Good Morning Girls!  Tom and I arrived home safe and sound last night.  Our trip was absolutely fabulous!  I will sharing bits of it throughout the week.  I knew life would be hectic when I returned, and I didn't know how much study time I would have.  However, the Lord was kind enough to supply me with a lot of experiences that both encouraged and challenged my Christian walk.  I have plenty of lessons to share with you all!
 It is good to be home, but I confess I miss Hugo, Manuel, Javier, and Tomas.  Who are they you ask?  They are the kind gentlemen who waited on me for breakfast each morning.  Hugo prefers busy, sunny days.  Javier likes the MN Vikings (poor thing), Manuel wears braces and talks like a bashful teenager, and Tomas' mother says his name is the most beautiful name in the world.  Of course, since I am married to a Thomas, and have a 4 year old Thomas, I couldn't have agreed with him more!  
When I came down for breakfast, I would have in front of me a coffee, bottle of water, and my napkin in my lap before I was even completely sitting down.  My coffee was filled after every other sip, and they always snuck me an extra water bottle to take to my room.  They told me the best, most inexpensive places to shop.  They had the days weather report, and they always told me where to go on the beach so they would be my concierge.
Now, you may be thinking "Duh Jen, that is their job", they have to be nice to you.  I agree, the hospitality in Cancun in general was awesome.  There were however, other guests that did have to wait a moment or two for a coffee refill.  There were other guests who paid twice as much for the same t shirt I bought.  There are other guests who have no idea who waited on them while they were on vacation.
So why then did I receive the star treatment?  Was is because I tipped so well?  NO, all of the gratuities were taken care of by the company who paid for our trip.  Did I flirt with them?  No!  C'mon now, give me some credit!  So what did I do?  It's easy, I took the time to learn that Hugo likes busy, sunny days.  I told Tomas that I have a bambino by the same name, and we talked about his mom.  I asked Manuel to teach me a few Spanish words and he laughed every time I tried to say them, and I tried to tell Javier that he should pick a different football game to cheer for. 
What did the guests with cold coffee do?  Nothing.  It's not like they were rude or anything.  It's just that they paid no attention to those who were serving them all week long.  They simply expected it, accepted it, maybe appreciated it, but were not gracious about it.  They were too busy enjoying their vacation.
So, yeah, it's good to be home.  But boy was it nice to be treated like a princess.....

Proverbs 12:9 Better to be an ordinary person with a servant(4 of them in fact) than to be self-important but have no food (and cold coffee)

Love you all-
Jen