By: Shae Lee
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Sarah Elizabeth Sanders. Sarah had white blond hair, a pixie face and one dimple in her right cheek. She was 3 years old and was the 3rd child in a most marvelous family, which at this point, was comprised of Daddy, Dick Sanders, Mommy, Judy Sanders, big sister and oldest child, Shae, older brother, Matt and little baby sister, Krista. They also had a very lovable puppy named Sox. One day, Sarah’s marvelous family decided to take a walk for Family Home Evening. The Sanders family lived on the outskirts…..way far outskirts…..of a little town in Idaho, named Weiser. Their house was surrounded by a huge grassy cow pasture and alfalfa hay fields, big soft brown hills (velvety green in the Spring, which it is at the time of this story), and Manns Creek burbled along, on the other side of the cow pasture. For the walk, Sarah and her family walked down through the cow pasture, past a marsh with big soft brown cattails, over a bridge made out of a big tree that lay across the creek and up into the velvety green hills. They had a lovely time, and even got to eat some marshmallows. When they crossed back over the creek, Sox the puppy, decided to swim across, which was very scary for the marvelous Sanders family, because it was Spring and there was a LOT of water coming down from the Big Purple Mountains at the end of the valley. Daddy was able to help Sox get to the shore and everyone was veeery happy about that.
The next day, Sarah put her red coat and her very cool black snow boots, that came almost up to her knees, and went outside to play. A little while later, Mommy realized that Sarah was not in the yard and was nowhere to be found! Now, everyone loved cute little Sarah with the dimple in her left cheek and were very worried. Matt headed towards the Castagno’s house to see if she’d walked up there, Mom started looking all through the house, Krista helped by letting Mom hold her on her hip while she looked. Shae ran down to look all through the many barns and sheds that were on their property. While she was looking and looking and looking, she said a little prayer. All of a sudden, Shae knew, without a doubt, that Sarah had enjoyed the Family Home Evening walk so much that she decided to do it again. Shae started running as fast as her little legs could carry her, through the gate and down through the cow pasture towards the creek. And there came Sarah, tramping along in her red coat and ONE black boot, instead of two and hollering at the top of her lungs. She had wanted to go across the bridge again, but stepped into the muddy marshy area, with the big soft, brown cattails and….got stuck. She pulled and pulled, but couldn’t get her boot out of the mud. Finally she pulled so hard that her foot popped right out of the boot! Sarah loved her black boots, and tried and tried to pull the boot out with her hands…but it wouldn’t budge. So, she tramped back towards the house, hollering away, looking for some help. Shae was Sooooo happy to see her! She picked Sarah up and took her back home, where there was much rejoicing! Even baby Krista cheered!
Later, when Daddy got home, the family walked back down to get Sarah’s lost boot. They were so thankful for that mud, because they only lost a boot, but not Sarah.