Home Safe and Sound

Just 10 days after baby Jax came, Tim went to Scout Camp with the Young Men in the Ward. I told him to go...IF he would just stay for part of the week so he could come back home and help me. He left early on Monday morning, did a bunch of that crazy scout stuff like repelling & then biking 20 miles, then hike up mountains with 50 pound heavy packs for 10 more miles...stuff like that.

So come Tuesday they were doing more of their 100 mile journey when something tragic happened. Close to all of the young men & leaders in the stake were lost in the forest, separated into many different small groups come midday. The trail they were on had forks in the road without good markings. They eventually were all lost...like Search & Rescue lost.

After hours of being lost Tim & the boys he was with felt like their best option was to climb straight up the side of the steep mountain with their 50 pound gigantic packs! (Are you kidding me?) Tim thought numerous times that him and these boys would be stuck in the forest with a limited amount of water, no food, one sleeping bag, and no warm clothes. He was thinking this could be bad...like the show "I shouldn't Be Alive"-bad; But they just kept going. The young men he was with continued to stop along the way and just Pray & Pray.

At about 4:00, (about 3 hours of them being lost) I got a sick feeling in my stomach and thought I would try calling Tim to see if he had any phone reception on the mountain. He would answer by saying "Hello"...I could tell something was wrong in his voice. He couldn't hear me although I could hear him. But all I heard was "Hello." He tried calling me back but there was just no reception. After a couple of tries we both gave up calling. Both saying prayers in our minds on the other end...although I still had no idea what was going on.

After a long 5 hours at about 6 pm, Tim & the two boys were the first ones located because they had actually found fire fighters fighting a forest fire at the TOP of that steep mountain they climbed. All of our Prayers had been answered. At 6:00, 2 hours after our first failed attempt, I got a phone call from Tim. He used one of the fire fighters cell phones to call me. His voice sounded so triumphant...Mine on the other hand wobbly. I hung up & I cried tears...lots of them; Happy, Sad, Relieved Tears. Here I was..with a newborn baby...still can barely walk...hormones galore & then I hear my husband had been lost in the forest...thinking this could be the end.

Come 3 am the next morning the last group was finally found! Tim said that there were plenty of moments in their 5 hours of being lost that they were terrified & had many desperate pleadings with the Lord. When they told the fire fighters where they had hiked from, the fire fighters insisted that Tim was kidding. They replied: "That's a 2 day hike. There's no way! That's impossible!" Tim insisted it was possible and did happen...and then realized that there was indeed divine intervention helping them out that day.

~HOME SAFE AND SOUND~

There is nothing sweeter than the sight of a Father

cuddled up with his sleeping baby.

Thank You Honey for not leaving me alone to raise these 4 kids by myself.

(Remember this was just 2 weeks after Russ died)....{deep sigh}