By Heather Backman
“You attract that which you focus on.”
My mom and my sisters had planned a big trip for months and even a few years to go to Hawaii to celebrate my sister’s 50th birthday. It happened to be while covid was still sort of new but yet at its peak. We learned in order to get into Hawaii, we needed a negative covid test to avoid a 12-14 day quarantine. We also learned that the test had to be taken within a certain window of time for it to be accepted by the state of Hawaii. We figured we could just go get tested anywhere a few days before and be just fine. Well, when it came to just a few days before our flight, we learned that – no, we couldn’t just get it done anywhere – it had to be done at a Hawaii approved location! Oh boy!
With only a few days before our flight, the only location in our state that we could get an approved test was at a Walgreens. The problem was…there were NO appointments at ANY of the locations! I called every Walgreens I could to see if we could just drive up and get tested without an appointment. Each said very clearly, no, and that we needed to book an appointment.
I started to get really really nervous. Since my mom, my sister and her daughter don’t really know much about travel, it was all on my shoulders to get this figured out! I didn’t know what to do! Walgreens was our only option. So, I decided to focus intensely on all of us being in Hawaii, walking along the beach chatting, and having a great time. At first I pictured just myself there, but then quickly realized that if I didn’t picture ALL of us there, someone may in fact be left behind because of covid test problems.
After visualizing ALL of us there and feeling the joy of being in Hawaii as sisters, I became more determined. I was not going to let this stop our long planned trip! So, I kept calling different Walgreens to get their advice. Finally one said that if I get on at 5pm the next day, that is when new appointments for the next 3 days are released to the public! Finally, a way was going to be made!!
I jumped on at 4:58pm and hurried as fast as I could to snatch some appointments. The only ones open were in cities that were either 1.5 hrs away or 40 mins away. But, I didn’t care, we were going to drive as far as we needed to to get to Hawaii! Long story short, more and more glitches happened. And the closer it came to our flight departure, the more impossible it looked for us to make it. We considered calling the airlines and either cancelling or changing our flights. But with determination I said, “No! We are going to get there and a miracle is going to take place! Let’s hold on! At least we have 24hrs to cancel if we absolutely have to!!” With that determination I continued to focus on us being there, loving it, and having a blast as sisters!
Well, we finally got appointments, got our tests, now our only hurdle was to get the results back in less than 24hrs (at that time, there were no rapid tests). The test results were supposed to take 1-3 days. The problem was, our flight was supposed to leave in the morning. And at this point we didn’t have 24hrs to cancel free of charge, so our results either had to come before our flight left in the morning, or we had to lose all that money. We even ended up cancelling our hotel knowing that if the results really weren’t going to come through, at least we wouldn’t lose that as well. So I mustered all the prayer, faith, and visualization of us being there that I could!
And guess what?? ALL the results happened to come through that night – 12 hours before we flew out in the morning. AND they were ALL negative!! Can I tell you the relief and celebration we all had! We ALL indeed got to enjoy ourselves walking along the beach, chatting, and having a great time! I know it was because of the relentless faith and focus I put into causing that to happen! I am so grateful to have learned to “see it solved!” I attracted the very thing I focused on!
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