I'm not sure when I became a country bumpkin, but I'm guessing it came on gradually after spending a few years in Rocky Mountain House and now living in an even tinier town, but we definitely have become hicks. For example, in the Las Vegas airport, alone, we had several experiences my kids have never had (not to mention the actual plane ride). Preston had his first ever ride on an escalator and he was completely enthralled. We also rode on a tram to the baggage claim area which was the first time any of them had travelled on anything like a train. Then, we took a bus over to the rental car centre, and it turns out my kids' only previous experience ever on a bus was a school bus.
Anyway, in Las Vegas, I rented a car and it was an unbelievably terrifying experience for me. Because I wanted to give the kids a few experiences in the city, I drove all over town. I made quite a few wrong turns and then had to correct them. Traffic was heavy and I had to change lots of lanes and find exits and all the stuff that is boring daily routine for people who live in cities. But I was terrified. I've never been so relieved as when I handed back the keys to that rental car which I had managed to return on time and without crashing!
My biggest car mishap on the trip wasn't even in Las Vegas. We flew from Kalispell and to get there from here you have to drive through a canyon in the mountains for over an hour. On the way to Kalispell, the roads were wet and slushy as it had recently snowed, but was relatively warm. I used a lot of washer fluid on the way and I was sure that I would need to refill the washer fluid if Iwanted to make it back home. So, I went to the first gas station after leaving Michelle's and bought washer fluid and filled the tank. Then I noticed that it wasn't actually the washer fluid tank that I had filled--it was the coolant tank! After a few moments of severe panic, I recovered my senses, went back into the store and bought coolant. Then I drove back to Michelle's and we mostly emptied the tank by syringe and then added the coolant. In the meantime, Michelle called her dad, her brother (who in turn called half of Cardston) trying to get advice to see what we needed to do. It turns out that my mistake will probably not wreck the car afterall! And, since most of Cardston and all of the family know my stupidity, I thought I'd publish it for your enjoyment too!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Soaking in the sun in Las Vegas
One of my favorite things about going to Las Vegas was spending time in the sun. Apart from the first day, which was a little cool, we had beautiful sunny weather. Joe and Haylee live in a great development which has several artificial lakes. These pictures were taken one day when I went with my parents and the kids for a walk where we went to three of these lakes. The kids loved the ducks and searched in vain for turtles, which apparently live in a different part of the lakes. I also got to go for 2 runs while there, one around the neighbourhood and one on a path through a wash to a nice park where we played with the kids.
I want to thank Joe and especially Haylee for their hospitality to us on our trip. We had very comfortable sleeping arrangements and Haylee helped me with directions to find our various outing locations. She also cooked nutritious meals which I greatly enjoyed, and watched the kids while I ran and took Alyssa shopping for Sunday clothes. The whole trip was extremely pleasant on many levels and highly therapeutic to a winter-worn little family like ours.
Las Vegas Photo Shoot
Preston at the lake
Sara (Joe and Haylee's daughter)
Alyssa
Austin with his grandpa Prete
Grandpa Prete with Sara and her sister Hannah (age 3)Las Vegas, Pt. 2
In Las Vegas, we spent every morning with Haylee and the kids. I loved going for walks and runs in the nice weather and very pleasant neighborhood. Each afternoon I took the kids to some kind of kids attraction. On Thursday we went with my mom to the Lied Children's museum. The first floor has interactive exhibits that cater to the preschool crowd and upstairs they have some amazing interactive science exhibits, including a booth that creates hurricane force winds, a lifesize camera, an exhibit where you pedal to create a bolt of electricity, a virtual reality video game centre, and much more. We had a great time there, as you can see.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Trip to Las Vegas, Part 1
I took Alyssa, Austin and Preston to Las Vegas during the Family Day/Presidents Day week which we had off school. We got a great deal on flights with Allegiant Air and left Rob and Mark behind, since Rob had to work a couple of days and Mark doesn't travel well. We stayed with Joe and Haylee and enjoyed a visit from my parents who were there for two days during our trip. These pictures are from the park at Town Square. The kids had a great time playing in the hedge maze, on the stage, in the play houses, tree house, merry-go-round, etc. For me, it was a warm afternoon in the sunshine which was exactly the therapy I needed.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Faith Lights the Way, the Doigs' Story
For our annual Stake RS Conference, I was asked to speak for 5-7 minutes as part of a panel on how faith lights the way through adversity. I was one of 4 sisters asked to share their experiences with faith in adversity. After our stories, there was a little discussion. Below is the text of my talk for your reading pleasure! Grab a tissue!
