Mom left her purse hanging

We were suppose to fly back to Addis the next day, but as it turns out the Ethiopian airlines pilot can't fly at night, What?? I know, I know, it sounded unreal to me too but it's true. It was turning dark and it just wasn't going to work, so they provided a hotel room for us and paid for our food, too. It really worked out good for us, considering we got one hotel night and meal paid for when we were short on funds to began with. So for us it was a God thing. We're sitting in the hotel restaurant eating when we ask a gentlemen from our airline group to join us at our table.

We began the general conversations of who are you and who are we, ect. Well, I began to tell him about our adoption and how God moved in our hearts and how the Father loved us because He adopted us..... and I pause a moment and decide I might should cool it because I'm not sure where he is at with all this, so I ask him his name. He says, "My name is Mohammed". Beep..... beep... beep.. beep,beepbeepbeepbeepbeep - Click! my mind is whirling, Cindy, I believe you're sitting across from a Muslim! Yep, I sure was:) He was born and raised all his life, all his parents' lives and so on in this belief. He comes from a large family in Saudi Arabia and he goes every year to celebrate Ramadan. He has an open disposition to listen to Christians, but his family does not even like to do business with Jews or Christians; he does not agree with his family's angry attitudes towards them. We had a really good talk, and Jeff even got out his Bible to share a piece of scripture with him, and I was praying that his heart would be open to God's truth. I wished I could say that he received Jesus that night, but I'm beginning to understand that it's not my job to "git'er done". I only need to follow the Holy Spirit's leading and do what God asks of me for that moment, and the rest is up to God. It's really quite simple if you have a "Child like" heart:)

After our divine dinner appointment, Jeff and I headed back up to our room with excitement in our steps - and I'm talking steps!!!!! It must have been 8 flights of steps as we were almost on the top floor. We start to get ready for bed and Jeff's counting his money for the hundredth time as we were always in a state of "Do we have enough???" He looks over at me and says, "Cindy, where's the money I gave you to keep?" "It's in my fanny pack", I casually respond, putting my PJs on. "Where is your fanny pack?", he asks. I began to look over the room and see where I laid it, when a light bulb goes on: " Oh my God (with complete honor), I remember taking it off and hanging it on my chair in the restaurant. "Jeff, QUICK!!!!!!" RUN DOWN AND GET IT NOW!!" So off he runs in his PJs down the 8 flights of stairs. And let me tell you folks I was praying, oh God, oh God, oh God please help us. I knew it was only by His mercy that we would ever see our money back in that bag.

When Jeff got there the bag was gone from the chair and he was told that someone had taken it to the front desk. Off he went to the front desk to hopefully retrieve it, upon asking for little green purse/bag the attendant handed it to him with an odd sort of smile. As Jeff returned up the stairs (panting) and counted the money, not a cent was taken - and that was a lot of money folks ,$4000.00 to be exact! God granted us mercy when my mistake could have been devastating. This was not the first time I've done this; I did this exact thing when we went to Israel five years ago - ( hung bag on chair in restaurant and they moved to front desk) why did I repeat? God did the same thing: mercy was given ... and not a cent taken.

I'll tell you one thing, I knew He was watching "my back" or should I say "my pack":)

PS- earlier, remember my upsetness with my husbands lack of calculating the correct amount of money we needed?, well lets just say, I could feel a repentance coming on. I was getting an attitude adjustment toward humility, really fast.