Motels I Have Known

In my life time, I have stayed at a variety of motels. Some were very nice and the one I am staying in right now in very nice. We, my son Steve and I, are staying in the Hampton Inn in Virginia. We came here, he from Mississippi and I from Kentucky, thinking his daughter's baby would be having open heart surgery today. So we both flew in from different directions and met at the Norfolk airport and checked in here to stay.

But Alyssa's surgery has been delayed now until Monday. I probably won't be able to stay for various reasons. But Steve is making arrangements to stay as I write this. He knows he more than anyone needs to be with Sarah.

It has been a difficult year to say the least. I broke my arm in May and still in therapy to try to get the range of motion back. We have had several horses with various illnesses. We had one horse that we had a difficult time to get pregnant. I made the statement that if it had been a cow she would be on the way to the stock yards. But this is a valuable horse. So it was several treatments and vet bills and success, she is pregnant by my stallion, Code of Honor.

Monday I had a frantic call from my dear friend Sheri. Her daughter had gone in labor and went to the hospital to deliver her full term baby. The baby boy had no heart beat. So Jesse went to surgery knowing the C-Section she was about to have would deliver her son but he would never draw a breath of air. Sheri was asking for our prayers. Of course, she had that instantly. We already pray for her and her family every night by name. We had prayed for Jesse and Dave and their family as well. So Sheri and her family are going through the heart break and grief that only a family could know that has suffered such a loss. It is heart rending to go to the funeral of a new born baby. I have been to two and they were both my great grandsons. So my family knows from personal experience.

We were still praying for her family and trying to deal with her loss which was a loss for the community as well when I boarded a plane to come to Virginia to be with my son and granddaughter as her baby went into surgery. That was suppose to be today but now the surgery will be on Monday.

I was in the airport in Charlotte N C waiting for my connecting flight when I called my brother to give him the news that Alyssa's surgery was delayed until Monday. He was breathless, hardly able to speak. There had just been an accident on the farm and one of my boarders had an accident with a horse and was laying unconscious on the ground. My blood ran cold. She was stat flighted to University of Louisville Hospital. Her condition is stable but she still is not awake.

It was a sleepless night for several of us. Her family most of all I am sure. So we have several on our prayer list right now. Sheri and her family, my great granddaughter Alyssa and Debbie (not my daughter) who was the rider that had the accident.

But I was talking about motels I have known. I have stayed in some very nice motels and I have stayed in some really crummy motels. The one that comes instantly to mind is one here in Virginia. It was in Virginia Beach and Bill and I were here to see our son. We stopped at a Motel 6 on the beach and it was very nice but being on the beach it was very pricey so we went next door and checked into the motel. They had sign all over that said they were remodeling so without looking at the room we checked in. The lobby looked ok and it was pretty late so we were tired. And the price was reasonable.

We got to our room and it was truly awful. I repeat, it was awful. There were no safety locks on the doors. We put a chair under the door knob to make sure we had no intruders during the night and Bill slept with the gun under the mattress with his hand near it all night. The plumbing was exposed and ran on the outside of the walls instead of inside the walls. The paint was cracked and peeling. The carpet was dirty. I checked the bed really well before we got in and it seemed to be clean enough. But I still had my doubts.

But God gave us a beautiful sunrise the next morning. The sun flooded our room and when we got out of bed we walked to the door leading to the beach and the sun was just coming up over the ocean. I will never forget that sunrise. After taking in that breath taking sunrise, we checked out and never went back.

We also checked into a motel rather late at night in San Diego California that we thought was close to our son's Naval Base. It turned out we were close to the wrong base and we only stayed one night but during the night, I heard screaming and running and all kinds of unnerving noise. Bill and I decided to move on to another motel the next day. We found a nice Mom and Pop motel that was actually close to the Naval Base in San Diego where Steve was about to graduate from Boot Camp. It was very clean and nice and the owners were so friendly and we enjoyed our stay.

A near miss on my list of terrible motels was in Georgia close to Ft Stewart. It was when our son Mike was returning from Saudi Arabia after a very successful Desert Storm. Bill never wanted to make a reservation. It was his plan to always find a place to stay when we got to our destination. But that time it was a very bad plan. Everything was full. We even stopped at a place that would make the Bates Motel look nice. Debbie, my daughter and I went in to see if they had a vacancy despite our misgivings and we were both very thankful they were also full.

Debbie was 7 months pregnant with her youngest son. We ended up sleeping in the car and found a nice motel with a vacancy the next day.

Another near miss on a bad motel was when we drove to California to close Bill's Aunt's house after her death. We had our dog Holly with us. Bill was figuring that Holiday Inn would not let us stay with a dog so we stopped at this motel he figured would let us stay. I went in. It looked dirty even in the lobby. When I mentioned a dog, the lady at the desk sniffed and said, "no dogs". We ended up checking into a Holiday Inn that welcomed us and our dog. And it was nice.

Holly was always good to travel with. She caused us no trouble at night. She didn't bark during the night and she never made a mess. She just loved being with us. And we had a good night at a nice motel.

I know all of you have probably had some experience with motels that were not as nice as you expected.

This blog seems to be all over the place and nice motels versus bad motels doesn't have anything to do with our troubles this year with broken arms, lost babies, babies with heart surgery and injured riders. I don't know that they really do but this I know for sure. God is with us in all our affairs. I know he protected us in the crummy motels. He is with Debbie while she is unconscious in the hospital room. He is holding Sheri and her family close to his heart as they grieve for their lost baby. He is of course lost to us but he is with Jesus as we grieve his loss.

King David suffered a loss of his son that he had with Bathsheba. The baby was sick and King David was beside himself. He sat in sackcloth and ashes. He prayed for the return to health of the baby. Finally the baby died and his servant were afraid to tell him thinking the grief would be more than he could stand.

But to their surprise, David got up, washed himself and seemed to return to his former state before he was overcome with grief over the illness of his son. He told all of us that his son would not come back to him but someday he would go to his son.

God doesn't see our exterior. He doesn't care that we have beautiful faces or great looking bodies. He doesn't see the clothes we wear or the cars we drive. He doesn't care about the price of our house. He looks at our hearts. He asks that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He tells us that when Jesus died on the cross it was for our sins. The price has been paid once and for all. It is better than going to a fine motel or restaurant and have someone say to us. No charge, the bill has been paid. The bill for our sins is paid in full. Thank you Jesus for dying for me and for you. Thank you for caring about broken arms, lost babies, people who are injured but most of all than you for dying for us.

May the God of love and mercy be with you all. May he keep you in his loving care and may you feel the warmth of his love in your deepest troubles. And walk close to him every day

Regards,

Mary