So the other day (Jan.12th) to be exact, hubby got home from work (somewhat) early, so we decided to sit down and buy our tickets real quick before we headed out for some family time at the park.
I logged onto the site (as I'd done dozens of times before) repeated the search for the days I wanted, found great tickets for a great price and was ready to buy! The plan all along was to use a zero-interest credit card to buy the tickets, since we haven't yet raised enough to cover the cost, and then pay them off once the funds came in. So I selected that as my buying option and pressed "Confirm Purchase". And it kicked me back to the page before. With no 'missing information' message, no reason whatsoever appeared on the page. So I figured it was a fluke on the website and tried again. This time it said my credit was denied.
Um. No. Impossible. What the heck? So I called the airline to figure out what was wrong with their website. I was told by an automated (annoying) voice that the wait time was 35-40 minutes. Are you FLIPPING kidding me?!!? How is that even 1) legal, 2) good for business? Seriously! So we gave up because by this point I was over-the-edge-anxious-and-frustrated. Hubby reminded me it was just Satan putting up another roadblock, and to not get discouraged. Plus our very patient son was so excited to go to the park and was just sitting there with his coat on, ready to go. So we gave up. We figured we would try again later.
We went to the park, had some great family time, came home to eat, put little man to bed and I booted up the computer again.
I tried again, and again to buy the tickets, and it kept saying my credit was declined. Finally I called the credit company. Their response "Oh, it's saying you're declined because you made the purchase already at 4pm, because you kept trying it thought you were trying to overdraw your credit and it was denying it."
So, you see here, Satan, I'm wondering: when will you learn?
You were trying so hard to make this not work. To put stress on our finances. To put stress on us. To ruin our fun family afternoon. When all along OUR GOD was in control. He'd made the purchase for us. And you lose. AGAIN.
So I did what I had to do to finally secure the tickets - it took calling the airline again and confirming some stuff and blah-blah-blah, but when the night was over we finally had our tickets, confirmation numbers and all.
Several days later (for no reason other than I kept forgetting to do it) I called to get O added to our reservation. Lap rider-infants can't be booked online - they're free for domestic flights, but charged a tax for international flights. This can be anywhere from 20-80% of the adult's ticket price. Anyway, I called to get him his ticket and turns out his was less than 10% of our tickets! Now that is what I call God's Favor all over this.
Oh. And speaking of God's favor (as if that ^ wasn't enough!), the next thing I did was start looking for flights for our house sitter. We've got some out of town family that has offered to come live at our place while we're gone to take care of it and have their own little mini-vacation, so as I was researching flight she calls and tells me one of her (distant) relatives has offered to give her enough sky miles to get here here and back for FREE. The timing for the free tickets was no mistake either - it came when several bills had just arrived in the mail for those once-a-year type fees (taxes, can insurance, etc) and money was going to be tight to get tickets to NC.
So we want to thank YOU. Those of you that have committed to come with us on this journey and pray for and with us - we've specifically asked for prayers of favor and we see it all over this story. And you're a part of that. God is writing this amazing story for our lives and those of you that are supporting us in prayer are an integral part of it! So thank you, we feel it - prayer is real, it works, and please don't stop!
We've given out some of these prayer cards at our live events, but for those of you that are unable to come here's a copy - you can print it out, or just save it to your desktop and look at it once in a while. It includes specific ways to pray for us and how you can support us financially, should you feel led to do so. Thanks again for coming along on this journey with us!
No comments:
Post a Comment