OUR PLAN THWARTED

GOD'S PLAN PERFECTED

Bailey (granddaughter, Jodi (daughter) and Brady (grandson)

I apologize for this travel log, but you have to see it step-by-step in order to understand my point. We were booked on a 6:00 AM flight from Ontario, CA to Bozeman, Montana with the usual connection in Salt Lake City. We hate getting up early, but it gets us into BZN about noon so we can have lunch with our daughter, Jodi, stock up on groceries, borrow our son-in-law’s pickup, and drive up the mountain to our own place before dark.

2:30 AM: The alarm goes off and we pile out of bed.

I strip the sheets off and throw them in the washer because today is the housekeeper’s day.

2:45 I’m dressed, makeup on, and pack my last items.

3:00 Jerry (our cousin) arrives. He moved his trailer on the property two days ago. He will drive us in my car to the airport and housesit while we’re away. We each make our own coffee.

3:20: I load my bags and sit down to wait for Barry.

3:25 While he loads his bags, I check my email and make a horrifying discovery.

Our 6:00 AM flight has been cancelled!!!!

I call Delta immediately and discover our flight has been changed to 8:30 AM. But we won’t make our connection in Salt Lake City, so we will have a six-hour layover and arrive in Bozeman, Montana at 6:00 PM. After some discussion, we opt to change our departure time to 1:25 PM, have a short time to change planes in Salt Lake, and arrive in BZN at 6:00 PM. We’re not crazy about arriving after dark because we have about a 40 mile drive up a curvy mountain road.

4:00AM We send Jerry back to his trailer with a plan to leave for the airport around 10:00. We are all full of coffee and wonder if sleep will be possible after getting all jazzed up to leave. Barry and I can’t go back to bed because the sheets are in the washer. He takes one of the recliners and I curl up on a sofa.

Lily, the cat, who tried to stow away in Barry’s luggage, thinks there’s been a reprieve. She curls up with me for a while and then moves over with Barry. We manage to sleep some until 7:45.

10:00 Barry, Jerry, and I take off for Ontario International Airport.

11:00 Barry and I are through security. No problems. For once they didn’t choose to frisk the suspicious looking cowboy.

12:00 We enjoy some lunch.

1:25 We take off bound for Salt Lake City. Smooth flight. No problems.

4:15 Deplane at Gate A4. Unfortunately, we have a long trek to Gate A37.

4:50 We hoof it to Gate A37 and take off from SLC.

6:00 Land in Bozeman after a smooth flight and landing. It’s already dark.

Barry had asked me who was picking us up or was our son-in-law going to leave his pickup in the parking lot for us. Usually, our daughter is texting us along the way and we didn’t hear anything. To our surprise, Brady, our grandson was waiting for us near the baggage claim. He was driving his dad’s pickup. No problem.

As soon as we got the bags loaded and we were settled, Brady got our attention by saying something like, “I’m not sure when I’m supposed to make this announcement, but Mom is in ER and Dad is with her.”

Suddenly, I was reminded of my arrival 25 years ago when our granddaughter, Bailey, had just been born and was on life support. Or fifteen years ago when our airline departure was grounded because of fog, and we sat helplessly while Brady had emergency surgery to remove his appendix. Or five years ago when I arrived, and Jodi was in a coma with a massive stroke on life support in ICU.

Okay God, what’s your plan now?

“What happened? Is she okay?”

Brady seemed calm. “I took her myself and I think she already seemed better by the time I got her there. They are running all kinds of tests, blood, cat scan, and MRI. My instructions were to pick you up at the airport and let you know what was happening. The side she had the stroke on seemed to go numb or limp.”

We asked lots of questions, but so far, the reports were good. We enjoyed having dinner with Brady. As per our instructions, we dropped him off at home and headed up the mountain to our own place in Big Sky. Our son-in-law assured us that was the best plan. For us to go on and let Jodi get home from the hospital and rest.

(Continued the following day.) This morning, as I was recapping yesterday with the Lord, it dawned on me how He had cancelled our plan and made a more perfect plan with His perfect timing.

Think about it. If our first plan had worked, we would have ended up in Bozeman at 12:30 noon. Rob would have been at work, Brady would have been taking his last finals at the college, Bailey would be teaching high school two hours away, and Jodi was having some sort of episode that had made walking tricky and rendered her unable to drive. Knowing her, she would have tried to drive to the airport to pick us up and that could have been disastrous.

When Brady arrived, Jodi called the doctor who told her to have Brady drive her immediately to ER. (In retrospect, she knows now she should have called 911 instead of waiting for Brady to come home. But because she was not in pain, she didn’t think it was an emergency.)

But because of the change in plans, we got to sleep longer, we got to have dinner and quality time with our grandson, which seldom happens. Meanwhile, Jodi could finish tests without worrying about us. Praise God, Jodi is fine, and they didn’t find any problems. A change in her medication was the only necessity. We met her for lunch the next day and we thanked God for her, for His perfect timing, for His healing hands, and His protection for our family.