This week offered many magical moments. The first and best being that Jordan called on Monday evening. Of course we were anticipating it, so every time the phone rang my heart would skip a beat and then, when it wasn't him we couldn't help but try to rush people off of the phone. Then Mikayla's seminary teacher called with technical difficulties getting his eclesiatical endorsement to go through online and the deadline was that day, so she had to try and work it out quickly. Luckily Jordan thought to call Fred's cell phone, when the line was busy and I picked it up. There is definitely something magical about hearing your child on the phone after a long absense. He asked us to call him right back and gave us a payphone number. We kept trying to call the number but it would be busy or wouldn't ring through. We tried for 10 minutes and then started panicking, so we looked up the number for the airport we thought he was probably at and asked them to page overhead for him to call back home and then we decided we better say a prayer. So we knelt down and I got as far as addressing Heavenly Father when the phone rang, so, knowing that sometimes all he needs is to hear the thoughts of our hearts, not our words, I closed the prayer and answered the phone. He had a phone card so we were able to talk for about 30 minutes, with him on speaker phone and us passing the phone. He sounded so good. I especially loved hearing him talk to Mikayla about his experiences with his "fake" investigator in the MTC and her real investigator here and he cried. When you invest your heart into something, nothing is "fake".
Another magical event was our snow day on Wednesday. Even Fred got a snowday--somewhat. He still had to record a 2 hour video stream lecture online, but still had time to pull the kids and all their friends around on sleds for a few hours and build an impressive igloo (when I looked out Fred, Abe, Lily, Sophie and Eden were all inside and Eden said she could stand up inside). I didn't go inside because the thought of crawling through that small entrance and being surrounded by all that heavy snow made me claustrophobic, but I was impressed. We got our Christmas tree up and I decorated the whole house while everyone was sledding. We did miss Jordan when it was time to get all of the Christmas boxes down out of the garage attic. He used to jump up to the hole, lift himself up and inside and then lift everything down. Of course we had to get down the big ladder and Fred had to climb it this year, but the end result was just as exciting--opening boxes of magic and memories. We spent the whole day as a family, with cinnamon candles burning, 8" of white outside, Christmas music blaring. Every other activity, besides school was also canceled, which meant Abe had no scouts, and Mikayla, Eden and I had no mutual. It was a perfect day. The kids were hoping to duplicate it on Thursday, but magic is a fleeting thing.
Friday the missionaries came over for dinner. We have a threesome here, because one Elder is waiting for his visa to Mexico to come through and is being mentored in Spanish by one of the companionship. They were delightful young men. You could tell by their conversations that they were very obedient missionaries and full of the Spirit. I thought of Jordan when I prepared dinner and cooked an entire crockpot full of b-b-q chicken for sandwiches. I bought huge buns and toasted them with cheese and they each had two enormous sandwiches. Fred's first wasn't even as big as one of theirs. It was fun to see them enjoy their dinner and think about someone feeding Jordan in Chile. The Igloo was still intact thought it had shrunk considerably and they were excited to take pictures of it. The most adventurous one crawled inside with his suit (that would have been Jordan). They are still little boys in some ways, but you can't help but enjoy watching them entertain themselves in the only way they can for these 2 years and their inspiring message afterwards proved their depth and maturity. Having Jordan on a mission sure makes "feeding the missionaries" take on a whole new dimension of enjoyment.
Of course they asked if we knew anyone who they could teach and we told them Mikayla had a friend she was working with. They surprised us by asking if his name was Jet? Minutes prior to coming over they had received a phone call from our ward mission leader, who said our Bishop had asked him to call and ask them to call Jet. They did and he responded positively to them, but shared that he was worried about his parents reaction. He is 18 so doesn't technically need parental permission to be taught, but I can't help thinking of his mother's heart and how she must be worrying about her son being involved in something that must scare her. I think I will ask Jet's permission to go talk to her. Of course we offered out home for discussions and the missionaries called back Saturday morning with an appointment for this Monday evening. I think Mikayla is still a bit in shock from the whole emotional whirlwind of this experience. I don't think she was prepared for how personal missionary work is. It has been such a uniting experience for her to share back and forth with Jordan.
