Remember the time...

 For two years before the pandemic began, I served in a Relief Society presidency with three of the most amazing women I know. Part of our calling took us to visit with new friends who moved into the neighborhood and/or ward. On one of these visits, I met K (for her privacy, I'll just use the letter K.)

I adored her immediately. While visiting, her husband walked in. It was as if the room grew darker. The spirit of discernment warned me that this was maybe not a good person. I don't often get those feelings, but it was strong then.

Over the next few months, I came to understand more about the Spirits prompting. Eventually, K had to leave, and it was an immediate situation. I called Brett and said, "K is moving in with us. She's bringing the kids." His response was one I'll never forget. "This is the Lords house. Of course she can move in."

A very special woman and her son came and helped me clean out K's room in our house (a small den downstairs). We moved our three boys into one room, and our two girls into another, and put her three kids in the third room. 

We were a full house, but a full house of love. Over the next 9 or so months, we watched as blessings rained down on K. Her trials had not been removed (the Lord frowns upon murder, but I sure wished a lightning bolt would've taken out the ex). In fact, her life seemed to spiral ever downward. But her faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and her love of her Savior was inspiring. She needed $5,000 for a lawyer. She got the exact amount from some fraud perpetrated by her ex, and the company was buying her silence (basically). This is just one example.

She needed a job. She prayed, went to the temple, and when we got out, she knew exactly what she was to do. She got a phone call 20 minutes after we left the temple, with a job offer. 

She needed a place to live, and she found one, where she was surrounded by a group of people who offered her support and friendship.

In our own lives, we found peace in a hectic life. We learned to love children who weren't ours biologically. We got to give service, and we received so much in return. Our home was filled with peace (not the quiet kind, remember, 8 kids and 3 adults!) We were so blessed! I miss those days.

Sometimes those feelings of "this is right where we should be" are hard to express. I want to remember dinner time when our dining table was at its max, and there was yelling and talking and laughing.

I want to remember family prayers. Doing yoga with little kids. Swimming in the pool with everyone. All the imaginative games Chloe and K's daughter would create. Bath time and combing out little 3-year-old curls. Being called Aunt Kelly. Crying and holding K and feeling the love of the Savior surround us. 

Remember, Remember

 The last five years of my life feel like a garbled blur of pain, confusion, lost time, and opportunities. I found a journal (that I ended up replacing) and the last time I had written in it was 2018. I decided to start using this journal again, and as I sat down to catch up on the last several years, I realized my life has changed in ways I couldn't imagine.

I began writing about all of the world events that have taken place. The past two years have been a whirlwind of change, uncertainty, fear, confusion, and anger for most of the people in my life, and most of the world. We have had a pandemic. A quarantine. Homeschool. A fight for teachers. A fight for vaccines. 

We've had a sitting President attempt an insurrection. Our White House was attacked. Our children talk about politics and understand more than elementary school children should have to understand.

Personally, I had fallen deep into a depression due to chronic pain caused by my sciatic nerve being impinged by my piriformis muscle. "If you can't make your own serotonin, store-bought is ok!" So I went with Effexor. The pain stayed, but the depression left. 

As a family, we welcomed another family into our home to live with us. We experienced blessings and miracles. Brett was laid off in November before the pandemic hit.  The pandemic brought with it greater amounts of unemployment benefits. His unemployment was almost equal to the amount we had lost from his layoff. We also received food benefits that have lasted through this year. All of this helped support our family and a second family living with us. Plus, Brett was home to help when I couldn't. Having him home and available was perhaps the greatest blessing.

This is the most succinct way I could summarize the last few years. It lacks all the nuances and blessings and miracles that happened. And those are the things I want to remember. The rest is for the history books. But for my posterity, I hope to give more light to Lord's hand in our lives through my next few posts. 

One of my favorite Book of Mormon prophets, Alma, said, "then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember His merciful arm which He extended towards me."

I want to remember, and I want my children to remember, that even though these have been the hardest years of our lives (so far), they have also been the most blessed years as well.