Miracle Monday One

It's true... I read the New Era Magazine.

Yes, I know the target market is the under 18 crowd.

Written for the under 18 crowd, articles and essays faction in a possible short attention span. Remarkably compatible with my unyielding ADD!

Since joining the LDS church, I’ve met and chatted with members who shared similar stories. Some acknowledge that every day might be their miracle, some – as in the song “The Impression That I Get” which I like so much, realize how blessed they are that tragedy has not struck close enough for them to have had to acknowledge a miracle.

Yeah, also true, many people tend to shrug off miracles as coincidence and many, like the writer of this piece My Everyday Testimony, continue to have a testimony of our Savior despite never wondering where that strength they know they don’t possess came from…

I did not grow up as a Latter-day saint, though, it goes without saying, one does not have to be a member of a particular church for Heavenly Father to work a miracle in ones life.

I also know we’ve experienced miracles.

My life and the lives of my children have been blessed by miracles as well as by everyday occurrences that are expressions of Heavenly Father’s and our Savior’s love for us, both before and after being baptized as Latter-day saints.

I would like to share some of these miracles and blessings. And I invite you to share anything you wish to.

Share here, or on your blog and leave a link.

I will begin with:

The Miracle of my children not being consumed by fire in a minivan

I have two children, who at the time of this occurrence, were ages 2 and 4. I was already divorced and had returned to working out of the home. An approximate half hour drive each way.

A friend,[who I’ll call Debra] also had two children, ages 3 and 5, cared for my children in her home while I was at work.

After several months, Debra decided to take a night class at the community college located just a few miles past the bank where I was employed.

Her class began at 6:00. I got off at 5:30, and Debra’s hubby got home from work at 6:00 – 6:30. I could not get home in time to get my kids and allow her enough time to leave to get to class in time.

Ah! What about the teenager who lives a few houses down from her home? Neither of us actually knew the teenager, but she had offered babysitting to many of the neighbors. Hmmm, we’d split the babysitting fee to cover the approximate hour that was uncovered …. No…one by one we found teeny tiny reasons we disliked the idea. Most of all, neither of us left our young children with teenagers.

We had a close knit group of moms we knew from [at the time catholic] church that shared babysitting and from there expanded into a network for daycare and carpools and eventually school referrals!

Instead, Debra would pack up all four kids in her minivan, drive down and meet me in the bank parking lot where we would quickly remove car seats from her van and she would head off to school.

I would then reload all four kids into my little car and head back home.

This was working quite well, as our kids all got along great and I had some extra time with not only my kids, but hers.

One day, Debra phoned me at work to say she was calling the babysitter. I was startled. What had changed? Was something wrong? No, she said. She didn’t know, she just felt she needed to.

To be honest, sometimes Debra was a little more … hmmm, how can I express this without sounding critical?

Her and I were different despite our friendship, that much is a simple fact.

I am a doubter, I over-analyze, look for logic, reasoning and answers and think carefully before I make a change - - - I was sometimes concerned that she just closed her eyes, imagined sprinkling pixie dust and dived into whatever whimsy crossed her path.

Hoping, and silently and quickly praying she wasn’t basing this change on the Press Enterprise [newspaper] horoscope of the day - I had to acknowledge; she was a devoted and loving mom and after all, I had entrusted my children to her care.

Once my workday was done however, I left as quickly as I could and headed straight for her house. To my surprise, her husband was home already anyway, the teenager – sent home after less than an hour!

And the kids were all fine [of course].

He was not quite fine though. He asked me to stay with all four kids for a while… it seemed there had been some car trouble … he’d be right back.

I of course agreed to stay, though I was unsure of what he meant by ‘car trouble’, wondering, did he need to help a friend or family member nearby,.?

It wasn’t long at all before I found out what he meant.

His wife – my friend, Debra - had been the one to have car trouble.

Devastating car trouble.

It seems, Debra had stalled about seven miles from home on the freeway and could not get the car restarted. She parked it on the freeway shoulder and backtracked, walking less than a ¼ mile to a freeway callbox. It’s hard to hear on those, with all the freeway traffic. Though they dial in automatically to the CHP office and are numbered to somewhat identify location, one still must give some sort of explanation and provide location of the actual vehicle.

She had been on the phone just long enough to state that her car was stalled and was restating LOUDER that the car was stalled, when she turned to see which exit ramp she was actually parked closest to.

Excuse me.

My car is not stalled, it is engulfed in flames.

She did not know how or why it caught fire or how it spread so quickly.

But we both knew before she said anything further.

There was absolutely no way her oldest child [aged 5] could have gotten out of her booster seat and then gotten all three younger children out of their car seats and, assuming she could keep them together, have walked with them far enough on the side of a busy freeway to get them to safety in that short of a time.

I believe this was a miracle.

Why? Why would such a miracle happen? It matters not.

I do know it was not the first, nor was it the last.

And I know I am grateful for a Heavenly Father that loves us and grateful he wants us all to return home to Him.