Life is busy and stressful at times. But every once in a while we get a little escape from the craziness of reality. Chris just got back from a one and a half day mini vacation to Las Vegas. The kids and I picked him up at the airport after church today. This vacation was to celebrate Chris Father's birthday. We love our Grandma and Grandpa Watters - they are such wonderful people! I am happy that Chris could help celebrate a milestone for Gary. Chris and 4 of his 5 siblings flew to Las Vegas to walk up and down the Strip, go gun shooting at a famous gun place and have an expensive, elaborate steak dinner at the Paris hotel. They planned this a few weeks ago and I will tell the truth by saying when I first heard about it I thought to myself "okay...wait, what the...!" I have been feeling a little bit of the weight of the world on my shoulders these days and sometimes tears are close. Spending money on an expensive dinner in Las Vegas did not really lessen my stress. Starving student phases in life are hard and I feel like I can not seem to get out of them. But, I love my husband, and I love the Watters family and I have to keep my emotions at bay and my thoughts simple. I keep telling myself that. Sometimes life doesn't really make sense but I know that I will go through many times in life where everything will make sense and life will seem easy and I will look back on tough times as small learning moments and I will wonder why I thought they were a big deal. I keep telling myself this too. And I move forward.
Now to talk about another mini vacation. This one involved the whole Smith family. Thank you for making this happen Mom. I used our petro points to book a few hotel rooms at the Sheraton Cavalier in NE Calgary the first Friday night in March. We stayed at this hotel when I was a little girl on New Years eve and it brought back fun memories. It has a nice waterpark with 2 fun waterslides, a kiddie pool, hot tubs and a sauna. We went swimming for hours Friday evening and Saturday morning. We had a pizza party and we went exploring in the hotel with the kids. Mary loved the elevators and went up and down and up and down. Mom brought muffins for breakfast and after swimming some more, we checked out on Saturday at 1100 and went down the road to Chuck E Cheese for an hour so that the kids could play. Then mom and dad treated us to Korean food at an authentic Korean restaurant on McLeod trail. I may never be able to go to Korea but I sure do enjoy the food that they have there. I think it takes mom and dad back to their mission days in Seoul.
Well, life is good. Caeleb and Elva are on Spring break this week and the weather is great. Maybe Spring is here to stay. It feels like it has been a hard winter with the cold spells and snow but it has not been too bad so I can not complain. I work a few days this week but I hope the weather stays nice and the kids and I can enjoy walks to the park and maybe around Fish Creek park. We shall see. Chris will be studying this week. The more studying the better. I am looking forward to General Conference this weekend. I look forward to listening to the uplifting messages twice a year. We are also looking forward to Jared and Landon's visit in a few weeks. Life is good.
Home on the Prairies
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Friday, March 10, 2017
Tender Mercies
I am a bit emotionally drained right now but I still want to write about something that has been on my mind. I have been pondering on the concept of tender mercies for the last 6 months or so. Elder Bednar spoke on this topic several years ago during conference. Through the challenges that we have had in life, Chris and I have learned to focus more on the tender mercies, using them to strengthen our testimony about the purpose of life when it gets a little hard.
Last Sunday Chris bore his testimony in church on tender mercies and it really touched me. My visiting teaching partner has a sick little boy the same age as my Mary - just 2 days older I believe so it hits a little close to home. Our Ward family has been praying for this family and emotions were strong in testimony meeting that day. Chris shared an experience that I had not thought about in a while. When Elva was sick in the PICU, we were unsure if we would be bringing her home. I was pregnant at that time, about 14 weeks along. On Elva's sickest day, I was so worried and wanted to make sure that the baby I was carrying was okay as I felt that my stress would affect the baby. The staff at the PICU could see my stress and were very empathetic and supportive. They offered to do a portable ultrasound on me in the PICU but when doing so, they could not see a heartbeat (It was a poor quality ultrasound, not used for obstetrics and they could not see much at all). I was panicking at that point and raced to a nearby walk-in clinic to get a second opinion. The doctor there could detect a strong heartbeat and I was instantly relieved. A week after Elva came home from the hospital, I went for a regular check up on our about 17 week along baby and after a heartbeat could not be detected, an urgent ultrasound was done and we found out our baby had died. Chris mentioned this experience as a tender mercy in his testimony last week. One might think that how could it have been a tender mercy if we ended up loosing our baby in the end. But I agree with how Chris explained it. Would it not have been worse to know that we had lost one child and could loose another one at any time. How blessed I feel that that little baby held on until we knew Elva was okay. I absolutely know that we can see tender mercies in any situation in life as long as we look for them!
