Angels All Around Us!

Yesterday morning our young women in our ward were going up to see the Music and the Spoken Word at the Conference center in Salt Lake City.  We met at my house at 8am.  I was sad that there were only about 14 girls that were able to come out of our 40.  Summer is so busy and there are so many boys and girls leaving on missions right now, so several girls were out of town or at mission farewells.  I was happy for those that were able to come.  When we walked into the conference center the choir was singing "How Firm a Foundation".  When I looked at the program I saw that it was the last song that they would sing.  For a minute I was nervous that I had the time wrong, but then they announced that they were practicing for the broadcast that was to start in a half hour.  Phew.  That would have been really lame to drag all of those girls out at the crack of dawn on a Sunday when they could have slept in and have missed the performance.  They might have fired me on the spot!  The music for that half hour was beautiful.  The ending number "How Firm a Foundation" was amazing and stirring.  Makes you think and reflect a lot on your testimony and how firm are you?  Then after they had finished singing the announcer came on and thanked everyone for coming and then the choir stood and sang "God Be With You Til We Meet Again".  It was angelic.  I lost it about then.  I looked over and Halea had lost it a little too.  Like mother like daughter.  I am not sure how much those girls absorbed from the experience, hopefully they were able to feel the spirit that was there.  What a great way to start the Sabbath.

Awful pictures! But you get the point.  The women in the choir are literally glowing like angels!  

 Beautiful girlies.

The rest of church was good.  Hayden gave a talk in sacrament meeting, that is always a good time.  Favorite quote "When your mom asks you to take out the trash, you should thank her for the opportunity!"  I am still waiting for those words to come out of his mouth, but great advice.  He actually did a really good job.  Sometimes he is funny without meaning to be:)

When we got home from church I quickly got dinner ready and ran down to the hospital to be with a family while they withdrew life support from their sweet baby.  It was a very sweet spiritual time.  I know that angels abide with these families as they are facing these hard decisions.  After this sweet baby passed to the other side I was talking to the family.  They had mentioned earlier that they lived in Lehi, so I started asking them questions about their Lehi connections because both of them had grown up there.  Since I live in a neighborhood with several Lehi born and raised families there is almost always someone from the hood that people know.  Sure enough they knew several families that live in my neighborhood.  Then it turned out that they knew Halea through their younger sister, and that they had borrowed Halea's car for a photo shoot because the dad of this baby is a photographer!  What in the world.  It is always nice to be able to make a connection with a family.  It just makes them feel more at ease and more comfortable I think if you have some common ground.  I know that angels were there helping this family be strong and to have comfort.  I was grateful to get to be a witness to it all, and to be an assistant to the greatest staff around.  My favorite doctor was their doc.  He had always made himself very available to us when we had any questions about Tatum, so I just have a soft spot for him.  I am always grateful when he is the doctor on when families have to experience such deep loss and make hard choices.  He just seems to have a great bedside manner, which makes such a world of difference for the whole experience.   Although always a very hard thing, it was a joyous experience to see an angel return home.

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night because I got home late from the hospital but I had to be up and running this morning for the LAST WEEK of swim team.  Can I get a hallelujah?   After I dropped the girls off I went and walked with a few friends then ran down and jogged with my other friend then on my way home I ran into another friend that was just heading out on her walk with her sister so I joined them.  It felt good to do that since what I had wanted to do was to go home and sleep!  Then I met my good friend for lunch and she brought me a sweet burial dress for the baby that had died on Sunday.  I called her on Sunday night to see if by chance she had any that were made up and of course she did!  Another Angel in my midst.

At 1:00 I had set up to meet a friend at my house.  I met her and her husband and their sweet little boy at the hospital several years ago.  We made a connection, I think, because our boys were about the same age when they died.  So we have kept in contact with each other since.  Her husband used to work at Costco, so needless to say I saw him all of the time.  They moved out of state a year or so ago.  I hadn't talked to her since Tatum got sick and then I just never got around to calling her.  Then several weeks ago I got a text saying that she was going to be in town so her in laws could have a baby shower for her.  They are expecting their fourth baby, their first little girl.  I didn't want to go to her shower and fake around and not tell her what had happened or worse yet, tell her at her baby shower!  Congratulations, by the way our baby died 8 weeks ago.  She would have, obviously, been a puddle.  So I called her on Sunday to tell her what had happened.  We talked and then decided that she should come over today so we could visit.  It was really nice to talk to her and show her all of the things about Tatum.  I can't get enough of talking about her, ever.  She was nice to listen and care.  She is nice to talk to because she gets some of the crazy that happens in your head after something like this happens.  It was a great visit.  Definitely another Angel in my day today.

