Today's Christmas Miracle
Today has been the most "obstacled" Christmas I remember ever having, and yet through it all, a Christmas miracle.
Our obstacles began three days ago when our laptop suddenly caught the virus, Spywareguard. It took over our entire computer, but though that was extremely aggravating, what we most hated was we had important pictures stored on it. and nowhere else, stuff like children's graduation, trips, and special events. Ugh!
Two days ago, my husband "ran into" a friend of ours, a computer guy, who out of the kindness of his heart, worked on our computer for several hours that night and then a bit (we don't know how long) throughout yesterday, Christmas Eve, and eventually returned it to us around 9:30 p.m. Christmas Eve night because he believed we needed it the next day in order to talk to our son who's on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (We use Skype). We felt very grateful for him, felt bad he'd spent his Christmas Eve working on it, and learned there was still work to be done on it, but it worked right now. At the time, while we wanted the laptop in order to test our system, making sure everything was okay so we could call our son (we didn't think we wouldn't be able to talk to him without it), our biggest concern was those pictures. So my husband stayed up most of the night copying all our pictures, just in case.
This morning, Christmas morning, the rest of us woke up to blizzard conditions and no power. We were supposed to call our son through Skype at 11 a.m., but as the hour grew closer and the power stayed off, we began looking for other options. Because he's on a foreign mission, using the cell phone would have been too expensive for much more than a "hi—good-bye" conversation—not something we wanted after not talking to him since Mother's Day. Also, our main line is a dsl, so it was affected by the power (our battery kept it going for a little while, but even so, when we eventually tried calling him on it, the "phone powers-that-be" wouldn't connect us.
To make a long story short, we considered many options to get power or internet, but eventually decided we would drive a block, park at the bottom of "the hill "(the drive was impassable), and hike in the blizzard with our laptop up to one of our neighbors who still had power to use their internet. By then, it was 11 a.m.
Well, we didn't even make it out of our driveway before our 4-wheel drive van high centered. My husband then got the dump truck (with a snow plow on front) and tried to pull it out, but it, too, got stuck. Finally, we hand dug the van out, somehow made it out of the driveway, then started up the street when about four houses later we ran into a downed and broken power line. Two houses later, we hit another one. Before we reached the end of the block, we decided to park our van at the nearest house (a ward member) and walk from there. But first, we stopped to tell that ward member what we were doing. There, we found out they had power and high speed internet and said we could use theirs. Yeah! Our entire family piled into their house and started pulling off our snow clothes when their power suddenly went out. By now, it was 11:30.
We then called the original neighbor who we'd planned to hike to, and learned their power was now down, too, so we started calling businesses that had wi-fi and found no one with power. Meanwhile, the "original neighbor" made a few phone calls of her own and learned what part of town had power. Fortunately, one of our friends, another computer guy, lived in that area. We called him, and at 12 p.m. we made it to his house, hooked our laptop to his computer system, and called our son. Fortunately, our son was still there and was still able to talk for a while. In fact, we got to visit with him for over 2 hours. It was my best Christmas present. But that was not the miracle. At least, we didn't know it was.
At about 5:30 p.m., our power finally came back on. We relaxed for a while, and then at about 9 p.m. my husband turned the laptop back on to play solitare or something, but it locked up. Nothing worked. The virus had returned. That was when we realized our prayers had been answered even more profoundly than we'd realized; the laptop had "lived" only long enough for us to retrieve our pictures and to talk to our son. It was a miracle.
Our obstacles began three days ago when our laptop suddenly caught the virus, Spywareguard. It took over our entire computer, but though that was extremely aggravating, what we most hated was we had important pictures stored on it. and nowhere else, stuff like children's graduation, trips, and special events. Ugh!
Two days ago, my husband "ran into" a friend of ours, a computer guy, who out of the kindness of his heart, worked on our computer for several hours that night and then a bit (we don't know how long) throughout yesterday, Christmas Eve, and eventually returned it to us around 9:30 p.m. Christmas Eve night because he believed we needed it the next day in order to talk to our son who's on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (We use Skype). We felt very grateful for him, felt bad he'd spent his Christmas Eve working on it, and learned there was still work to be done on it, but it worked right now. At the time, while we wanted the laptop in order to test our system, making sure everything was okay so we could call our son (we didn't think we wouldn't be able to talk to him without it), our biggest concern was those pictures. So my husband stayed up most of the night copying all our pictures, just in case.
This morning, Christmas morning, the rest of us woke up to blizzard conditions and no power. We were supposed to call our son through Skype at 11 a.m., but as the hour grew closer and the power stayed off, we began looking for other options. Because he's on a foreign mission, using the cell phone would have been too expensive for much more than a "hi—good-bye" conversation—not something we wanted after not talking to him since Mother's Day. Also, our main line is a dsl, so it was affected by the power (our battery kept it going for a little while, but even so, when we eventually tried calling him on it, the "phone powers-that-be" wouldn't connect us.
To make a long story short, we considered many options to get power or internet, but eventually decided we would drive a block, park at the bottom of "the hill "(the drive was impassable), and hike in the blizzard with our laptop up to one of our neighbors who still had power to use their internet. By then, it was 11 a.m.
Well, we didn't even make it out of our driveway before our 4-wheel drive van high centered. My husband then got the dump truck (with a snow plow on front) and tried to pull it out, but it, too, got stuck. Finally, we hand dug the van out, somehow made it out of the driveway, then started up the street when about four houses later we ran into a downed and broken power line. Two houses later, we hit another one. Before we reached the end of the block, we decided to park our van at the nearest house (a ward member) and walk from there. But first, we stopped to tell that ward member what we were doing. There, we found out they had power and high speed internet and said we could use theirs. Yeah! Our entire family piled into their house and started pulling off our snow clothes when their power suddenly went out. By now, it was 11:30.
We then called the original neighbor who we'd planned to hike to, and learned their power was now down, too, so we started calling businesses that had wi-fi and found no one with power. Meanwhile, the "original neighbor" made a few phone calls of her own and learned what part of town had power. Fortunately, one of our friends, another computer guy, lived in that area. We called him, and at 12 p.m. we made it to his house, hooked our laptop to his computer system, and called our son. Fortunately, our son was still there and was still able to talk for a while. In fact, we got to visit with him for over 2 hours. It was my best Christmas present. But that was not the miracle. At least, we didn't know it was.
At about 5:30 p.m., our power finally came back on. We relaxed for a while, and then at about 9 p.m. my husband turned the laptop back on to play solitare or something, but it locked up. Nothing worked. The virus had returned. That was when we realized our prayers had been answered even more profoundly than we'd realized; the laptop had "lived" only long enough for us to retrieve our pictures and to talk to our son. It was a miracle.
Posted by Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen at Thursday, December 25. 2008 
Categories: Christmas Is,life,Spiritual Message
Categories: Christmas Is,life,Spiritual Message
Ronda,
What a story. I'm so glad you were able to get your pictures off and talk with your missionary. I agree, it was a Christmas miracle!
Reply to this
Wow! Now if that isn't a Christmas to remember. I'm happy to hear the most important things worked out. But, all the same, MAN! what an ordeal. My heart goes out to you.
Reply to this