My Horrible, Terrible, Awful, BAD, Disasterous, Unfortuanate CHOICE!

I have made many choices that I am not proud of and have regrets of them. One of the things I learned at the Ministry out in Texas, is to see every situation- good or bad- as an opportunity to learn. I try really hard to implement that in my daily choices and circumstances. Some of my bad choices were huge and presented very tough life lessons, some have had minor repercussions but I still walked away learning something- even if it was small.

I have the perfect example from today! I had my hand "smacked" by the director of Tenly's school- Gianna fell asleep on the way to pick Tenly up- so I CHOSE to park near the door (not in a parking space) so I could run in quickly to get Tenly and not disturb Gia. Well, as I came out of the door- I see the director standing by my car- I instantly new I was in trouble! As she began to reprimand me, I attempted to explain (not excuse) my reasons for parking there- well, that just brought another reprimand as she informed me not only to not park there, but that I should not leave my sleeping daughter in the car regardless of how close and quick I was. I stood there sheepishly, saying "Yes, ma'am- you are right, it will never happen again!". As I got in the car, I continued to say, "Well, you could have said it nicely- I'm not a 2 year old...etc...etc..."! No matter how much her "delivery" of the reprimand irritated me- she was right! I kind of feel like I need to go buy her a card with chocolates and beg her to send me to parenting classes for being such a terrible mother- of course, none of that will happen. Anyway, bad choice and I did learn....not to make that woman mad...and a little more!

Anyway, the horrible choice I mentioned in my title was one we still feel the repercussions of. One of my oldest friends, Debra's, little girl was turning "1" and Gianna and I went to her Birthday Party in Miami after church one Sunday in March (Tenly had been disciplined that day and stayed home with Dad). Although, I am not familiar with Miami, I felt confident with my trusty GPS- that thing is like my BFF! The party was being held at a beautiful huge park on the water in a great area. As we arrived, I decided to park on the road right across from the park only feet away from us. I didn't want to carry everything in the park, so took only my phone, keys, camera, and the gift with us- which means I stuck my purse under the seat. I could sit here and reiterate how I tucked it all the way under the seat- it couldn't even be seen, and we were in a very populated area, it was in a 'good' area...but none of that matters considering our car window was busted out and my purse was stolen. The really sad part is, I kind of saw it happen- I saw a car parked beside my car (in the middle of the road) with the passenger door open, then a guy ran from in front of my car and jumped in the other car and it down a fast u-turn as it peeled out of there. It obviously caught my attention to the point I grabbed my keys and pressed the lock button to be sure it was locked- and it was- but I never thought I just watched a guy jump in the car with my purse! I was informed by the cops that the guys had probably been sitting there watching me from the time I arrived- that, honestly, totally freaks me out!

As Gianna and I said our good-byes and gathered our things together, we started towards the car- I instantly noticed that my dark tinted window wasn't there. Although I tried to consider that maybe I rolled the window down (which I never do), all I kept playing over in my head was that white car peeling away from mine- I knew exactly what happened.

Debra, Chloe, and Anthony- 1st Birthday!

I ran back, crashing the party with my bad news- I couldn't stop shaking. Debra's wonderful husband, Anthony, took control, called the cops, and checked on the car. I called Lupe (guess the cops should of been first), and he instantly got on the phone cancelling cards. We tried to get all the glass cleaned out of the car, Anthony put plastic up over the window and by 8pm (3 hours later) we finally left Miami (which we don't visit much anymore, lol). After I finally arrived home, fell into Lupe's arms and felt instantly relieved.

The next morning we felt drained but okay knowing we did everything we were suppose to do- called the credit card companies, and called the bank, alerted the drivers license office. That is, until Lupe tried to use his debit card and it was declined- he called the bank and was informed that someone tried to cash a huge check against our checking account- and they froze the account and flagged it again to be sure nothing could happen. They asked Lupe if I had a check or account # anywhere in my wallet- and THEN I remembered- my account # was written down on a Wachovia Card in my wallet- these people had it and were using it. It was then that I remembered that my SS# was also on an insurance card in my wallet- and we were warned that these people were acting like professionals and probably knew exactly what that number was.

I guess you could say, we were beginning to get nervous, concerned, and worried- and our prayer life increased over night. I wish I could say that was the worse of it....but it was only beginning! I'll finish the story on my next post- or else this is going to be WAY to long for one post!

What did I learn? NOT to leave my purse in my car- anywhere, anytime! Little did I know, that I was also about to learn get another lesson in trusting God , I was about to be VERY humbled, I was just beginning to get angry, and about to learn I had to let it go.