After she left I ran Holden down to get some new shoes for school.   Yep, school shopping has commenced.  yuk!  When I got home I decided that I had time to quickly get ready and go meet Lance for his bike ride home from work.  When I went to get on my bike I noticed that my front tire was flat, again!  I quickly changed the tire.  When I got it pumped up I noticed that there was a part of the tire that was bowing out a little.   As I rode off I noticed that the tire was making a weird rhythmic bumping noise every time the tire rotated.  I rode cautiously and tried to take it easy.  Well, when I hit about the 8 mile mark I looked down to see the tire had deflated!  And me with no spare.  Uh oh.  I did have one CO2 cartridge, so I pushed that into the tire, but it was not near enough air to pump up the entire thing.   I tried calling Lance, no answer.  Shocker.   Then I tried a few friends.  One was willing to come and get me but she wasn't sure she could find me.   Hmmm.  I decided to just start walking to the next crossroad until I got to a better place for someone to come and get me.  I did not feel panicked or mad or discouraged.  I felt super calm, like things would work out.  I took off my shoes and started walking.  I was only 8 miles from home.  I figured that Lance would eventually catch up to me, ride home and come and get me.  I only got a few feet down the trail and a lady yelled to me from her backyard that she had bike tubes and a pump if I would like some help with my tire.  What?  I thanked her and walked in through her backyard gate that meets up against the back of the trail.  I thanked her profusely and she told me that she worked at a local bike shop.  Seriously?  Angels!  She quickly repaired my tire, with a new tube.  Her dad pulled up as she was finishing and then showed us how to fix the bump in the tire so hopefully this won't happen again.  It never ceases to amaze me how people allow themselves to be instruments in the Lords hands.  They make it seem so easy and effortless.  I thanked them again and I was off.  I decided to just head home because I wasn't sure where Lance was on the trail and I didn't want to have another mishap.  I wasn't sure if I would get another angel.

I got home with and about 2 minutes later Lance pulled in behind me.  I was bummed because I had missed riding with him, but glad for us to both be home.  When I walked in the house this is what I saw:

I caught Hilary finishing off the last of our jar of cinnamon sugar!  What you can't see is that she had about 5 pieces of licorice that she was dipping in the cinnamon/sugar mix to wash it all down.  Oh boy.  She told me with a very straight face that Holden had eaten it.  All of this happened under the loving care of her siblings while I was gone.  We may need to have a family meeting:)

We quickly got dinner ready and we were about to leave to go get some ice cream, when the phone rang.  It was the hospital calling for a family that I had worked with about a year and a half ago.  The nurse said that they had lost the disc with all of their pictures of their twins.   The mom was wondering if I might by chance still have them digitally.  I told the nurse there was almost no chance.  I remembering clearing a lot of pictures from my computer maybe 6 or 8 months ago.  I told her I would look.  I looked through manually the first time and then I did a search of my pictures directory and there they were!  I could not believe it.  Again, angels.  I was so happy to call that mom and tell her that I had found them.  She was elated.  I asked how her other twin was doing because one had survived.  She said that she was doing great.  She said that the doctors said that she is right on with her age developmentally.  These little twins were 23 weeks.  That is a true miracle for that little girl to be doing that well (and for those pictures to be on our computer).  ANGELS.

Last angel miracle of the night.  After we had a quick thought for Family Night we decided to go get shakes.

As we were sitting there I looked over at what Hayden was wearing.  He was wearing MY SHORTS that I had been looking for for two weeks.  They had just mysteriously disappeared.  Somehow they had slid off the dryer into Hayden's laundry.  I had just about given up on finding them, but they were my favorite so I was about to go buy another pair.  After I pointed out that he was wearing his mother's shorts he promptly tucked them up under his shirt!  Apparently it is not cool to wear your moms stuff.  I might be offended.

 Some of these "angel happenings" might seem insignificant and small.  Some might think that these are all coincidence and nothing more.   I testify that I know differently.  I know that Heavenly Father and my Savior care about my daily life.  I know that they send angels to minister to us every day.  I am so grateful for that.  Especially during these times when I need those little reassurances.  I am so grateful for my time I have on earth.  I am trying to spend it wisely.  As my friend was leaving this afternoon I told her that I had been trying really hard to focus on living a better more meaningful life.  Doing things that I think my Heavenly Father and Savior would want me to do, rather than what I would want to do.  Sometimes my house will be a pit and suffer a little, but I feel the need to spend time with people and to serve.  I want to use the time that I would be spending taking care of Tater bug wisely.  That is precious time that we have been given, not to squander, but to do good things with.  I hope that I am opening my eyes and my heart big enough to see and feel how I should spend it.  I am grateful for the spirit and angels to help guide and direct me and my family through our daily lives.

Hopefully next picture Hayden will be wearing a full pair of pants.