living our lives...one cliche at a time

It's no secret that I went through a bit of a rough patch last year. 

We started 2013 with an ultimatum from my boss telling me they wanted me to move to North Carolina.  With that hanging over our heads, we went through Anna's adoption from China, my mom's successful but heart wrenching bout with breast cancer, probably two dozen business trips, Anna's cleft palate surgery, Ryan adapting to Anna and vice versa, and then renting out our house and packing up to get ready for the move. 

We had already started saying our good-byes when I received a series of three surprising (understatement of the year) and I have to say, not very nice, phone calls from my boss saying they had changed their minds and that instead of relocating us to North Carolina, they were terminating me.  In 24 hours, I sat looking at both the signed rental leases and a severance agreement in front of me.

To say I was shocked is yet another understatement.  I wasn't given any explanation and I felt like my life was left in a thousand scattered pieces.  Tony, understandably, took it pretty hard.  He had been working extremely hard to get both of our houses ready for our move (we have an existing rental that needed some repair work).  We had packed quite a bit and were left with pretty empty tanks when this all happened.

For the next two weeks, I was in pretty bad shape.  I couldn't sleep.  I was extremely (EXTREMELY) stressed out and anxious.  I kept my kids home with me because I was too afraid to spend a dime on daycare.  And with two little toddlers at home with me, I tried to start the job search.

Looking back now, we both found jobs pretty quickly.  I had a job within a couple of weeks and while it took Tony a bit longer, I think considering two of those months were the holiday months of November and December, he landed a good job pretty quickly as well.

During the lowest point of my emotional downspin, we went to talk to our Bishop (clergyman) in our church.  He gave us wonderful counsel which included praying together and going to the temple.  He also said that in the future, we will look back and see this with a different perspective and that the most important thing would be for us to draw close together as a couple and draw close to our Heavenly Father. 

And then he gave each of us a Priesthood blessing.  From that moment on, the anxious feeling left and I felt like my heart beat at its normal rate.  And best of all, I slept well for the first time that night.  A couple of nights later, we went to the temple and I had an overwhelming feeling that if we dedicated ourselves and our little family to our Heavenly Father that we would be ok. 

The feeling of peace that I felt in the temple is hard to describe.  I'm sure many of you have felt that in your own lives as you have had your own prayers answered.  I have felt that peace before, but that night, it seemed so powerful.

Since that moment, we have had one small miracle after another.  And it isn't only in the form of good jobs.  Almost every day, I have a moment when I realize how blessed we are.  We love our home.  We ended up with good jobs and are in a better position than we would be had we moved.  We love living in Utah.  And when I think about how things would be if we did move across the country, I literally shudder.

When the door closed, windows opened.
We took things one day at a time.
And it was meant to be.