We're Still Alive!

Yes I know it has been a long while and I am finally making time to catch up.....at least a little bit. In November, the day after Thanksgiving actually, Jared was playing basketball with his brothers and went to the floor thinking that someone had kicked him (really hard) in the back of the leg. Come to find out, his Achilles tendon snapped in half (which we found out that following Monday at his doc appt.). Two days later he went into surgery and I suddenly found myself with 6 kids instead of 5. Seriously.....I don't know how people do it. I was up with baby Nate a time or two in the night in addition to being up with Jared a couple of times helping him with his pain killers and trips to the bathroom. I am pretty sure I cried the next day.....more than once. I was so tired. He was slowly improving and then a week or so later we found out we needed to move. Unfortunately, we didn't have a house to move into. We spent a lot of time on our knees praying that we would be able to find a home and that, if possible, we could stay in the same ward. We looked at a couple of places that were close but didn't feel right about either of them. So we (along with the many wonderful people from our ward) packed our stuff into a storage unit and headed to Utah to spend Christmas with my mom and dad. We were homeless......I had no idea that Michael McClain's song would ever hit so close to home (no pun intended). We stayed positive and had faith that something would work out. Christmas was good and we had an enjoyable time with family. Two days after Christmas we got a phone call from a girl in our ward saying that she knew of a house that would be available if we wanted it. YES, YES, YES! We'll take it! We headed back to Idaho the following Monday and as we pulled up there was a whole group of men from the ward there ready to unload our furniture and boxes into our new place. Jared and I were so overwhelmed with the kindness that was shown to us from our ward, from babysitting and meals, to heavy labor, sweat, and grit. What wonderful people! We got ourselves situated and settled and are now finally back into somewhat of a normal routine.....which is soccer, soccer, and more soccer. In hindsight, there was no reason to stress, no need to worry. Heavenly Father knew what we were going through and had a plan, we just couldn't see the outcome at the time, which made is a little hard. BUT.....we had faith, and everything worked out. I know things don't always work out the way we want them to (as they did in this scenario) but they always work out for the best. So things are good. Life is good. Our prayers are heard AND answered. Of that I have no doubt. The whole situation made me realize how grateful I am for our ward and the wonderful people therein, the comfort of a home, and a husband who can do things, anything and everything! Helping get kids to bed, emptying garbages, playing with the kids, wrestling with the boys, changing diapers, wiping off the table, doing dishes, playing steamroller on the tramp, the list goes on and on. It was a good learning experience for our whole family and I love my kids and am so proud of them for being so patient, understanding, and willing to adapt to all the places we've lived in the past couple of years. We are hoping to be stuck here in the sticks for a long time! And on the bright side.......we have de-junked and slimmed down by way of belongings.....YAY!!! We've got this whole moving thing streamlined.