17 Miracles

I watched the movie "17 Miracles" with my family the other day. That movie always makes me cry, but especially while I'm pregnant. I can't even imagine going through that experience. The sacrifices of those who crossed the plains were so great! I always try to imagine what it would have been like crossing the plains with my little family and it makes me so sad to think of watching my children be sooooo starving that they would pull rawhide off of the handcarts and roast the hairs off and eat it. Or to have a child be soooo sick but not be able to stop and take care of them. Only being able to put them in the handcart and pray while you pulled it. I can't imagine being pregnant and sleeping on the hard ground every night and walking and walking and walking day after day. I can't imagine how much your body would just ache. I can't imagine giving birth along the trail. Not having adequate time to allow your body to rest before you are walking and walking as walking and walking again. Not having Doctors or a hospital if things went wrong. Knowing you could end up burying any one of your family members along the way. I can't imagine having to split your family up and sending some ahead of the rest because that's the only way you could afford it. Trusting someone else to raise my child for what could be years! I can't imagine having my husband called on a mission after we were married and had kids. A mission where he could be gone for 3 years or more with no phones or emails or skype or FaceTime. That would be so long to be apart. The story that always makes me cry the most from that movie is the couple that decided to wait to get married til they could be sealed in the temple. Through the movie, it shows their love and the sacrifices they make for each other. One of them ends up dieing on the way. Then it talks about how years and years and years later one of the prophets heard about their love story and had them sealed together in the temple. Even just thinking about their story makes me tear up. The blessings of the temple are real and amazing. 

I have quite a few pioneer ancestors, but one in particular that was with the Willie Handcart Company that had such a hard time and was partially portrayed in the movie. Her name was Elizabeth Xavier Tait. I guess I've been drawn to her story a lot recently. Rachel's middle name is Elizabeth after her and Elijah's middle name will be Xavier after her and her family as well. She was from India. Her husband came to Utah with their son ahead of her. She was pregnant and decided to wait til after the baby was born. Her baby died before she either while she was crossing the ocean to America, or shortly after. One story I remember about her specifically is one day while crossing the plains, her and a friend who came from India with her sat down to rest at lunch time and woke up hours later and the company had gone on with out them. They were panicked! You did not want to be lost and alone with no provisions in a place like that. Or any place really. They were able to catch up later that night but I can only imagine the thoughts and feelings and prayers going through their minds. 

Also lately I've been reading through and re-typing up a history of my grandparents, my dad's parents. I'm so grateful to have those stories of them and to learn more about them now. I wish I had asked more questions when they were alive and taken that opportunity to get to know them when I had the chance, and regret that I didn't. It's been fun hearing about their lives. My grandpa was a major trease which he passed down to his kids (especially his boys.) On their wedding night, grandpa told grandma that he had his fingers crossed while thy were getting married so they weren't really married. She was so mad at him that she went down the hall to the bathroom where she stayed for 3 hours. They had 9 kids, 7 of which were boys. They had a farm and grew potatoes. My grandma had to make bread every other day to keep up with her family. 5 loaves at a time. She had to do laundry every other day and until she got their first automatic washer and dryer, it was an all day chore. My grandma worked sorting potatoes for years so that they could afford to send their boys on missions. Hard cold work that she was willing to do for her family. In my Grandma's patriarchal blessing it says that as long as her family (children and grandchildren) pay their tithing, they would never want for bread. What an amazing blessing. I feel blessed just with the knowledge I have been gaining about my ancestors in just reading about them and getting to know them.