Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Kindness

This Christmas Eve I feel impressed to write down the acts of kindness that have been bestowed upon me and my family this past month by perfect strangers. On December 7th I had to take Ridge to an appointment in Sandy. He had been accepted into the free Upstart online preschool program! We were so excited that he had gotten in, he had been on a waiting list for years. We had to go to the training and he needed to have his assessment done that day in order to not forfeit his spot. When we left that morning it was just starting to snow. I took Jake's commuter car to save on gas money. It snowed all morning and was snowing pretty hard on our way home. I was planning on stopping in Layton on our way home to visit both my Grandma's. I thought it would be best to take the less crowded new Layton parkway exit. I saw a sign that said Park Lane exit. I took that exit thinking it was my exit but realized my mistake as soon as I got off the freeway. I was only in Farmington! The mountains were obstructed by the snow and I was a little disoriented. The way that particular exit works is it takes you straight on to highway 89. I thought I was merging back onto I-15. As I was merging onto the highway there was a little bit of snowy slush between where my on ramp lane was ending and the right lane. When I hit that slush the car started sliding and I panicked and forgot to pump the brake and started turning sideways and sliding fast towards the left lane cement barricade. We hit the barricade hard and it sent us spinning the other direction in a circle and hitting the barricade again with the back end of the car, which sent us spinning again and hitting the barricade a third time before the car finally came to a stop. It was the scariest experience of my life! For a few seconds there both mine and Ridge's lives flashed before my eyes and I thought we were going to hit the barricade and flip. I was crying and praying and Ridge was screaming. It was terrifying. An angel of a man in a truck in front of us watched the whole thing in his rear view mirror. He stopped and backed up and helped me calm down and towed us off the highway before another car could come along and slide into us. The roads were horrible! I didn't realize how bad the roads were because when I was on I-15 they were salted really well and not to slick, but every other road was extremely slick! The whole time he towed me off the highway I was fishtailing and sliding like crazy! I had no brakes and no power-steering and thought for sure we were going to get in another wreck! It was so scary! Thankfully, we made it to Cherry Hill's parking lot and he stayed and made sure we had help on their way before he left and he also gave Ridge a handful of chocolates. This man's name is Matt Larsen and he's from Morgan. He didn't know me at all, but helped a perfect stranger in need and very well saved us from getting hurt or even killed had another car hit us if he hadn't have gotten us out of the way of traffic. I will forever be so grateful for his kindness that day. He was truly an angel and an answer to my prayers. I am so grateful that both Ridge and I are ok and that the Lord watched over us and kept us safe. I"m so grateful that there weren't any cars in the left lane that could have hit us. Jake's car didn't fair as well, though. We are now down a vehicle, but that's ok- we're just so grateful that Ridge and I are alive and well.
Another act of kindness this month was something pretty small and simple, but so kind still the same. I've done a lot of my Christmas shopping online this year. I bought some things from the Children's Place and when it came it had someone else's receipt with my items. I have my receipt on my email and all the items came that should have so I didn't think to much more about it. About a week later I got a letter in the mail with my receipt from a cute lady in Tennessee who my receipt had been sent to with her purchases by mistake. She wanted to make sure that I had my receipt in case I needed it. What a thoughtful thing for her to do! It's too bad that the receipt that was with my items wasn't hers!
The next two acts of kindness brought me to tears again tonight. The caseworker who is over Kara's case asked me to fill out a form for Kara for sub for santa. She said that all the kids in foster care get this service from the community. I filled out the few questions on the form and turned it back in not giving it much more thought. I've been doing my Christmas shopping over this past month. I've gotten for both Kara and my boys and have been happily anticipating this Christmas that we get to spend with Kara. I'm not sure if she's ever really had a Christmas before. Last week the case worker gave me a huge black bag full of wrapped gifts for Kara from perfect strangers. I am overwhelmed with the generosity and kindness of perfect strangers. Between the gifts from us and our family and the gifts from the sub for santa program- this sweet baby girl will be totally spoiled rotten tomorrow- and she deserves it!  In a world that is continually decaying and people are becoming more and more self centered and worldly, it really brings joy to my heart to know that there are perfect strangers out there willing to donate so much to bring Christmas and joy to a beautiful little girl.
The next act of kindness bestowed upon my family has been happening this past week. The past few nights a cute little gift has been left on our doorstep. Wrapped inside have been nativity figures and the scriptures to go along. The boys have been so excited each night to get the little figures off the porch and read the scriptures that are with them. (Dalton may have gotten a little too excited- he tried to catch the deliverers last night! The little stinker) Tonight they brought the manger and baby Jesus with the final scriptures and the box to keep the whole nativity set in. I am so extremely touched by their kindness. I honestly have never had a real nativity set before, just the kids' Little People one. This was such a kind, thoughtful thing for them to do. Definitely something our little family will never forget! I wish I knew who the angels are so I could tell them thank you!
As I contemplate Christmas and the celebration of our Savior's birth, I am so extremely grateful for him, his influence in my life and his atonement. And I am also grateful for the wonderful people in the world who are true disciples of him.

1 comment:

Dawn said...

I am so glad you and ridge are ok. That is so scary. I know about that exit, it is the exit I take to go to my moms. That is neat about the nativity. We had the same experience when Lane was almost one and had his cleft palate surgery that December. We received the nativity and every year I remember that Christmas. You will definetly remember this Christmas! Hope you have a Happy New Year!