End of Mission, Beginning of New Adventures
So, I won't be updating this blog weekly now that we have our Becca back home, but I thought I would wrap it up with one final post about our homecoming adventures. Becca was scheduled to fly into Vernal on October 17th, and we had visions of greeting her with a big crowd at the Vernal Airport. Two days before her scheduled arrival, we learned that the big room at the airport where people used to greet family and friends has been taken over by the TSA for security screenings. The only space left for greeting arriving passengers was way too small to accommodate our group of about 15. So we decided that Ryan and Marissa and I would greet Becca at the airport, and then we would take her directly to the Stake Center (a Stake is like a Catholic diocese--a group of several congregations--so the Stake Center is just a bigger chapel) where the rest of the family would be waiting. I was not happy about the change in plan, but we didn't have much choice. Still, in the back of my mind, I felt that we were probably not done with surprises...
The next day, while I was getting ready for the afternoon's coming excitement, I was checking the clock regularly and trying to keep track of Becca's flights:
Syracuse to LaGuardia (New York City)
LaGuardia to Denver
Denver to Vernal
Then, just after 11:00 AM, I received a call from Sister Vest, the wife of Becca's Mission President. She let me know that Becca had missed her connection at LaGuardia. We would later learn that because Becca had to switch airlines, she had to hop on a city bus from the Delta terminal that took her clear off of the airport campus and around to the United terminal. She ran to get in the security line, but there was no way to make it through in time to make her flight. She finished going through security and went to the ticket counter at her gate where a very sweet woman whose shift had just ended helped her call Sister Vest to let her know what had happened (Becca's phone, now that she had left the mission, did not have a sim card, so she couldn't call--she could only use wifi.). The woman at the ticket counter assured Becca that rebooking is free, (I can totally see why she worried that we would have to pay to get her on another flight), calmed her tears, and then got Becca on standby for another flight to Denver that would then get her to SLC just after 7 pm. Sister Vest then let us each know that we had permission to be in contact all the way home, especially since Becca ended up being alone.
We messaged back and forth while Becca got some lunch, and then she called us on a video chat. We talked for almost an hour, and then they called her name for the standby flight. As she was starting down the jetway to board the plane, an airport employee coming up from the airplane informed Becca and the gate attendants that the flight was full. OY! So, she got off the video chat with us and went to figure out how to get on the earliest arriving flight to SLC or Grand Junction, CO (both of which are about a 3 hour drive for us). She texted a few minutes later to let me know that she would be flying from LaGuardia to O'Hare (Chicago), where she would have a two hour layover before the next leg of her trip to SLC, scheduled to arrive at 10:28 pm. Her flight from LaGuardia was delayed, because the incoming plane was delayed by the storm (we learned that there was a Nor'easter on the way). Thankfully, she still had plenty of time to get dinner and make the flight. She even found some friendly Utah people to talk to.
Once we knew the new plan, we booked a hotel room by the SLC airport and packed our bags. We ran a couple of errands on our way to pick up Becca's bags from the Vernal Airport when her flight came in without her. I thought they'd ask for proof of who we were so we could get her bags, but they didn't... That seems odd and possibly foolish, but it made our task pretty easy. We were on the road to SLC by 5:30 pm. I drove as we headed out, and realized we would be driving right into the setting sun. Thankfully, about the time the sun got low enough to dip below the visor of my car, a low bank of clouds had appeared on the horizon, which made the drive much easier.
We stopped in Duchesne to grab some food at Burger King, and then we hopped back in the car to eat on the road. Not far out of Duchesne, we ended up driving behind a jeep that was throwing sparks! It was dark out, so we flashed our headlights to try to get them to pull over. I didn't blame them for not wanting to pull over for strangers, but we were very concerned that he was going to start a fire in the dry brush along the highway. I called 911 while Ryan drove and told them what was going on. Thankfully, the driver of the jeep called 911 too, and the dispatchers were able to tell him that we were friendly and he needed to pull over. Ryan and the 80-year-old man driving the jeep were able to figure out that there was dry brush jammed up under the jeep between a plastic guard plate and the muffler. The brush was on fire, so the man crawled under his jeep and did what he could to knock all of the burning brush out. I can't belief that his car had not started on fire. After 13 agonizing minutes of being stopped, we felt that he had things under control, so we got back on the road.
