Samsung Note 7

The Lord can use any situation and turn it around for your good.

I was sick over last weekend and had my night of snot and chills in the early hours of Sunday morning. I was not fully recovered by Monday, but pushed through regardless. I dropped my son off (the one who sneezed on my face to begin with) and started my drive to work. It soon became rainy and hard to see other cars on the road. A driver of a jeep was in the middle lane rolling with no lights on. I really dislike that as well as people changing lanes without signalling.

I'm driving and get to the ez pass lane to find it won't open. I'm made by the toll collector people to turn around and get cash from the closest atm a mile or 3 back which of course is cutting into my already slowed commute time combined with the heavy rain. God had his reasons. Now I read the news that morning about the terror attacks in N.Y. and NJ and I wondered if there was something else going on (ez pass malfunction....but it turned out my credit card just expired and I had to replace it in the ez pass website for Auto deductions).

I parked and walked to work with that blue umbrella with a slight hole in the top so water still drips on you. I was not able to do the amount of work I wanted that morning before heading out to my meetings. I have been behind all week actually.

I left for my meetings, parked my car in a garage and noticed that my tires were not straight. I was on the passenger side of the vehicle because I put my heavy bag on that side.  I reached through and straightened the tires, turned the car off and went to my meetings. At the meetings, I couldn't find my phone. I imagined I left it in the magnetic holder by the air vent and hoped no one would break into the car for it. I finished my meetings in perfect time regardless of not having my Samsung s5.

I returned to the car and with a now lighter bag, only entered from the driver's side. I turned the car on and didn't see the phone, but my sync system connected via Bluetooth so I heard the familiar songs I had on the phone and knew it was around somewhere.

I drove about maybe 3 miles and got into an especially busy 4-5 lane area of road way that does not allow for anyone to stop except for a major accident if you want one. I merged in front of this white tall van and picked up speed all the while, still looking for that phone.

I approached an overpass asking out loud where my phone was and when I was under it, I looked in my rear view mirror in time to see a rectangular shaped rock bounce off my car. I thought a rock fell from the overpass, but then quickly I realized, the music stopped playing. Sync then announced "phone disconnected".

I kept trying to connect my phone hoping I was wrong, but I knew I wasn't. My phone, pictures, Contacts, shopping list memos, Pokemon go, the electronic extension of my self...my GPS too, was gone.

Definitely not retrievable after hundreds of drivers are rolling over it with rain residue.

I had no access to my email, to make a call, to the internet to finish my work in the car. I decided to drive to the AT&T store in my town 40 minutes away to see if I could either get a replacement s5, or look into a Samsung galaxy note 7 if they were still on shelves. I heard about the recall and exploding phones. They said owners with the faulty battery  (1% of the population in the US) needed to return their phones stat. I arrived at AT&T and there were no note 7's in the floor. I decided since I paid off my s5 a few months ago  I should get the 7 edge today and not wait. I previously  wanted the note 7 in about 6 months. I was about to get the 7 edge when the sales guy found a s7 note that was cleared for sale in the back.

The note7 was what I originally wanted to get in 2017. I have Insurance on my devices and could have waited until 2 days later to get my replacement phone, but I was in the road all week and needed a phone immediately. I did not want to use my son's tablet for GPS and be unable to make calls. He has my s3 at the grandparents house and there was no time to run there and back to temporarily activate it.  I needed a phone that could do the job and handle my life so I walked out the store with the s7note still in shock from the events earlier in the day.

I updated and paid my ez pass account (Didn't take real effect out in the wild until yet another day which I would come to realize). I did lose all of my pictures so I shared some from my MacBook and got some sent from my mom. I have a lot of phone numbers I have to try to re-add.

The point of all this. I started out with a bad day, but God helped me through it and for me to get exactly what I needed and wanted at the end of the day. The phones were announced to be sold on August 19th, the defect was discovered for that bad batch and a recall was issued. The good phones were available for resale but the first date that came out for it was September 19th. I bought my phone on that day. Then there was another announcement for the 21st and more information about the always green battery icon and update. I checked and tested my phone despite the AT&T guarantee and I have the green icon and Samsung scan of approval.  God is good.

I also worked so hard during the week that I ended up only having to work two hours yesterday. I was trying to leave a meeting when I got into a discussion about how to celebrate Christmas and shared my faith with someone who is Baptist and grew up around many Adventists in her native land of Haiti
It was great to have an opportunity to talk about it, even if to a tiny degree.

I had plenty of time to get my car inspected by the state and it passed. I thank the Lord for that accident. Because if it had not been, I would have failed because of lots of work I needed to get done prior to the lady slamming into the back of my car. The partial settlement money was enough to fix the damage plus everything else and left me some cash over for other things. By receiving and transferring an additional 2k that I thought would be for the car, I used that money to pay off an overwhelming debt I bulked up over two months.

I have these things happen, either of my own stupidity and lack of attention, some one else's mistakes and the Lord still manages to turn it around for my good.

I thank the Lord and this is my testimony for this week.