Tender Mercies

I have been seeing Tender Mercies left and right in my life right now. I just wanted to get them written down so I can have an account & acknowledge the hand of my Heavenly Father & how much he loves me.

• We found out T was going on hospice BEFORE (& not 15 hours away) we left on our Arizona Trip.
• My kids took the news extremely well that we weren't going on our trip any more. I'm blessed that they have understanding and caring hearts. At the same time it was extremely hard to break the news to them about their Uncle T (check out Mandy's blog for more details) and then see the heartache that comes from having those tender hearts.
  
• Because we were all packed and ready to go on a trip, I now don't have to do laundry for a whole week. That's one less thing to worry and stress about.
• Isaac was invited to a birthday party that he thought he was going to miss because of the trip. So it was nice for him to still have that to go to to soften the blow of the bad news we received. And for some reason (I usually don't do this), we had bought a present to drop off before we left even though he wasn't going to the party. And for some reason I never got around to dropping it off, so it was all ready to go for the party.
• Because we were going on a trip, I had gone to Dollar Tree and bought all the kids new toys and treats & had gotten them a couple of new movies to keep them occupied for the car ride. It's nice to have these new things to keep the kids entertained while I am attempting to "deal" with the situation at hand.
• I had been debating for a long time what to do about our Arizona Trip (it's Matt's Grandma's 90th Birthday). Matt has the Ragnar race next weekend and T obviously has been in a delicate state. I didn't know whether to go the full time and buy an airplane ticket for Matt to come home early, or go for only a few short days and come home with Matt, or not go at all. Thankfully I never bought that airplane ticket that I was so tempted to buy, and thankfully we only booked our hotels the night before and were able to cancel them right away. The only hotel we couldn't get a refund on was a cheapy that was in Kanab to break up the trip.
  
• Just last week I came across a blog called Clean Mama. I decided to follow her cleaning routine and it has literally changed my house. Because of that, my house is in decent shape, which also creates one less stress.
• I've had problems with insomnia for as long as I can remember. But because of this, I have totally learned how to function on just a few hours of sleep. And since the earliest I've fallen asleep in the past couple of nights is 3:00, that skill is coming in really handy.
• Because we were going on a trip I had gotten a substitute teacher to do Singing Time in primary for me. The last thing I feel like doing right now is planning Singing Time, let alone teach it. So thankfully that sub is already in place and ready to go.
• Last week I was outside talking with the neighbors and my boys were inside watching t.v. All of a sudden they came running out saying that our t.v. was smoking. So I ran inside and sure enough smoke was coming from our t.v. and it stunk really bad. We turned it off and tried turning it on an hour later. Once again smoke started coming from it and it started making weird noises. So we've been without a t.v. for over a week now. This has been the greatest blessing in disguise. My house has been so peaceful without the t.v. in the background causing unnecessary chaos.
  
• Just before I found out about T, I was at a Relief Society activity. A couple of people had asked me about Travis and we got into some deep conversations. Those precious words and advise that they gave me are still ringing in my ears. They've gotten me through some really tough moments. Thanks Melissa and Anena!
• I've had so many precious moments with T over the past few weeks that I will never ever forget. Things that may seem insignificant to others, but have meant the world to me. I am so grateful for this time I've had to spend with him.
  

This list could seriously go on and on and on. I know without a doubt these are not coincidences, but these are the tender mercies of the Lord!