That low bank of clouds that had been so nice earlier turned out to be a storm. We had some rain through Heber and Jordanelle, but once we got past Park City and into Parley's Canyon, the rain was just pouring. We learned that Parley's Canyon is NOT a fun place to drive in a nighttime downpour. People drive like maniacs in that canyon anyway, but when you can't see the lines between the lanes on the freeway and their headlights are glaring off of your wet windshield... We were praying SO HARD and trying to take it slow. It was pretty scary all the way into the airport.
Once we finally got to the airport, there was construction everywhere, and the signs were inconsistent. We took the wrong way the first time through, so we had to drive back around the airport and try again. Our second attempt failed, too, and we ended up in the wrong parking lot. Thankfully, on our third try, we finally found the correct lane for the parking garage. We parked at about 9:30 pm. The wind was cold, and we were all shaking, but I swear that half of my trembling was from adrenaline.
We took a few minutes to get out the posters that Marissa had worked so hard on, and stopped at the restrooms. Pat, Bobby, Darla, Mandy, and Lizzie (Ryan's mom, brother, sister, and nieces) walked in a few minutes later. The pilot on Becca's flight managed to get the flight there more than 30 minutes early, so we didn't have to wait longer than about 20 minutes before was saw her coming. Marissa's lucky she didn't get flattened when she tried to get between Becca and her mom (even though she'd be warned multiple times that the mom always gets the first hug...), but we ended up in one big hug with all four of us. Many, many tears were shed in gratitude for finally being reunited. It was such a roller coaster, but it was worth all of the hassle. I don't even have words for how wonderful it has been to have her back. We tried to meet family at a restaurant by our hotel (it was closed) and then the one in the hotel (it was closing in 20 minutes). So we visited in the lobby for a few minutes, but everyone was so tired, so we said goodbyes to the rest of the family and headed to our room.
Side note, we grabbed an Easy Mac from the hotel's convenience items and I waited by the front desk to pay for it. There was a woman waiting right next to me to check in to the hotel. Neither of us was very impressed that the front desk would be left unattended for that long, but then the woman said to me, "Just take it. That's what I would do. Do you know how many taxes we pay? People do it all the time..." and she continued in that vein for a couple of minutes, until she said, "...unless your conscience would bother you..." as she started to figure out that I was not going to take her advice. I assured her that my conscience would, indeed, not let me rest if I did such a thing. I was missing out on visiting with everyone over by the couches, though, so I decided to come back to the counter when the hotel employee returned. I was glad that the woman who had so seriously urged me to steal from the hotel was still finishing her check-in when I returned to the counter and asked to pay for the item in my hand. I was shocked that a grown woman would urge me so strongly to engage in out-and-out theft.
After the rest of the family left, the four of us stayed up chatting and snuggling until about 12:30 AM, which was WAY too late, but we were having so much fun together. We couldn't sleep in, either, because of all the excitement. So, we checked out of our hotel and hit the road around 8 am. We kept in touch with our Stake President, because he was on the way to SLC with his family, so we would have to figure out where to meet along the way so that he could interview Becca and formally release her from her calling as a full-time missionary. I wanted to meet somewhere nicer than a gas station or restaurant, and wondered if there was a chapel where we could meet, even if we could not get in. He suggested the chapel near the exit for Jeremy Ranch, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. The chapel was so beautiful with it's big, gothic windows, and it was quite central on our opposite routes. We knew we were a few minutes ahead of them in arriving, so we stopped at the gas station next door for a minute, and then we got to the chapel parking lot within a minute of President Despain's arrival.
