Daddies and Life's Waters

Our fourth of July this year was very sweet and...a little sour. We went up to Kearstin and Warren's house for an almost complete Holding family reunion. It was so fun to have so many of us together! Kearstin is a fabulous host with her meticulous Martha Stewart style and her way of making everything fun. We barbecued and played relay games with the kids. When the sun went down, we roasted marshmallows and listened to Travis tell us stories about our great nation. We've never done this before, but we decided to stand up and sing The Star Spangled Banner around the campfire. Something about that brought tears to my eyes. I love my country.
Sweet.
Our plan was to go river rafting down the Payette River on Saturday. A few of us, Trav, Dad, Warren, Blair and I decided to go on a more "adventurous" run early in the morning before the kids came up to go on a more tame stroll down the rapids. Trav is the experienced rafter of the group and the sole ore man of his fancy raft. He took us to a part of the river that he'd never been on, with two class 5 rapids. For those of you who don't know, river classifications go up to 6. As we pulled off the road to look at the rapids on our way up, several kayakers warned us of the tough spots. Of all their warnings, they were most serious when they told us about Seymour's Hole. 3 people died on this rapid last year, and as we found out later, multiple people die there EVERY year. The kayakers warned us that if we didn't stay to the right of the river, we would end up in the middle of the river - Seymore's Hole, which is a huge drop off with rocks surrounding it. Seymore's Hole is so dangerous because if you fall out of your raft, you're not likely to come out due to the strength of the undercurrent.
These words from the kayakers should have been enough for us to pack up our gear and catch a flick at the movie theater. Apparently our desire to juggle with fate was too strong. The next thing I knew we were headed down the river, with Travis with the ores and our lives in his hands. We made it through most of the rapids, some by the skin of our teeth. Finally we came to the dreaded hole. We started off just as we had been instructed, to the right of the river. I think we all thought we were in good shape. Then all of a sudden our raft somehow curved to the left and headed sideways into Seymore's Hole. In a matter of seconds, we went off the drop sideways, flipped, and were all thrown from the raft. I'm not sure what happened next. All I remember is feeling like a giant magnet was pulling me under. My eyes were open and I could see the powerful water pounding down on my body. I didn't see any angels or anything :) I just kept thinking "I don't think I can hold my breath any longer." The same thing was happening to everyone else. Luckily, Blair emerged from the water, managed to pull himself back on the raft, and pulled Warren and Trav in. My dad grabbed on to the raft rope and held on for dear life at that point. Then he felt something underneath him... That would be me. Despite the violent currents, he let go of the raft with one hand, reached down and pulled me out. I've never been so glad to see my Daddy. I've never been so glad to take one more breath.
There was a lot of crying after that, mostly from me and dad. There were also a lot of other miracles. We certainly felt like the Lord's angels helped us, despite our foolish decision. We feel lucky to be alive. We feel blessed to be together. I think we learned that you get to a point in your life where you don't need to take extreme risks. There's just too much to miss out on - too much to lose.
Sour.

Thank you God for our country. Thank you God for letting us live. Thank you Daddy for always pulling me out of life's waters. Love you.