Joyful Transformation

Wow!! What a wonderful trip! 6 days of glorious sunshine, abundant food, endless conversations, being taken care of, ready for me entertainment and some great books thrown in! Wish you all could have been there. TL has posted what she will miss (notice she didn't mention spending 24/7 with me) I am usually a positive person, but here are some things I will NOT miss.

1. The 2' x 2' shower
2. The intermittent cold and scalding water in the shower!
3. The inability to walk down the hall without staggering into someone (no drinks involved)
4. The "dirty drunk old man" who decided TL and I were the best looking women on the ship and somehow thought it his duty to tell us about it.....Constantly!
5. $.75 per minute to use the internet!!!
6. Living out of a suitcase.
7. 4 ounce water glasses
8. $1.50 for Diet Cokes
9. Not being able to use the phone when I wanted to!
10. The cruise director's annoying voice and comments over the loud speaker.

There was this one announcement we missed on the loud speaker. Sunday night we stayed at Karoke until it closed (midnight) and we finally found a rhythm in sleeping. Well while we were sleeping the ship did a u-turn to pick up a small boat full of refugees from Cuba. Evidently there is a maritime law requiring sailing vessels to rescue any they may see at sea. We slept through it!!! Evidently there were about 8 people in the boat and they had been at sea over a week. They were brought aboard, placed in the infirmary and holding cell until we reached Costa Maya later that day. There they were turned over to the local authorities. We could see the Mexican Army or police on the pier with their machine guns! I don't know how we slept through all of this excitement!

This morning I can't help but think of the analogy of us and God. We are but small boats crying out for help from the mighty Power that sails by us. While we may feel that our need is urgent and immediate it sometimes takes that power a little while to slow down and turn around. But we can rest assured He will save us in our distress! Sometimes we may not get the answer that we want. "Can't you just take us to America?" We may have to stay in Mexico. We may have to stay in jail....But we have been saved from the brutal ocean. While our mighty power is omnipotent, it helps me to think of Him on a mission, set in motion when I cry out! He hears me, He wants to save me, it is just going to take some time!! I love that He hears me!

I read "Blue Like Jazz" on the trip! It met all of your rave reviews! The tough part for me will be internalizing the book. I finished another book I was reading and am half through a fun fiction book. It is raining here this morning so I feel some reading coming on!

As for my 40 Days of Fat.... I only gained one pound over the week! I know it can show up later, but I can control it now. We looked at the exercise room and had lots of good intentions, but the lounge chairs by the pool were calling our name!! We did refuse to take the elevators the whole time we were on the ship, maybe that offset the chocolate and the ice cream and the bread..... Not to mention the sugary drinks...

I will post a picture later. My lap top here at home does not have the software (still runs Windows 98, somewhat of a dinosaur!) In the meantime it is good to be back! OurGreenRoom is back up and running, thank you Chris! Skip is moving! Hard to believe but blog world just went on without me! I must go now and finish catching up with you guys!!