Life: The ordinary miracle

Recently my family was blessed with the opportunity to wait a what seemed like forever for the birth of my nephew James. My poor sister-in-law was 15 days past her due date. The baby was fully grown and had been close to entering the world when some complications occurred and his progress digressed. After waiting and waiting our family finally hear good news... She went into the hospital to get checked and the decision was made to admit her and get things going. We were told that baby would be born by tomorrow morning. When the morning came we all gathered together and went to the hospital by 8:30 am. When we arrived they told us that James would be there in about 30 minutes. Then they said in an hour. Only one more hour they would say. Again, and again, for the next nine hours we waited and waited. Finally, after a c section our newest addition arrived in the family. Perhaps it was because of the season, but I began to think about the long awaited birth of our Savior Jesus Chr...

Dear Mr. President, Though I doubt you will ever read the letter found on a blog post, I still feel the need to write to you as if you will actually listen. You see, I know that you are a person too and as a human you must have some sympathies to feel human emotions. I’m sure you probably feel you’ve done an excellent job in your roll as president, and actually that’s not what I am writing for today. I am writing to ask you for your help.  You recently created “Obama care” which is supposed to allow all US citizens the right to insurance.   I wonder if you have considered at the time of its creation what some of the side effects would be for this decision. I write to represent myself, but also so many others that I know.  Do you know how hard it is to find a job these days? Have you tried it out Mr. President? (Obviously not, because you have a job and a salary and government provided healthcare) As a recent college graduate, I put 10 resumes and applicat...

I've known my friend most of my life. We grew up together. We went to youth camps, tennis matches, church dances, and anything in between.We were next door neighbors. We would go for a walk as often as we could and on those walks we dream, hope, and plan for the future.  We chose to be college roommates where she put up with my crazy habits! We helped each other through the moving out of home phase. We wrote letters as we both served as missionaries for our church. We've just always stayed really close.  Through the grace of God we were put in the same place once again after all this time and she continues to be a living example to me.  Today I had the special chance to be with my friend when she found her wedding dress. As we searched and found I just felt a profound sense of joy come over me. It was as though I could see God helping things work out smoothly for her. It filled my heart in a way that words can't describe. All those days of dreaming and planning s...

Once upon a weekend I had the opportunity to spend 12 hours alone in a car with a couple who recently became engaged. As a single adult admittedly there may have been moments when I wanted to hit my head against the window, but when I truly stopped and observed I was surprised at how much I learned! Ironically, I ended up being extremely thankful for those precious hours. God is good to let us learn through experience. So here it goes ... time to dish the good, the bad, and the ugly for those less fortunate than I who missed the experience. First, basic linguistic research (done by yours truly) showed that the most commonly asked question by either party in the relationship was the level of their comfort. Simply,"Are you comfortable?"  Sometimes this would go back and forth about 5 times in a two minute time period, which may seem excessive, but actually when you think about it, is quite remarkable. In a world so focused on selfish tendencies we often forget to check on peo...