Sunday, May 19, 2013

Letter to Richard - birthdays and miracles


Dear Richard

I think I can finally say that I’m catching my breath! So this past week has been intense, but I can see a slight glimmer at light at the end of the tunnel at least, now J

The semester finished on Thursday, so I’m finished teaching until July, which is a huge relief. Not that I don’t have plenty else to do… My students are writing their test in 9 days, and I don’t have the test set yet, let alone checked by the people who need to check it and then printed. And then there are all the other things I need to be doing as well, but this is a whole lot better than how I felt last week!

Mom came home on Tuesday, and there is a definite improvement from what she was like. And you should see how good her tremor is looking! Her head is still shaking a bit, but her hands are SO much steadier!

It was Hannah’s birthday on Friday, so a lot of this week has been focused around getting things ready for her party, shopping for things, baking cupcakes for school on Friday, and then all the preparation for her party yesterday. But it all went really well, and I think she really enjoyed her birthday! Her party yesterday was also really nice because the people who came were all really nice – nice kids and parents.

Then of course you know about Cindy and the cyst she had to have removed yesterday… I had to leave work early on Friday to go and be with her at the hospital to relieve Mom. It was an interesting role to play… J But she’s getting better now, and at least the thing is gone!

And we also went to Amy’s birthday party yesterday, which was very nice. At least a lot more calm than our party yesterday afternoon J

And then our miracle for the week… On Thursday morning we were just about to leave for school when we realised that my keys were gone. We searched all over (thankfully we were actually early for a change, and this searching didn’t make up late) but there was NO sign of them. That evening we ended up getting to bed really late, because there was NO sign of them anywhere in the house. We kept on searching, and praying about it, and I felt that they would turn up, but we really had exhausted all our possibilities… The keys were my car keys, which has a key for both my and Andrew’s car, plus a gate remote, so it’s a serious bunch to lose, in terms of replacement cost, and the risk of someone getting into our property… But also, because it was my car and gate keys, it would have made sense that they must be somewhere at home, because I managed to get home…

Anyway, we just kept on searching and praying to find them. Then on Saturday as we were driving to Amy’s party Andrew saw a sign stuck on the fence of a house around the corner from us, 2 houses from the swimming teacher “Lost keys found in driveway”. There was no one at home, but we phoned the number and the lady said she’d bring them around to us to see if they were ours. And then when we were at Colleen’s house Dad phoned me, and the lady was outside our gate, and was wanting to see if they were our keys, which they were! What a blessing! But also just things like Dad happened to be at home then, instead of at the hospital with Cindy or at the party, he was outside, but came in just at that time to check something, and saw her standing outside our house, and then just this really kind lady finding the keys, who made an effort to find their owner. I can Definitely see Heavenly Father’s hand in all of this, and we are SO grateful to have the keys back, and to have had the whole experience! I dropped off a thank you card on the way home from church today, and I also put in a pass-along card. It is the best thing we could give as a thank you, after all J

And the kids were Amazing at church today! Really good during sacrament, and then no arguments about eating their lunch after church, either! We are busy doing a reward chart to try and get Josh and Hannah to be more reverent during prayers and scripture reading, and yesterday they only got half a smiley face sticker because they didn’t do well for something. But I told them they could have yesterday’s second half today if they were reverent in sacrament. So I don’t know how much of a role that played, but they were really good! It might have at least helped Josh, and then if he is calm, it makes a huge difference to the others… But hopefully the start of good things to come!

Love you lots
Shelly

No comments: