Gina Szajnuk: Last night was supposed to be a very special night for Ava and me. Justin bought us tickets to the Taylor Swift concert at the Energy Solutions Arena. We have been waiting for this concert for months! We truly enjoyed every minute of the concert! We sang along and danced the entire time. The crowd was filled with young girls, teenage girls and mothers. Everyone talked to each other and danced together. Taylor Swift spoke to the young girls about “girl power” and having confidence in yourself. It was an excellent concert. She is an amazing artist.

Ava had some issues with how loud the music was, sensory overload, so we left before the concert was over. We had parked only one or two blocks from the arena. It was the last spot in the lot along a dark alley. I didn’t think about it when it was light out and we parked the car in that particular spot. When Ava walked around to the passenger side to get in the back seat, she screamed.

Someone had smashed our passenger side window and stole items from our car. I immediately called 911. They told me they do not help in situations like this unless your life is in danger. At that moment, a man on a bike appeared out of the dark alley. Ava ran screaming towards the busy road. I tried to calm her as I told the person on the other side of the 911 call…that we are not sure if we are safe. The man looked at us and said, “What is her problem?”

I replied, “Our car was broken into.”

He said, “Well, I didn’t do it.” And, rode off into the night.

Ava was hysterical. She was scared and shaking.The 911 person told me again to just file a claim online. Since I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could, I told the 911 person goodbye.  What I didn’t think about was getting onto the highway with a smashed window. The glass started going towards Ava’s face. Again, she screamed. I pulled off to the side of the highway and called 911 again. I said, “Well, now I’m really scared and I need to get off of the highway. Can you talk me through this?”  My anxiety took over and I was trying not to show Ava how scared I was at that moment. Last night was an incredible windy night. It definitely did not help the situation.

The 911 person calmed me down and talked me through getting off of the highway. I have bluetooth in my car so I had both hands on the wheel. My sister-in-law had gotten my text from earlier that we had our car broken into. She called and told me to go to a gas station and tape up the window. When I pulled into the gas station, a young man walked by the window and asked if we were okay. In a moment, he and his girlfriend became Angels in a very dark moment. They helped tape up the window. They spent almost an hour with us. They vacuumed the car out and made it as secure as possible since I had to drive up the canyon from Salt Lake City to Park City.

Unfortunately, Justin was on an airplane to Europe at the time.

The young couple followed me for a few miles to make sure that the tape and plastic bags were going to hold up for the drive. When we started driving, a huge moth was in the car. Ava started to scream again. I begged her to stop. I was trying to keep it together. Finally, I said, “Ava, I can’t take the huge moth either.” I pulled over and the young man came running up. He got the moth out of the car. He was our hero!

I ended up going 30 miles the entire way up the canyon. Ava kept asking, “Why do bad things keep happening to me? Why would someone do such a thing?”

It’s hard to explain to an eight year old…that I have no answers for her. I do not understand why we just cannot catch a break.

My point for sharing this story is for a couple of reasons.

I pray every night for my children to be “safe” and “healthy.”  Ava has had so many medical issues and has had such a hard couple of years.  Why did this have to happen on a night that was really perfect up until we left the concert. I do not have a lot of time alone with Ava. It was a perfect few hours at the concert. Why did it happen? What is the message? The young girl told me, “God doesn’t give you what you can’t handle.” Those words will stick with me for a long time…I am hoping God gives me a little break pretty soon. I’m not sure how much more I can take…

I also wanted to thank the young couple for taking time out of their night to help us. I gave them my card with this website and I hope they looked it up. I told them that I wanted to call their mothers to tell them how wonderful they were to both Ava and me. The manager of the gas station was amazing as well. He stayed out there and tried to calm Ava down. She was still visibly shaken by her experience. I promised them all Utah Jazz tickets. So, I hope they reach out to me!

Since it’s a holiday weekend, I can’t get my car fixed until Tuesday. We were left without a car to use. Megan Nuffer and Melissa Sills drove up and dropped off Megan’s car for us to use. Again, saving us this weekend from being housebound for the entire three days. Thank you! Megan and Melissa continue to take care of me here in Utah. Since we do not have family here, Megan and her family have become our family here. Megan continues to put hours and hours into RUN and helped me so much over the summer. She held a garage sale for us to get rid of our storage unit with ALL of the baby clothes. She cleaned out our garage this summer and helped organize my house. Megan, you continue to push me and give me the strength I need. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your hard work, support and love. And, we were complete strangers to each other before last summer…

In a night that went from a ten out of ten….to not so much…I learned that there are still very good people in the world. It’s about helping others. We all have issues in our lives that are hard to deal with. I just tend to blog about all of our problems. Everyone has issues in their lives. Every family has heavy stuff to handle. They do not always have to be medical issues or financial issues. So, when you think that life is too hard at a certain moment…reach out to a stranger and help them. I tell you…it will mean so very much to the stranger to have a little help. It definitely meant the world to me last night.

Well, I hope you all have a safe and healthy Labor Day Weekend!

Thank you for your continued love, support and prayers.

Much love,

Gina

PS – I hope this gets to Taylor Swift.  Ava would love to meet her!