Recording the hand of the Lord in our lives

Today, we had a special devotional for our area of the country with two of our Apostles, Elder Christofferson and Elder Ballard. Elder Ballard talked to us about seeing and recording the hand of the Lord in our lives. He said, "Look for the hand of the Lord in your life and in your family. Record and share these stories!...I do not believe you are here by coincidence."

Today was full of the hand of the Lord with my family. So, being a good little girl, here I am to record some of our stories :)

The day started off a little rocky. We spend yesterday at the beach (yes, I know it was freezing cold. It was still wonderful. So there.) so my kids were up a little late. And it turns out I'd forgotten about a meeting before church today. So we had to get ready...quickly. This involved a lot of showering and a lot of cooking. We usually bring muffins for lunch, but today we needed some dinner too. Ellis and Lillian made muffins and I tossed my fastest reliable and easy crock pot meal together. I planned an easy Primary lesson. We packed some toys for the kids to play with while I was in my meeting. We made it work. Off we went to church, with everything except the kitchen sink!

One of the things I noticed first was that Sam had a really good day today. He's struggled a lot lately with things not going the way he wants, or having to make concessions for the good of the whole. But today, he didn't get upset about having to leave early or while Lige and Ellis were babysitting him during the meeting. Which is amazing because he's soooo sleep deprived right now. We've stayed up late a lot this weekend. (And by comparison, he was a lot more grumpy yesterday, when he was a lot less sleep deprived!)

Our church goes from 12-2pm, and the devotional was at 4pm. It was a bit of an awkward time for us, so we decided to just stay at the church, eat some dinner, then watch the fireside. As we talked to people, we kept inviting people to join us. Then Marriner asked if we had enough for the interpreter and her family, who had not been planning to stay because of small children, but she was the only interpreter at church today, so she was willing to help. I said, "of course!" not knowing if that was actually true...but I just thought of the story of the loaves and the fishes, and felt completely comfortable  saying that we'd have plenty. And guess what - we did. That meal which usually feeds my family actually fed 16 people today. Some of them ate really fast right as the devotional was starting, which probably helped them not eat so much :) And the hearing ward in our building had left some food from their potluck earlier, which increased our humble meal. :) So it all worked out.

After we ate, Marriner and I took charge of all the kids, who were not really thrilled at going to more church, so the interpreter and her husband could work/watch the broadcast. We figured we could wrangle kids and listen at the same time, but they couldn't interpret or watch the interpretation with tired kids. We felt really good about it, but as the kids got bored-er and bored-er, I didn't hear so much of the last talk. But at the end, a sister in the hearing ward (Marriner's 2nd cousin!) came up and said she'd figured I wasn't catching much of the broadcast any more and voice recorded the end of it for me, if I wanted her to email it to me. So thanks to her inspired thoughtfulness, we all had access to the message of the gospel today. How cool is that?

A couple of my kids got some neat experiences today. In Primary, we had some hearing visitors, which meant we needed some interpretation. Lillian got to do that. She interpreted into English during opening exercises, then in class, the teacher spoke in English and Lillian signed for the Primary president, who was also in the class. It was her first time signing, and I hear she did a great job. Lige also got to interpret his class, as the oldest youth in the branch in attendance today. And during the devotional, I was sitting out in the hall, playing with magnet tiles (see above paragraph...) when I looked up during the rest hymn and saw Lige interpreting the music. (Have I gushed enough yet about our chapel's wonderful glass back wall?) I don't know how he ended up doing that, but you know, I'm a mom, and you know how your momma heart feels when you see you kid doing something that requires skill and hard work. I admit, I was just proud of him. "Look! My kid's an ASL interpreter!"

Anyway, it was a neat day. I felt guided by the Spirit in a lot of little things, but it's always neat to feel like the Lord can use you. And it was fun to see my kids stretch and grow. Even the little ones, who did things that were hard for them like stay at the church for 8 straight hours :)