Fred flies out to Las Vegas tonight for a RT conference right before the 1st Presidency Devotional. It seems like he has missed it for the last few years, because of these conferences, but they are mandatory and useful for him. He never enjoys the atmosphere thought and always tries to find a way for me to go with him, so he doesn't have to endure it alone. It's just so expensive to "be a support" that I haven't been able to justify it. I'll just have to be a long distance support--but maybe one year we'll be able to make it work. I'm not happy to have him gone until Thursday. I know Lori does it constantly, but it doesn't make it any more fun. I'll be so happy when he's home. Even alone, I'm looking forward to the Christmas Devotional immensely--that is always the true start to the "meaning of the season".
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Posted By Bloomers to KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES at 12/05/2010 10:41:00 AM
Another magical event was our snow day on Wednesday. Even Fred got a snowday--somewhat. He still had to record a 2 hour video stream lecture online, but still had time to pull the kids and all their friends around on sleds for a few hours and build an impressive igloo (when I looked out Fred, Abe, Lily, Sophie and Eden were all inside and Eden said she could stand up inside). I didn't go inside because the thought of crawling through that small entrance and being surrounded by all that heavy snow made me claustrophobic, but I was impressed. We got our Christmas tree up and I decorated the whole house while everyone was sledding. We did miss Jordan when it was time to get all of the Christmas boxes down out of the garage attic. He used to jump up to the hole, lift himself up and inside and then lift everything down. Of course we had to get down the big ladder and Fred had to climb it this year, but the end result was just as exciting--opening boxes of magic and memories. We spent the whole day as a family, with cinnamon candles burning, 8" of white outside, Christmas music blaring. Every other activity, besides school was also canceled, which meant Abe had no scouts, and Mikayla, Eden and I had no mutual. It was a perfect day. The kids were hoping to duplicate it on Thursday, but magic is a fleeting thing.
Friday the missionaries came over for dinner. We have a threesome here, because one Elder is waiting for his visa to Mexico to come through and is being mentored in Spanish by one of the companionship. They were delightful young men. You could tell by their conversations that they were very obedient missionaries and full of the Spirit. I thought of Jordan when I prepared dinner and cooked an entire crockpot full of b-b-q chicken for sandwiches. I bought huge buns and toasted them with cheese and they each had two enormous sandwiches. Fred's first wasn't even as big as one of theirs. It was fun to see them enjoy their dinner and think about someone feeding Jordan in Chile. The Igloo was still intact thought it had shrunk considerably and they were excited to take pictures of it. The most adventurous one crawled inside with his suit (that would have been Jordan). They are still little boys in some ways, but you can't help but enjoy watching them entertain themselves in the only way they can for these 2 years and their inspiring message afterwards proved their depth and maturity. Having Jordan on a mission sure makes "feeding the missionaries" take on a whole new dimension of enjoyment.
Of course they asked if we knew anyone who they could teach and we told them Mikayla had a friend she was working with. They surprised us by asking if his name was Jet? Minutes prior to coming over they had received a phone call from our ward mission leader, who said our Bishop had asked him to call and ask them to call Jet. They did and he responded positively to them, but shared that he was worried about his parents reaction. He is 18 so doesn't technically need parental permission to be taught, but I can't help thinking of his mother's heart and how she must be worrying about her son being involved in something that must scare her. I think I will ask Jet's permission to go talk to her. Of course we offered out home for discussions and the missionaries called back Saturday morning with an appointment for this Monday evening. I think Mikayla is still a bit in shock from the whole emotional whirlwind of this experience. I don't think she was prepared for how personal missionary work is. It has been such a uniting experience for her to share back and forth with Jordan.
Fred flies out to Las Vegas tonight for a RT conference right before the 1st Presidency Devotional. It seems like he has missed it for the last few years, because of these conferences, but they are mandatory and useful for him. He never enjoys the atmosphere thought and always tries to find a way for me to go with him, so he doesn't have to endure it alone. It's just so expensive to "be a support" that I haven't been able to justify it. I'll just have to be a long distance support--but maybe one year we'll be able to make it work. I'm not happy to have him gone until Thursday. I know Lori does it constantly, but it doesn't make it any more fun. I'll be so happy when he's home. Even alone, I'm looking forward to the Christmas Devotional immensely--that is always the true start to the "meaning of the season".
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| The Igloo on Thursday morning |
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| The Elders and Igloo--significantly shrunken on Friday night |
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| The first of two teeth --lost in two days |
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Posted By Bloomers to KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES at 12/05/2010 10:41:00 AM
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