We Made a Memory Last Night

So, there we were... my oldest daughter and I had just finished a senior portrait sitting at a beautiful, remote park. There wasn't much daylight left but I wanted to snap a few portraits of her before we left. She looked very cute in her black sweatshirt but we both thought it would be nice to utilize a lighter colored shirt. Prepared, as usual, she sprinted back to the car and made a quick change. As we started to walk back to one of my favorite "natural backdrops", I heard the "clunk" of the doors locking on our SUV.

For some reason, I immediately asked my daughter if she had the keys and the look on her face answered more quickly than the words she uttered. Unfortunately, the lighter colored shirt she now wore was also thin and short sleeved. It "worked" with the flip flops that she had on her otherwise bare feet but fashion was beginning to be far less important than warmth. The sun was setting fast now and the temperature was rapidly going down as well. I, however, had my coat and so we took turns being chilled. Her guilt over leaving the keys in the car kept her from enjoying her turns though I truly found the situation somewhat of an impromptu adventure.

There was a playground at the park a few hundred yards down a trail and we cheerily hiked over to see who our knights with shining cell phones would be. Most everyone had already left the park since dark was well on its way and it was by now quite chilly. Fortunately, there was a man playing with his two young children. He escorted us to his wife in the car... keeper of the cell phone. As I dialed home, my daughter reminded me that, "Dad never answers the phone if he doesn't recognize the caller ID." At the same time, the borrowed cell phone announced, "you have two hours and thirty-nine minutes for this call" which to my heart said, "these people pay by the minute and you cannot ask to make more than one call."

But, before I had time to usher up a prayer... I heard my honey's voice. Whew! He would be on his way and we'd be back in our car in just another 35 minutes or so. So... we thanked our newest friends and hiked back up the trail. Complete darkness was still another 20 minutes off so we decided to take some more pictures. When my daughter started looking more blue than a person should in a photograph, we went to the "warming hut" which, of course, was locked and leaned against the wall huddling together underneath my coat. My daughter, still being fashion conscious grieved over looking like hobos but we were still giggling.

Then, we saw a police cruiser driving down the dirt road that winds through the park. I was ecstatic... we'd have a warm place to wait for my husband!!! I waved my arms frantically to make sure he'd know we wanted his attention but he never looked our way. OK, I have to digress for just a moment... I pay my taxes! I'm a good citizen! He's trained to be observant! How could he not notice two people on the path heading towards him as fast as they could - one waving her arms like a maniac! But, alas, he drove off.

Now we decide to wait closer to the dirt road... in case he makes his rounds again. We decide to document the moment with a few pictures of the two of us together. We giggle some more. I slide off my shoes so my daughter can get a little warmth for her feet. We stretch the coat over the both of us. And then our new friends drive up. As we see them approach, we become worried that they'll insist we sit in their car to wait. And, Mom taught me not to get in someone's car unless I knew the year they were born, their elementary school teachers, the pastor that married them and the last four digits of their social security number... so we quickly put the coat in our laps and try to look warm and happy (we were strangely happy so that wasn't really a problem.) They rolled down their window and asked if our help was coming. I reassured them and they drove off with no offers for us to decline.

After trading a few more giggles over "was that a snake I just heard" and "hey, I heard footsteps and I think I saw two people carrying guns" and posing questions like "are there bears out here?" my husband arrived to end our adventure with a smile, hug and a bag of candy corn.

Ahh... the protection of the Lord even or especially covers our silly mistakes: there were people still in the park, they had a cell phone, it got reception, MY HUSBAND ANSWERED THE PHONE and we were rescued long before they had to amputate anything due to frostbite. Note: no mention of the police officer quite intentional!