Adversity

September 15^th, 2013

My dearest brother,

"It is the plain and very sobering truth that before great moments, certainly before great spiritual moments, there can come adversity, opposition, and darkness. Life has some of those moments for us, occasionally they come just as we are approaching an important decision or a significant step in our life." ~Jeffrey R. Holland

This quote was posted by one of my Facebook friends this week and greatly describes our life at the present time; or, at least, how I feel about our life. I know that we are approaching many important decisions or significant steps in our life and we have had our share of adversity, opposition, and darkness as of late.

This week, it was illness. Lack of sleep finally caught up to me and I came down with a cold on Wednesday. I don’t know if I also had a bit of the flu that Nathan had as well because I felt generally very yucky and very weak. Nathan woke up in the middle of the night on Wednesday night and threw up all over his bed. We spent a good hour stripping the bed, bathing him, and trying to get him to settle back down. He had a fever for a few days and was generally very weak and more cranky than usual but he significantly improved throughout the day on Friday and was back to his usual self by Saturday.

So far Jake and Abrielle have been able to escape the illness. (*Knock on wood*) I am hopeful that this next week will bring greater health and energy to our household.

Besides illness we did have some good parts in this week. Zac turned 18 on Friday (can you believe that he is an “adult” now?) and we got to celebrate with the family that evening. I guess I am the designated shishkabob griller but I guess that is alright because I love being helpful and being able to organize things in a very OCD way. Lol. We also had the opportunity to go with mom and dad to the stake adult session of conference last night. We all had a regional conference today and it was fun to be together and to go to dinner afterwards.

School is still going well. Abrielle and Nathan are doing well and growing fast. Once again, I feel that I have very little to relay to you. We continue to press forward and to endure what comes. We have had some challenges but we have also felt the blessings of the Lord and we are grateful for our greatest blessing – our eternal marriage.

I love you, dear brother. I hope that you are doing well and that you were able to get better as well from the flu that was plaguing you. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

All my love,

Shayla