Happy Camper!

We dropped off Madalynn this afternoon at her first by-herself, away-from-home camp ever! She is spending 6 days and 5 nights Little Galilee church camp, near Clinton, IL. Little Galilee is only 20 minutes from our house, but a sleep-over next door can SEEM far away when you're 10...or when you're a mother of a 10-year-old going to camp for the first time.

Maddie has been SO excited for this week for about a month, since she brought the camp information form home from church. She has been dreaming and wondering about the friends she'll meet, sleeping on the top bunk, and what camp food would taste like. She read and re-read the information form that was sent about preparing for camp.

The funniest thing ever is when she started fretting about how she was going to go a week without shaving her legs. I looked at her kind of funny and said, "You can just take your shaving cream and razor to camp and do it there. Church camp has showers, Maddie." She responded, "I know they have showers, Mom. It just says in the guidelines that you can't shave your hair." I assured her that didn't mean your leg hair or armpit hair. I read the guidelines again to see where she was getting this idea. Guideline #11 says, "Campers may not alter their looks by shaving or dying their hair, piercing body parts, etc." I just chuckled to myself. I am glad Maddie's innocence reads this guideline to include her leg hair! She packed her razor and shaving cream, but because Mom MUST be interpreting the guidelines too loosely, she will probably not use them just to be sure she's not breaking the guidelines.

Packing was a 2-day, shopping-trip-required ordeal. I took her to the Tanger Outlet mall yesterday in Tuscola, IL, to help her find a few more pairs of shorts that fit her growing little figure. We showed up to the outlet mall with detailed list in-hand, thanks to Maddie's preparedness. We hit a couple stores, found what we needed, and the packing quest continued at home today. Travis finally (5 minutes after we were supposed to be on the road) told her that she needed to zip her backpack and not bring anything else. Then he looked at me and asked, "Did you ever bring this much stuff to church camp? I just looked at him and smiled, "You betcha, Babe. Did you?" "Not even close," he said, laughing. "Not even close."

We were 10 minutes early for registration. Even after quickly signing in, driving to her cabin and unloading, and walking through her cabin's door, the bunks were filling up quickly!

I encouraged her to attend "Jr. Main Camp," because it included air-conditioning, even though the rugged "Wilderness Camp" was tempting her. I encouraged her to choose the most-like-home route because of my first experience at camp, which I'll write about later. Keep in mind that Madalynn has given up softball because it's too hot outside, and wants to do swim team instead. Swimming, she deduced, was one of the only sports (she knows of, anyway), that don't require her to sweat and deal with the heat. Ha!

The age group of her camp is 5th grade to 8th grade. She didn't say so, but I could tell she was scanning for girls who looked her age when the girls we first encountered looked like 8th-graders! Travis helped her pick a top bunk by some girls he could tell were her age. Later he confessed that he helped her find and gravitate toward her own age group was to, "keep the boys away." :)

We helped her get her things situated in her little corner of the room, then the boys and Travis headed outside with Jillian while I waited for Maddie to get her swimsuit on. The girls who had been there before were wasting no time in heading down out the door to the pool, which is right in front of her cabin.

The name of her cabin is "Love." I'm thinking the cabins were named, "Love," "Joy," "Peace," and "Patience." I think the cabins named "Peace" and "Patience" were appropriately assigned to the boys.

We all gave her lots of love before we left. Justis refused to hug or kiss her, but that's about par for the course. That's his way of declaring his love for Big Sister. I gave her one last hug and kiss and then she turned and went inside to meet the strangers, whom she will be able to tell me all about in about a week, to go to the pool.

I think I may have saw her eyes water up as she hurried away. By the time we had driven around camp getting a look before we left, we drove by the pool again and saw Maddie happily chatting with the girls as they walked in the pool entrance. She's gonna have LOTS of fun this week!

Bird Seed or Breast?

I stopped in front of our sliding glass doors in the living room yesterday to take a look at the squirrel who was lying flat on its stomach. We feed the birds and squirrels from a feeder on the top rail of our deck that is directly in front of our big ol' hickory tree. The squirrel was positioned directly beside the feeder, lying flat out on its stomach, hugging the rail with its little squirrel feet.

"What is wrong with this squirrel?" I thought. We are constantly enjoying the variety of birds and squirrel circus, but I have never seen this kind of behavior from a squirrel before. I started getting concerned. "Is it dying?" "Is it having trouble walking?" Then I saw another, smaller squirrel, bobbing on another branch, to the wind blowing through the trees. Then I got to thinking, "That selfish squirrel is hoarding food and guarding the feeder so the birds and other squirrels don't get any!" "Selfish squirrel!" I thought, as I went on with my housework.