Seven years ago, on the evening of November 23, 2001, our family was driving home to Rocky Mountain House from Red Deer when our car went out of control on the ice and we hit an oncoming semi truck. Everyone was injured, and our oldest daughter, Alyssa, who was 4 and our five-month-old baby Mark were injured critically. That night, I sat on a hospital bed in the emergency room while the doctors worked on my kids, trying to keep them alive. And I prayed. I prayed with great intensity for several hours. Eventually, a feeling of peace came upon me and I felt the words come into my head, “The road will be long, but you will have your children back.” Through the next days the doctors weren’t sure whether Alyssa or Mark would live, but I felt a calm reassurance that they would. Alyssa spent a week in ICU, but eventually recovered from multiple broken bones, a neck injury, a punctured lung and extensive lacerations. I feel that her healing was a miracle and I sometimes tell her that her scars are a reminder that the Lord preserved her life for a special purpose.
Mark has not experienced a full recovery. He sustained serious head injuries and to this day is severely disabled as a result. Mark is now 7 years old. The brain injury has left him so affected that even after years of intensive therapy, his developmental level is still about like a 5 month old baby. He is tube fed, has a seizure disorder, is diapered, has no ability to speak, to sit or to walk.
You may have also met our 9 year old son Austin who was born with a genetic disorder called Achondroplasia, which means he is a dwarf or a little person. His challenges, while much less severe than Mark’s, are real and significant, too.
Faith has lit the way for me through all the phases of the challenges we have had. Faith helped when I learned that Austin was a dwarf. It helped me get through the intense traumatic phase after the accident and Mark’s subsequent surgeries and hospitalizations. Faith helps me deal with the difficulties in juggling the needs of my children and the disappointments over all the things that can’t be normal for our family--things like not being able to take normal family vacations, never seeing Mark serve a mission, get married and give us grandchildren and that Rob and I may never be empty nesters. I have also drawn on faith to help Austin as he attempts to accept his limitations and define his self worth.
Here are some of the principles I absolutely know that have helped me. First, I have found it necessary to completely avoid questions about why this happened, whose fault is it, is it a punishment, a necessary test, etc…I find there are no satisfactory answers to these questions and it is best to leave them alone. It is much better, instead to just trust God. I absolutely believe that God loves us, and that he loves me personally and loves Mark personally and that “…all things shall work together for good to them that walk uprightly…” D & C 100: 15. The better question to ask of God after something like this is What should I do now? and What do you want me to learn?
I also absolutely believe in God’s plan and in the resurrection of the dead. Alma taught (11: 43) The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame” I can picture our family together in the resurrection, everyone healed and perfect and it gives me great comfort and hope.
Another doctrine that I know to be true and which is an enormous help to our family is that those who are not capable of committing sin are redeemed through the atonement of Christ and are heirs of Celestial Glory. Pondering on that changes the way I perceive Mark. He is an angel, preserved from sin, destined to glory. He is a motivation for the rest of us to live true to our covenants so that we can attain what is already his.
Mark’s disabilities have also taught me about charity and about how God loves us. The opportunity to care for someone with disabilities is the opportunity to develop charity. I have learned that God loves and values us independent of our abilities and accomplishments. I didn’t always know this. As a youth, I thought my worth depended on my achievements. However, as I feel how much God loves little Mark, who can do so little and how much he loves Austin, who will never in this life be an athlete or have normal body proportions, it reminds me that he loves me and all of us regardless of what strengths and limitations we have.
