Giggles over Lead Vests

Yesterday morning Stone wasn't feeling good. He said his belly hurt. In true Mitchell family fashion...I put him on the bus as he was not throwing up and sent to school.

A call from the school nurse, a trip to the emergency care center, a lethargic 9 year old, Stone and my first trip on an ambulance, and a speedy trip to AI Dupont, Stone lying on a slab of cold, hard steel having an X-ray of his belly while Mitchell and I are dressed in pretty Skittles adorned Lead Vests...

Some couples find connection over a quite dinner for two, others as they share a private joke from their past, Mitchell and I at the local Children's Hospital as we laugh hysterically about how we simply cannot catch a break!

Many of you are aware of my philosophy and the reason I am simply hard pressed to ever be found crying...If I am not laughing I would be crying and I apparently choose to find humor (be it sick or otherwise) in almost every situation!

Usually...this is because I must exercise my Faith in my Eternal Father and keep a positive attitude because when I do not and even sometimes when I do...I am more often than not...being humbled by the fact that my Heavenly Father was ALWAYS in control of the situation and it was my job to trust in His might and enjoy the simple things of life while He does His job. I might need to tattoo the scripture... Mosiah 3:19 to my forehead. Which reads:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father. "

It is my belief that my Father is currently on his knees in the Mitchell Family Garden with all His tools at hand, oh so carefully...lovingly, tending to the whole of this patch of land.

I had a dream about three years ago...which was one of those "Chris dreams" that my Father in Heaven took out a huge pair of pruning sheers and LOPPED the complete top off of a pretty large, nice looking green shrub. In my dream...my heart sank as I knew it represented my family. But I was also shown (and remembered from my mother's workings in our front yard in Rockville as a child) that when you take back the top of a plant the roots grow stronger. The shrub's thirst is diverted from feeding its leaves to spending its energy pushing itself further into the earth looking for a quench to it's thirst...Eventually that shrub becomes mighty...unmovable...it finds it's life force and then when the droughts come, and the harsh weather beats upon this tiny shrub...it remains intact because its roots are deep. It does not matter how harshly the Spring, Summer or Fall treated this little shrub because after the Winter this little shrub with it's deep seeded roots always returns more beautiful than the season prior.

Due to these personally picked trials for the growth, development, and eventual eternal exaltation of myself, my Husband and each and every one of my beautiful children by an all knowing, all loving, perfect, Father in Heaven. I am many times left feeling alone...for it is difficult for others to understand unless they have lived these trials themselves or they by the grace of our dear Father happen to be placed into our lives with the gifts of empathy for that specific situation. (which is why I have been so grateful for such great friends recently!)


There is some temptation on my part to specially lay out the trials which we have had as a remembrance for us as a family unit that we may see a clear picture and have a sense of pride in the fact that sometimes things may not be "pretty" but damn it...look how far we have come! But in doing that...I feel that would only drag up old memories of craziness and make others and I am sure myself....uncomfortable :) So for these reasons...I will refrain.

But I would also like to point out that as Our Father has been mindfully watching over and actively working in our families garden for the past three years...the countless blessings which have emerged through the trials are tender mercies...sweet reminders if you will of a loving Father which is ever mindful of our limits, knows the intents of our hearts and is ever working towards giving us the righteous desires of our hearts at all times...even though to us as children it may look as though we may never have that which we desire...

I say to you all...It is my testimony that Our Heavenly Father IS now and has been since the foundation of time....working to achieve YOUR personal desires! You will have that which you so righteously desire...as will I!

It is just a matter of willingness to put off the natural man and have Faith...knowing that the Lord will deliver all that we have been promised by that Spirit, which makes all things known for surety. The Spirit speaks about different parts of the puzzle, to different people, at different times. This is why blind Faith in the Father is so important...No matter how impossible the situation may look...greater understanding of a kind, all knowing, ever teaching, Father in Heaven ALWAYS follows a large....seemingly insurmountable trial.

Nothing is ever impossible for He that is our Creator and our Saviour. As we have seen in countless scripture stories Faith always proceeds the miracle...Faith is a wonderful thing! For if we truly understood it we would have no need for anything in our lives but pure joy.

So....How could Mitchell and I do anything else but giggle as they wheel our son out of x-ray only to be told that he had the beginnings of toxic constipation...lol!

One big poop and a few hundred dollars down the toilet and we are back to "normal" ... :) At least for the "currently being pruned" Mitchell household!