and confess that he who is in us is indeed stronger than he who is in the world! What a glorious ten days in Mexico, courtesy of Jesus! Ten days of of being known by all the hotel personnel as Santiago, answering only to my favorite name...Santiago. Thank you Father for all you brought to us, even down to the intricate detail of a name. Praise God!
