Is It Worth It?

Hi everyone,

I was away with Reggie for some much needed adult time. We decided since we didn't have the bigger kids and we only had baby girl, we were skipping town. No football coaching, no ministry, no work, nothing. Just us. So we found a hotel through a source that I won't name and off we went to Richmond, VA!!

We had so much fun riding out there! Yes, there was construction traffic here and there but we were so happy to get away and just invest some time with each other, even if just for one night, that it was not a big deal.

Well, we arrived at the hotel and started getting a just a little bit nervous. The sign with the hotel name was taped on the door. I'm a big optimist so I assume "every hotel business needs to start somewhere". We wanted certain specific items and we got it here. So Reggie goes inside to check us in while I got the van packed up and got Sami shoes back on. Long story short, the bed sheets scared me a little. So after Reggie called me bougee and we realized we forgot a few toiletries, off to Walmart we went. We got everything we thought we figured we would need. Including my Lysol for those beds.

We get back and we look around the room again and I realized the coffee maker that I am used to finding in the room was in the bathroom counter. Hmmm, call me bougee like Reggie did, but I don't want my morning coffee brewing where funky stuff is going on. Ewww.... Then I realized there was no mini-fridge in the room like i'm used to. What??? Well, we can get ice from the ice machine and keep our stuff cool. No big deal. We noticed the ice machine just about 10-15 feet from our door. Whoop-Whoop!!! Uh no. That machine had no ice. Then in the elevator, in conversation with another guest, we find out that the ONLY working ice machine in the entire hotel was on the first floor by the office. Sigh..... Ok, well we decided to go visit a friend that lives about 30 min away. We hadn't seen them in about 3 years!   Yay!!!   I missed my girl!!!!

Well, after that visit we went back to the hotel because Sami wanted to get some pool time in. So we get back to the hotel, get to our floor, and change to go back downstairs to the pool. So we get to the pool and I noticed a weird smell but hey, it's the end of the day and I do smell the chlorine. There was one family in the fool, and a smaller family in the hot tub. No not busy which I like. I get into the pool only to find that Sami would rather sit at the edge with her feet in the water. She didn't want to get in the water. Little by little the smell just was making me more uncomfortable. So eventually we left as I convinced Sami that we are going to get in the water upstairs..... called a bath. I felt like i couldn't get there fast enough. We get back to the room and immediately into the bathroom she and I go when I turned and looked at the tub and realized, this is the first time I had looked at it. It was ridiculous. I thought maybe the tub was old and maybe discolored but then I looked up at the shower walls and.... well..... it was not discolored. Needless to say, birdbath it was!!!

The "adventure" didn't end there.

When we were finally ready to get to sleep, I looked up at my wonderful husband as we joked about everything and smiled and I fell in love all over again. I realized that it was sooooo very nice to see him smiling and laughing as much as he had been doing all that day. With the nightmare that the hotel had become, we still were able to realize where the value was. In the fact that we were together and we could laugh and we smiled so much. And off to sleep we went.

Until we were woken up at 530am to a woman screaming down the hallways! It scared the life out of me! The kind of scare that feels like it stops your heart for a moment. When we were able to gather our brain for a moment, Reggie got up to look out the peep hole and came back and said there's a naked woman out there running back and forth screaming. And I asked could you tell what she was screaming??? I still couldn't tell myself either. Then it was quiet again. Needless to say, we couldn't go back to sleep, so we started packing. It was officially time to go. I heard something outside our window and we were on the 3rd floor so I looked out and there was a woman walking and she had clothes on but I don't know if it was the same woman. She seemed a lot calmer than what we heard. We continued packing and getting dressed.

At 630am we were on the way out and as we walked by the front desk clerk, he says "You guys weren't on the 3rd floor were you?" yeah. "So you heard all the commotion?" Yea, what in the world happened? "Well long story short, this girl had a room with her boyfriend and he beat the cra* out of her. She was down here but-naked bloody bleeding everywhere and people are leaving looking like what in the world". I was shocked. He apologized and seemed so embarrassed. We had nothing to say but Wow and continued walking out. We noticed the police and ambulance was still outside. The girl was talking to them. As we walked out she turned and looked at us and I about cried. I had never seen so many huge lumps and bruises on a person's face. There was not one place on her face that had not developed a huge light purple (because they were still forming and filling) mounds. From her chin to her forehead. On both sides. My heart fell. I flashed back to my own history and was grateful I never looked like that, but NOONE should ever have to look like that. We made it to the van and we packed it up and Sami was still asleep, so I had a few minutes of quiet time while I sat in the front seat while Reggie went to officially check us out. I could do nothing but pray. In all the gratefulness that I felt about my own past, and the reality that I have a wonderful marriage that I sometimes take for grated without even realizing it. I have a husband that bends over backwards to give me what I want. That although he isn't perfect, he treats me like I'm the top of his world. That when I fuss about what I "didn't get" I have to remember to look back at our last almost 7 years or so and see everything that I HAVE gotten. Nothing can compare to what this man has done for me in my life in more ways than in the material. My heart is whole. My mind is sane. I found my value. He helped me learn that I don't need to have all my business out there in order to be beautiful. And now that I have Jesus right along with Reggie, I am absolutely complete.

So today I say if you have a special someone, look back and see what they have done for you in your life. When you didn't get something or something didn't go your way, is it worth the fight/fuss/stress that you were about to have about it? Other people are in relationships that truly make you value what you have. So while you value yours, pray for the others. They need it. Just like we needed prayers at some point too.

I Love you all!! Be blessed!!!