Elsie goes to Grafton...

Well, I'm going to have to go ahead and give a shout out to God right about now for the fact that I am currently sitting on my parent's couch in front of a warm fire place with a snugly blanket wrapped around me. So, everybody give it up for God! After Friday night, it would be completely foolish of me to believe that he is anything but awesome!
What happened Friday night you ask? Well on Friday night, my husband decided that we should venture out into what John Wheeler explained as "a whiteout blizzard with 60 mile an hour winds". Before you go assuming that we are absolutely stupid, I should remind you that we didn't actually venture out in the middle of the blizzard, instead, we had all intentions of beating it. Uhhh, needless to say, we didn't.
I had a bad feeling about heading for home long before the weather even turned bad. I know John Wheeler isn't always correct in his forecasting, but I was pretty sure that I saw the seriousness in his eyes as he delivered the news of this nasty blizzard. A blizzard is not something a weather man takes lightly.

As we all loaded into the car, I could feel the storm looming over our heads, as the night sky was turning dark and eerie, and the wind picked up speed. By the time we had made it to Manvel, I was convinced that I wanted to turn around. The weather hadn't even gotten bad yet, but all I could hear in the back of my head was John Wheeler uttering the words "whiteout blizzard". In typical fashion, Matthew called me out for being dramatic and worrying too much, and proceeded to PROMISE me that we would be fine. Oh how wrong he was.
Within 15 minutes of passing Manvel, we found ourselves at a dead stop on the interstate, and unable to see past the hood of the car. It was like staring at a white wall, hence the term "whiteout". I couldn't even believe what was happening. My husband had just promised me that he would get us home safely, and suddenly I was feeling betrayed as I realized we weren't going anywhere any time soon. My first emotion was anger as I wondered how Matthew could have gotten his family into a life-threatening situation.

I couldn't possibly explain the sheer terror and panic I felt as we were sitting on the interstate between two trucks, unable to see anything but little bits of tail lights glowing from the truck that was about 10 feet ahead of us. I noticed that Matthew was becoming quickly discouraged and  upset and realized that I had to pull up my big girl panties and get over my anger and start to calm down and keep things as positive as I could. I had to constantly remind him to stop apologizing, and to remember to keep his mind clear and focused on getting us safe. As much as I wanted to stay positive, I couldn't seem to keep my mind from wandering to thoughts of very dangerous and deadly situations. I couldn't get my thoughts and body shakes under control, and I was about to throw up (not even kidding), when I finally realized that it was time to start talking to God. It is such a comforting feeling to know that you can talk to God any time you want, and know that he is listening and that he has plans for you. I simply asked him to stay with us and help us to stay calm. Not only did I need to stay calm in order to make good decisions, but I had a 7 month old in the back seat that I needed to keep comforted.
After sitting idle for about 30 minutes on the interstate, a convoy of cars came along, and we decided that we should join. We found ourselves driving 5 miles per hour blindly down the interstate following nothing but two dim little tail lights. We wanted so badly just to make it to Drayton, but at 5 miles per hour (or less), it could take us hours. We came to the Grafton exit when we realized our convoy was leaving us. We had to make a quick decision about whether or not we wanted to stick with the other cars, or risk being completely alone and try to blindly drive the next 8 miles to Drayton. Well, I chose Grafton. There was no way I was about to leave the people that had just safely guided us 25 miles down the interstate. It was pretty obvious that they knew these roads quite well, and I was fairly confident that they could get us to some place safe.

I would like to tell you every little detail about the 10 mile drive to Grafton, but I will spare you and get to the end. We were TWO MILES out of Grafton when we came upon a bunch of drifts on the road. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. If you guessed "got stuck", you are indeed correct. We got stuck. We had made it through 3 hours of sheer hell and when we were two miles from our destination, we managed to lodge ourselves into a snow bank that was smack dab in the middle of the highway. In any other circumstance, we probably would have been able to get through the drift, but our poor car was begging for a place to thaw out and rest, and therefore lacked the power to get us through!
AHHHHH. I was so afraid to spend the night in a cold car with my most treasured possession, Elsie.
Okay, I promised I was going to end this soon. Somewhere around 4 hours into this ordeal, our knights in shining armour arrived, a.k.a., the police. They whisked the 3 of us from the car and hoisted us into the backseat of their SUV and 5 minutes later we arrived at the Americ Inn in Grafton, North Dakota. I never could have guessed in my wildest dreams that I would have been so ecstatic to be standing in the Americ Inn hotel lobby booking their standard cooperate room.
To end this post (I apologize that it is so terribly long), I would like to remark that Elsie was an absolute trooper. She slept through most of the experience, and didn't shed even one tear. When she got antsy towards the end, I gave her a book and she immediately started talking and giggling as she looked through the pages. I am 100% serious when I say that it bring tears to my eyes to when I think about how wonderful she was. Can you imagine this whole experience with a screaming baby on top of it all!?!?! When it was all over and the policemen came, I zipped her up in her snowsuit, took her out into the 57 mile per hour FREEZING wind and once we reached the car, I lifted her hood to find her sporting her gummy grin! On the 5 minute ride to town she even talked and cooed at the top of her lungs as if she was just having the best time of her life. She seriously rocks!

As I read back on what I have written, I notice that it seems quite dramatic, and that's because it was! Although I wouldn't wish this experience on anybody, I think it is experiences like these that really help you realize how blessed you are! On any other night, I would be disgusted to be climbing into bed with Elsie and Matthew at an Americ Inn with greasy hair and absolutely no toiletries or pj's, but on this night, I felt like the luckiest gal ever!