Delicious Ambiguity: God Has Smiled on Us

It had just gone way too perfect. Erik's trip to Mongolia seemed to come to an end with success written all over it... up until his travel buddies dropped him off at his car (which was parked a few miles from the airport).

Immediately after jumping out of the car, excited to get home to Maid's and I, Erik suddenly realized that his car keys were not with him! He had put them in his suitcase pocket, never thinking that his suitcase would get lost amongst the shuffle of flights. Well, needless to say, his suitcase got lost, so therefore Erik was standing there outside his car, only 150 miles away from us, but couldn't get home because his keys were somewhere between Beijing and Minneapolis.

Erik quickly called me to tell me of the misfortune and we thought that maybe I should get the extra key and drive down to Minneapolis and then we'd follow each other back home. Either that or he could spend the night in Minneapolis and wait for his suitcase to turn up the next day. Well, it being our anniversary and us not having seen each other for three weeks, we decided that I should jump in the car and drive down there.

"Jumping in the car" was a little harder than it sounded. It was pouring rain, thundering and lighting. Barkley! and Maida were both clinging to me, scared of the weather. I was trying to pack overnight bags for all three of us, not knowing if we'd for sure spend the night or not, seeing as it was already 7pm and I hadn't left yet. Shortly after 7:30 I finally got everyone and everything in the car and we were off. Half way to Minneapolis, Erik calls me to let me know that the airport has contacted him and says that they think they have his bag. He suggests that I turn around and go home, but Maida was already asleep at this point and she was going to have an hour more in the car, even if I turned around, so I decided to keep going.

After arriving safely to meet Erik (despite getting terribly lost in a detour and it taking a little longer than normal travel time), we went to the airport, got his bag, and then checked into a hotel for the first time ever since we've been married!!! We stayed up late-late that night, since Maida had already slept the entire way in the car and wasn't tired. Erik showed us all the gifts that he had bought us and we had fun hearing all of his Mongolia stories. We fell asleep shortly before two on the most comfortable king-size bed in the world! Erik couldn't believe that we got FIVE pillows to use! We slept in until about eight and then spend the entire day in Minneapolis, celebrating our anniversary.

Who would have thought that such drama with a lost suitcase would turn into so much fun and that all my fears of our summer coming to a drastic end when Erik stared school on Friday would so quickly, amongst such trial, diminish? God used such a misfortune to bring Erik and I together on the most perfect day for the most perfect weekend, whisking away all my sadness about the too-quickly approaching year. God is good. Not only for keeping Erik safe, but providing for us a well-needed weekend away.

We are now home and are getting ready for Tuesday morning when Erik will actually start his first day of classes. Then on Tuesday afternoon, Erik will skip school to attend our 20 week ultrasound for the baby!! I can't wait!

Thank you for all the prayers while Erik was gone... now just start praying that he'll never leave me for that long again!!! :) Here are some pictures of a couple of my favorite things that Erik bought us in Mongolia.