Playa....Tequila....& the color purple

So for those who don't know David and I spent our first weekend away from Faith this past weekend .So where did we go? Playar del Carman - Cancun Mexico... at an all inclusive 5-star resort. Oh and did I mention we didn't have to pay for it, not a single dime, nada. Of course, we opted to purchase a souvenir, tipped our casa concierge and paid for one cab ride at 4am from down town, but those were easily things we didn't have to do. So how did we get so lucky? Well all the credit must go to David whose company paid for the entire thing. Of course, it was a trip for all the interns and a few partners, but they allowed me to come along, too, for free. Seriously, they paid for our trip to/from the airport, to/from the resort. All our accommodations at the resort, any food we purchased on travel days, our cab out to downtown (with the other 45 of us, and all the beer/alcohol/cover charges we encountered off the resort. I mean is there any other way to travel, and who wouldn't want to work for this amazing company. Not only are the benefits fantastic, but the perks are a real treat and the people are fabulous. We had a great time, a worry free time, and we were surprisingly able to relax, though I did have to call and check on Faith once a day just confirm nothing crazy had happened, which it didn't.

So back to Mexico... Once we landed and were ushered through customs and out to the private tour bus we were offered our choice of beer, diet soda or water. I selected the water and coca-cola light while David went straight for the beer. About an hour later we arrived at our resort to find several people waiting for us. We were all kindly pointed in the direction of where to get our room information, champagne, and refreshing towels. From there, we all made our way to the beach-side restaurant via the nice person who, literally every 10 feet would poing us onward to the next person who would point us on and on .... until we arrived. Did I mention we had an amazing view.

SO the remainder of day one followed this pattern: eat- drink- relax- drink- ocean- drink- drink- drink- drink- relax- pool- drink- siesta-drink- dinner - drink -play trivia games (PLAYA was what you yelled when you knew the answer - tequila was what you drank) with the 10 other people not associated with our large group and drink some more. We ended the night around 10:30 in our rooms, exhausted and ready to start all over the next morning.

Day-2-consisted of more drinks, fabulous food (seriously, it does exist in Mexico) and more water fun (we kayaked to the oar pattern of 'playa'-meaning left & 'tequila'-referring to right-it was very successful). Day two ended with a nice meal at a Japanese restaurant with fantastic sushi and a cab ride to down at 1am.... which means Day3 started with 45 of us, on a beach-side dance floor in some random bar drinking beer after beer, taking a few shots and screaming along with several hundred locals some random Latin music songs. All I can say is woah...around 3:45am David and I had nice realization, it was late, or rather early, we were in Mexico without our daughter and had only one night left... so we caught a cab back to our room.



The last day was spent relaxing in the ocean and just soaking up as much as we could of our moment away, together. We simply had a fantastic time and when we finally made it back to our humble little rent-a-room in Plano, we found our beautiful daughter waiting for us, complete with a nice little shiner on her left eye. Apparently about thirty-minutes before we got there she decided to climb the stairs and bump her head into the side wall. See, it was an almost perfect trip. Fortunately, she is fine, the purple coloring compliments her and we had nothing but thanks for the grandparents who looked after her ever so carefully for 99.9% of our trip. (just-kidding-they felt so bad! it was totally not a big deal.

The Zoo, I just couldn't wait

Okay, So I thought I could wait, but I was just uploading the images and I remain amazed.

How is it we can complain and wine and whimper about the tough days and hard things life throws at us, then look into the eyes of a laughing one year old and just melt. Faith is constantly reminding me there is something more powerful at work in our lives, something we tend to often forget about and gloss over. We have gotten so used to working hard and getting what we 'deserve' we forget to look around at what we already have and see the beauty and value it posses.

On Tuesday my mom and I took Faith to the zoo for the very first time. Faith has been working hard a mastering her animal sounds and we thought there is simply no better way to reward her than to show her the actual animals.

Our plan was to leave at 9, when the zoo opened, get there a little before 10 then enjoy. Well we got there close to 11 and literally just missed the last spot in the 'lower' parking lot. Oh well, who doesn't need a little trek from your car to the entrance, I mean on top of all the zoo-treading we were about to embark on, it seemed harmless. So for those of you who aren't mothers yet, let me tell you a little something... you kind of become super paranoid about all the crazy 'what ifs' and you begin to play out all those possibilities in your head in case you are stuck in that situation. So as we entered the zoo I immediately thought, okay well security is non-existent so always keep an eye out for strange people who might have guns or bombs and where we can hide and protect Faith accordingly. So far so good.

Well then we start to head deeper into the park (or rather, the zoo) and I begin to look around planning where I would go should say, the tigers or elephant or chimps or gorillas decide to escape and attack on the day we are there.Check. Well, call us crazy we added a nice ride on the monorail to the mix, I mean, why not, if any of the previous occur, we are in a secure location seeing the bomber/gunner is on the monorail at the time. Yet, there is always the 'what if today is the day the faulty part of this system decides to be faulty.' My answer: hang on, say a short prayer, do the best you can and know He has a plan for all this.

Well, it was about that time, 20 minutes into our arrival, I learned a good lesson. I can be the best mother I can possibly be, considering all the ways to protect my child, keep her safe and out of harms way, but I can't keep her from the plans He has for her, and for us. Instead I have to let her laugh, touch a few dirty things, climb a little higher on the playground, slide one extra time, pick up the yucky dirt, and live life. Because it is in those moments where I to see what He is doing and the joy and love and blessings that flow from those tiny moments are some of the sweetest things on this earth.

So for the remainder of the day, I let Faith enjoy the sights and sounds and smells (man, gorilla's stink!!) and I let myself enjoy being her mom and watching her made all the imperfections of this world go away and all the natural beauty shine through. ( I did keep my spy glasses on, I mean, I'm not perfect, I am learning, too).