I will not sit

When John and I were newlyweds we were called to serve in the primary.  I was being given the rundown of children and when it came to a few I was told not to even worry about them, they never came.  Wait, what?  Forget about them because they didn't come?  No.  I would not be satisfied with that.  I remember telling John that night how upset I was that I had been told that.  "What would Christ have done?  He would never give up on us.  I won't give up either!"  I got one of the boys to come once, but there is no miraculous story to tell.
Here I am again, with a sincere desire to serve being told to enjoy the break, to serve as a mother.  I know people mean well, but where there is desire, where there is capacity, why not use it?  I want to serve, I can serve, why shouldn't I ask for opportunities?
I read this talk tonight (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/the-joyful-burden-of-discipleship?lang=eng) and it only increased my desire, and determination to serve.  We are taught within the LDS church that we are the Lord's hands.  I feel like being a mother is being one hand, but serving in every way I can is being two hands.  I realize that I have opportunities to serve all a round me, as a mother, as a neighbor, and I don't need a calling to serve, but I want one. I will not be content to sit by and become complacent.  I NEED a calling.  Until I get to know the people here and the needs here, I do need a calling and I will ask for one.  I will badger for one, I will insist on one. ;)  I don't care if they tell me to empty the garbage each week, just give me something to do in this ward and I will do it joyfully and with gratitude. (Until I get tired of garbage duty) ;)

I get to serve!

 I am so excited!  I have just been given on apportunity to serve.  It's what I have been praying for, looking for, and hoping for.  It's just what I need to stop being such a baby about being here.  :)  I am so excited!!! Let me go backa bit.
Glen rides the bus and one of the rules is that a parent has to be there to drop off and pick up the kids.  On one of the first days I met a woman whos son is in kindergarten as well.  We didn't get much time to talk most of the week, but over the weekend we invited her son over to play and I went oer to her house after to talk with her.  Her name is Pia (ok, that's really just the "shortened for Ruth English version of her name)  She has been here for four months and moved here from India.  She lives very close and I think that the fact that we were both very far from home and all that is familiar to us made us instant friends.  Sometimes we have abit of a hard time understanding eachother, but we keep trying because we need eachother.  We are both lonely here and being together we are not so lonely.
Anyway, Last Saturday after I went to her house I told her if she is ever lonley come on over I am almost always home.  She did for the first time today and she stayed for about an hour before we walked to the bus stop together to get our boys.  While she was here she told me again how her son is struggling to learn the language and so he is struggling in school.  He is also struggling because in India kindergarten in just the ABC's, not phonics, reading and all the other stuff we get here.  I showed her the reading system I used to teach Glen to read and that I am using to teach Benjamin.  I offered to let her use the set, but she said that she would just teach him wrong because she would say it wrong.  I told her I would help her son with his homework if he came over after school each day and she said yes, that would help and would I also help him learn to read.  I said yes.
I am so happy for this opportunity to help her.  Her son is sucha sweetie, so full of life and eager to learn.  I love kids, and I love to teach, it's just perfect. So each day he will come over and we will work on homework and sight words together, then I will help him learn his letters and sounds and when he finsihes that I will help him with reading.  He and Glen can play together after homework and after school gets out I will have even more time to help.
I expected the first opportunity to serve would be in my new ward, but my neighbor has beat them to it and I will serve gladly wherever I can.  Hopefully this will help them save money hiring a tutor

Famailair and comforting

So many things are different here in Indaiana, so different from Utah.  The grass is always wet and soggy, the air is wet, the wind is crazy and it is often windy.  There are a lot of thunderstorms, a lot of rain, most of my neighbors are not memebers of my church and they don't use the grid system!  There are not any mountians, there are tons of trees and so many different kinds, oh the list is endless.  That is why I was looking forward to church this week.
Walking in the building looked like most of the church buildings in Utah.  The bishop sat up on the stand and one of his councelors conducted.  We took the sacrament, heard a few speakers and sang songs from the same hymn books as in Utah.  Then we went to Sunday school and the kids to primary, after that John went to Elders wuarum and I went ot Releife Society.  Three hours, just like Utah.  In a new state, in  new home, surrounded my new people I felt so much peace and comfort in the famair gospel.  No matter where I go the same gospel principals will be taught, the same oraganization exists, and I will even have the same lessons as my friends in Utah, my mom in Wyoming, or my friend in Denmark.  I am so very grateful for a worlwide church so that no matter where I am I can sit and learn about Jesus Christ and come closer to Him.  There is comfort in the familair, and peace in knowing God will be where I am.

Let the Adventure continue

I tell my kids that a bad attitude is like a flat tire, you don't get very far until you change it.  I need a minute to change my own flat tire here...ok, I'm good, thanks.  I have been stuck in a rut for the past few days.  I am pretty sure it is mostly doe to the baby blues I get for a few weeks after each baby, it won't last long and then I'll be back to my cheeky self again.  Until then I'll have to look at it as a challenge.
Today was tough.  I was running some errands and stressing about...pretty much everything.  I realized that my bad attitude was interferring with my ability to do the will of Heavenly Father.  I was spending so much time focusing on all the things I don't like here and all of the people I miss back in Utah that I was not focusing on finding people to serve, opportuinites to be a missionary and all of the reasons that I was so excited to move out of state.
I have really been looking forward to going to church.  At first I was aching for something familiar, and I still do, but now I am looking forward tot he spiritual recharge I will get, the calling I am sure is going to come, and the request to speak in sacrament meeting that won't be too far in the future I am sure.  I have worked really hard the last 2 years to be more outgoing and comfortable in my own skin.  It is that which I have worked so hard for that will help me to be a light to others, to serve, love, and do as Heavenly Father would have me do.  I am here because He sent me here and I can't wait to put down some roots and really bloom, even if it is only temporary.
So, good bye to my bad attitude and hello new challenge and adventure.  I love adventures, and I even love challenges.  I'm ready!

