About two weeks ago Jord and I decided we wanted to go to the temple. The nearest to us is the Preston temple, a six hour drive if you don't get lost. The morning of our departure was smooth sailing. I had us all packed and ready to go around noon and was on schedule to pick up Jordan from work at 1:00. Jordan however had to stay at work late and our time of departure ended up being a disappointing 2:30. That late start was the beginning of the end. We were traveling with a friend of mine (Magnolia), and her daughter. The idea being that we would take turns with the kids while at the temple. Along with a ton of food, Magnolia brought a Tom Tom. Jord and I instantly fell in love with the little gadget. We would ooh and ahh at how brilliantly the Tom Tom spoke directions, advised of upcoming turns and displayed the approaching cities. Like a blind man liberated with a seeing eye dog. Jord and I basked in the ease of our journey. There was only one little problem. We had set our destination incorrectly. Sadly we were following a blind 'seeing eye dog'. Although it didn't take us wildly off course, our detours set us back even later and we ended up pulling into our campsite in the dark. Yes, you read correctly, our CAMPSITE. Temple accommodation was completely full (filled ironically enough by the Aberdeen stake temple trip). Sooooo I figured camping would be a great way to save some cash and enjoy the Lake District as well. It was NOT enjoyable - not even close. It was the opposite, it was misery. I had borrowed a tent which was extremely complicated to put up. It had three little rooms inside a larger space and took forever to only partially put up. Partially.
The reason we could not complete the set up, aside from our extreme exhaustion and our tired little children, was because the battery in our car died and then all of the lights in our car went out as well. We were left completely in the dark to lay down our bedding, find our pj's and put our little ones to sleep. The children (whom we bundled in a ton of clothes and settled in cozy blankets) slept beautifully, unlike the rest of us who tossed and turned on a hard ground and felt wet tent flapping on our backs. I won't continue in describing the misery that our night was. Let me just say that around 4 a.m. I quietly moaned to Jordan, "I just want the sun to come, I just want this night to end." Well, there is a very happy ending to this story.....the sun came up!!! The night ended, our children were unharmed and we were able to get our car running again. My ultimate moment of triumph was when I walked through those beautiful temple doors. As I walked in, all my stress and unhappiness immediately melted away and I was filled with an intensely calm and peaceful bliss. I was so happy to be in that spiritual and physical haven my eyes filled with tears. A kind woman showed me to where I needed to go and in an attempt to explain my moist eyes, I said to her "I'm just so happy that I'm finally here."
3 comments:
That's such a great story Char! It's funny how difficult it can be to get to the temple... I still can't believe how crazy our last attempt was. Ian and I had been trying to go for awhile (our temple is only about 10 minutes, if that, away!) but something kept coming up... the best time to find someone to watch the kids was a Thursday night, but often we had just had a really hard day and weren't able to make it. And it was hard to go on a Saturday (when we weren't so pooped) because our mission region was having all these huge fiftieth anniversary sessions where it was so packed it took us nearly 4 hours to get through the veil one time and stressed us out that we left our kids for so long. Mostly it was tough to find someone to watch the kids at a convenient time for us. Mom was coming to visit and we decided to go while she was here. It seemed like a great plan, until we found out the temple was closed the exact weekend she was visiting! Finally we found someone to watch the kids on a good day and got already to go. I was pulling out of our apartment building when the POWER WENT OUT and I couldn't get the garage door to open! It seemed like a comedy of errors- when does the power go out of your building so you're trapped inside?? Well, a kind friend raced over, lent me her car, and I hurried and picked up Ian. We barely made the session. It was all worth it though because it felt so good to be there... ;D
Char! The muse is back and I'm so glad because this is such an INCREDIBLE story! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I did both but soo glad that there was a happy ending to this very memorable temple trip! You ended up getting a piece of heaven to take home after your non-stop Comedy of Mishaps. Sending Much Love to all of you! - Nana
hats off for making it there!!
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