November 16

Since I ended the last entry with an account of the little miracles that have occurred I might as well continue in that fashion.

While I was very excited to get away from it all for a few days the trip itself stressed me somewhat.  Dad had booked tickets out of Fresno but the direct flights were so expensive that we opted to accept the inconvenience of layovers.  On the way there it was Fresno – LA  - SLC and on the way home SLC – SF – Fresno. Having flown enough I knew that there was the high possibility of departure gates that are far distances apart and long hallways that needed to be navigated quickly and that worried me.  I can walk short distances at turtle speed but for longer stretches I need to power down to snail speed, either way after a short while I huff and puff and my heart feels like it will jump out of my chest.  Having been a very purposeful walker ( meaning getting from point A to point B as efficiently as possible) my whole life this is very hard on me.

We arrived in LA and I was prepared for the worst only to find out that our arrival and departure gate were only 3 gates apart. What a blessing!  But it gets even better, on the way home our departure gate in SLC was right in front of the airport, usually it is located way in the back and downstairs.   When we got into SF I huffed and puffed up the jet way and emerged totally exhausted from gate 78. While Dad looked around to find the electronic departure screen to know which gate will have the flight to Fresno I plopped into the closest chair and was fully prepared to tell Dad that he needed to find a wheel chair for me because I could not go another step.  As it turned out our flight to Fresno left at gate 77B and I was already sitting in the correct area.  Wow, somebody was really looking out for us.

Having said all that I can now go back to the fun time we had in UT.   I am so glad we had the opportunity to go, it made the week go by so fast and it was so nice to visit with Heather, Lance and the kiddos.   We spend some time at the outlet mall, the LDS book store and Gardner village.  All fun activities I enjoyed. On Friday night we had our almost traditional outing to the ‘all you can eat’ sushi place in Orem.  It was nice that Natty and Mee could join us also.

While Dad, Lance and Andy met up with Tim for the football game Heather, Jonathan, Layna, Natty and I went to Gardner village.  It was a beautifully sunny day and it was fun going from store to store and admire the decorations and merchandise offered.  I knew I really wanted to find something that Heather and Natty would like to have so I paid close attention to what the liked.  We wandered around until the little kids and I ran out of gas and as we headed back I asked them what they would like to have from all that we had seen.  Heather chose some pilgrims and Natty a cat ornament and some cat socks. 

As I was later reflecting on our outing I could see a parallel with my life.  Here I was so eager to buy Heather and Natty something that they would treasure but until they told me what they wanted I did not know what to buy.  I can imagine God being so eager to bless us but He is waiting for us to tell Him what we want.  It has given me more faith and courage to ask for what I really want.