  I have slept about 20 hours since I returned home Sat. evening. I still think I need a few more! I want to tell about what God done on the first day. Day One I can always tell if the meeting we are going to is going to be good by the challenges we have beforehand. This trip was no exception.
We left on Wed. morning and ran into so much traffic and rain. A trip that should of taken us 3 1/2 hours, took 8 hours. I had directions straight to the motel. My brother was following us and we got seperated on the interstate in Chicago. He had the address of the motel but that was all. We got to the motel fine but my brother was lost.
I went on in to check in. I had made reservations through Hotels.com 2 months prior and had paid in advance for our rooms. The receptionist told me that there was no reservations there for me. I gave her my confirmation paper and she shook her head. She said they no longer accept reservations through Hotels.com. That they no longer have a contract with them.
They had cancelled that over 2 months before. She got the manager and he told me that they had rooms available but I would have to pay again for them. I tried to convince him that it wasn't my fault that hotels.com made the reservations and wasn't suppose to. He kept telling me that I would have to call them and get my money back and they would give me a hard time about it. He said he had seen this alot of times before. I told him that we couldn't pay again and that it should be him against hotels.com and not me.
He still wouldn't listen! By the way, I did hold my cool. Now that was the first "miracle" God done! My brother still hadn't showed up at the motel. I went back out to the others that I was with and told them the situation. I then called hotels.com on my cell phone and gave them the info.
They put me on hold and I was disconnected. GRRRRRRR. I called my neice to get my brothers cell phone number to see where he was at. She gave it to me but told me that he doesn't keep it on so he probably won't answer. I called and he never answered it. One of the ladies that I was with said, "Let's just pray".
We prayed for God to intervene in this motel situation and also that my brother would answer his phone. When we finished, I tried to call him again and he answered. He then told me that he never turned the phone on. That was the second thing God done! We decided that maybe if all 3 of us went into the motel and talked to the manager, we could get our rooms. So we all went in.
Still the manager wouldn't hear of it. He said it was between us and hotel.com. He had to have more money if we wanted to stay there. While we were trying to convince him that it wasn't the customers fault, the phone rang. The receptionist ask me if I was Donna Stephens. I said yes.
She said that hotels.com was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. A man on the other end was apologizing for all the mess up and told me that they were going to put us in the Marriot and they would pay all the extra costs. He took all the info and made the reservations. About that time, my brother came in the door. Thank God he wasn't there while all this was going on. He is one who would tear the roof off a place in a situation like that.
So I know now it was God that got them lost so he wouldn't be there! That was the third thing God done! The Marriot was only 2 miles from where we were. When we got there we were treated like royality! It was alot nicer motel and all expenses were paid for. This was the fourth thing God done!
That goes to show you it doesn't pay to lose your temper. That was a huge lesson for me to learn. We just waited and prayed about it and God took care of it. I also learned to not use hotels.com any more although it all ended up better than it was to begin with. They did make it right with us. That evening I met 2 ladies from the Chicago Christ Fellowship Church.
We had a great time of fellowship and getting to know each other a little more. We had only met on the blogs and it was great to meet them in person! Jules and Cheryl, I love you both bunches! Thanks for the great time and all the laughs. I am taking my hula (grass) skirt to the dry cleaners so it will be clean and pressed for homecoming! This was the first day at Chicago.
God is so good and so faithful if we only trust Him and not get in the way and try to handle situations on our own. It will work out even better than it was at first. 
