I just had a crazy weekend. Blake left early on Wednesday to drive his parent's moving van (with about 1/3 of their stuff) to Utah. I was a single parent for a few days, which was really hard even though Amanda came and was a huge help in the afternoons.
The kids and I left on Friday night to fly to Utah. Dad dropped us off at the OAK airport. We waved goodbye only to hear my flight had been cancelled. I ended up having to call him to turn around and pick me up and then drove over to SFO (aaaaaaah!) to catch a flight that was only 10 minutes later than my original flight in OAK. I had to go through the security check line with my stroller in one conveyor belt and ALL my other stuff in the other. And then Claire was too afraid to go through the metal detector gateway by herself. Finally a nice lady offered to hold her hand on the other side while she waited for me and that worked. I got to the gate, slapped my tickets on the counter, they gave me my seat assignment without even talking to me and rushed me onto the plane.... CRAZY!!!
Maybe it was because we were on a flight to Salt Lake, but the other passengers were so helpful and understanding, offering to help with the stroller or bags or with the kids or just offering words of encouragement or congratulations for handling everything so well. The kindness of so many strangers was reassuring about humanity in the world.
So we arrived (phew) and Blake picked us up to drive to Logan. Logan is an 1.5 hours from SLC in good weather. We had a BLIZZARD as we were trying to go through the mountain canyon wishing we had a snow plow instead of a car and almost ended up on the wrong side of the road. We got to the hotel finally. Blake had to go back to the car 3 times to get things we'd left in there. The kids didn't fall asleep until 11:30PM (Anson was fussy and Claire was too excited). We were up at 6:30 to get ready for dropping the kids off to a babysitter and going to the sealing in the Logan Temple at 9. That went well and was the whole reason I came out. It was great to be in the temple with so many of our family members - Blake's siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins. Tiffany and James are now eternally bound with their adopted children. I'm so happy for them to not only have 3 beautiful children but that they are joined forever. The rest of the day was fun spending it with our family there: lots of food, a nap! and swimming.
That night Anson again didn't go to sleep until 11:30 again. Then Claire woke up at 3:00 vomiting every 30 minutes until 5 AM and then every 15 minutes until 8 AM. That's never fun, but less fun when you're in a hotel on your last day of clothes for the trip and without your normal sick solutions.
Somewhere in the middle of it all she was getting pretty delirious. The only things she said all night besides moans and groans and hurling sounds were "my tummy doesn't have room for chips anymore" (the last thing she ate), "my belly button hurts", and "When Santa comes tomorrow he's going to bring me a pink T-shirt with Batman on it" (I laughed out loud for a while at that one!).
About 5 or 6 AM I decided we needed to do laundry after hand-washing yet another set of icky clothes. I gathered up the kids laundry and went downstairs to find the "Market" was sold out of laundry detergent due to the basketball tournament teams making a run on the laundry room before they checked out the day before. Poor Blake had to run to Walmart in the middle of the dark, snowy night.
Before I left home I had a prompting twice to put Pedialyte (an electrolyte drink for kids) in my bag. I almost ignored it but I'm SO glad I didn't. Once she started sipping the drink every so often she started feeling better. She got a blessing from Blake and Adrian at 8AM and finally slept a whole 1.5 hours without vomiting until 9:30 AM. What a relief. Then she got up and started talking and acting normal except she asked for lots of food for breakfast but didn't actually eat anything. Still, the kids and I didn't go to Church for the baby blessings to make sure she wasn't sick and sharing germs.
I'm so thankful for motherly promptings from the Spirit and for the healing power of Priesthood Blessings. Without those two we probably would have had to rush a dehydrated child to the emergency room and I'm not sure I would have been on the plane to come home last night. I told Claire that Jesus has the power to heal people like we read about in the scriptures making the blind to see and deaf to hear and the sick to get better, and that Daddy has that priesthood power from Jesus, and that she can ask for Daddy to give her a blessing to get better too if we believe. Somehow that's something I've always known intellectually but saying it to an almost 4 year old sick and weak in her bed made the connection in my heart that it is the same power of Jesus Christ that we can call on, too. Somehow the priesthood power today and Jesus' miracles in the Bible were separate in my mind but now I realize that they are same. That realization leaves me with a sense of awe and appreciation.
So now I'm home. I'm still watching Claire's tummy and I'm nothing short than exhausted. I'm taking a sick day to recover and make sure I don't get sick with the same thing. Today that's my priority. Tomorrow, back the grindstone.
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