I also know that we can see small tender mercies everyday as long as we take the time to look for them! They may be so small they can easily go unnoticed, but they are real and they are there. They are like little hugs from our Heavenly Father to let us know that he is real and is watching out for us. I have been watching for them and have seen them more frequently as I have intently looked for them lately. A few months ago, I was having a bad day at work and feeling like a crummy nurse. I silently prayed to Heavenly Father to let me see a tender mercy that day. Not long after, a co-worker came up to me and gave me a big hug saying "I love you Katherine." It was so unexpected and not like her at all. But I feel that it was inspired and it completely turned around my day.
Another tender mercy experience is one that I shared in my last post but I am going to repost it here as well: Working Christmas was tough but I made sure to look for tender mercies! We went to Sacrament meeting on Christmas day and then the kids and Chris dropped me off at work. The kids sang Frosty the snowman to some patients including one grumpy old man who not only let the kids sing but he smiled at them too (and trust me, that is from a guy who swears at the nurses all the time). I believe the Christmas spirit had a lasting effect on him and that is a tender mercy for him and for me to witness it.
We may overlook some tender mercies as coincidences or everyday occurrences. But I honestly believe that if we see them as tender mercies, they become tender mercies and we can see more of the workings of Heavenly Father and the hand the Lord in our lives. And how much happier can we be if we choose to live with purpose, believing and knowing that a Heavenly Father has his hand in our lives and has a plan for our existence.
Last Sunday Chris bore his testimony in church on tender mercies and it really touched me. My visiting teaching partner has a sick little boy the same age as my Mary - just 2 days older I believe so it hits a little close to home. Our Ward family has been praying for this family and emotions were strong in testimony meeting that day. Chris shared an experience that I had not thought about in a while. When Elva was sick in the PICU, we were unsure if we would be bringing her home. I was pregnant at that time, about 14 weeks along. On Elva's sickest day, I was so worried and wanted to make sure that the baby I was carrying was okay as I felt that my stress would affect the baby. The staff at the PICU could see my stress and were very empathetic and supportive. They offered to do a portable ultrasound on me in the PICU but when doing so, they could not see a heartbeat (It was a poor quality ultrasound, not used for obstetrics and they could not see much at all). I was panicking at that point and raced to a nearby walk-in clinic to get a second opinion. The doctor there could detect a strong heartbeat and I was instantly relieved. A week after Elva came home from the hospital, I went for a regular check up on our about 17 week along baby and after a heartbeat could not be detected, an urgent ultrasound was done and we found out our baby had died. Chris mentioned this experience as a tender mercy in his testimony last week. One might think that how could it have been a tender mercy if we ended up loosing our baby in the end. But I agree with how Chris explained it. Would it not have been worse to know that we had lost one child and could loose another one at any time. How blessed I feel that that little baby held on until we knew Elva was okay. I absolutely know that we can see tender mercies in any situation in life as long as we look for them!
I also know that we can see small tender mercies everyday as long as we take the time to look for them! They may be so small they can easily go unnoticed, but they are real and they are there. They are like little hugs from our Heavenly Father to let us know that he is real and is watching out for us. I have been watching for them and have seen them more frequently as I have intently looked for them lately. A few months ago, I was having a bad day at work and feeling like a crummy nurse. I silently prayed to Heavenly Father to let me see a tender mercy that day. Not long after, a co-worker came up to me and gave me a big hug saying "I love you Katherine." It was so unexpected and not like her at all. But I feel that it was inspired and it completely turned around my day.
Another tender mercy experience is one that I shared in my last post but I am going to repost it here as well: Working Christmas was tough but I made sure to look for tender mercies! We went to Sacrament meeting on Christmas day and then the kids and Chris dropped me off at work. The kids sang Frosty the snowman to some patients including one grumpy old man who not only let the kids sing but he smiled at them too (and trust me, that is from a guy who swears at the nurses all the time). I believe the Christmas spirit had a lasting effect on him and that is a tender mercy for him and for me to witness it.
We may overlook some tender mercies as coincidences or everyday occurrences. But I honestly believe that if we see them as tender mercies, they become tender mercies and we can see more of the workings of Heavenly Father and the hand the Lord in our lives. And how much happier can we be if we choose to live with purpose, believing and knowing that a Heavenly Father has his hand in our lives and has a plan for our existence.
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