Temple Weekend

November 15 -  We had made reservations to stay overnight at the temple hostel on Friday night so Jared and I could attend the English session that evening and Madison and Emily could go to the baptism session with the rest of the youth Saturday morning.  Sometimes when you've made plans to go to the temple it seems as if everything else in the world is trying to keep you at home.   Here's what happened to us . . .



The heat/defrost in the front of the van mysteriously stopped working the day after I made our reservation and the only day they KIA dealer could look at our car was Friday, the day we were supposed to leave. Oh, and Friday morning it was suddenly working again but I didn't want to take a chance that it would stop working again.  Driving while trying to keep the windshield from fogging up is no fun. By the time I got back from the repair shop we had just two hours to get everyone packed and ready to go.  Two hours might seem like a long time to pack an overnight bag, but we weren't packing just clothes and toothbrushes. Because we were staying at the hostel (much less full service than a regular hotel) I also needed to round up sheets, towels, and food.

Our plan was to leave as soon as Jared got home from work around five.  That should have gotten us to the temple no later than seven, in plenty of time for an eight p.m. session.  But then Jared called me and said his car had DIED on the autobahn while he was driving home. There was a big noise and. . . nothing.  He was able to coast to an exit and then down the ramp and into a small park and ride area at the end of the exit.  So instead of Jared meeting us at home, I quickly threw everything we had gathered for the trip in the back of the car, hoped that we weren't forgetting anything, and we set out to rescue Jared.  We left his poor sad car there and were on our way.

I love having a GPS.  It makes driving in Germany much easier and less stressful.  I can remember living here 12 years ago and bickering with Jared the entire way to the temple about which road we were supposed to be on or which exit to take.  The GPS has solved all (okay most) of that!  Our GPS will even tell us when we can expect delays because of heavy traffic.  However, that's only helpful if you're paying attention and I wasn't being a very attentive driver.  If I had noticed the warnings the GPS was throwing out I wouldn't have been having a conversation in German in my head when we came upon a traffic jam and I wouldn't have had to slam on my brakes (waking up my peacefully sleeping family) and then swerve into the mercifully empty lane next to us to avoid hitting the car in front of us and seriously injuring or possibly killing my entire family.  It took a while for my heart to stop pounding - but that's okay because I had a long while sitting in the traffic to calm down. Once I was calm again I started to get anxious because we were going nowhere and it was getting less and less likely that we would make it to the temple in time.

I was ready to just give up, find a Doner Kebab place for dinner, and call it a night but we kept crawling along and finally made it to Friedrichsdorf around 7:30, just in time to throw the kids and our things in our 8-bunk room and hurry to the temple for a session.  And you know what?  It was worth all the stress and the work and the frustration.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Faith?

Image
What would you say if someone asked you what faith is? In Hebrews 11, Paul defined faith as "the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The assurance of things hoped for - faith is knowing that because of Jesus Christ, we can hope for a brighter future. I feel as if hope and faith are one and the same. Life can be heartbreakingly difficult sometimes and even though I know that challenges are there to help us learn and grow, I sure wish I didn't have to go through those hard times. When I have felt surrounded by struggles and I couldn't see any way that things would ever get better, the only thing that has kept me moving forward is hope. Not the kind of hope that is sort of wishful like hoping your team wins a World Cup game, but hope that is sure because it is based on Christ. Having faith in Jesus Christ is having hope and knowing that His promises are sure.  The evidence of things not seen - faith in God grows when we see Him working in our...
Read more

Anxiety, Friendship, and Insecurity

This post has been kicking around in my head for a while now. My emotions have been closer to the surface lately - which can be both good and bad.  For a couple of weeks last month it was a bad thing and I found myself crying at pretty much everything and feeling alone and friendless even when I was surrounded by people. You'd think I'd be better at making friends after almost forty years of moving and having to form new connections at each new place. Instead, the older I get, the more difficult the process becomes. Even after I make friends deep down I question if we're really friends. I think these feelings of insecurity are part of what makes me willing to do almost anything for my friends. If I do nice things for you maybe you'll continue to tolerate my presence? I think I do a pretty good job hiding my insanity. I can fake confidence really well - smiling and laughing and making small talk. And then I go home and overanalyze and question every little thing I said...
Read more

Four Decades

Image
Birthdays are markers in our lives. Moving from one decade to another is a milestone that is not marked by an accomplishment or an important decision, but simply your age. That's something you can't control as time keeps moving forward whether we're ready for it or not. I can honestly say that I'm not bothered by turning forty and that I still look forward to my birthdays. But there's no denying that those milestone birthdays (you know the ones, they end in zero) are a big deal. A time that, for me, leads to some looking back to see if I've accomplished anything worthwhile in the previous decade of my life or in any of the decades of my life.  So I found photos of myself at all those other ages that end in zero. Maybe if I take it a decade at a time it will be easier to see what I've learned? Seriously, whose dog is this? Italy, 1981 Okay, this first one is already breaking the rules as it's not from a milestone birthday. I have two pictures...
Read more