Tender Mercies

This week I had some really neat experiences that I wanted to share.

Sunday morning Jeff was gone speaking in another ward. I was home getting the girls ready for church. We were having a rough morning. Aubrey was extremely moody and pushing my every button. Brooke just keep spitting up every time I turned around - and her dress was getting pretty disgusting. Anyway, after awhile I lost my patience. Which of course made Aubrey even more moody. As we were trying to rush off to church, Aubrey insisted that she wear underpants to church. She had only been potty training for a week and had only had one accident free day. I was certainly not ready for this. Especially since I needed to be in Primary and Jeff would be with Brooke. It would be difficult to check on her or clean up accidents if they occurred. But, I didn't want to send her a negative message about her abilities - so off we went, diaper free to church. Just as the meeting started, I realized I forgot something important that I needed for Primary. So, Aubrey and I rush back home to get it. On the way back she says she needs to go potty. We get back to church and I take her to the restroom. She did not like sitting on the big potty and wouldn't go. So, I hesitatingly interrupt the others ward's nursery class to see if we can use the little potty. She likes that one much better, but still won't go. So now I have a daughter that needs to pee, but won't because it's not her little potty. Nervously I take her back into Sacrament meeting. A little while later, she says she needs to go again, so Jeff takes her back to the nursery potty. She still won't go. Great I think, this is an accident ready to happen. After Sacrament I find out that I need to cover conducting and help watch a class during Sharing Time (both of these for good reasons - sick and hurt family members needed watching over). And on top of all of that - my back was just killing me. Probably from all of the stress - my back really takes the heat when I am stressed. Anyway, I left Sacrament feeling pretty fried and very worried about the whole potty situation. As I was heading to Primary after visiting the potty with Aubrey one more time with no success, I see my sister Summer in the hallway. I asked her what she was doing here. She said, "I don't know actually. I was sitting in Relief Society and got a strong feeling that you guys needed help at church today." What a wonderful blessing to know that Heavenly Father was watching out for me - and would bless me even though I had not been as patient with my children as I should have been. And what a sweet sister to hear the prompting and come running to help. So she took over Brooke duty and also visited the potty several times with Aubrey. Aubrey never did actually go at church - but she didn't have an accident - so I guess we can consider it a success.

So before I tell the next story here is a little background about me. I love my kids to pieces. I consider myself very careful with them - following all the safety rules. But, I am not a worrier. I can go out without them without a care in the world. At night, I happily put them down and am glad for my break. Well Monday night after the kids went down, I started working on a project and Jeff had the TV on out front. I kept hearing funny sounds that I wasn't sure was the TV or the kids. I kept going out in the hall to listen. Everything sounded fine but I just had an uncomfortable feeling. So, I decided to turn on the baby monitor. Usually it goes on when we go to sleep, because Jeff sleeps with a fan on, and it drowns out all sound. A little while later I hear Brooke making gasping sounds. So, I run into her room. Somehow she had gotten her head cocked so far back. It was almost touching her back. It must have been cutting off her airflow, because she was gasping for breath. She was also fast asleep and not even trying to move into a better position. Luckily she was fine and I was able to straighten her out and listen for a while to make sure normal breathing returned. I know that I would have never heard that gasping sound if the monitor was not turned on. I shudder to think what could have happened had I not gone in to check on her. I know Heavenly Father was giving me that worried and restless feeling so that I would put that monitor on. I am so grateful that he was watching out for me and my sweet little Brooke. I hardly put that girl down on Tuesday - I was just so grateful that she was alive and well. All I wanted to do was kiss and hug her all day.