AWP: Days two and three (or Mishaps and Miracles)

We all slept in today. Mostly because Levi let us. Over our trip he rarely slept longer than three hours at a time at night and his average nap time was a half hour. (You can tell our hopes are deflating. At one point we believed we would sleep through the night again. We even imagined two hour naps. Now we're just hoping for sleep. Sometime). He screamed and screamed and screamed. He woke up screaming. He loved the hotel room, but hated sleeping. He loved Denver, but hated sleeping. His parents love him, but need sleeping. Wes drove him around in the middle of the night every night, which made us grateful for the rental car, despite the fact that we had to pay more for it than anticipated.

More Near-Mishaps:

1. On Friday we went to dinner with a bunch of BYU people. There weren't enough seats, but we squished in with the kindness of our friends. Levi was okay for a bit. Until he started choking on his Cheerios and started turning slightly blue and I almost passed out I was so scared--but he survived and few people really noticed the dilemma. There was an awesome jazzy band which probably helped Levi--he was dancing so hard the wooden high chair moved. Should have had the presence of mind to record it. Alas. But when you shake your little body that much, nothing can lodge in your throat. PHEW!

2. Because of a grumpy boy (not Wes), we ran late Saturday morning and I missed the majority of the book fair--so I didn't talk to journals and book presses. Not the end of the world.

3. We rushed from the conference to the airport. While returning the rental car (over a half hour away from our hotel) we realized that we left Levi's birth certificate in the hotel room. I'm crazy enough to double check under the bed, but not in the desk shelves. I feel particularly dumb since I took it out of the folder in my purse in the rare case that it might be stolen at the conference. And yes--this was the original. We didn't know until we got to the airport that we could take a copy of it.

4. So, we didn't know if Levi would be able to fly home. The guy who checked us in panicked when we told him the predicament and said, "Well you have to go back. Tell you what. Your wife and the baby can fly home, but you (Wesley) have to go get that certificate if it's original!" Problem: he would have to fly stand-by. Problem: Southwest overbooks flights so there is no such thing as stand-by. Problem: Levi is all over the place--could I take him and all of our luggage by myself? Thankfully, another worker said, "They'll never get home on stand-by. We don't need the birth certificate. Call the hotel; get on your plane." Hallelujah!

5. We thought they gave us our boarding passes at the desk. After we called the hotel, changed diapers, and found the gate, we noticed that people were lined up to board. We looked at our tickets: "Pick up boarding pass at desk." So we ran up to the desk and they said, "I don't think we have room for you. Sorry." At this point I can feel my blood pressure sinking and my heart rate rising (because I'm cool like that). Then, "Here." We held the last two seats on board. How that happened, I'm not sure. Because we flew with our baby we boarded after the A line and we all sat together. Miracle.

6. Then Levi fell asleep (and so did his mother) most of the flight home. Bumpy ride, but we're home.

All these near-mishaps makes me more grateful for the many many many times everything goes smoothly and I don't even notice. It makes me realize that so much more could have gone wrong. And I need to get a grip and sing praises that we're so watched over all of the time. As we were at the desk figuring out the birth certificate a girl in her thirties was trying to figure out the best way to get a ticket because her brother had unexpectedly died the day before. Come on, Cassie, stop being so self-absorbed and start appreciating the legions of angels that surround you.

So we arrived home, amazed, humbled, grateful.