Lessons in the wind

So it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood and I was actually in different neighborhood after dropping off a friend somewhere.  So I decided to check out this new side of town.  Sky was a little gray, but didn't look too bad.  So we parked and I got the stroller out and off we went.  It was the single stroller with the car seat adapter, so I could just snap the girl right in. And Nate was walking next to me.  We crossed the street and went straight for the fountain.  Nate wanted to get in the fountain, of course, so I put the little brakes on the stroller and went over to help him touch the water instead of immerse himself in the fountain.  Well, in about 3 seconds it started to sprinkle rain, then POUR, then the craziest wind came out of nowhere.  It seriously surprised everyone at this shopping plaza area.  There were people eating at restaurants on the patio, kids playing by the fountain, people walking their dogs, the usually park scene.  Well this random storm surprised us all.  Well, I was probably 5-10 feet away from Aubrey in the stroller, no big deal normally, right?  Well, the wind blew her over!!!  The stroller toppled to the ground from the wind and rain that came with ZERO notice.  So of course I freak out and run over to her.  A man and his wife who were eating at the restaurant right there ran over as well and helped keep Nate close to me while I got Aubrey out.

Well, she was perfectly fine. It scared her, but she was strapped into her car seat and stopped crying the moment I picked her up.  I think it did more damage to me than her, I was a bit shaken by the thought of Aubrey blowing in the wind and crashing on the concrete. The nice man pushed the stroller and the lady picked up Nate and we ran through the rain to the restaurant.  The restaurant was so nice and actually gave me a table to sit at until the rain died down (which was only 5 minutes later...silly rainstorms!) So it was kind of crazy.  But here are my lessons learned, or should I say relearned for the billionth time :):

1.  Listen to the spirit!
     Seems to be a lesson we learn everyday!  Sometimes we learn that lesson because we didn't act on a prompting and then we find out later why we needed to.  And sometimes we learn that lesson because we DID act on it and later we are very grateful we did. Thank heaven this time it was the latter :)  When I put Aubrey in her seat I noticed it looked a little loose, so I tightened it.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but I like to think it was the spirit and that she was safer in her little windy adventure because her buckle was tight :)

2.  Always buckle your baby.  I don't want to sound like a Public Health extremist (which I should be since I did study it at college...) but seriously, I am so glad she was buckled in!

3.  People are good.  Every time I've been in need of help and was only surrounded by strangers, they always have stepped in to help me.  I love that.