The Windows of Heaven

David and I had an amazing experience happen to us today that I wanted to share. As I've mentioned in other posts, we are having financial difficulties right now. We have experienced numerous mini-miracles and have been extremely blessed by the kindness of others. What happened today was another example of this.

David handed a member of our bishopric, Brother Young, our tithing envelope today. While we have very little to live on, we pay 10% of our income in tithing with the confidence of knowing that Heavenly Father will bless us because of it and will take care of our needs. He always does. Sometimes it's a piano tuning job for David, sometimes it's extra income from a Saturday job, sometimes it is a bill that comes in lower than expected and often it is through the goodness of others.

As David handed Brother Young the tithing envelope, Brother Young handed David an envelope. It had my name on it, so David didn't open it and brought it home to me. (I had stayed home because Baylie was sick.) When I opened the envelope, I was shocked to find that it contained a money order for twice what we had just paid in tithing. I contacted Brother Young to find out who had done this for us, but he said it was an anonymous donation.

I am so humbled and grateful for each kindness that is offered to us. I am overwhelmed and can't really even wrap my mind around it. I hope that one day we are in a position to pay it forward to others who are in need.

A Mormon prophet, Spencer W. Kimball once said, “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.” Once again I am reminded of the goodness of God.

Kid's Play

This is Jalen's third season playing for the same soccer team. He has great coaches and has made good friends with his teammates. It is fun watching them play. His final game was postponed last week because it was in the 30's. Turns out the remake night was in the 30's as well. So, we cancelled the game and played at Chick-fil-a instead. It was a lot of fun.

This year instead of trophies they got medals. Jalen was thrilled about that. He has been sleeping with it and wearing it everywhere.

He was pretty happy about his kid's meal too.

Today we went to Baylie's school for a reader's theater. This was hanging outside of her classroom.

Jalen loves to visit Baylie at school.

Baylie had one of the main parts in the reader's theater. She was narrator #1 and the story was Pete the Cat. She was very nervous and excited, and she did a great job. She always reads with great emotion. I took a video, but can't figure out how to get it off my phone.

After the performance, we joined Baylie for Thanksgiving lunch. Jalen intentionally ruined the photo.

And this one too.

And this one.

And this one. Punk.

Today Baylie got a package from my old babysitter, Judianne. I had made a comment on facebook about Baylie always wanting to mail letters and me not having supplies or stamps for all she wanted to do. Judi sent Baylie TONS of paper, envelopes, markers, pens, etc. PLUS tons of stamps! Baylie was in heaven. She said she was "living the dream." She has already written three cards and is sleeping with the box by her bed.

Grateful

Last week I spoke in the sacrament meeting portion of our Sunday meetings. My assigned topic was Grateful in Any Circumstances by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. (You can read the original talk HERE.) It was such a blessing for me to study this talk and think about gratitude, especially since lately I have been focusing more on what I don't have instead of on what I do. One of my greatest blessings is that I am surrounded by family and friends that love me and do so many kind things for me and my family.

Recently, Baylie's elementary school had an art show. They framed a piece of art from each student and offered it for sale for $25. We just couldn't afford to buy Baylie's picture. She was sad about it and we felt badly as well, but there was just no way around it. So imagine my surprise when today one of Baylie's good friends, whose mother is a dear friend of mine, presented Baylie with her framed artwork. I cried. It was so thoughtful, selfless and completely unexpected. On the way home from church, Baylie said, "I am just exploding with joy!"

Here is the note Baylie received from her friend.

Baylie's work is entitled "Princess Perfect" and now hangs in a place of honor in our living room. I taped Isabella's note to the back of it so Baylie can always remember how she came to own this piece of art.

God is good. And so are most of His children. 

Updates from the Batchelor Pad

We haven't done anything major or exciting, but there have been lots of little fun things going on.

David had the opportunity to baptize two cousins in our ward. Their families are from Pohnpei, Micronesia and several of them have been baptized. These two awesome kids were the latest additions.

We went to a couple of fun birthday parties. One involved painting and a marionette show.

Another was a gymnastics party.

I have been watching a new born. It's been fun to have a baby around, but we've decided that it's not a good idea for our family, so I'll only watch him for another week or so.

This kids had fun at the park.

We couldn't wait for Christmas so we made a "thankfulness chain" to count down the days. Each link has something written on it for which we are grateful. We figured we could justify it that way.

Jalen lost his first tooth! He pulled it out himself in the middle of the night and couldn't figure out why the tooth fairy didn't come.

We had some super heroes over to play.

David was the feature entertainment for the High Priests group social. He even had some groupies. This was despite the fact that he was sick and could barely sing. He still sounded great and Brother Hunter on the guitar was awesome.

The kids wanted their moment in the limelight as well.