We had a bit of an adventurous night last night. I went and did a session at the Salt Lake Temple while James took the kids shopping and then brought them back to Temple Square to see the lights.
(Sidenote: going to the temple when you don't really want to and feel like you are too busy is really the best choice! It will go down as one of my favorite temple experiences.)
Anyway, I was supposed to meet them at the Christus statue, but I was about 30 minutes later than we'd planned. By the time we met up, the kids were tired and antsy, so we decided to just hurry and get to our car and go get some food. However, James had parked out and taken light rail downtown, so we would need to take the train back to our car.
We waited for quite some time in the cold (20's) for the train. When it finally arrived, we headed toward one of the back doors, but for some reason the door wouldn't open. As we hurriedly raced for another door, the train took off without us. Now we the kids were tired, hungry, and really cold, and we'd missed our train. The station we were at was for trains going on several different lines, and in the dark it was kind of hard to figure out which train we were supposed to be on anyway. James found a train that he thought would be going the opposite direction but would turn around soon and go back the way we needed since we were almost at the end of the line, so we jumped on that one. But when we got to the end of the line, it was obvious that this train was going nowhere. We jumped off and tried to figure out how to get where we needed to be.l
Finally, we saw a UTA person coming on duty, and James asked her which train we needed. She pointed to one. Another train was getting ready to depart. At the very last minute (literally with seconds to spare), the UTA lady told us that she'd been wrong, we needed to get on the train that was now just about ready to leave. We jumped on that one as fast as we could and barely had time to sit down before it took off. Whew! I think we would have been just about ready to cry if we'd missed that one!
So we sat down on the train. Sariah was extremely restless. She didn't want to sit in her seat; she wanted to walk around or, better yet, run around. Whenever James tried to make her sit, she started melting down, which was not what we wanted in such a public place. She couldn't decided if she wanted to be with Mommy or Daddy and kept switching sides. When she was sitting, she was just seconds from bolting. We were all tired and a bit ornery after all our adventures, and the idea of having to do this for another 30 minutes was not very appealing.
Then appeared a stranger from out of nowhere. (Well, not exactly out of nowhere...) An elderly man sat down behind Sariah and me. Sariah turned around to stare at him, and in my heart I prayed he would be someone who liked little kids and wouldn't be tired and annoyed at this time of night. He turned out to be our saving grace! This man struck up a conversation with Sariah and kept her occupied the rest of the time we were on the train. He asked her questions and listened patiently to her garbled toddler answers. He even listened well enough to discern what she had said and comment back to her on it. He pointed out things outside the windows for her to look at. He complimented her on her personality ("You're full of vinegar, aren't you?" he observed with a smile.) He literally kept her sitting happily in her seat for the remainder of the ride. And then he offered her a piece of candy. Not only did he offer one to Sariah, but he then asked, "Would her big brother like a piece too?" This melted my heart, because so often people ignore Dallin while lavishing attention on Sariah. He actually gave James and me each a nice truffle too.
Of course there was that small part of me that thought, "What if this guy is a child molester just waiting to kidnap my kids?" But in my heart I felt peaceful...and of course we were right there the whole time. In reality, he was just a very, very kind stranger. That man had no idea what we had been through prior to our boarding the train, how long of a night it had already been, how tired and cranky the kids (and their parents) were. But he literally saved our night. He was a god-send.
"By small and simple things..."
"If ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethen, ye have done it unto Me."
And that's my Christmas tale.
(Sidenote: going to the temple when you don't really want to and feel like you are too busy is really the best choice! It will go down as one of my favorite temple experiences.)
Anyway, I was supposed to meet them at the Christus statue, but I was about 30 minutes later than we'd planned. By the time we met up, the kids were tired and antsy, so we decided to just hurry and get to our car and go get some food. However, James had parked out and taken light rail downtown, so we would need to take the train back to our car.
We waited for quite some time in the cold (20's) for the train. When it finally arrived, we headed toward one of the back doors, but for some reason the door wouldn't open. As we hurriedly raced for another door, the train took off without us. Now we the kids were tired, hungry, and really cold, and we'd missed our train. The station we were at was for trains going on several different lines, and in the dark it was kind of hard to figure out which train we were supposed to be on anyway. James found a train that he thought would be going the opposite direction but would turn around soon and go back the way we needed since we were almost at the end of the line, so we jumped on that one. But when we got to the end of the line, it was obvious that this train was going nowhere. We jumped off and tried to figure out how to get where we needed to be.l
Finally, we saw a UTA person coming on duty, and James asked her which train we needed. She pointed to one. Another train was getting ready to depart. At the very last minute (literally with seconds to spare), the UTA lady told us that she'd been wrong, we needed to get on the train that was now just about ready to leave. We jumped on that one as fast as we could and barely had time to sit down before it took off. Whew! I think we would have been just about ready to cry if we'd missed that one!
So we sat down on the train. Sariah was extremely restless. She didn't want to sit in her seat; she wanted to walk around or, better yet, run around. Whenever James tried to make her sit, she started melting down, which was not what we wanted in such a public place. She couldn't decided if she wanted to be with Mommy or Daddy and kept switching sides. When she was sitting, she was just seconds from bolting. We were all tired and a bit ornery after all our adventures, and the idea of having to do this for another 30 minutes was not very appealing.
Then appeared a stranger from out of nowhere. (Well, not exactly out of nowhere...) An elderly man sat down behind Sariah and me. Sariah turned around to stare at him, and in my heart I prayed he would be someone who liked little kids and wouldn't be tired and annoyed at this time of night. He turned out to be our saving grace! This man struck up a conversation with Sariah and kept her occupied the rest of the time we were on the train. He asked her questions and listened patiently to her garbled toddler answers. He even listened well enough to discern what she had said and comment back to her on it. He pointed out things outside the windows for her to look at. He complimented her on her personality ("You're full of vinegar, aren't you?" he observed with a smile.) He literally kept her sitting happily in her seat for the remainder of the ride. And then he offered her a piece of candy. Not only did he offer one to Sariah, but he then asked, "Would her big brother like a piece too?" This melted my heart, because so often people ignore Dallin while lavishing attention on Sariah. He actually gave James and me each a nice truffle too.
Of course there was that small part of me that thought, "What if this guy is a child molester just waiting to kidnap my kids?" But in my heart I felt peaceful...and of course we were right there the whole time. In reality, he was just a very, very kind stranger. That man had no idea what we had been through prior to our boarding the train, how long of a night it had already been, how tired and cranky the kids (and their parents) were. But he literally saved our night. He was a god-send.
"By small and simple things..."
"If ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethen, ye have done it unto Me."
And that's my Christmas tale.
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