You know when things seem to go wrong, they go REALLY wrong?
This morning I had two choices:
A- Go to a sweet baby blessing for a friend's baby then go to ward conference or
B- Go directly to Ward Conference for my stake calling
The good part of A is that my sweet friend has none of her family close by--when I show up to special occasions, it really means a lot to her. I had already told the Stake Young Women's president I would be at the blessing before going to that ward's conference.
With B required me to be at church by 8am. If any of you know me, I'm REALLY bad at being on time! And the earlier I have to be somewhere, the worse off I am!
All I could think was "I really want to surprise Susan and be there to support her" --I went with A. I decided to mix up some pancake batter before I left. Normally, I put chocolate chips in the pancakes to insure my kids eat up. I was out of chocolate chips, so I thought "Hey, I should see if Susan can bring me some to her son's blessing and I can finish up when I go home to get the fam for church." Then I thought she wouldn't have time to answer cause she'd be getting her 4 kids ready...etc. I was running late (surprise) and doing my best to roll out the door. I jumped in my swagger wagon and off I went. Got about 15 minutes up the road and onto the interstate to look down and realize I had a very limited amount of gas. But again, I really wanted to support my friend. As I got closer, I knew I was in trouble. I had NO gas, and my wallet was at home and I happened to be about 30 minutes from home. I had decided I'd ask a friend to borrow a few dollars and maybe I should text her to make sure she's at church. The texts went something like this:
Me: Hey! Are you at church today?
Melanie: No...are you at my ward???
Melanie: I worked last night and again tonight...So I'm actually bout to get some shut eye :/
Me: I'm trying to get there for the baby blessing.
Me: I hope I didn't wake you.
Melanie: Oh no!!! She postponed it!!!
Me: WHAT?!?!
Melanie: She put it on facebook yesterday
There I sat, frantically looking through my van for any amount of money. Luckily, I found 5 ones in different locations. (I'd like to give a big thanks and shout-out to Bev White for teaching me to throw money in weird places in my car, just in case.) I didn't prepare well for Sunday like I should have. It broke my heart to have to buy gas, but thankful I found money to buy the gas. Got back home, picked up my family, we all went to church. Walked in, someone said to me "I hear you've had a rough morning!?" I said "yeah, and worse is that fact that I didn't listen to the spirit at all!" Humble pie? I'll take it a la mode, please!
The next thing I hear is that a friend's husband, Mike, (a Capt in the Navy) had to fly from Africa to Wisconsin because his dad is terminally ill and it's getting close. She was called early this morning to learn that her husband, Mike, died in his sleep while visiting his dad. :( He is 36, his wife is ridiculously sweet. They have 4 beautiful children, ages range from 9 yrs to 14 months. What terrible news that changes your perspective. I have sobbed many times today. When they are your own age, you begin to put yourself in their position and try to imagine what they must be going through.
I will take my slightly crappy morning, because out there, is someone who has just experienced the official worst day of her life. I will just happily learn from my experience and pray this sweet family finds comfort in knowing their family is forever, the kind of comfort that only the sweet Spirit of the Lord can deliver.
Today I held my family closer, kissed my husband more and thanked heaven that my morning was not so bad after all.
