Firm as the mountains around us

 Today is Pioneer Day around here.  It's a day I honor my pioneer forbearers and consider the blessing it is to me and to generations because of their decisions and faithfulness and sacrifices.  It was meaningful to see where some of them came from and what they left behind.  Do they know that the barren valleys they settled in are now dotted with temples?

I'm thinking about others who are firm as the mountains around us today.  Tabor's wife Katie and their daughter Olivia were in a pretty serious car accident on Tuesday night.  Tabor managed it all alone through the night, the ambulance rides and the life flights to Salt Lake City, but eventually, in the morning, he said, "I activated my team."

Olivia (my sister) drove to Lund to get their other girls, Ruby and Charlotte.  Ruby and Charlotte packed bags of necessities and handled the entire thing with aplomb.  My parents waited for the bag from Olivia and then drove it to Salt Lake.  Marianne rented a multi-day AirBnB near the hospitals (they're in different ones). Ammon and Melanee and Braeden (I picked him up at Anna's parents' house) and I went to the hospital for varying amounts of time.  Enoch called from Oregon.  Our children prayed.  (Emma called me and said, "What can I do?!?"  I said, "At the risk of sounding like a broken record, pray.) Mark was working on his schoolwork when I left and before I left, I said, "Get out your notebook.  I need you to do some things."

As I spent the hours with Tabor, I tried to get him to sleep (he'd been up over 36 hours by then) and he said he couldn't if he tried.

Adrenaline and the grit of my little brother are real.

We talked a lot, punctuated by people calling and texting him.  His team is a wider net than just our family.  

We talked about our grandparents.  We talked about how they made us feel and the examples they left.  

Our team is a wider net than just the people around us.  It extends beyond the veil.

Life can change on a dime, but sweet Katie and Olivia are in the best of hands.  Everyone we interacted with at the hospital was kind and efficient and capable seeming.  I think they will make full recoveries for which we are all so grateful.  I wish we could spare them the pain and frustration of the road to recovery ahead of them, but I know that in the individualized curriculum each of us walk in this life, there are pain and frustration at times.

There are also teams of people that love us and support us.

Firm as the mountains around us.