This is actually Rachael. I don't know how to sign in for myself yet.
I had a very interesting day yesterday. All day Monday, I moved our two boys into the same room. It took the whole day, with breaks only to tend to my children. Although it was a lot of work, I felt great about how everything turned out, and it was good to have a chance to sort through our stuff so that we aren't storing things we actually don't need.
So Tuesday, I woke up feeling pretty sore and worn out from moving furniture/everything we own for the boys/all of Lance's camping gear (which it turns out, is a lot). As if she read my mind, my friend Amber called to see if she could watch Owen for an hour or two. During that time, I was able to actually take an uninterrupted shower (Oliver was napping) and I felt much better.
So that was blessing #1: Good friends, who obviously are listening to the spirit.
Tuesday is also my "cooking group" day where I cook meals for 2 other families. So it's usually a little stressful, but worth it since I don't have to cook on Wednesday or Thursday. I made 3 lasagnas, 4 loaves of bread, a big batch of Texas Sheet Cake, and all was well. Our house (except for the Kitchen of course) was actually even looking pretty good. The boys were behaving, and I was feeling pretty good about life. Lance came home, and I started cleaning up the million dishes while he played with the boys (keep in mind that my kitchen is pretty small, so there were dishes everywhere). I washed a few things, and suddenly I noticed that the water in the sink is now coming up, no going down. Both sides of our sink rapidly started filling with water, and I pretty much lost it. Being that we live on the bottom floor, we were getting the lovely scraps from our Asian neighbors upstairs rising up in our sink faster and faster. It was pretty gross.
Lance started emptying the water into our toilet every few minutes. I called maintenance to come and help us. I had to go to both of our upstairs neighbors and tell them to stop using their kitchen sinks entirely until he could get there (which was pretty unconvincing apparently since the water continued to pour into our sink for the next hour or so).
The maintenance guy came, and flushed it all out. He was really kind and helpful. I was finally able to finish the dishes, and get our house in order by about 11:00 pm.
Blessing #2: People (maintenance guys) who give up their evenings with their own families to assist residents, and even manage to have a good attitude about it.
So at 11:00 last night, and again at 6:00 this morning, I was preparing the boys' things to have mom watch them today so that I could work.
Blessing #3: A wonderful mother who gives up an entire day every week to watch her grandkids, knowing that we can't really afford to pay her for her efforts.
Blessing #4: An employer who, for the past three year, has worked around my crazy schedule to allow me to work, and to have some extra money each month.
Lance and I are so blessed. We have two healthy, beautiful boys. We have a roof over our heads, and food to eat. We are also thankful for our family members. We can't wait to meet our 2 new nephews in a few months. We are grateful to live so close to mom and dad and to have them be a very important part of our childrens' lives.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
missionary mom
hello family that I love more than life
I wrote the following in a letter to "my missionaries" a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share it with you. I Hope it isn't too long. I know Adam used to take naps in the middle of my letters to him on his mission:)
. It’s very interesting how a sending a few missionaries off over the last nine years has changed me. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I wanted to share it with you.
When Courtney and Adam were out at the same time, it was pretty hard on me…my first experience sending a missionary and then we sent off two. And like many mothers I know, I am a baby about my babies!! First we heard from Adam in Mexico and he was with a district leader who had forgotten to pay the bills and so they had no electricity and could not run their fans and it was brutally hot and humid there. Even worse, they didn’t have enough money for bottled water and they weren’t allowed to drink tap water. The pictures that came of where they lived were beyond any poverty I had imagined. I was HORRIFIED. I did NOT send my son on a mission to go thirsty and to, heaven forbid, SUFFER. I had a hard time thinking about anything besides his awful conditions. The next thing you know I am hearing from Courtney and she is in Chile where the rabid dogs just run rampant through the streets. Sure enough, as she was out tracting one day, she was bitten by one…so badly that it had pierced through her coat and through her clothes and had broken the skin on her arm. It was pretty painful, and it was a bit scary even though she had been vaccinated for Rabies. The next letter was alarming and disheartening as well…she had been playing soccer on her P-day and you probably know Courtney is many things but one of them isn’t an athlete…anyway, she took a tumble and seriously sprained her ankle. It hurt terribly to walk on it. She went to a doctor who told her the only way it could heal would be to stay off of it since the ligaments were badly pulled. That was not an option for her. The pain went into her foot to the point when she kneeled to pray, she could not lay her foot down on the floor. She went to another doctor and had X-rays this time and still the same answer. Oh MY, thought I…this is serious!! But that wasn’t even all…next we were to learn that she had head lice and Courtney was even kind enough to SEND me one of the little dead critters from her scalp. Wasn’t that thoughtful of her? She had to cut several inches off her beautiful long golden hair. To add to the pretty situation, Courtney also had bed bugs and they had bitten her all over her legs and she sent some really cool pictures of those as well!!
SO…I had this picture in my mind’s eye of my son being thirsty and hot and in this poor, poor place in hideous living arrangements and my beautiful daughter with her arm hanging listless by the side of her body step-dragging around Santiago with her head crawling with lice. This felt really BAD to me. There was only one thing I could do for my children…pray my heart out for them. I fasted and went to the temple too. Two things finally occurred to me as I waited to hear from them that their situations were improving. One, they were really in the Lord’s hands and not in mine. The Lord comforted me through those times and I am forever grateful for the spiritual moments I had as I let go of my fears and let the Lord be in charge. Secondly, and this came in large part after my kids got home from their missions, I recognized that sacrifice is a GOOD thing. Sacrifice is important and necessary for us to be willing to do whatever it takes to build up the kingdom of God on the earth and to take the gospel to all the world and to do work for our kindred dead. Our sacrifices are a blip on the radar screen when we think of what our Savior did for us. I realized what those sacrifices were doing for my children…making them strong men and women who would be valiant in their testimonies of Jesus AFTER they got home. Hey, that is also a GOOD thing.
I should include here that at some point in this journey of mine, I became well- acquainted with the quote by Joseph smith which I feel certain you have all heard and quoted many times which goes:
“a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation”
That quote was a very a-ha moment for me and I think of it often when I am tempted to balk at time and calling commitments and missionary hardships. I know that it is a true statement and I know that is why the pioneers had to have it as tough as they did. So WE could see what they were willing to give us so that not only they could have the gospel, but WE could have it as well.
Now, as I have my fourth missionary serving, I still have a small part of my mother’s heart that wishes it would all be lovely for him and he would have people to teach every day and that all his companions would be wonderful. But, the bigger part of my heart is cheering on the trials because they are what make our missionaries the men and women we want them to be forever. So, when Brad told us that they are in a college town and the town is basically shut down for a month while school is out, and they have no one to teach so they are tracting 8 hours a day in all kinds of weather, I think to myself, I WISH they had people to teach and I am going to pray for that, but think of all the good tracting can accomplish…not that it produces many investigators, I know that, but, if tracting and having doors slammed in your faces 8 hours a day doesn’t teach humility, then, seriously, what DOES? And, let’s face it, without humility, we will never be able to stand in the presence of our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. And the whole companion situation…I am convinced that my husband learned to be a tolerant, kind and long-suffering husband on his mission as he dealt with tricky companions. Brad has a stellar companion now but the last few months in a threesome were very challenging…guess what? He has this new wisdom and maturity about him that is awesome to notice. I remember when Adam was in the MTC, he was in a threesome too and he had this one comp who drove him crazy. He hoped he would never have to serve with him in the field. Of course, for his second Christmas in Tampico, he was his companion again. This time, Adam loved him and cared about him instead of being critical of him. He wrote to us and asked us to please send him some Christmas since this elder didn’t receive anything from home. What a joy that was for us!
As Bradley left his threesome he asked us to please write to his one comp. who was a convert and never heard from home…ever. Since the holidays were upon us, I sent a mass email to our close friends and family to be in touch with this Elder. One email was all it took for this fellow to receive not only many letters but several packages filled with Christmas goodies. Watching your children become more compassionate and selfless is worth the worries of rabies and dying of thirst and having lice and developing a permanent limp. Knowing that missions are about sacrifice for the family and for the missionary makes sense since the Lord’s three year sojourn on this earth was called His “mission” and it was fully about sacrifice.
I don’t know why I felt impressed to write this to you today, but I was…maybe it is for me…to show my Father in Heaven that I am trying to learn from the experiences of my children and also in my own life. Maybe it is because we can never think about Sacrifice enough…it reminds us of what we OWE and what we need to be willing to do to make it in the next life. I should also let you know that Courtney had a miraculous healing to her ankle. I take no credit for this and hesitate to share it, but it is one of the great miracles in my life. I was in the temple one day praying hard for Courtney and begged Heavenly Father to heal her ankle. I prayed for a miracle and while I was sitting there, the spirit let me know that she was healed…just like that. I went home and wrote to Courtney and told her of my experience. On that day, she knelt down to pray and she had no pain in her ankle and never had pain again. I’m sure I don’t have the words to adequately express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for that miracle and for the power of the temple in my life.
I wrote the following in a letter to "my missionaries" a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share it with you. I Hope it isn't too long. I know Adam used to take naps in the middle of my letters to him on his mission:)
. It’s very interesting how a sending a few missionaries off over the last nine years has changed me. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I wanted to share it with you.
When Courtney and Adam were out at the same time, it was pretty hard on me…my first experience sending a missionary and then we sent off two. And like many mothers I know, I am a baby about my babies!! First we heard from Adam in Mexico and he was with a district leader who had forgotten to pay the bills and so they had no electricity and could not run their fans and it was brutally hot and humid there. Even worse, they didn’t have enough money for bottled water and they weren’t allowed to drink tap water. The pictures that came of where they lived were beyond any poverty I had imagined. I was HORRIFIED. I did NOT send my son on a mission to go thirsty and to, heaven forbid, SUFFER. I had a hard time thinking about anything besides his awful conditions. The next thing you know I am hearing from Courtney and she is in Chile where the rabid dogs just run rampant through the streets. Sure enough, as she was out tracting one day, she was bitten by one…so badly that it had pierced through her coat and through her clothes and had broken the skin on her arm. It was pretty painful, and it was a bit scary even though she had been vaccinated for Rabies. The next letter was alarming and disheartening as well…she had been playing soccer on her P-day and you probably know Courtney is many things but one of them isn’t an athlete…anyway, she took a tumble and seriously sprained her ankle. It hurt terribly to walk on it. She went to a doctor who told her the only way it could heal would be to stay off of it since the ligaments were badly pulled. That was not an option for her. The pain went into her foot to the point when she kneeled to pray, she could not lay her foot down on the floor. She went to another doctor and had X-rays this time and still the same answer. Oh MY, thought I…this is serious!! But that wasn’t even all…next we were to learn that she had head lice and Courtney was even kind enough to SEND me one of the little dead critters from her scalp. Wasn’t that thoughtful of her? She had to cut several inches off her beautiful long golden hair. To add to the pretty situation, Courtney also had bed bugs and they had bitten her all over her legs and she sent some really cool pictures of those as well!!
SO…I had this picture in my mind’s eye of my son being thirsty and hot and in this poor, poor place in hideous living arrangements and my beautiful daughter with her arm hanging listless by the side of her body step-dragging around Santiago with her head crawling with lice. This felt really BAD to me. There was only one thing I could do for my children…pray my heart out for them. I fasted and went to the temple too. Two things finally occurred to me as I waited to hear from them that their situations were improving. One, they were really in the Lord’s hands and not in mine. The Lord comforted me through those times and I am forever grateful for the spiritual moments I had as I let go of my fears and let the Lord be in charge. Secondly, and this came in large part after my kids got home from their missions, I recognized that sacrifice is a GOOD thing. Sacrifice is important and necessary for us to be willing to do whatever it takes to build up the kingdom of God on the earth and to take the gospel to all the world and to do work for our kindred dead. Our sacrifices are a blip on the radar screen when we think of what our Savior did for us. I realized what those sacrifices were doing for my children…making them strong men and women who would be valiant in their testimonies of Jesus AFTER they got home. Hey, that is also a GOOD thing.
I should include here that at some point in this journey of mine, I became well- acquainted with the quote by Joseph smith which I feel certain you have all heard and quoted many times which goes:
“a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation”
That quote was a very a-ha moment for me and I think of it often when I am tempted to balk at time and calling commitments and missionary hardships. I know that it is a true statement and I know that is why the pioneers had to have it as tough as they did. So WE could see what they were willing to give us so that not only they could have the gospel, but WE could have it as well.
