What a Summer!

About 60 days ago (give or take a few), our summer began, but this summer would prove to be far from ordinary as we layover in Utah with family waiting to move to our new destination of Minnesota.  After one particular difficult week this summer where every day some stressful thing would happen, and I would say what next, what will be the next challenge to deal with, I was feeling completely overwhelmed.  To prevent myself from turning cynically, pessimistic, or fearing each new day, I knew I had to do something.  For me doing something occurs by writing.  Through writing, I process in my mind how to approach my challenges and the things that transpire in my life.  Through writing, my thinking changes. Through writing, I find a way to deal with whatever life throws at me.  This time, through writing I discovered something amazing. 

Yet when I first sat down to write, I didn’t know what that discovery would be or exactly what I was trying to accomplish. One night after everyone else was asleep, I sat writing in my online journal.  I wrote every challenge I could think of that had occurred since June. I wasn’t trying to complain and I wasn’t sure what I would accomplish, but I began with #1 Ray injures his back the day he flew home for Aaron’s graduation and Moving Day.

The list continued…#6 I am trying to clean our vacant house and feeling overwhelmed with the task.  #10, 11, 12 getting three children ready –one for a Germany trip, one for college, and one for Girls Camp--all made more difficult because we were temporarily staying with my dad and two of them were flying back to California before their trips. #13 An unsympathetic police office issued me a ticket for missing a neighborhood stop sign at the end of a very stressful day.  The list continued on and on—we changed our minds on the home we intended to buy and had to reconfigure the city, school, and ward, we listed our rental house for sale, our Yukon was hit by the garbage truck while parked in front of my dad’s house, we decide to build a new home in Minnesota and then struggle to find a suitable short term rental, our a/c unit freezes up on the house that is for sale… the list continued to #41.

I finished the list and understood why I felt overwhelmed, yet I didn’t know what to do with this list. It took a couple days, but then I realized something incredible.  Through the list of challenges, I began to see the tender mercies of God helping me and I could almost match up each of the 41 challenges to a tender mercy.  Dear friends came and helped me clean the kitchen. Great friends in Northern California helped us get another rental house sold and issues there resolved. Though in temporary conditions, our children got to spend quality time with cousins who they don’t see often. My children had great experiences on their trips and were kept safe.  Even the ticket from the unsympathetic police office turned into the beginning of an essay for my creative writing class. We had an incredible experience being guided to a great area to build a new home in a small, little town, and we had an amazing spiritual experience in our first visit to our new ward. We sold our Utah rental house and finally we won’t have to be unintentional landlords.

Yes, there are challenges brought on by moving.  Yes, life isn’t easy, but once again, I have learned I am not alone and I wouldn’t change my life for any other life.