Maddie stopped me as I was coming through the living room later on that afternoon. "Mom!" she said. "I think there is something wrong with that squirrel. He has been laying there like that for 30 minutes, and it won't move." I looked out again and saw the selfish squirrel lying flat on its stomach again, guarding the feeder. And, again, another smaller squirrel was bobbing on a tree branch, waiting its turn at the feeder.

Then I felt it. A feeling only a mother who has ever just wanted to be left alone feels. You know, moms, that feeling that if anyone else touches you, you're gonna lose it? You just need a bathroom break behind a closed door so no one can "help" you, talk to you, tattle, or need something?

I started watching the "selfish squirrel" through new eyes. I looked. Sure enough, it was a mama squirrel. We had seen the little baby squirrels on the first day they ventured out of their nest onto the bobbing branches of the hickory tree. They had slipped, jumped, fallen, and hung on for dear life, as they learned to navigate the tree branches.

Selfish Squirrel's barely-visible little breasts were carefully concealed against the rail as she laid flat-out across it, gripping the sides for dear life. Suddenly "Selfish Squirrel" became "Wise Mama Squirrel". Wise Mama Squirrel just wanted to be left alone. She did not want to be touched. She did not want to offer another one of her breasts to her adolescent "baby" squirrels. She was weaning them!

I looked over at the little squirrel, bobbing on the branch, patiently waiting for mom to move just enough that it could sneak a suck at her breast. Mama wasn't going anywhere, though. It was a battle of time and of wills. Would Wise Mama Squirrel be able to lay and wait out her child's hunger pangs? Or would the patient, hungry little squirrel get her to relent.

I called the kids over, told them what was happening, and we watched.

The little squirrel, sure enough, came over, sniffing and nudging Wise Mama Squirrels tummy, looking for its snack. Wise Mama Squirrel just flattened out further, to say, "No!" The little squirrel finally stepped right on top of Wise Mama Squirrel and found himself sitting in the bird feeder. At first little squirrel just sat there. Wise Mama Squirrel laid there, patiently waiting. Little squirrel started playing and sifting through the bird seed mix. Finally, little squirrel picked up a shelled nut, tried it, and had some more. Wise Mama Squirrel just stayed, statue-like, while her child ate "real food."

We Moved!! (4 Months Ago)

Most of our blog followers already know this, but we MOVED! :) Travis was promoted in October to a new, larger "continental" region within ADM, and with the promotion received a desk at Archer Daniel's Midland's corporate headquarters in Decatur, Illinois. We chose to make the little "bedroom community" of Argenta, Illinois, our physical home.

Travis's new position is Director of Health of Ag Services for North America. He was contacted about the position in October. His mentor and the former Director of Health and Ag Services for North America, Matt, was called back to active duty with the Navy. Only a couple of weeks notice were given to Matt, and thus to Travis, so Travis started his new job working nationally out of his regional Kansas office in Hutchinson. Travis's boss is sensitive to our family wanting to be together, especially around the holidays, so he encouraged Travis to stay and work in Kansas until we could move together as a family. Work did take Travis away on travel during those first 3 months of his job, but we got to spend Christmas together and most of the time before we all moved to Illinois in late January.

Leaving Kansas was predictably bittersweet. We knew our rented farmhouse arrangement with Travis's cousin Stacy and her husband Jeff on their farm was temporary when we moved in during October 2009. We had no idea our already-good friendships with them would blossom even more, or how soon our great time being neighbors would come to an end. I still miss my daily chats with either Stacy or Jeff's mom, Sheryl, and we all (especially the kids and Jillian) miss Raegan. Raegan and Jillian were two little peas in a pod, went to preschool together, and were best-friend second cousins! Having family and friendship in the same state, let alone right next door, is priceless.

God transplanted us into a gem of a neighborhood called Hickory Hills here in the little "bedroom community" of Argenta, IL. Hickory Hills is a quiet and peaceful little huddle of houses planted literally in the middle of wooded areas and corn fields. Argenta is a village of around 900, and our little Hickory Hills is even further removed from the "population," located about a mile north of town. We love our physical home and spread of yard, but our neighbors are what make the neighborhood so special.

