Trust

Happy President's Day!! I know it's a bit confusing to have this post titled "TRUST" and then start out with reference to American Presidents.

This afternoon I cuddled under my downy comforter in my super soft bed recovering from 90 minutes at the gym and a cold bike ride with my girls in our cul-de-sac. (I need some older biking partners--45 times around a cul-de-sac is not a scenic ride).

In my soft bed, I was studying in The Book of Mormon about TRUST. (My brother Sean and his wife Jess had delivered a beautiful pillowtop mattress to me on Saturday and I was truly enjoying this day off of work in heavenly comfort.) I was suddenly reminded of my duties as a mommy when Kamryn yells from the living room, "Mom, I need Chicken Nuggets please!!" Dang!! I remembered to put the longer version of Winnie the Pooh in the VCR and the girls had their water color paints and enough paper to leave me alone for at least an hour, but I guess you have to feed them every few hours. It had been at least 5 hours since they had last eaten, so my super soft scripture solitude officially ended or at least had to be interrupted.

As I was microwaving frozen chicken chunks like a professional chef, it occurred to me that she needed to learn how to do it herself. So I taught her. She is on a chicken nugget craze lately and eats them whenever I allow it. Her first phrases every morning are: "Good Morning Mommy" "I love you" "I want to hold you" "I need chicken nuggets".

So, there you have it. I'm a loving, hugging, chicken nugget warming robot.

So during my chicken nugget tutorial, I began to realize how much she has trusted me to provide her with this meat each day. I pop right up and meet her needs. I also realized that she is capable of doing this by herself and how exciting it will be for her (and for me) when she can do this on her own.

I compared this to how readily our Father is available to tutor us with the things that we need to learn so that we too can excitedly become more independent. Even though soon Kamryn will be making her own meals, I will always be nearby to lend a hand.

This past year Heavenly Father has been so good to me. Anytime that I called out, He attended to me. He succored me, He protected me, He lifted me. He didn't take away my trials, but He never left me alone. Most importantly, He taught me how to use His strength and gain my own. It is with deep gratitude that I address my Father in prayer throughout the day. I continue to be amazed at His work in my life. I'm also amazed at how He pushes me beyond what I believe that I am capable of.

Whoever puts his trust in God will be supported in their trials, and their troubles and their afflictions. Alma 36:3

"Trials are an evidence of a Father's love. They are given as blessings to His Children. They are given as opportunities for growth--Gain strength from Him" H. Burke Peterson

And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. Alma 36:27

So, as I head back into my snuggly warm nest on my soft new mattress, I am thankful for President's Day that gives me extra time for study. I know that God hears our prayers and that He is mindful of us. He reaches for us, ready to offer assistance and support when we call to Him. I also know that it wounds His loving heart when He finds us not confident of His care or trust His commandments.

I want to continue to see adversity as a challenge of great interest. Opportunity lies in adversity as well as in prosperity.

I want to testify that it is through Christ that we find lasting happiness and permanently lose ourselves in order to find our true selves. One powerful way to draw nearer to Christ is through a sincere study of The Book of Mormon. On my mission in Brazil, I thought of this book as a great weedwhacker. It really does knock away the unimportant and brings us back to what really matters.

Put the doctor on the repentance bench

In the court documents for my divorce, my husband only gets one week long visit with the girls each summer. In real life, though, I have made it clear that he can have them whenever he wants as long as a calm, safe adult is also there with him. He hasn't called for the girls much. We have been home since the middle of July and they have had six visits less than 24 hours each and 1 visit that lasted 48 hours.

Well, three weeks ago Santa dumped a lot of toys at daddy's house and the girls were not allowed to bring them home. This made sense to me because he needs toys at his house, but the girls were quite distraught about leaving the loot. I had contacted him a couple of times to see if the girls could come visit. Each time he said, "well, no, they can't come here, but maybe I could just come and hang out at your house" UMMM NO!! H___ No!! I explained my rule about no adult males in my house unless they are related to me or I have plenty of safe people around with me. He didn't understand and acted confused and hurt, but I don't really care about hurting people's feelings anymore if it means that I get to keep control of my territory and my rules.

Finally, I suggested Emerson call her dad the next time she asked me about playing with the toys at his house. Having her call was the key!! She negotiated a 2 night stayover--which meant I got to go play with my friends 2 nights in a row too!!! I think she is our new visit scheduler.

Anyway, Kamryn sang in sacrament meeting at church this morning and so I suggested he drop the girls off to me at church and stay to see Kamryn pretend to sing with the other 3 yr olds. They were late, but right when I saw Emerson, I knew she was sick. When I got a wiff of her breath I diagnosed her with strep (really, is medical school even necessary??). When the meeting ended we headed to an urgent care clinic. They scheduled an appointment for 90 minutes later. We returned to the clinic at noon and after waiting in the large waiting room for a long time, we were invited to the exam room (really a smaller waiting room) to wait even longer. I have to admit I was really missing the medical care and attention that we used to receive in Malaysia at the fancy Prince Court medical center--I never waited more than 5 minutes there. Apparently, I muttered something like, "Wow, that doctor needs to get in here right now." Kamryn has heard me say this to her before in my school teacher/mom "I mean it" voice. Lately, she has had trouble following directions the first time that they are given, so she has spent a few minutes on our repentance bench (time out) almost everyday this week. So, the wheels started turning in her head as I was losing my patience. Suddenly, she screamed "DOCTOR WHERE ARE YOU?? MOMMA SAID COME RIGHT NOW!!"

Oh my goodness! I hushed her quickly and then explained that she shouldn't be screaming and bossing doctors around. Her method worked though. The doctor came right in and apologized for getting behind schedule.

Kamryn looked up at the doctor and said, "You're gonna get put on the 'pentance bench". Luckily, her articulation is still developing, so the doctor didn't have a clue what was said and just went about her business as doctors usually do.

Oh, and Emerson does have strep.

Dr. Shan