A scary night= Big Wakeup Call!--BE PREPARED!!

Tonight I deem the "scary scary night that turned into a wakeup call." My visiting teacher was visiting me, being her amazing self bringing a meal and doing my dishes, while I was playing with the little gal.
Our lights all of a sudden flicked off and on about 2 or three times with the power out....a little freaky!!!

After Genevieve left was when the real power outage happened. I was on the home phone with Steve, and in mid sentence everything went black. I seriously got freaked immediately. Different story if you don't have a baby. I grabbed her, then felt around for my cell to call Steve (the only light was that of the cell). I called Steve who didn't have long to talk.

When he hung up, I felt hopeless. I just sat there in the dark, trying to keep calm for the baby...when I looked out and saw everyone else's lights out. We sat for about five minutes when I realized we could have a real crisis on our hands.

My mind immediately thought the worst---what if this lasts long? What will I do with Andy? I feel so alone, what if my cell phone dies ( since I can't plug in and charge it), who can I call? So, I called my family in Oregon who of course were no help ( what can they do, they are in Oregon) and made fun of me....thanks for that fam!

My mind raced to the crazy. I thought of the end of the world...of a natural disaster. I thought of how truly unprepared I was. I have nothing ready, not even light. What do i do when the heat goes out? Again, thinking of all this while I am rocking my baby to keep her calm.

I walked outside to find our elders quorum president. He had one of those flashlights with no batteries and willingly offered it to us...What a relief! I saw him and the bishop going door to door to help people out. He asked if we had plenty of blankets as the heat would be out. We were fine on that end (at least).

I was overwhelmed with gratitude and happiness to be a member of the church. I felt looked after and protected ( and undeserving of it). I had been given a literal "light in the dark." When all was gone, a member of the church arrived to give me that light.

I suddenly had this new zeal to BE PREPARED!

What would I do in a real disaster? We need food, shelter, how would my diabetes go? I could not contact those I love. I wanted to call everyone and tell them at the top of my lungs to BE PREPARED! Your cell phone won't always work. You can't have someone there always if they are helping millions of others if it was a true disaster.

I guess, in a way, it is good to have little wake up calls. It makes us realize what we really need to do, how we need to prepare in several ways: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We need to let those around us know what our plan is as well, have a meeting spot. I thought of Steve and how, in a real disaster, if we could not get a hold of each other, what would happen? How could we reach each other.

I need to be spiritually prepared. I know that would be the number one thing to do.