President Despain wore his Sunday suit to take care of this official church business, and he and Becca just walked to the far end of the parking lot to talk for a few minutes. I kind of wish that I had taken a picture of the two of them with the mountains in the background and the morning sun lighting up the fall colors and inch of snow that had fallen the night before, but I wasn't sure it would have been appropriate, so I restrained myself. We visited with Sister Despain and a couple of her daughters while we waited, and then they hopped back in their van to give us some privacy when President Despain and Becca headed back toward us. After Becca shared a missionary experience with us that had contributed to her testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel, President Despain read her the certificate that had been signed by President Vest (the Mission President), and he formally released her from her calling. He asked me to remove Becca's missionary name tag from her jacket, which is a big deal. She wore that name tag daily for 18 months, literally bearing the name of the Savior whom she had enlisted to serve in a manner that will never be repeated in her lifetime. I hugged her as she cried, and then I prayed in gratitude for Becca's sacrifice and the Lord's blessings that have been poured out in such abundance upon her and upon our family for the last 18 months. I asked the Lord to bless us in our various travels that day, and then we thanked President Despain for going out of his way to meet up with us. We got back in the warm car and headed home again, while Becca had a good cry in the backseat.
The reunions continued after we finally got home. My mom and grandma met us in the driveway about 5 minutes after we arrived. The rest of the weekend was a blur as Becca was reunited with Poppa, aunts, uncles, cousins, a missionary companion, and dear friends, one of whom she had not seen for 3 years and three months. We had dinner with family at Cafe Rio Friday night, and then we had a bigger family dinner at the church Saturday evening, followed by a brief open-house-style "eat & greet" when ward members and friends could come visit with her. She spoke in church on Sunday, even though she didn't have much of a voice, thanks to a cold that set in after the lack of sleep and the stress of travel. Most of our company left on Sunday, but there are still contacts to make and many, many errands to run and decisions to be made over the next few weeks.
On Sunday afternoon, I had to go take care of some church business that is part of my calling, and when I got home, I walked in to see both of my girls sitting at the kitchen table, which caught me off guard and made my heart leap. I know she won't be right in our home forever (in fact, she's living in my parent's guest room for a bit), but we will cherish every minute we can. She'll be on to new adventures soon, but that's what life is all about. Words are not sufficient to express my love for the Lord and my gratitude for his mercy and blessings upon us. I pray that we will always remember how generous He has been to our family, because those memories will be a strength to us when future trials come, and they will surely come. In the meantime, what a blessed season we are having in our family right now.
The next day, while I was getting ready for the afternoon's coming excitement, I was checking the clock regularly and trying to keep track of Becca's flights:
Syracuse to LaGuardia (New York City)
LaGuardia to Denver
Denver to Vernal
Then, just after 11:00 AM, I received a call from Sister Vest, the wife of Becca's Mission President. She let me know that Becca had missed her connection at LaGuardia. We would later learn that because Becca had to switch airlines, she had to hop on a city bus from the Delta terminal that took her clear off of the airport campus and around to the United terminal. She ran to get in the security line, but there was no way to make it through in time to make her flight. She finished going through security and went to the ticket counter at her gate where a very sweet woman whose shift had just ended helped her call Sister Vest to let her know what had happened (Becca's phone, now that she had left the mission, did not have a sim card, so she couldn't call--she could only use wifi.). The woman at the ticket counter assured Becca that rebooking is free, (I can totally see why she worried that we would have to pay to get her on another flight), calmed her tears, and then got Becca on standby for another flight to Denver that would then get her to SLC just after 7 pm. Sister Vest then let us each know that we had permission to be in contact all the way home, especially since Becca ended up being alone.
We messaged back and forth while Becca got some lunch, and then she called us on a video chat. We talked for almost an hour, and then they called her name for the standby flight. As she was starting down the jetway to board the plane, an airport employee coming up from the airplane informed Becca and the gate attendants that the flight was full. OY! So, she got off the video chat with us and went to figure out how to get on the earliest arriving flight to SLC or Grand Junction, CO (both of which are about a 3 hour drive for us). She texted a few minutes later to let me know that she would be flying from LaGuardia to O'Hare (Chicago), where she would have a two hour layover before the next leg of her trip to SLC, scheduled to arrive at 10:28 pm. Her flight from LaGuardia was delayed, because the incoming plane was delayed by the storm (we learned that there was a Nor'easter on the way). Thankfully, she still had plenty of time to get dinner and make the flight. She even found some friendly Utah people to talk to.
