Pre Costa Rica Travels: Back to Texas

We headed back to Texas for my Granny's funeral.  We also decided to stay an extra month so I would be well outside of the first trimester when we left.  We hoped in the meantime that we would be able to spend some more time with family and give my grandpa some company after the loss of his wife.

It was not easy being in Texas again.  I felt like we had been grounded.  After more than a month on the road, I was ready to be settled, not to live in more temporary conditions.  Under different circumstances, it would have been more exciting, but instead, it was a difficult experiences for me.

It was hard to find a one month rental in Boerne.  We finally rented a 500 square foot cabin/trailer in for $2,500.  The second day their, Richard was attacked by two dogs on the property and had a chunk bit out of his calf.  We talked to the owners who assured us they would keep the dogs locked up for the remainder of our stay.  They were not locked up however, and came close to attacking me with three kids another time.  I yelled for help and the owners called them off.  A third time, they were loose around our cabin without anyone else around, and we decided we would have to move to protect our kids.

We stayed with my Grandpa for a week, and then my brother.  During this time, we squeezed in a quick trip to Corpus Christi to visit my sister, and Richard and my brother David flew to Costa Rica for 4 days to leave luggage down there and tour some houses we were considering living in.

Finally on September 28, we were ready to try again to fly to Costa Rica.

Pre Costa Rica Travels: Disaster in Louisiana

After leaving Texas, we headed to Florida to see Richard's family.  On the way, we had a big surprise.  Severe weather in Louisiana forced us to pull over for the night.  Had we realized how severe the weather was, we would not have stopped.  We tried to "boondock" in an LDS church parking lot next the LSU, but the road we drove on to get there had a small river running through it, there was a big lake next to the parking lot, and Google Maps told us that we were not far from the Mississippi on the other side.  We decided that it would not be wise to stay the night there, so we headed down the road to the next church parking lot.

We got off the highway in Denham Springs and headed towards a stake center.  The entire road we were driving on was a river.  The only way we knew where we "should" be driving was because there were mailboxes lining the road on either side.  The water was not very deep, but when we came to the cross section of the road the church was on, and saw it was called Riverton Avenue, we decided against staying there as well.

We chose to head back towards the highway and found a Bass Pro Shop parking lot to stop in.  We intended to leave early the next day, but we were just so tired.  When we woke up around 9am, we saw that it was still raining and that there was standing water many places in the raised parking lot we were in.  We tried to leave the parking lot the way we had come in, but the water was too high, and we did not see any other cars in that direction.  We tried another way, but again, the water looked dangerously high.  There were however some vehicles braving the flood waters.  We sat and watched for a few minutes as a couple trucks pushed their way through.  Finally, we saw a small car make it and decided that maybe we better press forward.  Driven by the desire to reach our destination more than by anything else, we pulled onto the street and carefully drugged our way forward.

We made it to the highway, but could only inch our way forward for hours.  Eventually we came to a stop.  Richard and Maylee hopped out of the RV and went more than a mile to the front of the line of cars to see what the trouble was.  We found out that there was a river running across Highway 12 in front of us, and there was also a river running across the highway behind us.  We were stuck on the road with a few thousand other people, mostly travelers passing through like ourselves.

Being stuck on the road for an undetermined amount of time was not easy, but we felt blessed that at least we had beds to sleep in, a toilet, food, and water.  We were able to share our resources with those around us who were not so fortunate.  Richard and the kids passed out canned goods and other supplies to our I-12 neighbors, we helped a few women who were grateful to be able to use our bathroom, and we invited a mother with a small child in to play with some toys because he was having a hard time without a safe place to play. 

During our 30 hours on the highway, we also gave out a Book of Mormon to one man and donated an extra phone charger to an elderly couple who was then able to call a friend for help and get to a nearby home.  The wife had just had knee surgery and was having a difficult time on the hot highway.  We feel that we were stuck on the road for a reason.  We were able to bless the lives of others and learn some lessons ourselves.

When we first came to a stop on the highway, we were told that we might be there for days.  We were told that it was supposed to rain for two more days.  I am certain there were collective prayers from people all over offered in behalf of ourselves and the people of Louisiana, because the rain stopped, and did not come back for more than a sprinkle while we sat on the highway.  Because of that, we were able to leave Monday morning instead of Tuesday or Wednesday.

After this circumstance was over we later learned that Denham Springs was the area hit worst by the flooding.  Had we stayed in the Bass Pro Shop parking lot even 30 more minutes, we would have lost everything with us because we would not have been able to leave.  We probably would have had to be rescued. The Bass Pro Shop was completely flooded up to the roof, and the stake center down the street was also destroyed.  We visited the area week and a half later and saw the devastation left behind.  It was a sobering experience for our family.

Pre Costa Rica Travels: Florida

We were able to visit Richard's sister Traci and her husband Jason in Florida.  We also spent time with Great-Grandma Robbins and her daughter Aunt Carol while in Tallahassee.  We visited some extended family in the Ocala area and visited the grave sites of family members.

