{tender mercies & the past 72 hours}

Travis' text to me this afternoon: "this trip has been journal-worthy." So here it goes! 

Part 1: Today I was the recipient of so many tender mercies and complete divine intervention! Here is what happened: 5:45 a.m. today we drive to the airport. It's freezing. A storm is coming. I dropped Travis off to catch a super early flight. Rain was freezing on the windshield. People were crashing everywhere around me. Cars sliding. Then I keep hearing a loud noise and pull over to the shoulder. My tire was shredded and had completely blown! It's pitch black with ice everywhere and I definitely should have been sliding out of control at this point {meanwhile I am having to go the bathroom really bad which didn't help anything}. Thanks to an uncle's phone call to Triple A, I got the spare put on and 3 hours later was back in Provo. Saw more crashes than ever {the news said there were 188 crashes in SLC today}, my car slid twice, and eventually everyone was at a standstill on the freeway. Travis ended up being stuck in the plane on the runway for almost 6 hours due to ice and didn't end up leaving SLC until this afternoon. Whew, what a day. Glad our baby still stayed inside despite all the stress!! I am so grateful I didn't end up in a crash from sliding and who knows; maybe the tire incident protected me from getting in one. So grateful!

"The Lord's tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence." -Elder Bednar {See full talk here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2005/04/the-tender-mercies-of-the-lord?lang=eng}

Part 2: The next day, on Friday, I had my 33 week OBGYN appointment! The baby's heart beat is strong and my weight gain is on track. Wahoo! My blood pressure was slightly higher than normal, which I completely blame on part 1 of this 3 part weekend. I'm also still measuring a week ahead {this week measuring in at 34 centimeters}. This was the first doctor's appointment Travis has missed this entire pregnancy! Impressive. He has been so excited to come with me and always works his schedule out to be there. This time, though, the 2 week appointment fell the same time he would be out of the state, so it doesn't really count as a miss! Alison also opened her mission call to Peru!! She opened it here on Skype at our house {ps she saved my sanity this entire time Travis was gone by staying with me during all this}.

Part 3: Travis had to wake up at 4am Saturday to catch a shuttle to make it to the airport for his 6:30 flight back to SLC. He's running on almost no sleep at this point. We decide he'll take the UTA bus to downtown SLC after his flight then hop on the Frontrunner to Provo. Easy, cheap, and much better for me considering I was still traumatized by part 1 of this crazy 72 hour stretch. So, he gets off the plane to find out he has to have exact cash for the bus {$2.35}: no credit cards accepted. So he goes to the ATM and naturally it won't take his debit or credit card. He tries to go to all the little stores around in the airport and all of them have a "no cash back" policy. So, because he didn't have $2.35, I went and picked up Alison and the two of us made the drive to the SLC airport to pick Travis up about an hour and a half or so after he had been off the plane {in pretty bad fog}. Moral of the past 72 hours? Rotate your tires. Have lots of extra food with you since you may get stuck on a runway without a food voucher for 6 hours. Carry cash in your wallet at all times for times when you may have to ride the bus. And it could always be worse.

I'm glad there are always valuable lessons to learn during crazy times so that we can do better next time! I guess that would be what life is all about.