#1 Visit Scotland

Well, it's here! Our first attempt at the bucket list is starting off with a bang! Some of you may know, since I am not good at keeping surprises to myself, that my daughter Emma and I are traveling to Europe in three weeks. One of those countries happens to be Scotland, and so this is where Wanda's bucket list starts as a "God thing."


Since the spring I have had this trip planned with my daughter. Our tickets are booked and extra camera supplies are ordered. As a photographer, I am practically salivating over the thousands of pictures I am going to take! 


We are going to visit some friends in the Netherlands and are only able to do this because of the wonderful values we are getting. We traded our airline miles for free plane tickets, thank you American Express! In addition, we are visiting some wonderful friends who have extended to us their hospitality and connections to stay and play at almost no cost to us. And so this is where my mom enters the story.


When we received the news of her terminal diagnosis, the thought crossed my mind about what she wanted to do with the remainder of her days, not knowing how many there would be. And when she replied, "visit Scotland," a light went on! You see, she did not know that Scotland was one of our destinations because we were still working out the details ourselves. I remember my mom mentioning Scotland to me many years ago as the one place she always wanted to visit. I think it might have been six or seven years ago, neither of us knowing that our paths would cross on this subject again. 


So after a discussion with my husband, we called the airline to see if we could trade what was left of our miles and pay the difference, and wouldn't you know it? There was availability on our flight using airline miles, but just one seat left!!! Isn't God so amazing?!!! Long story shortened, the one ticket disappeared the next day before we could book, the price kicked up and our story almost ended there. But in faith, we prayed about it and the Lord provided. After an hour on the phone with a wonderful Delta ticket agent, we were able to change our flights completely (they waived the fees for that) and get a ticket for my mom after all! God gives His children such good gifts. 


But still there was one more major consideration. Thankfully, my beautiful friend in the Netherlands, Cathleen, was ecstatic to meet my mom and extended her heart and her home to all three of us! So here we go, can you believe it? My mom has never been anywhere out of this country, and here she is going halfway across the world to live her dream of seeing the Scottish moors and seeing big, hairy men in kilts! (ok, so I added "big" and "hairy" for my husband's peace of mind)


Where God has opened doors, we have danced through singing His praises! Her passport is all set and we are going to be on our way. Please join us in your hearts as we leave on October 27th and will return November 16th. 


I ask with a fervent heart, please pray for my mom's health and for our safety. I want to thank two very special and yet anonymous people for contributing to my mom's plane ticket and my fabulous husband for helping us work this out and sacrificing his airline miles to get her to Europe. I have much more to share with you and look forward to my next post!