Last, I’d like to talk about another aspect of faith, relating to miracles and healing. This is a principle I have struggled with, to be honest. All of Mark’s priesthood blessings, and he has had many, promise healing, and yet we have not seen it. Lately, I have come to dread blessings because they play with my hopes and leave me, not only disappointed, but worried that my lack of faith may be an impediment to the Lord performing his will for Mark. Eventually I always come back to the feeling that I need to just leave it to God, and trust his purposes and timing.
I have learned that while faith in Christ is required to perform miracles, and I do attribute faith and priesthood power to Alyssa’s healing, faith is not a free pass from the difficult experiences of mortality. Many of those with greatest faith were not saved from tribulation or death. Consider this. Was the faith of Shadrack, Mishack and Abednego who were saved from the fiery furnace greater than the faith of Abinadi because he was burned? The idea is absurd. The difference in the two situations was not a difference of faith but of which outcome best served the Lord’s purposes. The real test of faith is not whether we can get healing, it is whether or not we will be faithful regardless of whether we get a miracle. Shadrack, Meshak, and Abednego, like Abinadi were resolute in their faithfulness regardless of the outcome. Daniel 3:17 records Shadrack, Mishak and Abednego’s last statement to the king before being thrown in the furnace. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us ...
18 But if not, … we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
I believe that God’s promises will all one day be fulfilled both the general promises and those specific to me and my family. The road will be long, but you will have your children back, and promises of Mark’s healing will all be fulfilled. Whether in the resurrection, at the Second Coming or by some other miracle in the meantime, one day he, as well as Austin will be whole. In the meantime, I try to love and accept my children as they are and hope that I can be faithful to God regardless of blessings and challenges. I love the words to the hymn Lead kindly light. I hope I can trust the Lord enough to say in my heart as the hymn suggests, “I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me.”
Seven years ago, on the evening of November 23, 2001, our family was driving home to Rocky Mountain House from Red Deer when our car went out of control on the ice and we hit an oncoming semi truck. Everyone was injured, and our oldest daughter, Alyssa, who was 4 and our five-month-old baby Mark were injured critically. That night, I sat on a hospital bed in the emergency room while the doctors worked on my kids, trying to keep them alive. And I prayed. I prayed with great intensity for several hours. Eventually, a feeling of peace came upon me and I felt the words come into my head, “The road will be long, but you will have your children back.” Through the next days the doctors weren’t sure whether Alyssa or Mark would live, but I felt a calm reassurance that they would. Alyssa spent a week in ICU, but eventually recovered from multiple broken bones, a neck injury, a punctured lung and extensive lacerations. I feel that her healing was a miracle and I sometimes tell her that her scars are a reminder that the Lord preserved her life for a special purpose.
Mark has not experienced a full recovery. He sustained serious head injuries and to this day is severely disabled as a result. Mark is now 7 years old. The brain injury has left him so affected that even after years of intensive therapy, his developmental level is still about like a 5 month old baby. He is tube fed, has a seizure disorder, is diapered, has no ability to speak, to sit or to walk.
You may have also met our 9 year old son Austin who was born with a genetic disorder called Achondroplasia, which means he is a dwarf or a little person. His challenges, while much less severe than Mark’s, are real and significant, too.
Faith has lit the way for me through all the phases of the challenges we have had. Faith helped when I learned that Austin was a dwarf. It helped me get through the intense traumatic phase after the accident and Mark’s subsequent surgeries and hospitalizations. Faith helps me deal with the difficulties in juggling the needs of my children and the disappointments over all the things that can’t be normal for our family--things like not being able to take normal family vacations, never seeing Mark serve a mission, get married and give us grandchildren and that Rob and I may never be empty nesters. I have also drawn on faith to help Austin as he attempts to accept his limitations and define his self worth.
