Refuge

After we got back from doing some evening shopping last night we laid the kids down and sat down to enjoy a movie together, and the power went out! It came back on and we resumed watching only to have the power go out again, this time for good. I am not usually one to panic in situations like this but, I did now I don't know if it was because we had just finished watching Knowing a few hrs earlier and all I could see in the pitch black was the creepy "whisper people", or what is was but I seriously started freaking out! I was on the floor and my hubby was across the room feeding Ellie, crawling on my hands and knees I finally found him! It was super dark I mean pitch black can't see your hand in front of your face black! I sat there on the floor with my hand on Dana's lap trying to breathe and calm myself down, I try looking around thinking that my eyes will adjust and I will be able to see better, but they don't and I can't! The flashes from the lightening are making it even more difficult because I was getting super dizzy. Luckily for us Kaleb has been wanting a flash light in his room for the last few nights, so it's on and Dana tells me to go get it, I can't even move! I have no idea what I was afraid of but I couldn't get on my feet to get the flash light, so Dana hands me the baby and stands up so he can go get the flash light, again I was so scared I didn't want him to leave me even for a second! The lights flickered for a second and the cordless phone lit up across the room, I figured it was better than nothing and ran across the room and grabbed it before the light went out! I figured it was as good as a flash light at least I wasn't in complete darkness! Once I had my little light I let Dana go into Kaleb's room and get the light.

I felt a little better once we had a couple of sources of light. The kids had gotten into our flash lights so all we had was 2 the one we were using and another one but the batteries were dead. So we stumble around until we find some batteries, great now we have 2 working lights (besides the 3 cordless phones!). We figure now would be a good time to find the matches and light some candles, the only thing was is we couldn't find the matched to light our 1 candle! I told Dana that there were some in the computer/storage room, of course they are in the camping box at the bottom of the pile so we dig until we find them. Yeah we have a candle and 2 flashlights one of which is starting to die! I remembered I had a bag of tea light candles so I dug those out and we had them all over the house! I felt much better after that. The whole time we were trying to find the lights Ellie was screaming!! Once we had the lights and candles I changed the batteries in the swing and she was pretty good after that. Now it's Arizona and it's hot even at night so it wasn't long before the house started to get warm. We decided to open the windows since it was raining and windy we figured that air flow even if it is hot it better than nothing. It really wasn't that bad once we got the windows open we could see that half the neighborhood was in the street talking and stuff, I went out to say hi and to see how our elderly neighbor Doreen was doing and I also remembered that there was a flash light in the car! Every one seemed to be doing fine. Doreen mentioned that she noticed it took us awhile to get some lights and candles. I full of laughter shared my story and mentioned that the one big candle we had was almost done burning and all we had left was the tea light which were going fast! She went into her house and came out with some bigger candles!! How nice is that!? I told her to let us know if she needed anything to let us know.

Back at home I remembered our battery camping lantern, found it and replaced the batteries, so we had a bigger source of light and didn't need to rely on the candles that kept going out because of the open windows, and we could save the smaller lights for walking around the house. When we were out shopping I needed to get some batteries for Ellie's swing, it takes 4 D's. When I picked up the batteries I was compelled to get 2 more packages than I needed. At first I thought we will be fine, we aren't going to need than right away anyway but something kept telling me to get a couple more packages. So I went back and picked some more up figuring that it would be good to have spare ones just in case! When I found the camping lantern and realized that it took 4 D batteries! I was so grateful that I listened to that feeling to buy more than I needed, I could have used the ones from the baby swing but it was the only thing that was calming her down so I wouldn't have wanted to do that. I know that something was preparing me for the power outage, even though I didn't know it at the time. I am just glad that I didn't continue to ignore the prompting. =)

I am glad that the older kids slept threw the whole thing as well. It would have been a lot tougher if they had been awake. Once we had our lanterns and candles we sat in the living room on the floor around the coffee table, Dana read a book and I was busy making the kids chore charts. It was so quiet and nice, just sitting there being together with no t.v., phone or any other distractions. We talked a little but mostly just enjoyed how serene it all was. I could hear the wind blowing with vengeance, I could see the trees bending and thrashing in the wind, and I could hear our welcome sign hitting the front door. But inside it was so peaceful, we had a nice breeze going through the house, but other than that it was quiet and peaceful a refuge from the storm. Sitting there in the dark allowed me to just sit and think a lot of memories flooded my head. Some distant but other's close some good some bad. I'm sure many of you have heard people compare our life to a storm, how sometimes feels like everything is out of control grabbing in the dark for someone to hold on to, for someone that will help you. There were many times in my life were I have felt that way, were it has seemed that it's never going to pass, like things are never going to get better. But if we listen and ask there is someone there and He is more than willing to help us. Heavenly Father will send people into our lives that will help us when we need them to, like when Dana talked to me in the dark until I found him, and how my neighbor gave me some candles to help light the way through our home. We are never alone, I am so grateful for that and for all the people in my life. I honestly feel like each and everyone of you have a purpose in my life, we may not know what it is but I do believe that we all help even when we don't know that we are. I feel so blessed that my Father in Heaven has given me these wonderful people and the knowledge that with help I can over come anything, with faith and love he is my "refuge from the storm."