Grateful

I have a lot of things to be grateful for. But yesterday was a 'special' day. Here's the run down...we have guests staying with us who were gone for the day visiting other family. Jeremy was also gone. So just me and the kids. I decided to be a good mom and take them to Dash Point to play at the beach. It took me an hour to get everyone ready, and 30 minutes to drive out there only to find that the main parking lot next to the beach was closed for an event. The ranger told me I could park in a different parking lot and take a trail down.

At this point my mom alarm went off. I told him I was alone with 4 little kids and wondered if I could make it down the trail. He said yes. I then asked if I would be able to make it down the trail with a wagon. (The wagon had all our essentials.) He said it was a bit steep with a few stairs but he thought I could do it.

Great! We parked. I strapped the baby into the front pack and off we went. The first set of stairs was traversed with little trouble. Then the trail got narrower and steeper. OK, I thought we can do this. Then there were more stairs and curves and steepness and narrowness. By now I can't turn the wagon around, I can't go back and I can't move forward. I've got a four month old on me, a wagon pushing me down the hill, a two year old who keeps slipping, and two very cooperative girls that aren't complaining. I start to wonder which of us is going over the edge first.

The only option I had - keep going.

This is when I start to get grateful. Grateful for people coming up the trail, sensing and seeing my distress and helping me get the wagon down more steps and around steep corners. One woman tied up her dog and helped me down the most difficult part. I thanked them all profusely.

By now I'm sweating and fighting back tears.

The next dilemma, how do I get back to the car? I can't make it up the trail with the wagon.

As much as I hated it...I was going to have to call for help. I got the kids set up on the beach and went to find my cell phone...somewhere.. in my bag...it has to be there right? Wrong. That's when the tears finally came.

And when I found the cell phone.

I called my in-laws and tried to be brave but started to cry when I explained what happened. The kids played for an hour or so and then my mother and father-in-law rescued me.

I am grateful for the random strangers who came to my aid. And I'm grateful for my in-laws who, not once, mentioned that maybe I shouldn't have tried to go down a trail with 4 kids and a wagon.  Even though they had to be thinking it because I sure was.