ColoradoBennett

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. The kids and I had quite an adventurous one! On Nov. 5th, the day Meagan and Cory signed on their new house, Adam came home to find me raking leaves and crying my eyes out. Geof. got word and like the sweet, thoughtful brother-in-law that he is, he was able to get "guest passes" for the kids and I to fly up to WA. I wanted to be there while the Stinchfields were there, but I knew flying anytime near Christmas as a "non-revenue" ticket holder was going to be a problem. I decided I wanted to be up there so badly that I would walk if I had to. The trip out there was so easy, it was almost scary. We were late to the airport, there was a little trouble with the check-in, a lengthly search through security, then a trip to the bathroom, and we walked right onto the plane. Only one dirty look the whole way there (I tend to measure things by how many dirty looks I get. For example, when going to Costco with 9 children and 4 moms/grandma there is always a few dirty looks. Meagan says she never notices dirty looks and truly believes that all people, even the grumpy ones in Costco Food Courts, love her children as much as she does). The way home is going to be difficult to describe. Imagine a mother, three children, two strollers, three carry-ons, being told by overworked, stressed-out United associate #1 that the fifth and last flight of the day was over-booked and she wasn't on "the list". After spending 10 hours in the airport that day it was all I could do to hold back the sobs, but a few tears trickled out. The kids really did well. Tristan took two naps, Kaia took one (this was accomplished by walking up and down the concourse with the strollers until said child fell asleep). The cookies Le Anne made for us were a huge help. We spent most of our time eating or playing imagination games. I felt horrible that Le Anne had to drive all the way back to pick us up. Sierra's biggest complaint about the day in the airport was that, "We missed out on a lot of playing!" Then the next morning she drove us there again at 3:30 a.m. This time I had overworked, stressed-out United associate #2 chew me out because I didn't have the paper ticket I needed and according to her I had no flight privileges whatsoever. I was ready to give up, but Le Anne told me I had to keep trying find a more helpful person to talk to. The fourth employee I talked with was very kind, but the fact of the matter was that I needed more approval from Geof.'s company before I could fly. Too much time had elapsed and there was no chance of catching the 6 a.m. flight anyway. At this point overworked, stress-out United associate #2 came over and chewed out the nice employee for wasting time helping me. Le Anne was still near the airport and came to get me again. Finding a flight home before Christmas was looking terribly grim. I have a friend who is both generous and wealthy. Her philosophy is "the more you give, the more you get." She offered to buy tickets for the kids and I to get home. She said I would be doing her a service by accepting her offer because she knew the Lord would bless her far beyond the cost of the tickets. I prayed about it and talked to Adam (was he going to say "no" to his wife who wanted to be with him for Christmas, even if it meant dropping all pride and accepting help? nope). We accepted her offer. The flight home on Christmas Eve Eve as a paying customer was delightful. Adam didn't have any trouble picking up our luggage which had been waiting in Denver for us for 4 days, loading it in the car,then coming back in for us.
But in between all that airport time, was a wonderful trip with family. It was heart wrenching to learn that our friends, the Eppersons (Rob and Patti), are struggling with cancer. I'm glad I could be there for Patti's Sunday School lesson. As far as I know, Rob, will be going in for chemo. They have 5 children, the youngest are twins about Tristan's age. Patti's lesson was about trust. She talked about all the other times in her life when the Lord had blessed her abundantly for being obedient. "Then why now, why during this trial would I have any doubt that He will continue to bless me?" There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Then Le Anne sang a beautiful song. The Spirit was so strong, I am so grateful that I was there. It was so fun to watch Meagan and Cory play soccer, play with the Stinchfields (Sawyer is such a handsome, little momma's boy), go for walks/picnics in the rain in 34 degree weather, make a whole batch of useless peanut butter centers (I really messed up, and Meagan had to put all my work back in the bowl and fix my mistake), have Jane give me the invaluable gift of willingness to watch my kids while I nap, go hot tubbing with 9 splashy spazzy kids, eat a fancy dinner on the fine china with Brind in attendance, go to the Temple, have two of my kids puke in two cars that aren't mine, watch salmon swim upstream and try to jump waterfalls, and enjoy the indescribable hospitality of my amazing mother-in-law (she got very little sleep the whole time we were there, she stayed up making us cookies, doing our laundry, ect. I'll never be able to adequately describe how much I appreciate her!).
We brought some nasty colds home with us and passed in on to poor Adam. He's resting on the couch, watching "Beyond the Limit" about climbers on Everest, saying that is where he wants to die. That is the scariest thing imaginable to me (remember "Vertical Limit"? I often have nightmares about falling into a cravace).