A trip

Yes, I made it outside of Paradise. Dave and I went to Herriman today. Eric was to be ordained a High Priest and his father was asked to perform it. Special honor. I was so glad to feel well enough that I was able to attend. Dave did a great job. We were told by Eric's stake president that in their stake Eric really wasn't that young. 33% of the people are under age 11 years, so considering that, Eric isn't young.

We had a wonderful day with Eric, Lisa and Ellie. We enjoyed a yummy meal and then was able to spend time just playing with Ellie. She has grown so much and is really quite entertaining. She even liked both Dave and I today. What a sweet little famly.

Later this evening we read Pres. Uchtdorf's message about "Forget Me Nots". I was feeling so grateful to be healthy enough to go to Herriman and then after reading the talk, I was reminded how very grateful I am to know that Heavenly Father knows and loves me.

I haven't come to the point where I can say, "I am grateful for this trial." I just can't say that. But I can definitely see wonderful blessings that have come to me because of my illness. Maybe someday I will be mature enough to be able to say I was thankful for this trial. I thought losing my mom at a very young age was hard. It was but this illness and the changes it has brought into my life has been the hardest thing I have had to go through. The phrase, "fighting for your life" is real. It has been a fight.

I came to know how very many people care for me and my family. The sheer number of people that have offered prayers in my behalf is unbelieveable. I am a visual person and I visualize a sincere prayer as a light beam. Imagine looking at the world from a distance and seeing light beams radiating from it upward. Then I thought of putting a person's name on the prayer roll of the temple and there so many people pray for that person. Even more light beams. When you consider people in different states or even different countries praying for that same person there are even more light beams. What a glorious sight to imagine. There were so many light beams in my behalf. I am a product of such faith and power of sincere prayer. Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves us.

I had my first viral illness this past week and my developing immune system did pretty well. It totally wiped me out and put me back to bed, but I am better now. I guess it takes most of my energy as my body fights an illness. I also had pain in my neck. I was happily going along being so grateful for no pain. I wonder if after you have experienced alot of pain, if you become less tolerant of it. I used to think of myself as being fairly tough. But I surely don't like pain now! There's another thing to be grateful for. Not having to live life in constant pain like some people do. A little pain now and then surely does remind me how blessed I am.

I am grateful that my health is such that I can enjoy the most precious thing of all....family time. There is nothing in this world that is more valuable or precious to me than spending time with my family. We don't even have to do anything...just be together. I have always loved this but now I know it is a precious gift I have been given. I don't know how long I have to live on borrowed time, but I am going to enjoy every single day. This week all of the children and spouses will be here for Thanksgiving. Yeah!!