Here are some of the principles I absolutely know that have helped me. First, I have found it necessary to completely avoid questions about why this happened, whose fault is it, is it a punishment, a necessary test, etc…I find there are no satisfactory answers to these questions and it is best to leave them alone. It is much better, instead to just trust God. I absolutely believe that God loves us, and that he loves me personally and loves Mark personally and that “…all things shall work together for good to them that walk uprightly…” D & C 100: 15. The better question to ask of God after something like this is What should I do now? and What do you want me to learn?
I also absolutely believe in God’s plan and in the resurrection of the dead. Alma taught (11: 43) The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame” I can picture our family together in the resurrection, everyone healed and perfect and it gives me great comfort and hope.
Another doctrine that I know to be true and which is an enormous help to our family is that those who are not capable of committing sin are redeemed through the atonement of Christ and are heirs of Celestial Glory. Pondering on that changes the way I perceive Mark. He is an angel, preserved from sin, destined to glory. He is a motivation for the rest of us to live true to our covenants so that we can attain what is already his.
Mark’s disabilities have also taught me about charity and about how God loves us. The opportunity to care for someone with disabilities is the opportunity to develop charity. I have learned that God loves and values us independent of our abilities and accomplishments. I didn’t always know this. As a youth, I thought my worth depended on my achievements. However, as I feel how much God loves little Mark, who can do so little and how much he loves Austin, who will never in this life be an athlete or have normal body proportions, it reminds me that he loves me and all of us regardless of what strengths and limitations we have.
Last, I’d like to talk about another aspect of faith, relating to miracles and healing. This is a principle I have struggled with, to be honest. All of Mark’s priesthood blessings, and he has had many, promise healing, and yet we have not seen it. Lately, I have come to dread blessings because they play with my hopes and leave me, not only disappointed, but worried that my lack of faith may be an impediment to the Lord performing his will for Mark. Eventually I always come back to the feeling that I need to just leave it to God, and trust his purposes and timing.
I have learned that while faith in Christ is required to perform miracles, and I do attribute faith and priesthood power to Alyssa’s healing, faith is not a free pass from the difficult experiences of mortality. Many of those with greatest faith were not saved from tribulation or death. Consider this. Was the faith of Shadrack, Mishack and Abednego who were saved from the fiery furnace greater than the faith of Abinadi because he was burned? The idea is absurd. The difference in the two situations was not a difference of faith but of which outcome best served the Lord’s purposes. The real test of faith is not whether we can get healing, it is whether or not we will be faithful regardless of whether we get a miracle. Shadrack, Meshak, and Abednego, like Abinadi were resolute in their faithfulness regardless of the outcome. Daniel 3:17 records Shadrack, Mishak and Abednego’s last statement to the king before being thrown in the furnace. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us ...
18 But if not, … we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
I believe that God’s promises will all one day be fulfilled both the general promises and those specific to me and my family. The road will be long, but you will have your children back, and promises of Mark’s healing will all be fulfilled. Whether in the resurrection, at the Second Coming or by some other miracle in the meantime, one day he, as well as Austin will be whole. In the meantime, I try to love and accept my children as they are and hope that I can be faithful to God regardless of blessings and challenges. I love the words to the hymn Lead kindly light. I hope I can trust the Lord enough to say in my heart as the hymn suggests, “I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me.”
Monday, January 5, 2009
Making lemonade out of lemons, or making an ice rink in winter
It has been cold and snowy this winter. I decided to make the best of it by constructing an ice rink in the backyard again this year. The above pictures are from the first day of action on December 29th when the rink was smooth enough for skating. The kids have had a great time already skating, playing hockey and washing each others' faces in the snow. The deep snow, which is now at least twice as deep as in these pictures makes for a few lost pucks, and oh so much shovelling, but lots of fun. This week the weather is supposed to be milder--i.e. closer to freezing than to -30 so it should be fun out on the rink.
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