I believe that there are parts of our lives that are the piece of the puzzle that have the red dot on it. Do you know what pieces I am talking about? Ever done a 3D puzzle and seen those pieces that have red dots on them? Do you know what you are supposed to do with them? Throw them away… they have nothing to do with the puzzle… they mean nothing to the big picture. That is what I think our Mexico fiasco was about
Well… here goes the post… I have been working on it for awhile in my head. Some of you know about our Mexico adventure, but for those of you who don’t… here is the long winded story.
It was November of 2009, I was browsing the internet (Craigslist) for caretaking jobs. We were currently the caretakers for the complex we lived in and were considering branching out and doing it elsewhere in the Fraser Valley. I stumbled across one that was in Mexico… I clicked on it… sent it to Doug… read it over and over again. It seemed legit and it was a guy who lived in Vancouver who had a small resort in Mexico that needed a caretaker. Doug and I chatted about it and figured why not… can’t hurt to inquire. So Doug sent an email and told him a bit about us and then we left it in the hands of the World Wide Web LOL. A few days later we got a reply… they liked our resume and would like to meet us. So off we went to the Endowment lands of UBC to have in interview about a job in Mexico. We were overwhelmed right away… his place was HUGE and you could tell money was no object.
We had a good interview with him and even met some of his kids. We were there for about an hour and then off we went. It sounded like a good job, but we definitely had questions. No sense asking more questions though if we don’t get short listed, so we just wrote our questions down on a paper and left it at that. About a week later, we got a call and him and his partner wanted to meet us again. They really liked us and he wanted us to meet the other person who owned the piece of property. So off we went again and this time armed with questions. We had an amount in our heads that we wanted to make, but we didn’t tell him that.
We met the two owners and they answered our questions the way we were hoping and the amount they were wanting to pay was exactly what we wanted to make. We were there for at least an hour and at the end of it, we were told we had the job if we wanted it. They wanted us to fly down and check out the place first, but they also said that we would love it, so no worries. We agreed that we would go down and visit while they were down there for Christmas Holidays. We left and immediately phoned my parents and told them we got the job. We were excited but suddenly very scared… how was this going to work? We went home, and started to plan…
We emailed with the owners a bit and eventually they booked us flights to Cabos for a 3 night weekend. We would check out the place and then go home and pack and then in the middle of January, we would plan to move permanently to Todos Santos, Mexico. Everything fell into place so nicely… we knew it was God. We felt at peace about it and even though we were scared about starting something so new, we were also excited. We bought about 15 Rubbermaid containers and started to pack the things we were going to put in storage. We organized the things we wanted to bring along already and the things we would bring along in January. We gave our notice for our home and our jobs. Everything was going well considering we were planning to move to another country with very little stuff.
Our flight left December 18th, 2009… we had 2 check-in luggage (49lbs each) and 2 carry-on’s for our first round of stuff to bring down. We had confirmed with the owners that we could store the things there until January when we came with the rest of our stuff. We had found out a few days before that the current caretaker was going to meet us at Hotel California and then we would follow him to the Hacienda. We were a little apprehensive about this, but figured lets go for it LOL. Our flight went OK, and we got into San Jose Del Cabo in the afternoon. We got going a little late, so our meet up time at Hotel California was a little later than expected, but we found him… drunk… eek…
We sat at Hotel California and had dinner and chatted with the caretaker. He had just been told that week that he was being replaced and when I asked him where he was going after this, he said he didn’t know because he was a drifter and had no place to go. Hmmm… this was going to be interesting. We followed him to the Hacienda and met Mike (one of the owners) who had been waiting for us to be there for dinner (would have been nice if we had known that). We chatted and we were shown to our rooms. It was all starting to sink in that this would be our new home in less than a month. It was scary but we wanted to try something new and see if we could do it.
The next day was spent chatting with the owners about the job and some of the things we would do. The other owner showed up with his family and that is when we started to notice how much the kids liked the current caretaker. This was going to be interesting… that night we heard the owner and the caretaker laughing until all hours of the night and that is when we started to wonder what was going on… little did we know it would turn out the way it did. So now we are on our second full day there and we had a few more questions now that we had seen the place and seen where we were going to live. When we sat down with the two owners to ask them the questions, they proceeded to tell us that they had changed their minds and were going to stick with the current caretaker. They tried to tell us that they hadn’t told us we had the job, but we proceeded to tell them that I had proof saying otherwise. I think the current taker (who was always drunk) convinced them that he would change his ways if they kept him on. We were told we could spend the night (our flight left the next day), but we packed up all our stuff in less than 20 minutes, made a reservation at a hotel in Cabos and LEFT. We were in tears… never in our minds did we think this would happen. We did our research on the property and on the owners. Everything was on the up and up, and I think up until that evening, I think we had the jobs, but the current caretaker was a friend of theirs and I think he made it hard on them to fire him… so I guess it was just easier to send us home and be out that $2000 in the flights for us.
We couldn’t believe it… we had to go back home with all the stuff we had brought, and tell everyone what happened. We were devastated. Our flight home was horrible, but thankfully we got first class so that helped us drown our sorrows. We got home on December 21, 2009 and have a very very rough Christmas. We got our jobs and our place back, but we were very very down.
I believe that God wanted us in Mexico and because they choose to change their minds, God had to adjust his plans LOL. I don’t believe God would string us along like that… not a chance. I believe that people have choices and when things like that happen, life has to be adjusted. God can help us manage through it, but he sure isn’t going to tell you to do one thing and then say HA HA HA, just kidding.
We still think about it a lot and it still hurts. Our life is good though and so we are grateful for that. We landed up moving anyway and moved to White Rock, which is right beside the ocean. We got ourselves a Mustang to drown our sorrows in. My parents are very happy that we didn’t move. We will make the best of what is thrown at us and we will enjoy life no matter where we are… that is just who we are. Our goal is to move to California if we can. But that is a long term goal… for now we have a 4 year lease on the car, so I think we will be here for at least 4 years. We love being at the ocean so even though it isn’t in Mexico, it is at least the same Pacific Ocean.
We are working at erasing that part of our lives away from our memory. It means nothing to us and has nothing to do with our future. It was a horrible, sucky, unnecessary piece of our lives that we will be very happy to forget. It is amazing how people can play havoc on others' lives, and I am a firm believer in Karma… so we will let God deal with our enemies and we will move on with our lives. God is much better at dealing with that than I am, so I will leave it in his very capable hands ;)
So here is to an exciting life in White Rock where the ocean is across the street. We will drive with the convertible top down as much as possible and we will enjoy living only an hour away from my parents. Maybe someday our lives can start new in California but we will see how that pans out, but for now we will be happy here and be grateful that God is loving and keeps us safe no matter what life throws at us. We are blessed with a great place to live, a great car, amazing parents (and best friends), decent jobs, each other AND the most amazing God and our bestest of friend… Jesus… we will always work on looking at the bright side and not wallow in the sadness of what could have been. No sense in that. It won’t change the situation.
Thank you God for helping survive the crap in this life. Glad Doug and I can survive it together.
