{gratitude}

These past 25 days have been both the sweet and the bitter---exactly what we are supposed to have in this life. It's a hard almost out-of-body experience to describe everything that has happened, and the shock I feel over again at times when I remember those first moments in the hospital. Is this real life?? It seems too dark, too sad, and too terrible sometimes to believe. But then there are sweet moments of happiness, light, and gratitude that come that reassure me that is is our new life and it will all be okay.

Specifically, we have been blessed by the love and support of so many people. It would be impossible to personally thank every single person who have said a prayer on our behalf this month, who have put our names on the temple roll, who have sent cards, text messages, emails, flowers, meals, beautiful pictures of Christ, and so much more. We are so grateful and so humbled. We feel the love and support of others buoying us up.

And, in the words of the apostle whom I could listen to all day every day, Elder Holland says it best:

"But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with---here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindess and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind... My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face." https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/the-ministry-of-angels?lang=eng

For these past 25 days, we have been the recipients of heavenly help, specifically through the help of angels on both sides of the veil, "who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal." And we are so grateful!