Now, as I have my fourth missionary serving, I still have a small part of my mother’s heart that wishes it would all be lovely for him and he would have people to teach every day and that all his companions would be wonderful. But, the bigger part of my heart is cheering on the trials because they are what make our missionaries the men and women we want them to be forever. So, when Brad told us that they are in a college town and the town is basically shut down for a month while school is out, and they have no one to teach so they are tracting 8 hours a day in all kinds of weather, I think to myself, I WISH they had people to teach and I am going to pray for that, but think of all the good tracting can accomplish…not that it produces many investigators, I know that, but, if tracting and having doors slammed in your faces 8 hours a day doesn’t teach humility, then, seriously, what DOES? And, let’s face it, without humility, we will never be able to stand in the presence of our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ. And the whole companion situation…I am convinced that my husband learned to be a tolerant, kind and long-suffering husband on his mission as he dealt with tricky companions. Brad has a stellar companion now but the last few months in a threesome were very challenging…guess what? He has this new wisdom and maturity about him that is awesome to notice. I remember when Adam was in the MTC, he was in a threesome too and he had this one comp who drove him crazy. He hoped he would never have to serve with him in the field. Of course, for his second Christmas in Tampico, he was his companion again. This time, Adam loved him and cared about him instead of being critical of him. He wrote to us and asked us to please send him some Christmas since this elder didn’t receive anything from home. What a joy that was for us!
As Bradley left his threesome he asked us to please write to his one comp. who was a convert and never heard from home…ever. Since the holidays were upon us, I sent a mass email to our close friends and family to be in touch with this Elder. One email was all it took for this fellow to receive not only many letters but several packages filled with Christmas goodies. Watching your children become more compassionate and selfless is worth the worries of rabies and dying of thirst and having lice and developing a permanent limp. Knowing that missions are about sacrifice for the family and for the missionary makes sense since the Lord’s three year sojourn on this earth was called His “mission” and it was fully about sacrifice.
I don’t know why I felt impressed to write this to you today, but I was…maybe it is for me…to show my Father in Heaven that I am trying to learn from the experiences of my children and also in my own life. Maybe it is because we can never think about Sacrifice enough…it reminds us of what we OWE and what we need to be willing to do to make it in the next life. I should also let you know that Courtney had a miraculous healing to her ankle. I take no credit for this and hesitate to share it, but it is one of the great miracles in my life. I was in the temple one day praying hard for Courtney and begged Heavenly Father to heal her ankle. I prayed for a miracle and while I was sitting there, the spirit let me know that she was healed…just like that. I went home and wrote to Courtney and told her of my experience. On that day, she knelt down to pray and she had no pain in her ankle and never had pain again. I’m sure I don’t have the words to adequately express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father for that miracle and for the power of the temple in my life.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Monday, December 24, 2007
and just this week...
Going to temple square to see the lights with Rachael and Lance's family, mom, dad, and grandma.
Mom and all four of her girls, all getting to be at Church together
Dad and those three adorable boys, getting along, playing together, and loving their grandpa!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
to begin
They say you should write down the little miracles and kindnesses in your life. And when I say they, I mean Elder Eyring, who suggested that when we start to look for all of the ways that God blesses us and acknowledge it in writing, it makes for happier lives. Of course, our family is so richly blessed it's hard to imagine that we could be happier, but a little gratitude never hurt anybody, so I started this blog for us to keep track of God's kindnesses in our family. Some are serious and some are funny, but the idea is that we all contribute and share with each other the ways that we are being blessed.
First of all, the weekend of Conference, I texted Chelsea on Sunday because UofI beat Wisconsin in an upset so I was saying congrats, and she wrote back and said that she could have gone to the game, but she chose conference instead. And I just had this momentary thought about how I knew that every single person in my family was watching all of the sessions of Conference. Isn’t that incredible? When I look around me and see so few people that really get to share in their gospel joy with their entire families, including both of our parents, I just feel so blessed that everyone in our family is active and temple-worthy. What a joy to be there together.
It's also a gift just to get to spend time together with my family on a regular basis. I feel so blessed to be a part of my nephews' lives and my siblings' and their spouses' lives and so grateful to my parents for making that happen as often as possible. We always have fun together and all really appreciate each other and that's a gift.
I am grateful for a job that is fulfilling and challenging, for my new home, my upcoming trip back to Chile, my friends who love me, and the beautiful snow-topped mountains.
I would love to fill this tiny bit of cyberspace with God's kindnesses for our family, including stories and tidbits and pictures and sometimes just lists of things we are grateful for.
So I'll finish this first post with a story of a kindness on me from this past week. I obviously have a lot to be grateful for, and I'm obviously overly emotional about a lot of things (so what if I cried during the Today show this week, or during the occasional commercial). We all know these things about me. And obviously the last few months have been rough for me, feeling a big loss in my life that created some anger followed by sadness. But in the last week, I have felt God's kindness pour over me as I have felt neither sadness nor anger. I have felt excitement and joy and love and that feels amazing. I am so glad to be able to focus my energy on the things that are positive in my life!
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