We stopped by Granddad Robbins gave at the Florida National Cemetery.  The played some violin tunes for him there and then we cleaned his headstone.  We also went down to the Florida Keys to see the house and church Granddad Robbins build while serving in the military there.  We tried to swim at the beach in the Florida Keys, but Spencer and Maylee immediately got stung by jelly fish and that scared us off.

We headed up to Fort Lauderdale which is where we were supposed to fly to Costa Rica from, but our plans were changed for us.  The day before we were supposed to board the plane, and hours before we planned to drop off the RV to a dealership,  we got a call from my parents saying that my Granny had passed away.

The time of the phone call seemed strangely significant for two reasons.  The night before her passing, Maylee prayed that a miracle would happen for Granny.  I had not heard her pray with that lauguage for Granny before.  When we found out about her passing, we felt that a miracle had taken place for her.  She no longer had to suffer with a weak boy and dementia.  As much as we would miss her, we were grateful that she was free from the constant pain she had suffered from.  Also, the night before her passing, Richard and I talked about how we actually were really starting to be concerned with the Zika virus present in Central America even though we had not previously been.  We prayed that night for a sign that if we needed to be more cautious and potentially even delay our trip until I was out of the first trimester, to please let us know what to do.  We felt, that the sad news of the passing of my Granny was actually an answer to our prayers and a message to us that we needed to wait to move in order to better protect our little baby.

I love my Granny very much.  I have wonderful memories of growing up only a mile from her house.  I spent my childhood constantly at her house.  She was always very thoughtful of others.  Sometimes I would help her do work around her house, and she would make me fancy salads or ham sandwiches on homemade wheat bread because she knew how much I loved them.  My Granny was a fun granny.  She always had treats and a candy stash, and she loved to play games.  She owned jaw-dropping contraptions like a snow cone machine and giant blowup pools for her grandkids to enjoy.

Richard and I lived with my grandparents the first two months of our marriage.  We would stay up late playing 42 with them, we took temple trips to Houston with them, and we would eat at Golden Coral every Friday with them.  We later took them on a cruise to Alaska with us and were able to spend a fun week with them on that vacation.  These are just a few of the wonderful memories I have of my Granny.  I am blessed to be her granddaughter, and I am honored that I was asked to make her funeral program for her.

Pre Costa Rica Travels: The First Time in Texas

While I was at Girl's Camp, Richard and the kids bought an RV for us to travel in.  Don't worry, we were planning on buying one, and I was actually really happy to have that decision taken care when I got home.

We headed down to Texas in a hurry in the evening of August 2.  We were in a hurry because the 3rd was Spencer's birthday and we didn't want to spend his entire special day in the car.  We had intended to leave earlier, but like I said, packing up took days longer than we had hoped.

We were in Texas for a fun family reunion, Spencer's birthday, Spencer's baptism, and Maylee's birthday.  Spencer's baptism was really special.  A lot of family was able to attend, including my Grandma who died shortly afterwards.  I was able to give Spencer a special quilt I made from the ties of the priesthood holders of the family and others who have influenced Spencer.

The Move

It took way more work to move out of our house than I ever anticipated.  If you happen to own a house with more than five bedrooms, NEVER MOVE!  Luckily we were blessed with so much help from friends.  The young women and their leaders in our ward volunteered their time to watch our kids each day for two weeks before we moved.  We had someone at our house at least 6 hours a day taking care of our kids.

We attended a Spanish speaking ward the last Sunday we were in Utah.  About 10 minutes into sacrament program, Stephen plopped down out of his chair, came over, and whispered to me, "Actually, I don't want to move to Costa Rice."  Sorry little boy, by this time it was too late to turn back.

We pulled several all nighters trying to get ready to go and had some interesting experiences along the way.  One was that we could not find my passport.   We prayed several times to find it.  As I finally went through what I thought were the last few boxes of things from our house, I felt surprised that we did not find it.  I told Richard that Heavenly Father always helps me out of my binds and answers my prayers.  Why didn't we find the passport this time?  We proceeded to clean up the last little bit.  Then, we decided to give away a large portion of our food storage to people who could put it to use.  As we unloaded our food storage, I came across a random box.  I quickly flipped through the box and right away found my passport.  It was neat to realized that the answer to my prayers was answered by serving others.

The last night before we left, we spent the night at Richard's parents house.  I think they enjoyed having our kids over one last time.  In fact, we planned on leaving for Texas at evening, but we just had too many last minute things to do, and we were so exhausted.  Mickey and Steve talked us into staying the night, and we were really glad we did.  Our kids had one last special experience with their grandparents before the move.

Leaving our family and friends we a very difficult thing to do.  The Lauders we generous enough to host a going away party for us, we spend time with as many friends as we could find the time for, and we stopped by on the way out of town to see a few more friends who did not make it to the party.