Once we knew the new plan, we booked a hotel room by the SLC airport and packed our bags. We ran a couple of errands on our way to pick up Becca's bags from the Vernal Airport when her flight came in without her. I thought they'd ask for proof of who we were so we could get her bags, but they didn't... That seems odd and possibly foolish, but it made our task pretty easy. We were on the road to SLC by 5:30 pm. I drove as we headed out, and realized we would be driving right into the setting sun. Thankfully, about the time the sun got low enough to dip below the visor of my car, a low bank of clouds had appeared on the horizon, which made the drive much easier.
We stopped in Duchesne to grab some food at Burger King, and then we hopped back in the car to eat on the road. Not far out of Duchesne, we ended up driving behind a jeep that was throwing sparks! It was dark out, so we flashed our headlights to try to get them to pull over. I didn't blame them for not wanting to pull over for strangers, but we were very concerned that he was going to start a fire in the dry brush along the highway. I called 911 while Ryan drove and told them what was going on. Thankfully, the driver of the jeep called 911 too, and the dispatchers were able to tell him that we were friendly and he needed to pull over. Ryan and the 80-year-old man driving the jeep were able to figure out that there was dry brush jammed up under the jeep between a plastic guard plate and the muffler. The brush was on fire, so the man crawled under his jeep and did what he could to knock all of the burning brush out. I can't belief that his car had not started on fire. After 13 agonizing minutes of being stopped, we felt that he had things under control, so we got back on the road.
That low bank of clouds that had been so nice earlier turned out to be a storm. We had some rain through Heber and Jordanelle, but once we got past Park City and into Parley's Canyon, the rain was just pouring. We learned that Parley's Canyon is NOT a fun place to drive in a nighttime downpour. People drive like maniacs in that canyon anyway, but when you can't see the lines between the lanes on the freeway and their headlights are glaring off of your wet windshield... We were praying SO HARD and trying to take it slow. It was pretty scary all the way into the airport.
Once we finally got to the airport, there was construction everywhere, and the signs were inconsistent. We took the wrong way the first time through, so we had to drive back around the airport and try again. Our second attempt failed, too, and we ended up in the wrong parking lot. Thankfully, on our third try, we finally found the correct lane for the parking garage. We parked at about 9:30 pm. The wind was cold, and we were all shaking, but I swear that half of my trembling was from adrenaline.
We took a few minutes to get out the posters that Marissa had worked so hard on, and stopped at the restrooms. Pat, Bobby, Darla, Mandy, and Lizzie (Ryan's mom, brother, sister, and nieces) walked in a few minutes later. The pilot on Becca's flight managed to get the flight there more than 30 minutes early, so we didn't have to wait longer than about 20 minutes before was saw her coming. Marissa's lucky she didn't get flattened when she tried to get between Becca and her mom (even though she'd be warned multiple times that the mom always gets the first hug...), but we ended up in one big hug with all four of us. Many, many tears were shed in gratitude for finally being reunited. It was such a roller coaster, but it was worth all of the hassle. I don't even have words for how wonderful it has been to have her back. We tried to meet family at a restaurant by our hotel (it was closed) and then the one in the hotel (it was closing in 20 minutes). So we visited in the lobby for a few minutes, but everyone was so tired, so we said goodbyes to the rest of the family and headed to our room.
