families

As we prepared to leave our home, we felt such a love and gained such an appreciation for families.  For our little family and the opportunity we had to steal away and spend this time together, really, really together. (Sometimes too together…) We feel so blessed that the timing worked out so perfectly that we could snatch Sari away and keep her for one more really awesome year and really awesome experience instead of sending her off to grow up. That Shawnie is at a point (cross our fingers) to make it a whole year without any medical procedures. That our sweet and crazy little Z is miraculously even with us for this adventure and we are able to experience it through his eyes, giving us a completely different perspective. There have definitely been some pretty great moments of tension getting ready to come as well as since arriving as we’ve each personally had to make adjustments to make our new situation work.  But we are working together and helping each other and I think we are figuring it out. And it is going to be awesome.

We are also grateful for the love and support of our big family. We squeezed in an awful lot of summer before we left, and we enjoyed every single opportunity we had to spend time with our big family. We wouldn’t be here without their help and support. My mom and dad and Steph and Shane spent hours during multiple trips helping me make arrangements, babysitting, cleaning, and packing up my house to leave. They talked me through the worries that come with leaving when they could, and worried with me when they couldn’t. Meanwhile, our big family over here was making preparations, picking stuff up, making phone calls, checking out potential homes, storing large white kidnapper vans, etc… We felt such love and appreciation and indebtedness to them before we even arrived. We feel so blessed to have the love of our big family to make our lives so much fuller and better. And easier.

We also have thought much on the love we have for our ward and neighborhood family.  Saying good bye to friends and neighbors was surprisingly just as hard as saying goodbye to our families. We have it pretty good, in our little neighborhood filled with wonderful friends and examples there in North Logan. We have been blessed more than we could share by the service and love and prayers of our friends and neighbors during some of the hardest moments of our lives. We are so grateful to know that we will return to our beautiful home in our beautiful community of beautiful people. 

And now, we have a great appreciation for and even testimony of, our gospel family.  Before arriving, all we had hoped to have waiting for us were a house, a queen sized mattress, a washing machine and a refrigerator. We figured that would get us through a week or so while we (sparsely) furnished our home for the year. When we were finally able to get into our house about 5 hours after arriving, stuff started coming. And coming. Microwave, vacuum, dishes, utensils, glasses, bakeware, beds, pillows, dunas (feather quilts), 3 tables (2 with sets of 6 chairs!), 3 couches, loveseats, recliners, desks, seriously anything you could think of. For FREEEEEE!!! And they didn’t even know us! My head has been just completely spinning over it.   My cousin and my aunt both put out a call to their wards for help, and between my family and their wards, this is what we ended up with. Almost everything we could possibly need. Our move here would have been a completely different experience without it. We have definitely seen the Lord’s hand and watchful eye through the wonderful members of our gospel family here on the other side of the world. We have been absolutely touched by the blessings that our family has received during this difficult transition because we have the gospel in our lives.