How are we old enough to have been friends with people for this many years?

 

Between the county swim meet and attending Sam Lewis's mission homecoming/report, we've missed the last two Sundays at our ward, so I'm sure we'll surprise some people by showing up again!

Sam's talk was wonderful, but I was really rather touched by the woman who spoke after him (who I believe was their stake Relief Society president). She talked about how God knows us so well and shared a story about how after her divorce she was sleeping on a blow-up mattress in her apartment and somehow her bishop found out about that and decided that wouldn't do. She should have a proper bed—and he would use church funds to purchase it for her (from Deseret Industries, or DI). 

DI is like a secondhand shop run by the church, but they also do a lot of work with the homeless community in Utah, run employment education and trainings (my dad went through their trainings back when Rachel was little), and even build furniture to sell. 

The bishop had selected a bed for her and all she had to do was go with her home teacher (now ministering brother) to pick it up, but when they arrived to pick it up they discovered there had been a miscommunication and the selected bed was unavailable. 

Now, you should know that when she learned she was going to be getting a bed, she prayed to thank Heavenly Father...but to concede to him that she had promised herself that getting a bed was going to be some kind of milestone of getting back on her feet. She had never had a bed with a headboard and footboard before (I mean...I'm typing this sitting in a bed with neither a headboard or footboard, so I'm not judging her for that...but I'm also not rating my success on that either) and she just...kind of had promised herself that her first big purchase—a bed for herself—would have a frame with a headboard and a footboard. 

Since the opportunity to purchase her own bed was being taken away (and she was grateful for that), she wondered if maybe it could just have a headboard and a footboard. But, if not, she asked that her heart would be magnified to accept the blessing any way it came. 

So they show up at the DI, and...the bed the bishop ordered is not available. In fact, the only bed frame available is one with a headboard and a footboard. It was a little more expensive and since tithing money was going to be used to pay for this bed the supervisor had to run it by the bishop, who insisted that this sister was going to go home with a bed that very same day (and so approved the extra cost).

She got her bed with her headboard and footboard. 

And it wasn't even that important—she could have made do with a used mattress on the floor. But it was such an important little miracle for her as she pieced her life back together. 

She sent seven kids on missions! Her daughter was in China when her call came (I assume teaching for ILP, honestly, given the timeline of events—that's the same program I went with to teach English in Russia), so she had to read the call out loud to her over a long distance phone call. She went to Georgia...the country. And they were all like, "Neat. Where's that?!"

Anyway, it was a wonderful talk. 

And it was so fun to get to visit with the Lewises that we got to visit with afterward. It's been years since we've really been with those children, but watching Jess and Meg sit on the couch and chat felt remarkably similar to watching Jess and Meg sit on the couch and chat 17 years ago. 

Interestingly, we've been in four of the Lewis's homes and they've been in three of ours. 

1. We were at their house all the time when we both lived in Cairo—for dinners and tutoring and babysitting.
2. They visited our apartment a couple of times in Cairo.
3. They visited our home in Orem—their older girls came over a few times to entertain Rachel and Miriam while I was at the hospital with baby Benjamin.
4. We visited their home in Orem (while Kevan was deployed).
5. We visited their home in Tallahassee when we went on a trip to Orlando when we lived in North Carolina.
6. We had them over for dinner here (though they brought us dinner, so that hardly even counts as having them over).
7. We went to Sam's homecoming in Roswell.

They're a military family, so they get around. We are not a military family but, uh, we get around anyway.

The kids had so much fun playing with the toys Sara has stashed away for when grandkids visit. And there were actually a few of her grandkids there and it was so lovely...and kind of weird...to get to meet them because Kevan and Sara have always been this window of what my life will be like in 10 years. 

They're about ten years older than us. We met them when Rachel was 1 and we moved to Egypt, where they had five kids all older than her (Sam is a year older). And then like ten years down the road I suddenly had five kids of my own (six now, obviously) and I was watching the Lewis kids graduate and go on missions and college and things. And now they're getting married and having babies of their own! 

The next ten years are going to be wild, I can tell.