a question answered

This will be a long post.

As you know, we just moved to Utah and boy was it a hard trip. I'll get to what happened after I answer a question that was asked of me.

As you know, we were in Houston when hurricane Ike hit us. We were very fortunate that the "worst" thing that happened to us was to not have power for 20 hours. That's it. So we didn't suffer at all!

My uncle and grandparents stayed at our house during the hurricane because they were 5 minutes from the ocean.

My uncle and I were driving back from checking on my step-grandmother (is that really something you label someone?), E, who is 93 years old. As we were driving around we saw a lot of damage from the hurricane. My uncle asked me, "why does God let hurricanes happen?" (or something to that affect). I really don't think he was looking for a deep profound answer, or maybe he was. I replied, "so we can appreciate the good times." (or something like that - I do believe I gave a more indepth response, but I can't remember it all right now).

I've thought on that conversation for some time now and have gone over and over in my head what I wish I had said. I've decided I'm going to now to the best of my current knowledge.

We are here (on earth) to experience joy. We are also here to grow and learn and become a stronger and better person. Everything has its opposite. Light and dark; good and bad; health and sickness; and pleasure and pain. In order for us to feel happiness we must know what it feels like to be without it. The same for all the others. When we go through these things it's not because He wants to torture us and doesn't care for us. We experience these things because they can make us stronger. We experience these things because they teach us and we can learn from them. We are then better able to help and comfort those around us going through things we've been through. We are less judgemental.

Think of a forest fire. It is devastating to the animals who lose their homes and even lives. It is devastating to all around it, mostly the forest! However, when new trees and vegetation begin to grow they are stronger, healthier, and full of nutrients. That land is a better plot of land! It is so when my uncle pointed to a tree and said, "I don't think that tree thinks this is a good thing." Amen! Of course you may not be thinking, hey I like this hard stuff - bring it on! When you are that tree bent in half, roots sticking up out of the ground it's lousy. But when that tree is replanted and secured upright it will become stronger.

Recently general conference happened for my church, and it was so uplifting and enlightening. Elder Wirthlin spoke of learning to laugh when things get tough, staying optimistic.

Amidst the turmoil I seem to be feeling lately - politically, economically, and our own personal financial situation I tend to think - hey! wait a tick! This is too hard, too overwhelming, and too frightening. There is hope, there is a way to laugh and be optimistic, and this will be for my good in the end.

It couldn't have come at a better time.

We had some delays in our travels. We were supposed to have left sunday/monday for utah. We didn't get out of there until thursday night due to some things we couldn't control. Nick's dad came down to drive our things up and we followed behind him in our van.

First, Chad (nick's dad) ran over a deer (he's in an 18 wheeler), and we drove over that same deer.

Then we pulled over because our tire sounded flat. After not finding anything wrong we continued on. Then it got worse, so we pulled over again and alas there was a screw in our tire. Chad and his friend, Heath, said oh- it'll be fine. We kept driving for 10 more minutes until our tire went completely flat. We changed the to our spare, and filled that up with air - this whole process took several hours. Meanwhile we have 2 kids in the car that aren't happy at all! We drove to a hotel and stayed the night.

The next morning Chad and Heath fixed our flat (we had a screw and a nail in it). So off we went. We were filling up with gas when Chad said he smelt antifreeze. So we pulled into a walmart to tarp up the load (rain was coming) and also to fill our car up with antifreeze. we got the load all tarped (2 hours later) and then started to fill the car up when the antifreeze was just gushing out of the car. There was a leak! Chad and Heath worked on the car for a long time when they said our Head was cracked and that it would probably cost $2000 (yes 2 thousand) to fix it, but we weren't going to be able to drive to utah at this time. So they looked for a rental car, but they don't rent one way from Lubbock to Utah. So we booked a moving truck and trailer to haul the van for the next day. There was a texas tech game the next day so all the hotels were charging outrageous fees, with barely any availabilities. We finally found an old motel to stay in and we ordered pizza. Nick and I were so sad and stressed. Where in the world are we going to find $2000??

So, we got started the next day. Heath drove the truck that hauled the van and Chad drove Nick, myself, and the kiddos in the 18-wheeler. It was pretty comfortable in there! The rest of the way was easy easy! I didn't have to stay awake or drive! The night we stopped and just slept in the cab - there are 2 (twin) beds in the truck. Nick and I slept in one bed, Benji and Chad slept in the other and Jenee' slept in her car seat. That sleeping arrangement lasted 2 minutes. Jenee' came in and slept on top of me. Well, I don't think she ever really fell asleep. She was climbing and crawling and crying all over me. Benji was crying and finally he came down and slept on top of nick (remember this is a twin bed). we were freezing with 2 baby blankets covering us. Chad had a towel. It was so incredibly uncomfortable. I slept 20 minutes total. We finally arrived to utah at 9 am on sunday.

Throughout the whole ordeal (and it still isn't over - we need to get a car so nick can get a job) I felt optomistic