feeling love...

Last week I wrote a post after a somewhat crazy week. I was feeling all pitiful and overwhelmed, so I wrote about it. I never posted it because I wanted to include some pictures, but I didn't have them at the time.

In the end I don't think I am going to put up that post. It was far too depressing and self-consuming.

Today I will talk about tender mercies.

This last week was not nearly as crazy, and life felt like life. It was long some days, but all in all just full of life.

We had gone to DC to visit our friends the Ericksons. They are fabulous people, with two fabulous kids. And we enjoyed delicious chicken, and even made it to the Temple. Tender mercy, we did get stuck in crazy traffic and therefore did not end up in any meltdown scenarios. Believe me, most trips to DC end and possibly finish that way. This trip was uneventful in that respect and I took that as a tender mercy. Plus, I got to snuggle Bear, their very cute 1ish month old. It was delightful!

Then we started our week. It was hard some days and easy other days. But we were doing okay.

Friday I headed into work, dodging some rain as I biked. I started classes, lectured some, and felt a little better about some of my students' performances (that was something that stressed me out the previous week). Around lunchtime I got a call from Jimmy. Well, a few calls, but I was swamped with students coming to my office.

I finally got a chance to call Jimmy back to find out he was stranded on the side of RT 81, just outside of Staunton. He sounded calm and not really perturbed by the fact that our car, that was inspected a week before, was now acting up. I called about a tow truck, called a few friends, and he was able to get back to Lexington (without our car) in time to be at part of his class in the afternoon.

We remarked later that night that it was amazing how calm we both had been and how miraculous it was that the car broke down somewhat close to the shop, and that it was the weekend and not the middle of the week. We thought, the Lord really is looking out for us.

And then there was a great outpouring of help from our friends from church. And we felt even more the great love Heavenly Father had for us. We even have a car that we can use until ours is fixed. And even though our week was ending on a somewhat eventful note, it was not all bad. I felt much better about this week, than I had the last. Simple tender mercies that really made all the difference.

On another note, Lucy and her friend went to a fantastic garden/park the other day. They have a great play area for kids, with mud and dirt and water and rocks. Lucy was in HEAVEN. I thought I might share a picture  or two (or 5) from that event. Just because she is cute even when she is wet and covered in mud.