Eleven children can be found playing in my yard or house on any given day after school. We are motivated to finish homeschool by about three o'clock on school days, because as soon as the bus comes down the street, the kids' little friends come knocking on our door. We LOVE it! Maddie has connected with Erin and Abbi, both girls around her age. Justis and Dawson play with Grant, Christian, Austin, Alexander and Evan. Jillian usually tags along with Maddie, Erin & Abbi to do girl things. They have made a fort in the "woods" on the property behind our house, ride bikes up and down the street, or go from backyard to backyard playing games. The boys like to come in and play with Travis's large boxes of Legos that he saved from his childhood.

Travis and I personally have a commonality with many of our neighbors, because Travis works for ADM. At least 6 people I can think of off the top of my head in our neighborhood work for ADM, as well. I can easily relate to many of the women on the block who work for ADM or whose husbands work for ADM. We also relate to our neighbors because many of them are parents of young children, as we are. Spontaneous weekend backyard barbecues are so much fun! My sweet neighbor Emily kindly invited me to a book club with she and two other neighbor ladies, and I LOVE the time I have at our monthly book club meetings. I have also enjoyed reading books I never would have otherwise.

I am happy that we are homeowners again. Renting was perfect for the season in Kansas, but having enough room and a yard that is my responsibility blesses me. We have a large guest room for family and friends who come to visit. I have a master bathroom and closet again (yay!), and a big ol' basement I can send the kids down to when we all need some time apart and the weather is cold or rainy.

The full potential of our yard has yet to be fully realized, but I am LOVING working to get it there. The property is about 1 acre, with two decorative ponds (with fish) and a large variety of trees and plants. Travis has yet to get the pond up and running, and I have yet to get all of the many beds weeded and under control. Illinois must be fertile, because the weeds and non-weeds alike grow BIG. Neighbors say it seems you can literally watch and hear the corn grow on warm muggy summer days. Round-Up, our little John Deere trailer and our new Hustler mower have made working our yard into submission possible. :)

Illinois weather has left much to be desired for me. We were completely snowed in for two days immediately after we moved in. We watched as all the neighbors fired up their snow blowers and I remember thinking, "Why do I want to live in a climate where I need to own a snowblower!?" Our new friends insisted that the blizzard(s) were not common for Illinois, yet there was snow on the ground for more than a solid month between the time we moved in and the snow finally melted. I also thought spring would never come. Now that it has been nice a few weeks, I am thinking my flowers might never bloom. I think living with Illinois weather will be a good exercise in being patient for my favorite season...SUMMER!! I am secretly keeping my fingers crossed that ADM's CEO will decide to move corporate headquarters to somewhere warm and sunny. Like FLORIDA!! On the other hand, that would mean moving again. NO!!

Miss "Jillie Pearl" is 4!

I am playing blog catch-up by going back and posting about the kids' birthdays. Jillian turned 4 years old July 26.







Jillian has a special charisma that just screams "look at me!" She generates curiosity starting with the big 'fro with the tiny, kinky curlies, to her dimple, big smile, and sense of personal style. Once she notices people are noticing her cute little features topped by the big hair, she reels them in with an ornery smile, something to make them laugh and then love.

Her expressions and sayings are priceless. I weave short, simple conversational bits of foreign language through daily dialog. Yesterday she asked, Mom, can I have my blankie, por favor? She said it with confidence and style and expression that was so interesting the kids and I all stopped and reacted by cracking up to her entertaining use of her new Spanish vocabulary.

Jillian is still a mommy's girl, but she has started gaining confidence in some areas outside of the comfort of our home and family. She goes solo to preschool 3 days a week and played soccer and t-ball this year. She ended up playing about 60 percent of her soccer games. The other 40 percent were spent watching from the sidelines because she just couldn't get past the initial shyness of performing in front of an audience. Her preschool teacher also told us at conferences a few nights ago that she is so quiet and doesn't respond sometimes to her spoken questions or answer questions in a group. Travis and I were laughing out loud at this strange picture of our outgoing Jillian, who can run our whole household with her pinky finger when she feels like it!

Jillian is very fiery in her opinions. Guessing what she wants from minute-to-minute is next to impossible, because she loves variety. One thing you can be sure of with Jillian, though, is that when she decides what she wants she's either gonna get it or end up exhausting all possibilities to get it. Ultimately, as you can imagine, that sometimes means a few spankings and time alone in her room to cool down!

