Gratitude

After spending last week in San Diego and witnessing the widespread devastation, I was indeed grateful to be able to come home. Jeff and I were staying in a large hotel in La Jolla, a suburb of San Diego just down the street from the San Diego LDS Temple. We were there due to Jeff needing to train employees of the Avastra lab in San Diego. As many of you know, when we travel there's usually something interesting that happens, ie: fire at our hotel in Chicago this past summer! This trip was no different. First of all, as I was stepping down the shuttle bus steps to go into the hotel, my heel slid and I followed, hitting my back on all three steps as I slid down and landed at the feet of the shuttle bus driver and hotel concierge! I quickly jumped up, trying to shrug it off with a smile while in major pain and embarrassment. The next day we begin to hear about fires on the outskirts of San Diego and as time went by they became progressively worse until it seemed most of La Jolla was evacuated and checking in to our hotel-with kids, pets and remnants of their life in tow. Tuesday morning as I went down to breakfast in the atrium, I noticed that most of the people had that " dear in the headlights" look and seemd to be in shock. Many people were having conversations with each other or by cell phone about where they would go and what they would do now that their home/ livelihood/children's schools were gone. Really heartbreaking! The air quality was so poor people were wearing masks, businesses were closed and people were asked to stay inside if possible. The day we were leaving, I dropped Jeff off at the sleep lab he was visiting and I had decided to try to find something to do while waiting for him (original plans included attending the temple and shopping for the kids-both the temple and the mall were closed). As I was driving away a lady in the lane next to me impulsively decided to change lanes and hit me on the side of my brand new rental car which knocked me into the other lane and tore up the metal on both passenger side doors! She was very apologetic and a witness stopped to give his statement so it went as smoothly as something like that can go. As we flew over the fires surrounding San Diego, up through the dense layer of smoke and haze I felt greatful, greatful to be returning home to my family, greatful for children that pull together when we're gone to keep things running smoothly so we don't have to worry, greatful for people that are so willing to give of themselves and serve those that are sufffering (there was such an outpouring of help in San Diego, especially at the stadium that they had to request that doantions stop for a while until they had time to distribute them), greatful for my faith as I thought about what I would do if this were to happen to my family and realized how unimportant "things" are compared to those you love. (see quote at the bottom)