Father Lost In Snowy Mountains Kept Faith

Dad And 3 Children Rescued After Being Lost For 3 Days In Snowstorm

(CBS/AP)  A man who was lost in the mountains along with his three children for three days during a snowstorm said he was terrified they wouldn't make it out alive, but he remained strong for his children and relied on his faith.

Frederick Dominguez and the children, who vanished while looking for a Christmas tree, were rescued Wednesday by a helicopter from a snowy ravine, just as another storm was bearing down in the foothill region about 100 miles north of Sacramento.

"You just want your kids to be safe and you're just praying, `God, keep my kids alive,"' Dominguez told reporters at Feather River Hospital in Paradise.

The rescue came as relatives and friends were starting to lose hope. One snowstorm had covered the family's tracks, and an even bigger storm was hours away from burying the four even deeper.

"I'm just amazed how well they did," Lisa Sams said after seeing her children and ex-husband for the first time since they went missing. "It was like butterflies in my stomach, like if you were going to go on a very first date."

The four appeared to be in good shape as they bounded from a California Highway Patrol helicopter that ferried them to safety in two trips; Alexis, 15, and Joshua, 12, were taken out of the woods first. Their 38-year-old father smiled at cheering relatives and friends later as he and his 18-year-old son, Christopher, emerged from the aircraft.

"They're doing great," Wendy Wilson, the children's aunt, told The Early Show. "They're all in great spirits. Their feet are a little sore. They've got feeling in their toes, and they're doing great."

They were taken to the hospital and checked for dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite, physician Kurt Bower said. They were released within hours.

"I'm surprised how good they are," Bower said. "There's a miracle from God in there somewhere."

After he had been checked at the hospital, Dominguez described three harrowing nights in the wild as he tried to keep his children from panicking and succumbing to the numbing cold. Joshua needed constant reassurance.

"I said, `Son, I would tell you what I bought you for Christmas if I thought we weren't going to make it,"' Dominguez recalled. "My kids were relying on me, and I'm scared, but you can't tell them you're scared."

The ordeal began Sunday, when Dominguez and the children left church and headed to the mountains to cut a tree for Christmas. Because the father had custody of his children at the time, his ex-wife did not know they were missing until she learned Joshua failed to show up at school Monday.

[libsluvsuvs]

Posted by george2221 at 01:17 PM : Dec 21, 2007
+ report abuse

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it us just patethic to know now that when a situation happens and the lives of others are in your hands..you will falter..BECAUSE YOU DONT HAVE FAITH EVEN IN YOURSELF..

[libsluvsuvs]

Posted by george2221 at 01:17 PM : Dec 21, 2007
+ report abuse

*******

I dont think one needs a phd to know if a person is bitter over something..BASED ON WHAT YOU POSTED PREVIOUSLY..you are overriden with this concept of that if you fall on your knees and pray for money that god should shower you with hundred dollar bills...and if it does not happen..there is no god.

maybe you should get a ''religious nut'' and slug it out in the parking lot. things you attain knowing that there is a higher being over you would be HUMILITY AND FAITH ON ANYTHING..and it is clear you dont have both.

[libsluvsuvs]

I hope your attain nirvana.



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Posted by george2221 at 11:07 AM : Dec 21, 2007
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i know i will...have some FAITH IN YOURSELF and in some lifetime from now..you MIGHT.
I guess you cannot see how the power of man''s franchised religion is keeping you in your own personal hell....BITTERNESS over something you said you do not believe.

[libsluvsuvs]

My mom tells me she knows God exists when she looks at the beauty of a pine cone. I tell her to go find someone dying of colon cancer and give them a pine cone so they know God loves them.

Posted by downtowner97 at 03:46 AM : Dec 21, 2007
+ report abuse

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there is more to existence than ''living like a king'', there is always a reason for everything..for existance DOES NOT END HERE it moves on..you carry the lessons, the feelings from your "colon cancer" to the next life..till you reach nirvana..

but then again you are too weak and too pathethic that you cling to that "i am abused" bulls*hit to refuse to move forward..THEN YOU ARE LIVING YOUR HELL EVERYDAY...

[libsluvsuvs]

Do me a favor do NOT think of ANY of my family. FRUITCAKE!



Posted by george2221 at 01:35 AM : Dec 21, 2007
+ report abuse
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I would really doubt that they are thinking of you.

[libsluvsuvs]

"It stuns me that people in the 21st Century believe in a big man in the sky. Grow up people...."


Posted by Vet_SK at 05:46 AM : Dec 21, 2007
+ report abuse

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big man in the sky?? i think that was what was sold to you by man.
by the way, what makes you think you are any different from a man from the 5th century or the 10 century or the 19 century..man is man and will never change..with all that ANIMAL ATTRIBUTE INTACT all the way to the "21st century" and you just proved it.

[watcher269-2009]

The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men was nothing but a ''legend''.

Dr Rowan Williams has claimed there was little evidence that the Magi even existed and there was certainly nothing to prove there were three of them or that they were kings.

Archbishop says nativity ''a legend''

Dr Williams argued that the traditional Christmas story was nothing but a ''legend''

He said the only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew''s gospel and the details were very vague.

Dr Williams said: "Matthew''s gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that''s all we''re really told. It works quite well as legend."

The Archbishop went on to dispel other details of the Christmas story, adding that there were probably no ***** or oxen in the stable.

He argued that Christmas cards which showed the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, flanked by shepherds and wise men, were misleading. As for the scenes that depicted snow falling in Bethlehem, the Archbishop said the chance of this was "very unlikely".

[vet_sk]

It stuns me that people in the 21st Century believe in a big man in the sky. Grow up people.
This man survived because he watched out for himself and his kids -not because god was watching over him.

It is also easy to get lost. If you haven''t lost for a little while, you need to get away from your tube and your church. Glad he was out with his family and glad it turned out well for him and his family.

JFK said that even if there was a god, "He gave us all the tools to look after our own lives."

I am tired of people in this country claiming everything is gods will. I don''t see how they can claim that and then allow this country to attach Iraq, allowing for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths there under US occupation. I know there will be some that come back and say that we saved them from Saddam but there would be a lot more people alive under Saddam then Bush''s rule of Iraq.

[downtowner97]

It''s nice to see so many people posting here who think it''s stupid to get lost while looking for a tree, and to believe an invisible man is looking out for them.

My mom tells me she knows God exists when she looks at the beauty of a pine cone. I tell her to go find someone dying of colon cancer and give them a pine cone so they know God loves them.

[watcher269-2009]

Again, Religion is being shoved in our faces by a news organization. Of course this guy prayed to GOD - I would too. But that doesn''t mean he prayed to the US Kristian God or Jesus.

I wish this type of stories would not be printed and REAL stories like the Bush Administraion purposeful closeing of the Federal Election Commision doen''t make the news.