Faith, Hope and Luggage

Nathan and I were married in the summer of 2005. Despite all of our best efforts not to have it be a stressful day, some things you just can't help. The plan was to get married in the San Antonio temple, take pictures, drive to McAllen for our ring ceremony and reception, and the following day head out for the honeymoon.

Everything went along fabulously. Up until, that is, we got back to McAllen. While I made it down (which I guess is more important) my suitcase did not. Since we were leaving for our honeymoon the very next day, all of my things were packed and ready to go. Every car that made the drive from San Antonio was checked, every household scoured and the hotel we had stayed in was called. It was nowhere to be found.

There was essentially nothing I could do about it other than pray that somehow my luggage would be found. I had more important things to put my mind on so we went ahead with the rest of our wedding celebration as planned.

About an hour or so into our reception, a good friend of ours said he had a cousin that lived in San Antonio and that perhaps he could drive to the hotel and personally inquire about a missing bag. In short, his cousin went to the hotel and found my bag in the lobby which was sitting between a chair and a potted plant (right where I had left it, naturally). After finding said bag, his cousin drove the 3 1/2 hours down to McAllen to deliver it to me. My gratitude for our friend and his cousin, a person I'd never even met, knew no bounds.

A few years later, it was one of my best friends' turn to get married. This time the location was Utah. Nathan and I and my friend's family traveled up there for the celebration. The evening of the groom's dinner, we were told that her mother had lost a bag. She remembered carrying it on the plane. Her son said he never saw her carry it on. So essentially the bag was either in Texas or perhaps still in an overhead bin.

Of course all of the avenues were investigated- a call to the airline, a call to the airport etc. What was so devastating about this particular bag was that one of the bridesmaid's dresses and her own mother of the bride dress was in this bag (I believe she had sewed both dresses herself).

As the dinner wore on, despite her best efforts to conceal it, I could tell that she was truly saddened by her lost bag. I spoke with Nathan and we decided that since we weren't directly related, it would be best for us to drive to the airport (approx. 45 mins away) and do some investigating on our own. I'm not sure about Nathan, but I know I was saying a silent prayer that we'd find it!

There wasn't much activity going on when we arrived. We did locate the missing baggage office of the particular airline. We explained the situation to them, gave our phone numbers and so on. Just as we were wrapping it up, Nathan looked down on the ground next to the wall. There were a few small bags there. The tag of one caught his eye, which was a good thing because the name on the tag was the name of my friend's mother! The pile of bags Nathan was looking at were bags that weren't claimed from the baggage claim.

As it happened, she had actually checked the bag. Since she didn't remember doing that she would have had no reason to wait by the luggage carousel for it. A confirmation of the contents of the bag was conducted and we were on our way back to the group- with great news.

If it weren't for my stressful lost bag experience at my wedding, I really don't think I would have insisted that we drive to the airport ourselves. What I'm trying to say is... sometimes sucky things happen for a reason. You don't always get to find out what the reason is, but it is important to direct your faith (and prayers) to the right person and trust in Him.