Tender Mercies

 

It started yesterday afternoon when I called my manager with an apologetic explanation that Wes's gamma knife procedure + a gazillion appointments, all previously scheduled for Thursday (my day off), had been moved suddenly to Tuesday (my day busy) and that I'd need to be excused not only from 3 Tuesday meetings (for the third time in a month), but also from the 6 Monday night cleaning inspections I was supposed to conduct.

"Whatever you need." Ben said.
"Don't worry about staff meeting...I can take care of that" Lessa e-mailed.

It continued last night when my big brother showed up unexpectedly on my parents' doorstep bearing a belated birthday present for Wes and hands ready to help administer a priesthood blessing. Thank you, Brent!

Tender mercies.

After a restless sleep (Lucy's nightmares involved fire coming from the ground and butterflies on her toes. Mine were less dramatic but much more terrifying), 5am found me in a corner of the basement intending to exercise. It was a nice plan, really, but 15 minutes of jogging and the same number of push-ups later (sigh), I was at the computer checking my e-mail.  It's hard to do regular things on irregular days.

But it turns out checking my e-mail was a good idea.  What was there?
An e-mail from my friend Michelle. Such an e-mail as made my day.

Also, messages from both my visiting teachers (neither of whom knew that we were headed for a full day at Huntsman.)

"...Is there anything I can do for you?" Hannah wrote, "Watch your children? Clean your bathroom? Do your dishes? Seriously, anything. You've got a lot on your shoulders. Do you realize that? Perhaps you do, perhaps you don't..."

Let it go down on the record that this sweet woman gave birth only weeks ago to her third baby and is preparing for a move in another few weeks. And her companion, also responsible for a kind message in my inbox, works full time and is likewise preparing for a move in March.

Who are these people?
Saints.

But it doesn't stop there. Oh, no.

It was about 6am when I finished with Outlook. "Probably still time to exercise," my guilty mind reminded me as my fingers signed into Google Reader.

I scanned a few posts before landing in the Burnett's Backyard where a kind friend of mine had written some very kind (undeserved) things about me. Elise had no idea that Wes and I had a difficult day looming ahead of us, or that I would find tremendous solace and strength in her sweet words. In fact, I'm not sure she even intended me to see the post. She simply "felt like [she] needed" to write a few things.

Tender mercies.

And so it was with renewed courage that I left my children in the care of their grandparents (also saints) and drove with Wes to our Huntsman home with it's stately staircases and sanitary smells.

The day was a blurry miracle of modern medicine (from which Wes is recovering remarkably well).
Sometime in the middle of our 9am to 4pm experience:

*Our dear friend Lisa found me alone in a waiting room and helped me pass the time with shared laughter and tears.

*A phone call home indicated that my sister-in-law Tonya had whisked Lucy away to bake cookies with her cousins (music to my mother-ears.)

*Wes's parents pulled into town after a six hour drive from Las Vegas for the sole purpose of being together with us.

Tender mercies, all.

Tender mercies that bring tears to my eyes and testimony to my heart - testimony that “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs."
(Spencer W. Kimball)

I can hardly sleep tonight for counting my blessings - the blessings of this day and of previous days, the service mentioned above and the many kindnessess my tired body cannot stay awake to enumerate.

But I needed to say thanks - to all of you who make our burdens lighter with your outstreched hearts and sustaining hands.