Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Totally Crazy!

Saturday March 8th I left for home in Rexburg, Idaho. The catch to that is I left with a toddler and a baby all by myself. And not just any toddler, Damon. As Becky Salvidar put it kindly, Damon is a high spirited child. The crazy part...I did it without a stroller. I actually had to trust Damon to stay close to me and not run off, and I had Andee in a baby carrier...while carrying my purse, backpack and trying to hold Damon's hand. After getting through security, which went pretty smoothly, we had about an hour before our flight. We were just waiting at our terminal and suddenly Damon wanted a drink. I kept telling him I didn't bring one. Which was totally unintentional. I didn't want to pack up all my bags and head to a store, so I'm pretty sure I was looking desperate (trying to calm Damon down)because a lady asked me if she could help. I gave her a $5 and asked her if she wouldn't mind getting him some juice. Thank goodness for her! Damon and Andee were really good on the airplane. I had a DVD player for Damon and Andee slept the whole time. I was thinking I was pretty good by that point. We flew into Salt Lake and if it weren't for kind people, I wouldn't have made it through in one piece. After getting to the luggage claim and trying to keep Damon close and grab my huge suitcases off the machine I knew it wasn't going to work. I had Andee on me in the baby carrier and everytime I bent over to grab my bag she would tip upside down and scream. A nice man came over and grabbed all my bags for me. I thanked him and realized I wasn't going to be able to move anywhere without my brother (who was picking me up and not to the airport yet). I saw a lot of people who had carts and I really wanted one, but couldn't get to one without leaving all my luggage...which I knew I couldn't do. The same man who pulled my bags off came back with a cart and put all my bags on it for me. I tried to give him money for the cost of the cart and he told me when I'm older to just remember to help out someone who needs it. That's when i knew I was in Utah. As I was trying to push this cart out to the curbside to meet my brother, Judd, the bags kept falling off and Damon kept running off. I would chase him, put the bags back on and get about 5 feet when the bags would fall off again, Damon would run off again and I was getting nowhere. I did this for about 5 minutes, which seemed like an eternity, when a man from our flight came over and pushed my cart for me to find my brother's car. He started talking to me about President Monson and I knew he was LDS, also. After getting into my brother's car I looked back at that experience and realized the Lord had really blessed me with kind people who listened to their promptings to help a desperate mother. I am only hoping and praying that my flight back will go that smoothly!

5 comments:

Tyler and ShaeLee May said...

Honey,

I love you so much. Thank you for posting this story. I am reading it during school and it has given me a little lift. Come home soon.

tyler

lauren said...

Glad you made it okay. I was thinking about your trip the other day. I wouldn't try it myself. You're so brave!

Marielle said...

ShaeLee,
Aren't you grateful for Mormons? Seriously, there are a lot of members of the church out there who are so nice. Sounds like you were seriously blessed!

theamayzing4 said...

I had to fly from Denver to Idaho Falls with the kids when Eric went to Chicago. I had the same experance as you did, so I know how you feel. Except I got Gianna a monkey leash to help keep her near by, and kept Konner in a stroller.

Ganae

cambersue said...

oh, what a dream! I did not have the same experience and because mine was an absolute nightmare I am threatening never to fly with my kids alone again! nobody helped me and i had 3 layovers onthe way back to florida...then I wasn't in Utah or even close to Utah. I am so glad you didn't have to go through what I did...hopefully it'll be smooth sailing on the way home too! :)