Jillian is just as passionate about her loyalty and love to her family than she is about getting what she wants, thankfully. :) She has a compassionate little heart and is always literally asking me, "Mommy, is there anything I can do to help you?" She can sense when someone is sad or upset, and she can sense just the right moment to crack a joke or turn on the charm.

Miss Jillian, we LOVE you so much and we are so thankful you keep youthfulness alive in our hearts and family!

Feliz Cumpleanos, ChaChi!

I am playing blog-catch up and posting about the kids' birthdays that I missed. Dawson turned 6 years old on September 30!





Dawson (whom I affectionately call ChaChi or Bubba) turned 6 years old today! Wow! I know it's cliche, but I'll say it anyway. He has grown up SO fast!

Dawson is still about as happy-go-lucky as he was the day he entered this big world. What a blessing his laid-back personality has been for me all through his life. How could Mr. Chunky Monkey Dawson NOT be content and laid back as a baby? He ate, smiled, smiled some more, then his beautiful long eyelashes would lower and he'd be fast asleep. He rarely cried as a baby and still nary cries as a kid. Things that make him cry is frustration over things like not getting to be with Daddy 24-7, or getting his couch spot taken by another tv viewing sibling when Dawson gets up to get a drink or go to the bathroom.

ChaChi likes to look good. He does NOT like his dad to cut his hair anymore, because he does not like it buzzed with the clippers. He likes to have a good old-fashioned scissors-only haircut. Dawson's fashion necessity seems to be a collar. Dawson can take a button-up shirt with a collar or a polo, pair them with his khaki or denim pants or shorts and "bam!" you've got some Dawson style. He's got a couple new pairs of shoes he loves. His birthday present was a new pair of RealTree Crocs, which are camouflage with blaze orange on the shoe strap. His birthday outfit was his Realtree Crocs paired with a pretty boy pair of blue shorts and shirt.

Dawson's birthday focus was his daddy. Family tradition is that Travis takes the birthday boy or girl out to lunch at the restaurant of the birthday boy's or girl's choosing. Dawson waited all morning, in anticipation of his special date. He saw Travis's truck turn onto the farm and roll up the drive. Dawson's little feet hit the floor and he met Travis outside! They went to lunch together at McDonalds and when they got home Travis stayed for about 10 minutes to watch Dawson open his present. Dawson then IMpatiently waited for Travis to come home from work in the evening, because he knew he was going to go with Travis to Wichita for a mission meeting. Dawson's little love tank was full from being with Daddy all day AND he got presents. What more could a little boy ask for on his birthday?

An even better question is, "What more could a mom or dad ask for in a child?"

A Parking Brake and a Prayer

Read on, as we rejoin the Davis family in their summer off-roading adventure in Pike National Forest. We last left the Davis family with their minivan stuck on the side of a cliff' as a result of following a "back road" deep into the huge forest. Previously that day, they had climbed to the top of Devil's Head fire observatory and enjoyed the wonderful view. Little did they know, their adventure had not ended with getting lost and having wildlife encounters!

I instructed the kids to go back to their "waiting spot" up the road and asked them to be praying as I scanned to make sure there wasn't any wildlife stalking them.

I got in the van and did my "get in the van routine." Mirrors, check. Seat, check. Seatbelt, check. PARKING BREAK, umm...

The parking break was engaged! I quickly thought back to how long it had been since I put it on out of habit. I feared Travis might go ahead and leave me out in the dark with the wildlife if he realized what I'd done. I remember putting it on about 2 hours into our being stuck, and just before getting out on my signal-searching walk.

Travis had been trying, unsuccessfully, for the last hour (at least) to get the van unstuck whilst it had the parking break on. All of his hard work in the last hour had been for nil because I thoughtlessly put the parking break on!

"Crap! TRAVIS..." I hollered out at him as he was under the van putting the floor mats under the tires for extra traction for our last "getting unstuck" attempt. I didn't even wait for a response. "The parking break was on. I'm so sorry. It's been on since I left to go find a signal."

His head popped up and he stood up straight to look at me. "You mean the parking break has been on the last 4 or 5 times I tried to move the van?"

"Yes," I matter-of-factly said, waiting for the scolding.

Travis smiled and let out a chuckle. "Well, that explains a lot, he said. I kept smelling something, thinking it was the rubber from the tires spinning in their places. I was smelling the rubber from the parking break! I also wondered why in the heck the van wasn't moving, because I had done about everything I could think and the van still wasn't budging. I was baffled because I could find or see nothing that seemed to be getting in the way of the wheels moving."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, well, watch out. I'm gonna try it again. I bet it goes this time." Travis finished putting the rubber floor mats under the tires that he had dug out, just for extra measure. I took the parking break off, whispered and extra prayer, and steadily pushed the accelerator.

