The rewards of service - warning: graphic and sappy!

Today we've had the great chance to help out a friend on his Eagle Project. He's been collecting items for an orphanage in Afghanistan and today was the sorting/boxing day - the day I have been so excited for! I LOVE organizing things!! The tables were overflowing, the work was long and tiring, but the company was wonderful and the time was well spent! We sorted everything, boxed it all up, and cleaned up what was left.

We even had the older kids there working all day as well. They aren't as goo goo over organizing as I am, but I am conditioning them to think that way :-) Garrett even got to help out in his scout uniform, which he thought was neat since it was an Eagle Scout Project. See his new neckerchief? He is thrilled to finally be in Bears and to have his new blue neckerchief!

If I had been thinking about it, we could have used this for Garrett's family birthday service project, but we have already started working on what he had planned for his own project and don't want to stop him half way through it. But we sure have worked hard on this project as well!It was while we were working today that we got to see some blessings for doing service in action.

The first of which involved my quick-footed Owen and his playful older brother. They were playing a no-contact version of tag in one of the classrooms and chasing each other around visually tagging each other when Owen ran through a doorway and made too sharp of a turn and ran into the corner of a chalk board, splitting a gash in his forehead. He cried, of course, but nothing too loud or tell tale of how badly it should have been hurting. He had actually stopped crying before we had even gotten out of the church building. It just wasn't hurting him all too much - there was blessing number one.When we got home to grab what we needed to go to the doctor to get some stitches, I snagged a picture of it with my camera. This was all the blood that ever came, just what you see in the picture below. For a head wound that is incredible! Blessing number two was how calm the bleeding was. It's easy to lose your head when blood is pouring from your baby's face, but I didn't have to worry about that today.We got to the doctor's office and were take back right away without having to wait in either the front waiting room or the surgical waiting room very long. They immediately put some numbing gel on to make it ready for the stitches, turned on Monsters vs Aliens for him to watch, and let us wait for it to kick in. He wasn't in any pain, was sucked into a funny movie, and the half hour wait for the medicine sped by quickly. Unfortunately, there was a little corner that didn't go all the way to sleep, so they ended up having to give him some litacaine shots - the ones that hurt a lot and feel like burning bee stings. He did finally cry when that happened, but after the doctor, the nurse, and I sang the ABC song one time through, the whole area was asleep and all was well again. They were really impressed with how good Owen was being and how polite of a little guy he was. (The last time we were here getting stitches in his chin it took 4 people to hold him down while the doctor stitched him up, and he threw such a fit and screamed so much that he wet his pants and soaked one of the nurses holding his waist down! )That was another blessing - he was so much more calm than he normally is at the doctor's. Before we left the house today he begged me not to take him to the doctor, but once we got there, everything was okay and calm. She put 7-8 stitches inside the skin to help make the scar as tiny as possible and not railroad trackish. Then she glued it shut on the outside and then glued the steri-strips on after that to make sure the outside stays shut while it is healing. We're to go back on Monday to get it checked out again, but the stitches are supposed to start dissolving on their own by then. And through this whole thing I didn't feel the least bit anxious or nervous or anything. Another huge blessing in itself! Owen was calm and accommodating and responsive, and I felt peaceful and in control. At one point I even told a friend that if I had a way to numb it myself and some surgical thread I would stitch it back myself to save us the trip to the doctor's!

So we ended the day thinking it had been a wonderful day, and it really was. We accomplished a lot for the project, and survived yet another head injury for Owen (one that once again Garrett played a role in! I'm telling you, there really is a connection between the two!)

I don't know if anything would have been different if we hadn't been doing a good deed, and I don't think that these good things came solely because of it, but I do know that I saw the love of my Heavenly Father quite a few times today as He looked out for me and my little family. Often times I hear people tell me about how hard it must be to have as many trials and tough things happen to us, but I don't understand what they mean. I see tough times happening to tons of people around us, but the things that we go through are just hiccups...easy peasy things. We haven't had to bury one of our babies. We don't have serious illnesses following us around all the time. We aren't worried about when we will eat next. We don't have to fervently pray for Daddy's safety each night. Those would be tough, and I know people who are having to deal with things like that right now - I'm talking people I know, not just "people" in other places. The illnesses we see, and the trials we are given seem to be easy for us, not because they are light, but because they are made light. Instead of getting stuck in the present dilemma, we look at the end result that we hope for, work to get through it, and trust in our Lord. Then He takes us the rest of the way. Just like the scriptures say, when we turn to Him, He can make our burdens light.

I've seen His hand in my life so much in the past month. So reassuring. So protective. So present. It makes me so happy to be able to recognize it, and to appreciate it for what it is. To know that He really does love me and my family; that we matter to Him; and that He is always there with us, not just when we need Him, but always. What a wonderful blessing that is, to know that you are a beloved child of a nurturing Heavenly Father!

And for a further blessing for today...as if you could stand any more. (Don't worry, the sappy and gory stuff are both over!) When I talked to my sweetie on the phone today he told me that his boss up in Washington told him today that they were going to give him a year's leave of absence after his internship was over, so he could go back and finish school, and his position would be held open for him to return to after he graduated!!! We had known that they have a high rehire rate for their interns, but he's only been there two weeks and he already knows that he for sure has a job waiting for him in a year and half!!! I don't like the thought of leaving our family and friends here in Utah, but what a wonderful blessing to have a great job already lined up for him for after he graduates!

And...as far as Emmy goes... the steroids weren't as terribly hard on him as I worried. He got jittery and restless, and today he was miserable and nervous and emotional, but it seems as though the fever is gone for this cycle. But with this being his short cycle, I'm not 100% sure it was the steroids that did it, or had he fevered as long as it was going to anyways? But we are done with fevers and medicines until the first part of October when his next big cycle will begin, so we will consider that Em's part of the blessing!

I'm telling you, it really is a Wonderful Life!