Travel and delays :)

Have you ever read this?  I've read it before.  I've seen it on one of my friends Facebook pages.  She is the mother of some special needs children, and reading it, I could totally understand the analogy.  I read it a long time ago!

Today I was out to lunch with a friend, and she related it to singles or mid-singles.  Every little girl grows up planning her wedding and what kind of wife she is going to be, and how many kids she's going to have.  She knows their names, the order of their birth, the things that they're going to do, etc.  Like in the link, the little girl is  planning on being in Italy by the time she is 20, at least in our LDS culture.  She's going to do all she's supposed to growing up, and then things will fall into place the way she's pictured her whole 20 years.

Sometimes you're on a trip, and you have a delayed flight, and your plans vary from the original plan.  My friend's husband is a pilot, and they get to fly all over the world.  They had a layover in New Delhi, and were stuck there for three days.  It messed up their lives for those three days!  They missed work, they had commitments that had to wait, they were just there.  They could've sat around the airport waiting, stressing and getting upset over things that were totally out of their control.  Instead they decided to take the opportunity to go out and see all of the amazing things they would miss out on, if they stayed in the airport.

None of us that are in this state of Mid-Single-ness would have chosen this layover.  Whether it's someone that has never been married or someone whose marriage ended, this is not the way we planned.  I remember attending an Evening of Excellence in our stake, as a leader, and the speaker said, "I graduated from seminary, I earned my young women medallion, and because I did things the right way I was blessed with my wonderful husband.  If you do these things, you'll be blessed in the same way."  I wanted to stand up and protest!  "I did those things! Don't make things sound like this is how it always happens!"  One day one of those young women will not have the fairytale ending at 20, and have to sit and wonder what she did wrong or what's wrong with her.

So, on my trip to Italy, I've had a layover in Spain.  Instead of sitting in the airport waiting for my connecting flight to Italy, I've stepped outside of the airport and been able to meet some amazing people, learn lots of amazing things, and see the beauties that are there. Of course, I am still anxiously awaiting my flight to Italy, but I'm enjoying my time in Spain!

Love this quote I found on Pinterest via TheDatingDivas.com