The van moved!

Let me now point out that God had promptly and directly answered the prayer we had prayed 5 minutes earlier. The kids were cheering and grinning as they watched me pull the van closer to where they were standing.

I heard Jillian yell, "It's unstuck! God unstuck the van!"

Justis smiled and yelled, "Daddy, I knew God would get us out of here!"

Travis was hollering, "Jae, don't stop! Don't stop! Keep pulling up! I'm gonna direct you, and you're gonna have to back up. Watch my hands and listen, and go the way I tell you, okay!? Put it in reverse now, but don't stop completely!"

I got to a speed just fast enough to prevent us from getting stuck again and carefully switched to reverse.

"Turn the wheel right!" Travis said as he motioned. "Now left a little. Now a hard right. A HARD right."

Well, in true Jae form, I decided after the second turn of the wheel per Travis's instruction, that I NEEDED to do my own thing. In my mind doing the wrong thing was justified because I had to make sure I didn't back off a cliff, above anything else. I was quickly reminded that Travis wasn't telling me to make a hard right for the fun of it.

"Crrrrreeeeeaaaaak," the whole van went.

"JAE! WHAT did I tell you?! I said hard right! Do you know your right from your left?"

"Well, I didn't want to drive off the cliff, so I turned it the other way."

"Jae, I'm standing right here and can see where you're going better than you can. Do you really think I would steer you off a cliff?"

Doing directly the opposite of something God, my husband, or one of my parents usually proves to be disastrous. You'd think I'd have lived long enough to remember this when I'm contemplating doing my own thing.

"Well [wait for it...], I'M SORRY! I was wrong." I admitted.

"Well," Travis retorted, "You just drove right into the rut!"

"Well, we can't do anything about it now. I'm gonna just have to keep backing."

The van had been moving during this whole conversation, and so I let my foot off of the break a little more to get backing. The van made HORRIFIC creaking noises. The sound was like a huge steel fixture slowly falling down. Travis later told me that the van was actually suspended on two, opposite wheels when I made the wrong turn over that rut. Needless to say, we'll be getting the alignment double-checked next time the van goes in for an oil change!

I kept backing down a little way until it was safe to stop and switch drivers and let the kids back in. The kids had been following the van down as I backed down in the headlights. Travis got in and continued backing until we came to that clearing that had been a ways back, so we could turn around.

As if we needed more to contend with, we realized the roads did not have signs facing our way for the trip out of the park. We stopped and looked at all of the little "roads" going everywhere and wondered how we were going to find our way out.

Well, the good thing about being lost in a national forest in the dark, is that headlights cast shadows on tire tracks, making them discernible. Only then did we realize we were the only set of highway radials that had traveled ANY of the roads. All the other tire marks were, um, OFF-ROAD VEHICLES!! Identifying our tire tracks was fairly easy, so we just prayed they were visible at every turn we made along the way.

I kept checking the cell phones for service as Travis followed our tire tracks. I FINALLY got a weak signal at around 10:30, so I sent out a text to Travis's sister Holly with our general location so someone could come looking for us in the event that nobody had heard from us by morning.

Did I mention we were VERY low on fuel? We had 3/4 of a tank when we entered the park that day. We were almost down to empty by the time we started to retrace our tracks back out of the park. Again, nature helped us out, and the majority of the ride to the nearest town with a gas station was mostly a coast downhill.

We ended up making a complete circle, by the time all was said and done. We ended up having to come back up to the cabin through Denver and Colorado springs, due to having to go where the nearest fuel station was. I switched back over to driving once we got gas, and I drove us home as Travis and the kids (who were ALL exhausted) could sleep the rest of the way in stress-free peace. We got back to the cabin around 1:30 a.m. Colorado time. That's 2:30 a.m. Kansas time!

We were already making light of the very serious situation we were in while we were still "navigating" the very serious situation. The next day our adventure had turned into a funny story. Our family kind of came together under the stress and absurdity of that day, amazingly.

Turns out the pressure and testing and the absurd turn of events that day turned out to be a family and marriage-building experience. Travis and I were forced to figure it out when we didn't agree. The kids were so very good amidst the craziness and unknown of being lost. They faced a situation (probably some of them for the first time ever) where they had to rely ultimately on God's help and trusting Him for their safety and security, because the situation was much bigger than Mommy and Daddy!

