Grateful

We have had two close calls with tragedy in the past week, and we feel so grateful that things have turned out so well.

Last Friday we went swimming at the beach on the St. Croix River with some friends. The kids were all out swimming and i was sitting on a dock talking to my friend. We were watching the kids from our spot and everything looked fine when I caught Grant's eye and saw that he had a look of sheer terror on his face. I squinted and realized that the water was up to his eyes and he was frantically trying to bounce on his tip-toes to get back in to shore, but the current was too strong.

I took off running as fast as I could and grabbed him out of the water. He came up choking and scared to death, but he was okay. It all happened so fast and I was so grateful that he was okay. 

So, fast-forward just a week to the Kid Fishing Contest at Willow River State Park. The kids were so excited to try and catch some fish and everyone was having a good time. We had a good set-up on one of the docks and Shayla and Garrett were fishing. The dock was handicap-accessible so there was a small (less than 12") opening in the middle of the dock with about a 3 or 4 foot drop down to the water. Well, Miya was bopping around the dock having fun when we heard a huge splash. It was as if time stood still while we peered over the dock to see what fell in. There was Miya who had fallen in and was slowly rising to the surface. I could see her eyes wide open, with a look of terror and her little hands moving in a small dog paddle movement, under the water. I tried to squeeze my pregnant body between the small opening in the dock (which was really funny after the fact), and Tyler in one swift movement jumped up and over the railing on the dock, being careful not to land on Miya on his way down. He grabbed her and lifted her up to the opening in the dock and a lady who was fishing next to us reached down and grabbed her and handed her to me. She was crying and really scared, but hadn't even swallowed any water since Tyler had acted so quickly. It was such a scary moment and I think we all were in shock for a while. Miya was crying and kept saying, "I no die, I no jump in the water." I don't think I took a real breath for about 1/2 hour after the whole experience. It was just so scary.

I feel like I have post-traumatic-stress syndrome as I keep replaying the scenes in my mind, and thinking through what could have happened. I've been counting my blessings much more than normal and feeling my heart swell with gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us and helps us every day. Each moment of each day is such a gift with those we love, and I know not to take it for granted, but to cherish it. And if the unthinkable really happened and we were to lose of our precious kids to a tragic accident, I've been filled with gratitude for my eternal marriage and family and knowing that someday we would be together forever. I am truly grateful.

 Shayla practicing her balance beam at the fishing day

 Ty had to get in to free a hook from the tree...

 This is the space in the dock that Miya fell through

 This was Miya afterwards--her hair was full of moss, dirt and twigs.

 It's hard to tell, but this is Tyler after his rescue dive--he is soaking wet.

He lost his nice sunglasses in the water when he jumped, but was able to find them later by diving again, this time with his goggles on.

This was swimming down at the beach after all of the trauma.

Miya was a bit reluctant to get in the water at first, but Shayla was able to coax her out and they had a good time splashing around a bit.

We start swimming lessons tomorrow--better late than never, right?

Tender Mercies

Hanging out in the kitchen of the church during a recent home showing.

We put our house on the market in October and aside from a few showing and open houses at the first, haven't had any activity. So when we got a call that we would be showing our home last Sunday we had a bit of getting ready to do. Luckily they gave us 24 hour notice so we got the house mostly ready Saturday. We got home from church Sunday at 1pm, and had until 3:00 to be out of the house. No problem. Well...there was a message for us that someone else had wanted to see the house at noon. I called the realtor back and she said she'd check with the people if they could still come over. She called back--"Yes, they'll be there at 1:30," she said. HEART ATTACK!

Getting ready for church in the morning is a monumental task, as you all know, and we had left a bit of a tornado in our wake. Cereal boxes were still out, towels from the kids baths, etc. And I had planned to sweep and vacuum just right before we left (because i would have to redo it anyway if I did it Saturday, right? and it is so nice to have fresh vacuum lines in the carpet for a showing :) so we had a TON to do before the house would be show ready, and we only had 1/2 an hour. 

Let me just say that there were not fresh lines in the carpet that day, but I was so impressed by how each of my kids dug in and helped so furiously to get our house as ready as possible and all of us out the door.  (when really all they wanted to do was eat).

Ty spot-vacuumed the house, Shayla finished cleaning the bedrooms, Garrett helped pick up the bathroom and took out the trash, Grant packed us a snacky-lunch to take with us (it was so cute to see him counting out just enough cheese sticks/clementines for all of us), and Miya ran around watching us all (and didn't get things back out when we had put them away.)

I was so grateful for their help and knew that it was no small miracle that we got everything cleaned up and looking great in half an hour. 

If only I could get them to work that efficiently on a Saturday morning...

We had fun playing games at the church and then enjoyed Sunday dinner at a friend's house. What could have been a disasterous day turned out great thanks to hard-working kids and a kind friend.

Tender mercies indeed.