Miracle Number 4

As most of you know I spent last week visiting Kelly in Wisconsin while Jaron traipsed around Mexico gawking at hydraulic structures. It was a wonderful week, and I will post pictures of the trip as soon as Kelly sends some to me, because my camera was with Jaron in Mexico.

I just want to tell you about my travel experience coming home from Wisconsin. By the way this is not meant to come off as a rally against American Airlines (or is it. . .). So first things first. I said my goodbyes to the Davis���s in Wisconsin (sniff, sniff) and hopped on a bus headed toward Chicago O���Hare airport. It was a long three hours trying to entertain the wee one, who was curiously not tired at all. When we arrived at the airport the American airlines agent informed me that my flight to Dallas (where I had a layover) was late and thus I was going to miss my connecting flight from Dallas to SLC. I don���t think what he was saying had really sunk in until he spelled it out clearly for me. ���Mam, I���m sorry, but there are no later flights going out to SLC tonight so you will either have to stay in Dallas tonight, or stay in Chicago and catch a flight out in the morning���. Looking at my tired baby and the thought of being alone in some strange hotel didn���t sound like fun, and I just couldn���t help it when my eyes watered up. ���Or, he said you could try to go standby on a flight flying straight to SLC in three hours, but that flight is oversold by four seats. The choice is yours Mam, but if I were you I would try to stay in Chicago and not chance the standby flight because if you do choose the standby flight but don���t get on, your bag will be on that flight regardless���. As I was deliberating I asked him how, if I didn���t get on the standby I would make arrangements for the airlines to put me up in a hotel. He then informed me that I would have to pay for the hotel and he offered me no food vouchers for the trouble (amazing).

After a moments hesitation and a little prayer in between I had a feeling to have faith and go for the standby flight. I told him that���s what the plan was. He gave me my stand by boarding pass, took my bag, and I was off to find my gate. Then came the moment of ���Was that the spirit? Or was that just my idiotic brain that decided to get on this standby flight that is oversold by four seats���, and I couldn���t help it now, I just started to cry. Here I was in this airport with no food, with Liv, and having to wait for three hours not knowing if I was even going to get on my flight. This is when the little miracles started to happen.

Miracle number one: As I was pacing back and forth by my gate anxious to talk to another American airline agent, a girl about my age came up and asked me if she could help me with anything. I don���t know if it had just been a long day or if it was justified emotion, but I just started crying to her. After I told her of my troubles, out of no where she asked ���Are you a Mormon?��� Come to find out she was a Mormon too. What are the odds? For the next 45 minutes she supplied me with diapers, and comfort until she and her husband boarded her flight with their little baby to Boston. What a blessing she was in my time of need.

Miracle number two: After everyone had boarded the plane and I waited in anxious anticipation, an agent finally called out my name. I excitedly gathered up Liv and my carry on and ran up to the gate. He looked at me and smiled ���You made it! We have a seat for you���. As I started to thank him profusely he looked at me and said ���Do you know why you got on���? Because the Lord loves me, no I didn���t say that. ���Why?��� I said. ���Because it just so happened that the family we asked to get bumped was a family of five. So they left one extra seat on the plane behind them���.

Miracle number three: Little Olivia as tired as she was, was remarkable. She hardly slept, yet she was never more than a little fussy. When Jaron finally picked me up from the airport she lost it and was hysterical. She cried the hardest I think I have ever heard her cry. We had to pull over and sooth her, but what a blessing that she was sustained until I was back with Jaron, out of the airplane, when he could help me take care of her.

Miracle number four: Ok so this might not be a miracle but it sure added to the whole experience. Sitting by me on the plane was a family on their way to SLC to ski for their spring break. Included in the family was two little girls, one was about ten years old, her name was Elizabeth, and the others name was Rachel, she was probably six. Elizabeth was fascinated with Olivia. Almost every time I would look at her she was looking at Liv and would meet my gaze and smile at me and say ���She is so cute���. Well about half way through the plane ride she taped my shoulder and said, ���How do you spell Olivia?��� I had told her my babies name previously. Not five minutes after I had told her how to spell Olivia, little Rachel who hadn���t said a word to me the whole flight handed me this picture I posted. Wow. I was truly touched by the kindness I felt from this little stranger girl. Nothing like that has ever happened to me.

I���m so grateful to know that someone is watching out for me, and to know that our prayers really are heard by a loving God above who is mindful of us.