Over a year ago, I was planning a last minute, mad-dash of a trip to the other side of the country. We were flying out to surprise my only living grandmother on her 80th birthday. As a bonus, we were going to just show up on Scott’s parents’ doorstep, too. Â It was the epic series of surprises packed into one little trip. We came home completely exhausted, but it was totally worth it!
When I was booking the tickets, I saw that we had a stop over in Las Vegas.  Ah, Las Vegas. Flying in was incredibly interesting.  You could see the fountains and the iconic places that make it famous. And the flash and glitter of so many empty promises literally hits you in the face the second you walk off the plane. It’s not a place I’ll be putting on my bucket list of cities to explore. But it is fun to say I’ve been there…kind of.  We never left the grounds of the airport.
About the same time as I was booking us flights across the country, I saw this bright pink book that declared, “I’ve never been to Vegas, but my Luggage Has
“.  I was intrigued. Well, it turns out that Mandy Hall does have lots of stories to tell.
She talks about her first love. Her first heartbreak. All the twists and turns, and how she ended up 34 and single. Â Basically, life didn’t go according to her ideas of how it was going to happen. And yet the thing I loved was that it was exactly that on which began her life work to be to other girls the “big sister” who has been there, and gets it. Who can point forward and whisper, “It feels like it right now, but this actually isn’t the end of the world.”
I probably should note that there are a couple small things that I personally didn’t agree with about her beliefs or choices. They are a part of her story, and I don’t have a problem with that. Obviously, you don’t have to agree with every single point of theology in order to take something good away from a book. And this is what I got from Mandy’s stories.
Life doesn’t have to turn out like you planned it in order for it to be exactly how it was mean to be all along. Every thing doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be good.  God is a Master at working things out for the best.
If we could just realize that and not kick and scream through the days when life just isn’t looking like what we wanted it to look like, I think we’d all be a lot farther ahead.
Mandy has taken her single life, and let God use it, use her stories, to bless others. And I think that is something really beautiful.
I received this book in exchange for my honest opinions. All thoughts are my own.Â
