Don't Cha Just Luv Chain Restaurants??

So I need to start this out with our experience this evening. Let me preface this with the fact that we, the Mountcastles in Prescott, may set out to do something simple, but it always turns out differently than we planned. Sometimes good, sometimes bad - but there's always a good story attached. We just seem to 'attract situations', if that makes sense. I think I actually get this from my Dad. But I digress.

Now, this evening there was a benefit of sorts being held at Macayos, the mexican restaurant here in Prescott. A friend of mine has a little girl named Montana who is just the most precious little thing you would ever come across. Montana has Eosinophilic Disease, and this evening the restaurant was donating 20% of all food and beverages sold from 5-9pm to the CURED Foundation (Campaign Urging Research for Eosinophilic Disease). So we pack up the family and head out to Macayo's to support my friend and her daughter. To be honest, I think we've been to Macayo's once since we moved here - we usually go to the neighborhood mexican food place near our house. We got there I'd say around 6ish - and there was quite a crowd gathered. Yea! I thought, this is great that all these people are showing up for this! BTW - there had been an amazing article in the local paper on Sunday talking about this and featuring my friend and her family - so word was out about this, which is awesome! It took about a half hour or so I'd say for us to be seated - which was expected. Then, unfortnately, it just turned into a bad restaurant experience. Let's just say we didn't get our appetizer (just a cheese crisp) until 7:45 - and it was cold. Now, anyone who has little children knows the clock is not long anyway when you have a dining out experience - so this felt like HOURS! We knew we couldn't possibly wait for our actual dinners, or we wouldn't be home till 10 and our kids were hungry. So, what we ended up doing was not eating anything, not staying for any other food, but we told our waitress we wanted to pay for everything we ordered because we were there to donate 20% of our bill to the cause. I mean, that was the whole point in the first place, right? Our waitress apologized profusely, saying they were just really backed up in the kitchen and they weren't expecting this many people, blah blah blah. Whatever, the point is, I think the restaurant really let down my friend. I don't know how anyone else came through - maybe we were the only ones, I hope so. It just saddened me that they (Macayo's) didn't show up for something so important to a lot of families, especially my friend. We picked up Wendy's on the way home. They were fast, the food was hot, and they had Scooby Doo toys, so my girls were happy. ;-)

There, now that I got that off my chest - had my prayer circle today which was great. Only thing missing was Pastor Mary - I miss her when I don't get to see her every week. I realized on the way there that I was having some anxiety about my upcoming surgery. Not for the obvious reasons, but because I'll be put under for as long as I will - 6-7 hours. It just spooks me. I think this is all a control thing for me - again - and I just need to trust - trust - trust. Sana brought up a great point that I can seek comfort in the fact that they do this all the time, my team of doctors that is, and they wouldn't do this if they didn't think I would be OK - I found great comfort in that.

And I haven't even begun to try to prepare myself for no longer having my breasts - as I know them anyway. I've stood in front of the mirror after showering and tried to picture what this is going to look like, feel like, and I have seen pictures of other women who have had this done - and I guess I am just not connecting with it yet. This will probably happen the closer it gets. I was telling PJ this evening that this morning I was considering that maybe I should just do one instead of both - that doing one would be a less severe recovery time. But then I thought better - I know me, and not having one match the other would drive me CRAZY. We laughed. Then I apologized to him for the vasectomy, considering they ended up taking my ovaries so quickly, this was kind of redundant. He told me I didn't need to feel guilty, that there were plenty of other things for me to feel guilty about - like dragging the whole family to Macayo's for dinner tonight. (he was kidding)

I must share a portion of my devotional with you this evening, because the visual of this is simply amazing.

'Sometimes I lead you up a high mountain with only My hand to support you. The higher you climb, the more spectacular the view becomes; also, the more keenly you sense your separation from the world with all it's problems. This frees you to experience exuberantly the joyous reality of My Presence. Give yourself fully to these Glory-moments, awash in dazzling Light. I will eventually lead you down the mountain, back into community with others. Let My Light continue to shine within you as you walk among people again.'

Sana also explained trusting as a type of climb this afternoon - and this visual just resonates with me. The more I trust, the higher the mountain I have to climb, the better the view. I can do this - I've come too far, and experienced too much not to. He will see me through to the end of this chapter - I just have to trust Him completely, and I do.

God Bless -