Never ask other people for input on a decision that is strictly yours to make. I’ve learned the hard way to keep my life and decisions to myself. No matter how much they love you, they will always answer as if they were in the same situation but with their own hurdles to overcome. Make a decision and stand firm in what you know is best for you. Hold things close to your chest and inform the world when you have exciting news to share.
A true friend will rejoice with you. Dump the people who guilt you for not sharing sooner; they care more about themselves than your happiness. With this tactic, you’ll immediately find out who your “ride or die” friends are. Fight to keep those friends; they are more precious than gold.
Less than two weeks before the departure date, a very brief window of opportunity opened up for my large family to go to Hawaii for three weeks. Of course, I wanted to post all over social, “If you could go to Hawaii for three weeks, but money and timing were an issue, would you go?” But I kept this decision close to my chest, only speaking of it to our bookkeeper so we could run numbers and see if it was possible to put Bill’s newly created handyman business on hold for that long and still stay in the black financially.
The answer was very tentative: “Yes, but no less than five miracles needed to occur before we could even begin to think about getting plane tickets. ”Miracle #1 - Determine if a start-up company could endure three weeks with no income and still cover all fixed expenses and payroll while keeping customers happy and on schedule in the future. Would the first two weeks of July’s income cover the rest of the month's needs and the first three weeks of August? To make things even more challenging, determine that while the CEO/main employee is away on another pre-planned trip for a week at the beginning of July.
Miracle #2—Our oldest daughter made the decision to attend college this year. Would she be able to quit her job and give the company she admires two weeks' notice, apply to two colleges, get accepted and complete all the required papers, schedule the time to visit both colleges that are 140+ miles away, and organize and pack as if all of this was achieved months ago, complete with acceptance letters instead of “I think I’ll get in?” hopium.
Miracle #3—Since Bill could only work five days since he was in another state with me on my work trip, would he be able to cancel several jobs and move them up into these five days and/or push the customer out a whole month and still maintain five-star customer reviews?
Miracle #4—Where would the money come from to cover the cost of nine plane tickets to Hawaii? This was especially important since we had just decided to cover the cost of Abby’s college education, and she was choosing between two private Christian universities to attend.
Miracle #5—Would our oldest autistic son be able to handle being home alone for three weeks? He doesn’t drive or cook for himself but is skilled at reheating food.
Over the next 14 days, each miracle began occurring before our eyes, leaving us in complete disbelief. Honestly, we expected massively closed doors and were okay with that. We love our lives and lack nothing, and every day is good.
Coincidently, this trip would happen over our 25th wedding anniversary, and the destination would be exactly where we got married, in Lahaina, Maui. It all seemed too good to be true. The next thing we knew, we were on a plane headed on a dream vacation for 21 days to celebrate 25 years of marriage.
Comments