I know, I know, that ever since my diagnosis I have been talking about all the blessings we have been blessed with as we see the hand of the Lord in our story. But when they are so apparent, I cannot cease being amazed by them and noticing more of them. It is as if, once you get in the habit of noticing the tender mercies of the Lord, they become easier to recognize.

Well, over the past week or so, we have had some extra blessings. One of the biggest ones, was that Kevin is healing well enough from his surgery, that he was able to play golf for the first time since he fell through that ceiling at the end of July. When golf is one of the biggest ways my husband processes stress, and he has not been able to do it for the past couple months while dealing with one of the most stressful experiences of his life (meaning my diagnosis, etc), it has not been easy. So when he sent me this picture of him on the golf course, it made me so happy to see him so happy.

Another amazing blessing has been this fantastic program that we found out about through the school psychologist called “Wonders and Worries.” It is a nonprofit that offers professional support for children and teenagers through a parent’s serious illness or injury – tailored to their specific situation. Arthur has only had his first session, and we already know that it is going to be an amazing thing for him, both to learn more about my diagnosis and treatment, but to process all he is feeling and be able to have the tools to deal with it all.

Some of the blessings have just been spending extra time with my sweet kids. Stopping to cuddle and read together, or whatever it may be.

With Lily and Derek, I have had some wonderful quality time with them when Derek is home from his service assignments. I will have one of them pick a movie off of my special shelf with all of my favorite old musicals and romantic comedies, and we will watch one together. The other day, Lily and I got to introduce Derek to the movie, “Brigadoon.” So fun!

One of the most unexpected and extra special blessings came this weekend during our local Stake Conference. We were having a visiting member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder James R. Rasband for our meetings. Well, much to our surprise, we were contacted the week before by the Stake Executive Secretary to see if it was okay if our Stake President and Elder Rasband came to visit us on Saturday afternoon. Of course we said yes, but we couldn’t believe that we were going to have this special visit for our family. (Kevin was so excited, he created a charcuterie board, just in case they were hungry.)

We had the most lovely visit, with lots of spiritual and special moments. Elder Rasband is fantastic and so humble, and I could truly feel love pouring off of him for our family. (I wish I could share all the details, but if you want to feel of his special spirit, here is a link to the last time he spoke in General Conference.) Our Stake President, President Carlson, is also such a wonderful man, and I was so grateful for his words, as well as his giving a blessing to Kevin. The most special part of the visit was when Elder Rasband offered to give me a blessing, and my sweet Derek (Elder Brown) got to participate along with his dad, our Stake President, and a member of the Seventy. Such a special moment.

The whole experience was wonderful for the whole family, and was definitely a very special and unexpected blessing – which even carried over into the wonderful meetings of our Stake Conference. And when we were at the Sunday meeting, Elder Rasband saw me sitting with my family, came down from the stand, sat next to me, and thanked me for letting him visit the day before. Amazing. And the love I felt coming from him was overwhelming and amazing – he really was representing our Savior and prophet and apostles, and I felt so grateful for it all.