Brad and I went to Newport Beach with my family this past weekend and it was awesome! We had so much fun hanging out with everyone, laughing at Eli and his adorable antics, and playing at the beach every day.
Maybe a little too much excitement happened at the beach on our second day though - we were all pretty much done with the beach for the day so Brad and I went back in the waves to rinse the sand out of our swimsuits. While we were doing that we got a little distracted when Brad was teaching me how to dive through the big waves. So without noticing it we got pretty far out there as we were trying to find bigger waves to dive through. Soon I couldn't touch the bottom any more, and big waves kept coming one right after the other. Pretty quickly, I was feeling panicky because I couldn't get enough air. Lets be honest even though it’s dramatic - I felt like I was drowning.
This is where Brad’s heroics come in. He was able to keep track of me in the waves and started coaching me to either jump/swim to try and go over the wave or to duck under it and hold our breath. After a little while, I was literally just hanging on him and trying to use his height to get some air. As we were drowning, several thoughts ran through my head. First, I wished that I had enough breath in my body to yell for help from the lifeguards. Second, I thought, “Oh my gosh, Brad and I are going to die here together right now.” But Brad kept me above water and calm enough that I wasn’t choking/swallowing any sea water and he kept us from being pulled out even deeper. So when I finally saw an opportunity in the waves to get to shore, we raced for it. My muscles were burning so bad because of lack of oxygen, but we made it.
Two lifeguards met us with their little buoys in hand at the edge of the water. They apparently had been on their way to get us. I was so ridiculously dizzy at this point. They told us to sit down for a while, and if my dizziness didn’t stop we were supposed to let them know so they could have a medical person check on me. But after five minutes or so of lying on the beach I got my breath back. The lifeguards also explained that we were in a riptide and we should have swum parallel to the beach to exit it instead of trying to fight forward. I didn’t know that, and in the panic of the moment Brad forgot.
I quickly started feeling guilty because I clearly had been contributing to Brad’s drowning instead of helping him like he was helping me. But also I was so glad that Brad was with me during this little adventure. I am almost glad that this happened because is not everyday that the love of your life saves your life, and it made me love Brad even more. He was so selfless during the entire episode, thinking of me the whole time and doing whatever he could to help me - it was so sweet! I am so grateful for my tall, strong man and this experience reinforces my desire to have him with me at all times! He's my hero! :)
