My cousin and her family blessed their second daughter yesterday.
Since we live literally a few towns away, we decided to go and support by attending the baby blessing. I asked for the address of the church. I thought I got it. I live in Utah, I was wrong, two other churches share that same area.
We left the house only 10 minutes after I had planned. My cousin warned me that we should be early because the church is small and we wanted a good seat. We drove down the freeway a few minutes, exited and found the cross section she gave me quite easily. We parked at 12:41 and walked into the church, it starts at 1 p.m. Wow, lots of space. We sat down and as everyone was getting situated, I looked around for my cousin. We beat her, I am thinking since I don't see her anywhere. Fortunately a kind member of the ward, maybe from the bishopric or Elder's Quorum, came over to see if this completely large and obvious family of 9 was visiting or new. After a few moments of conversation about our visit for the blessing of our family's baby... it was determined that this family was not in the ward. Oops. Of course we asked if we had the wrong address and he suggested that although the address was correct, maybe we could try the building 1 1/2 blocks down the road.
Since we had time to spare, off we went. We loaded back into our two vehicles that we must take whenever all 9 of us go anywhere since we don't all fit in the 8 seater van. Everyone was laughing at our mistake and we arrived in a minute to the new building. In we walked, a little quicker steps, and found our seats.
De ja vu? A repeat of the previous conversation from the current ward's suited representative. How can we possibly have made it to TWO wards on the same street, less than 2 blocks apart and still not be in the right ward? Fortunately, we were given the suggestion of another close building to visit, located ON the cross street I had jotted down, just a simple right hand turn and 1/2 block down the road. Apparently my cousin had meant for me to turn off 1600 North and ONTO 100 West.
We had about 4 minutes, we could make it! So, into our vehicles we climbed, again, down the street we drove, again, into another parking lot of a much smaller building which is why we didn't notice it's steeple before, and a quick dash inside. Samantha uttered the excited comment that she was collecting souvenirs, she had programs from the two wards we didn't really attend. They were singing the opening song. I peeked into the room. Sure enough, there were NO spots I could see for a group larger than two people. And, there in the front, my cousin and her family. I even had Roland do a double check, no seats. So, we made ourselves comfy in the foyer, on a couch, and a few plush chairs and a few regular church plastic chairs. You need a number of seats for a family of 9. And, we enjoyed the sacrament meeting in my cousin's ward, to support the blessing of her little baby girl.
At one point my cousin's brother (also my cousin, but I wanted to differentiate) brought his baby girl out, likely for a diaper change or a walk that dad's like to take with their babies. When he saw us, I believe I saw stupor, humor, and inquiry cross his features. He came over for a quick chat as I relayed our morning's escapades.
After he returned to his seat, we finished the meeting. I had Roland load the kids up since I wanted to say hello really quickly to my cousin, but we needed to hurry back to our ward for the kids to practice for the Primary Program which is next Sunday. I went in for my hello's and goodbye's and one of the first things they relayed was a repeat of the whispered conversation between the two siblings (my cousins) about 10 minutes prior.
"Cami and her gigantic family are out in the foyer, they have already been to two other building finding us this afternoon." "What? How many churches does she need?" "Who knows, but she needed 3 today!" "It must have been that kind of week!" and to which I add "Yep! and now I am going to my 4th!"
So, perhaps those quotation marks are misplaced since they aren't exact quotes, really just second hand utterances, but they prove a minor point. I must have had quite a week!
All I can add though, at least the family of mine proved that their spirits of adventure and optimism pulled them through with me.
