A miracle I treasure is one which relates to our son Eric. Eric, at the time, was an avid hiker and mountaineer. He loved hiking throughout the Utah mountains but felt strongly that he wanted to climb bigger and, to me, scarier mountains; mountains with snow and ice. And so he decided to take a class on mountaineering in Washington State on Mount Baker. He began to accumulate specific hiking gear to climb such as pick axes and crampons but found boots to be very elusive. Eric was born with feet that have protruding heels and most hiking boots are stiff and tend to cause his heels to “shred” into bleeding painful messes. So he began months before his week-long class to search long and hard to find boots that could accommodate his “sensitive” feet. Weeks went by, boots were bought, tried and returned; boots bought and returned, again and again. But no success. Eric shared his dilemma with us and I began to pray to Heavenly Father to help Eric be able to tolerate a long week of hiking without horrible distress. I prayed and fasted again and again. But the time arrived for his class and no suitable boots were found. I’m afraid I was very distressed and felt that God just didn’t care about Eric or his feet. Eric arrived at the chalet at Mount Baker the night before the class was to begin and he found many hikers gathered there and began to chat with them. He eventually shared his problem with several of the hikers as he wondered aloud how to be able to hike with bleeding painful feet. One of the hikers responded to Eric and said, “Wait here a minute,” and left the chalet. Moments later, this hiker returned with a pair of mountaineering boots and placed them before Eric and said, “Here, try these.” Eric tried them on; they were exactly his size and somehow cushioned his heels without pressure or distress. The hiker was willing to sell Eric his boots and Eric was able to comfortably hike upon Mount Baker without shredding! This was our miracle; Heavenly Father didn’t turn away from Eric and his painful feet. Eric
later on Mount Baker experienced other tender mercies which enabled him to come down the mountain safely when conditions became dangerous.