Whirlwind Adventure part 2

Remember when I said I saw the Lord's hand so much the past few weeks?  Here is why.  Everything fell into place EXACTLY, it was all just too perfect.  We fasted on Sunday for John to get a job, he had one by Monday.  The house got packed up super fast and we could leave early, turns out we did leave early.  We found an appartment just before we left, and they would let us in early.  Everything on the way here was just perfect.  Once we got here the miracles did not stop, though.  Part 2 is even more fun to tell.

John's insurance would start after his first day, but here is the catch, it would start on the first day of the first full month after he started.  If he had started on the 1st of April then we wouldn't have had insurance until May, but he was asked to start on the 31st, so we had insurance.  That worked out perfectly.  Next item, find a midwife.  That turned out to be kind of hard because no one could tell me if the midwife I had chosen would be covered under John's insurance.  I worked on this every day from the monday John started until Friday.  John told me ot go either way, but at 11:00 I had figured outt hat she was indeed covered.  Perfect timing. I had taken John to work that day so I loaded the kids in the car and we headed off to my appointment.  I was 38 weeks to the day.  It was about a 30 minuted drive and five minutes from the clinic I figured out I was having contractions, I had been since the night before.  Oh yeah, and they were really close together.  I told the nurse and she sent in my midwife who checked me.  I was dialated to a 4.5 and 80% effaced.  She called hospital security to come pick me up and get me to the hospital, I was in labor! Problem.  I had 3 kids with me and I had the car and no way to get ahold of John because I had dropped our cell whone somehwere on the way.  Great.  So much for everything working out, right?  Acutally it was pretty much perfect.  One of the nurses took charge of the children att he hospital while I got checked in and the clinic nurses were able to get ahold of John just as he fisnished up work to tell him I was in labor and what hosptial I was at.  The night before I jokingly told John I would try to go into labor so he wouldn't have to miss any work.  It was Friday and I was in labor, but still no John.  I was so close to delivery and praying he would make it, but I had no idea how since I had the car and he was 45 minutes away.  It turns out John had made friends witha couple at work.  They gave him a ride to the hospital and also took our kids.  John got there about 1/2 hour before Abigail was born.  Again everything worked out perfectly.  John nailed it on the head when he tole me Thursday that as soon as we got the insurance taken care of the baby would come, and she was here withina  day.
Even when it seemed like things were not working out, how could I be in labor with three kids and no husband, the Lord was watching out for us and linig everything up perfectly.  I have felt and seen His hand in my life daily for a long time, but never have I seen and felt His hand so much as I have the last two weeks.

Whirlwind Adventure part 1

Oh boy, where to start.  The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, tornado may be a more accurate discription, and I have barley had time to breath.  I promised myself I'd take a few minutes today though because 1. friends have been waiting to hear all about it, and 2. I see too much of the Lord's hand in the last two weeks to fail sharing it all.
As you know, John has been in Virginia since Thanksgiving.  After the training they were going to find him a job and we knew that once they did we would have to get all packed up and go REALLY fast.  On the 24 of March he called me to say he had a job, they wanted him to start on the 31.  He told me he would not have time to come back because the company wanted him to stay in VA until Thursday and finish up some work and paperwork.  The plan was that I would get everything packed up with help from the Re;ief ociety and drive the kids out with his mom on Monday.  Women came en mass and packed like crazy people!  By Wednesday morning my friend asked why we didn't leave earlier since everything was getting packed up so fast.  I was still planing on leaving Monday so my mother in law could drive out with me and then Wednesday evening I got home after an afternoon of errands to find John!  He totally surprised me, I was shocked!  Well, that changed everything. We had to get packed up and out by Friday to get John to Indiana in time to start work the next Monday.  We still didn't have an appartment, but by Thursday I had found one, they would even let un in early, on the 30 so we didn't have to stay in a motel for a few days until April 1.  Everything was so crazy rushed I didn't get to see my brother before I left, and I bet some friends asked after me and I was already gone.  :)  We got everything packed and loaded and Friday afternoon we took off.  We made it as far as Laremy, WY that night, depressingly close to Utah, but we did get to stop and see my mom and dad so it was good.  The next morning we got started at 8:30 and drove until 12:30 before we stopped in Des Moines, IA.  Sunday morning we got going at 8:00 and arrived here in Fishers at about 6:00.  Thank goodness the nice lady in the office stayed and hour after so we could get into our appartment.  A group of men from the ward and the missionaries were waiting to help us unload the truck and car and taht was done by the end of the night.  The next day John would start work.  Here are a few pictures we took on the way.

Rock climbing for a few minutes right before we left Wyoming

There were so many cool things to see and fun places to visit, it would have been fun to take a few weeks and make it a vacation road trip.

The sunrise Sunday morning.  I had nver seen the sun rise without mountains blocking the view.

Benajmin had been looking forward to seeing the Mississippi river for months so we stopped to take a closer look.

A quick stop at the park for Lunch on Sunday before we made the last leg of the journey.

And finally these strange things we begane to see in IL.  They mark the touwns and each has the town name painted on the top.