Travis asked me, "What do you want to do today," when we woke up and got around the next morning. I looked at him to see if he was serious and I replied, "NOTHING! I want to stay right here at the cabin for a day."

Our bodies were physically sore from the washboard and roller coaster roads. We discovered that real off-roading takes every muscle in the human body (ouch!)!

We did go to Wal Mart in Woodland park the day after our adventure, just to buy a couple of board games we could enjoy lounging around and playing together. We also stopped at a gas station to give the minivan a thorough inside-and-out cleaning. A thin powder of dust covered EVERYTHING in and outside of the van. The seats were covered in Colorado rocks and sand from Travis lying on his back under the van much of our trip.

I went in to pay for a car wash and saw the map display at the front of the gas station. I still had a few questions that were left unanswered about our trip. "Where were we when we got stuck? Was it a real road? Did ANY map have all of those little roads marked?" I picked up a few state maps that showed no little roads in Pike National Forest. I Then spotted a row of Colorado ATV and ORV (Off-road vehicle) guides. "Hmmm..." I thought. "Worth a look."

Sure enough, there in the index of one of the guides was the ATV/ORV trails of Pike National Forest. I went ahead and bought the book and took it out to the minivan before opening it. I was so curious and full of suspense, I think I could compare my feeling to Charlie's anticipation of finding the golden ticket in his chocolate bar!

Travis snatched the book up first and went straight to the page showing the "section" of Pike National Forest that we had been lost in. I said, "Look for 351. That's the road we followed."

Travis said, "I don't see it," after he had looked for a few seconds. There were 3 levels of difficulty that the roads were assigned. The difficulty levels were distinguished on the map by different colors. Green for easy, blue for moderate, and red for advanced/difficult. Travis finally spotted 351, but it wasn't marked in any of those colors, BECAUSE IT WASN'T A TRAIL ACKNOWLEDGED OR MAINTAINED BY THE NATIONAL PARK. There 351 was, marked in a faint brown color with a black arrow pointing to the road that simply said, "VERY DIFFICULT."

We both gasped in disbelief before we looked at each other and we bust out laughing. With God's help, we and the Swagger Wagon had "officially" survived some serious off-roading. I know that day was one Travis and I will never forget, and I'm pretty sure even Jillian, who was barely 4 at the time, will always remember it, too! I personally think we should be the Toyota Sienna's new poster family. :)

A Walk and a Warning

Here's a very quick recap of the first two installments of the story of when we got lost in a national forest. (If you're just "tuning in," you should go back and read my last two posts before this one for the full story.) My story has also been extended to 4 installments. I've finished, but "installment 3" was just going to be too long for one blog post. So I divided into two. Sorry for the suspense. Well, really I'm not sorry for the suspense. :) Suspense is one of the things that make sharing stories fun for me!

We had a great time visiting Devil's Head fire lookout tower in Pike National Forest in Colorado. We started taking some back roads, and drove until the minivan could no longer handle the unfamiliar terrain. We had come to a stop somewhere in the middle of Pike National Forest.

******

We both sat there in complete silence and utter amazement for several seconds. We looked up at the boulders jutting out of the "road" ahead of us and then back again at the HUGE cavernous wash-out behind us that I was just barely able to maneuver the minivan over going forward.

"Well, we're gonna have to back down, then," Travis said after thinking it over for a minute.

"First of all, I don't think I should be the one to be trusted with backing the van down a mountain. Secondly, it's foolish to try to back down with a van full of kids when there's a drop-off on one side of the road! I think it would be smart to get the kids out BEFORE we start backing."

"I totally agree," Travis concurred.

"That way you can also jump out if the back wheels go over the ledge and the van falls off the cliff." [Just a heads up here. I know I speak fluent sarcasm often, but this conversation was about as serious as it gets. We were REALLY planning an exit strategy plan "B" in case our van went over a cliff! REALLY?!]

"Alright, kids," Travis announced, "You've got to get out of the van and go stand up there a little ways. Backing the van back down the road is going to be tricky."

Silence from the back seat. More silence. Then came the sobs.

Tears of stress and fear started running down poor Madalynn's cheeks. She just couldn't take the intensity of the situation any longer! I could tell the other kids felt her pain. Jillian then started crying, too, because she knows it's serious when Maddie cries (and Mommy and Daddy are talking about how NOT to drive the van off a cliff). Dawson didn't say a word and got his shoes on so he could get out. He nearly ran Maddie and Jillian over trying to make it out of the back seat. I'm guessing he'd only heard bits and pieces of the conversation between Travis and I. I'm sure those bits and pieces were enough enough for him to think yesterday wouldn't have been too early to have stepped out of the van and onto solid (albeit uneven) ground.

"Maddie, Dad and Mom just need us to get out until they get over this one spot so we can back down the mountain and turn around." Justis broke the silence with brotherly care in his voice. "It's gonna be okay."

We took a minute to validate any fears the kids had and to pray. We KNEW we wouldn't be getting out of the forest without God's help. Only God knew where we were located in huge Pike National Forest, so nobody else could have helped us anyway!

The kids went up the road several van lengths ahead so Travis would have plenty of room to safely maneuver. They stood watching from "up" the road while I stood behind the van where Travis could see me motion to him where to go from his rear-view mirrors.

Project back-up was "a go," so Travis pulled up a little for clearance from the ravine going down the middle of the road. He then began pulling back very slowly as I started motioning.

Did you know that women speak the language "back-up" differently than men? You know, all of that holding their hands so far apart, clenching their fists to signal "stop" and what not? I thought I had watched Travis do this for me enough that surely I could effectively speak "back-up" in a way he would understand.

Well, one wheel hanging off the cliff side of the road and one teetering van later, Travis and I had a heated discussion about my my "back-up" fluency (or lack thereof). I was trying to help him clear the cavernous wash-out whilst keeping him ON the road and not ROLLING down the side of the mountain. I was unsuccessful.

"Travis, STOP! STOP!" I screamed as I held my fist up in what I thought was the "back-up" indication for stop. His back wheel was rolling over the very little sandy hump separating the side of the "road" from the cliff. Sure enough. He kept going. I added to my dramatic fist pumping and yelled even more urgently with my fist in the air.

"Travis, the van is teetering! STOP! Your back passenger wheel is hanging off the road!" He opened the door to step out and look when he, too, felt the van teeter.

He quickly closed the door to prevent any unnecessary movement. He immediately pulled forward again. The wheel was over the sand barrier so far, that when he tried to get the back wheel back on the road, the front wheel also went over the barrier hump. There we were with both passenger wheels literally barely doing their job to keep the van from rolling down in to the cavernous, tree-lined ravine (with the classic Colorado stream) at the bottom. We couldn't see the stream, but we could hear the sound of the water coming from WAY down below. Having one option for getting unstuck, which was to keep maneuvering, Travis re-focused on the original plan to position the van to back down the road safely.

"Jae, just show me where to back, okay? I'm gonna keep backing."

I said, "Travis where are you planning on backing? Off the cliff? Because there's no room to back up!"

"I'm going to back up, Jae. Just watch the wheels and the cliff, okay?"

"Alright, Travis. Just go." I said, quite frustrated by this point. It was obvious, from the view from behind the van, that it was time to wave the white flag. Travis needed to physically retreat and get his body to the safety of the road, as opposed to remaining in the teetering, cliff-hanging minivan he was currently occupying. (Please remember, this story is from my point of view as a wife. I was naturally concerned more for my husband's well-being than I was about losing a vehicle.)

God must have thought Travis needed to take a break from backing, too. Travis, determined, put the van in forward, went up a few feet, then started backing again. Both tires were too close to the edge for any kind of maneuvering backward, so he quickly tried going forward again. The van's wheels just dug deeper into the sand when he pushed the accelerator this time, though. The minivan was stuck!

We were not only then stuck, we were stuck with two of our wheels hanging off of a cliff!

"Crap!" I said. Then, "STOP!! STOP!! You're just digging the wheels in deeper!"

Travis shut the van off, got out and surveyed the damage we had done with our "project back-up." He put his hand on his forehead and shook his head when he saw that the wheels were just flinging sand because the van was totally high-centered on the narrow sand hump on the side of the road.

"We're gonna have to call someone to come help us out of this situation." I said. "A tow truck or something." I don't even know if a tow truck would be of any help, considering they wouldn't be able to drive a wrecker where we had driven that minivan! "We need to call someone."

"Call who, Jae?" Travis asked to begin helping me make the obvious deduction that I hadn't clued into yet.

"Duh, Travis! We'll call with one of our cell phones."

Then he paused and waited for me to put the pieces together.

"Oh. Dang. I forgot we don't have coverage here." I said.

"Who would you even call, Jae?" Travis asked.