Side note, we grabbed an Easy Mac from the hotel's convenience items and I waited by the front desk to pay for it. There was a woman waiting right next to me to check in to the hotel. Neither of us was very impressed that the front desk would be left unattended for that long, but then the woman said to me, "Just take it. That's what I would do. Do you know how many taxes we pay? People do it all the time..." and she continued in that vein for a couple of minutes, until she said, "...unless your conscience would bother you..." as she started to figure out that I was not going to take her advice. I assured her that my conscience would, indeed, not let me rest if I did such a thing. I was missing out on visiting with everyone over by the couches, though, so I decided to come back to the counter when the hotel employee returned. I was glad that the woman who had so seriously urged me to steal from the hotel was still finishing her check-in when I returned to the counter and asked to pay for the item in my hand. I was shocked that a grown woman would urge me so strongly to engage in out-and-out theft.
After the rest of the family left, the four of us stayed up chatting and snuggling until about 12:30 AM, which was WAY too late, but we were having so much fun together. We couldn't sleep in, either, because of all the excitement. So, we checked out of our hotel and hit the road around 8 am. We kept in touch with our Stake President, because he was on the way to SLC with his family, so we would have to figure out where to meet along the way so that he could interview Becca and formally release her from her calling as a full-time missionary. I wanted to meet somewhere nicer than a gas station or restaurant, and wondered if there was a chapel where we could meet, even if we could not get in. He suggested the chapel near the exit for Jeremy Ranch, which turned out to be a fantastic decision. The chapel was so beautiful with it's big, gothic windows, and it was quite central on our opposite routes. We knew we were a few minutes ahead of them in arriving, so we stopped at the gas station next door for a minute, and then we got to the chapel parking lot within a minute of President Despain's arrival.
President Despain wore his Sunday suit to take care of this official church business, and he and Becca just walked to the far end of the parking lot to talk for a few minutes. I kind of wish that I had taken a picture of the two of them with the mountains in the background and the morning sun lighting up the fall colors and inch of snow that had fallen the night before, but I wasn't sure it would have been appropriate, so I restrained myself. We visited with Sister Despain and a couple of her daughters while we waited, and then they hopped back in their van to give us some privacy when President Despain and Becca headed back toward us. After Becca shared a missionary experience with us that had contributed to her testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel, President Despain read her the certificate that had been signed by President Vest (the Mission President), and he formally released her from her calling. He asked me to remove Becca's missionary name tag from her jacket, which is a big deal. She wore that name tag daily for 18 months, literally bearing the name of the Savior whom she had enlisted to serve in a manner that will never be repeated in her lifetime. I hugged her as she cried, and then I prayed in gratitude for Becca's sacrifice and the Lord's blessings that have been poured out in such abundance upon her and upon our family for the last 18 months. I asked the Lord to bless us in our various travels that day, and then we thanked President Despain for going out of his way to meet up with us. We got back in the warm car and headed home again, while Becca had a good cry in the backseat.
The reunions continued after we finally got home. My mom and grandma met us in the driveway about 5 minutes after we arrived. The rest of the weekend was a blur as Becca was reunited with Poppa, aunts, uncles, cousins, a missionary companion, and dear friends, one of whom she had not seen for 3 years and three months. We had dinner with family at Cafe Rio Friday night, and then we had a bigger family dinner at the church Saturday evening, followed by a brief open-house-style "eat & greet" when ward members and friends could come visit with her. She spoke in church on Sunday, even though she didn't have much of a voice, thanks to a cold that set in after the lack of sleep and the stress of travel. Most of our company left on Sunday, but there are still contacts to make and many, many errands to run and decisions to be made over the next few weeks.
On Sunday afternoon, I had to go take care of some church business that is part of my calling, and when I got home, I walked in to see both of my girls sitting at the kitchen table, which caught me off guard and made my heart leap. I know she won't be right in our home forever (in fact, she's living in my parent's guest room for a bit), but we will cherish every minute we can. She'll be on to new adventures soon, but that's what life is all about. Words are not sufficient to express my love for the Lord and my gratitude for his mercy and blessings upon us. I pray that we will always remember how generous He has been to our family, because those memories will be a strength to us when future trials come, and they will surely come. In the meantime, what a blessed season we are having in our family right now.
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