Life Changes and Losing a Loved One

It's been almost 2 months since my father-in-law passed away.  It has been quite the journey from planning for months and months to go to Korea for a couple of years to now realizing that we need to stay so Ronny can fulfill his duties as patriarch of not only our little family, but also for his mom and sisters.  To say that life has been a challenge in the last several months would probably be a small understatement.  Our faith has been tested above and beyond anything that we have ever experienced.  We have definitely shed plenty of tears, not only because we miss our dear father and grandfather, but finding out that I was pregnant, and Ronny not having a job for a couple of months.  The stress has been pretty overwhelming at times.  Fortunately, we are blessed to know of the Lord's great love for us and we are grateful to have the scriptures, prayer, and the priesthood as a guide and strength at this very trying time.  We definitely experience moments of sadness for the loss of a loved one and sometimes it's still hard to talk about it for me when I am having a particularly emotional day. (That's the pregnancy hormones).  It's been a small disappointment to not be able to leave, but it has also been a great relief to have a direction in life and not be standing in limbo forever.  We have mostly moved back into our house and gotten life back to normal.  Whatever that is. =) We have been blessed again by the kindness of so many, who have given us so many things that we no longer owned because we sold in order to prepare to go to Korea.  We still have no car of our own.  Thankful that my brother has allowed us to use their little Honda.  But sure missing having the ability to have a way to transport all of our family safely since we sold our van.  I don't regret what we did. After all, we had to live off of the money we made from the items that we sold and I can't do anything about what has already been done.  But it will be nice to get to the point again where we can pay for another van. We keep praying that this will be sooner than later, because in May we will need something that seats 8 and has room for carseats and booster seats.

I guess, it sure has helped me to appreciate the fact that life is so very precious.  You just never know when someone you love will be gone from this life and you also never know when life is going to throw you a curve ball.  Although, I think it's hard to be prepared for everything that life has to throw at you, I know without a doubt that the Lord never leaves us alone.  He understands all of our needs so much more clearly than we do and he provides comfort and understanding through the power of the Comforter, especially if we rely on him and seek him through prayer and scripture study.