"911! They could at least help us find our location."

"Jae, how would a police car or an ambulance even get to where we are? And we couldn't even tell them where we are, because we don't know!"

Travis spent the next 2 hours using his ingenuity to prepare the van to be unstuck. We helped him find rocks a certain size that he could put in the wheel ruts for traction. He bloodied his hands digging "high center sand" out from under the van. He jacked the "stuck" side of the van up with the tire jack.

We had one or two unsuccessful tries of me in the driver's seat and Travis giving a good push, but the van didn't budge.

I decided I needed to further explore finding a cell phone signal. Travis had nearly completely exhausted all of his resources, which included rocks, sticks, rubber floor mats, the tire jack and all it's pieces, and his bare hands. Reality was pointing to the fact that it didn't look like we were going to get the van unstuck without the help of someone or something else.

I announced to Travis and the kids that I was going to try and help by walking up to the top of the mountain to find a cell phone signal and call for help. I started up the "road" with a cell phone in each hand. I can safely say that AT&T and Verizon have a huge "dead zone" in Pike National Forest! The only places we had bars earlier that day was at the top of the fire lookout and at a few other various random places along the way.

I hiked UP, well out of earshot and and the view of Travis and the kids. I don't know how far I got, but I just kept thinking, "I already did a 1.5 mile walk straight up today, I wonder how long it will take to get to the top of this mountain?"

My thoughts were interrupted and rerouted by a loud, hair-raising growl. That's what I said. A GROWL! A piercing growl that turned me white as a ghost and ripped through the peaceful sounds of the river far down below. I'm no wild animal, but I know a WARNING growl when I hear one!

A million thoughts went through my brain all at once. "What WAS that animal? Bear, mountain lion, cougar?...BIG cat!" Then my brain flashed with images from Animal Planet survival shows showing mountain lion attacks. I went over their rules. "Don't run, because they might mistake you as prey. Don't look at them, so that they don't feel they are being challenged.

I could feel my whole body flush. I came to a dead standstill. I put the cell phones to my side and looked down slowly. I didn't even attempt to look around to see where the growl came from. I didn't even WANT to know where it came from, because I'm pretty sure I would've fainted if I had seen the size and type of animal that had been watching me silently from the forest. Then, sure enough, I would've been animal supper.

Suppertime had come and gone, speaking of supper...

I VERY slowly started walking back down. I couldn't hear or see the kids or Travis, and I'm pretty sure yelling might have also evoked an attack. I kept walking as confidently and steadily and slowly as possible back toward the van.

Then I got to thinking of how I had broken several obvious rules when I made the decision to hike ALONE in a NATIONAL FOREST, WHERE NO ONE COULD HEAR OR SEE ME, AT DUSK! "Duh, Jae!" I thought to myself. And since I was already looking straight at my feet, the thought occurred to me to just go ahead and see what kind of animal tracks were in the road. Turns out it was a well-traveled trail (for animals at least). I'm not an expert animal print identifier, but these were pretty clear: bear, deer, BIG CAT!! Then the chilling question occurred to me, "I wonder how many eyes were secretly watching me through the forest?!"

Travis said I was still pretty pale when I came down into view. I waited until I got to where only he could hear me before I told him what had happened. We decided that any kind of cell phone searching would have to be done the next morning. Did you catch that? Complete darkness would fall on us in about 15 minutes when we had this little discussion. Our best option at that point was sleeping in the safety of the minivan until the morning, when there would be enough light to walk and find some help and/or a cell signal.

Travis said, "Well, let's try getting this van un-stuck one more time before we call it a night. I've worked to make sure the wheels get really good traction this time. If this doesn't work, I'm pretty sure we'll have to find someone with a vehicle that can get back here and have them give us a pull or something. Get in and we'll try it one more time. Let's just pray first."

We circled in front of the van and held hands. Our prayer sounded a lot like this. "[Travis] Lord, first of all I need to ask for forgiveness for losing my patience earlier when we got stuck. Please help us get the van unstuck. Thank you that the kids have been helpful and light-hearted, and thank you that we got stuck with food and water in the back of the trunk. [Me] Lord, we can't do this ourselves and we need your help. Please help us have a good night and find help in the morning if we need to stay overnight. Please heal Travis's bloody hands, and thank you that he has worked so hard to get the van unstuck. In Jesus's name. Amen."

(Tune in tomorrow for the final installment of this story and pictures of what an off-roading minivan looks like stuck on the side of a mountain.)