I want to start by testifying the God loves His children! He
hears our prayers and pays attention to even the smallest details of our lives.
We can feel His love, promptings and warnings through the Holy Ghost as long as
we remain worthy of it. I especially feel this way after this last week. We
have felt so blessed by our Savior and have felt His hand in our lives.
A while back I felt the urge/need/desire to go back to
Singapore to visit my parents and sister. It just didn’t seem it was going to
be possible but the more I talked about it with my parents the more it became a
possibility. Thanks to some almost expired miles and a great deal Ellie and I
are headed to Singapore for a few weeks this fall. We are very excited (though
extremely nervous to travel 25 hours with a lap infant, who is really 18 months
old!). Well today I was thinking about what to pack and what needs to get done
before I leave when BAM! It hits me that I forgot about Alex’s White Coat
Ceremony. I thought I remembered him saying that the ballpark time was in
October but I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that we would be gone when
the ceremony took place. I was right. His ceremony was on the 19th
of September, just 4 days after we were supposed to leave for SG (Singapore). I
cried all morning. I felt like I had betrayed Alex and wasn’t being the
supportive wife I know that I need to be while he’s in school. I don’t think
Ellie has ever seen me cry, because she had no clue what to do. She was really
confused and then started to cry with me. So here we were, two bawling girls on
the couch. I had no idea what it would cost to change international tickets and
I was scared to find out. I summoned up my courage and called our airline
company. It would only cost $50 to change. Wow! I will absolutely pay $50 so
that I can see my husband participate in such a neat ceremony. Then I realized
my second obstacle, which also leads me to our other blessing.
I was given the manager job over our complex. It is paid in the
form of free rent, which is amazing to a couple living off of loans. The less
we need to take out, the better. What made it more perfect was that we need to
move into the “managers” apartment, which is zoned out for free rent. The
apartment isn’t ready quite yet; it needs some updates and won’t be ready till
October. This was perfect because that meant I could easily go on the SG trip
without it interfering with my work. But back to the changing flights dilemma,
if I extend my trip further into October, will my job still be waiting for me
when I get back. After a very sympathetic phone call with my soon to be boss,
she told me I had nothing to worry about. As long as we were okay paying a
prorated rent for October, she would just put me to work when I was ready.
Again, another blessing.
So now I will be able to attend the White Coat Ceremony, go
to SG with Ellie for 2 ½ weeks, and work as the manager of our complex when I
return. This is a serious case of having cake and eating it too, twice over J
I know that Heavenly Father listened to my prayers and selfish pleas to have
things work out and I am grateful for His loving and quick answers.
I also got called to be the Pianist for Primary in our ward.
I am so excited to improve my piano playing skills. It’s been a while. I will
be in SG for the program, but I look forward to playing after I return. We are
becoming more familiar with Spokane. Ellie has been to 4 different parks and we
still enjoy our morning jogs. We also got a bike trailer so that should be fun
to take her around on that. Speaking of bikes, we learned our first lesson about
theft. Someone stole the front tire off of Alex’s bike. We bought a replacement
and will now be parking his bike inside. I am just grateful that they only
wanted to the bike wheel and didn't try to come inside.
We spent the weekend in Vancouver for Labor Day. We enjoyed taking family pictures, throwing a baby shower for Sveta and spending time with Nellie (who lives in NY). I always love visiting the Doroshkins. I returned home with a new love of mint tea!
Alright, that’s all for now. I’ll write again soon!
