Sad story

Last night my visiting teacher called to set up an appt. I asked her how she was to which she responded, "Doing OK I guess." I asked her what was wrong and she told me that her daughter had passed away! I about fainted-I had no idea!! I had not been at church the previous week because we were in Yellowstone and I suppose that was when they announced it. I asked her if it was alright if I asked her how it happened. She told me that she had been feeling under the weather for a few days and she developed strep. They didn't think too much of it until they received a call from their other daughter the next morning telling them that they better get up to Salt Lake because Bonnie (the sick one) was in the hospital very ill. They tried to catch a plane up but there was nothing until later that afternoon so they packed up the car and drove. By the time they arrived at the hospital, she had already passed away! She (my visiting teacher) said that the infection had gotten in to her blood stream and shut all the vital organs down! I asked her if it was sepsis and she replied, "Yes, it was toxic sepsis!!" At this point I didn't even know what to say. When I regained my composure, I told her that was what I had so I knew all about it. She came over this morning and we talked for a long time. She was the one that was comforting me! She seemed so at peace. She seemed to glow which is basically what I told my family when I came out of my coma. I told them that they were 'shining'. I am so impressed by this woman's strength. I asked her how she did it and she says from the comfort of the Lord and by the knowledge of eternal families. That simple! She didn't go off on a long, drawn out reason for her peace-it was a very simple, very beautiful answer! What a remarkable woman. I would ask each of you to please remember her in your prayers. Life is so fragile!
My own life is going remarkably well. We went fishing last weekend. Very hot, but very fun. Tony was the only one that caught a fish. The boys and I were all too impatient and we would reel our lines in over and over again. While Tony, the ever patient one, would leave his out and just wait for a bite. So typical! Mr. Darcy had the time of his life-running in the water and sniffing anything and everything in sight. He thinks that he is part bloodhound.
I know there was a comment on sharing my bad times as well as my good, and I promise to do so. But, I have to say that 99% of my life these days is good and wonderful and beautiful. That's not to say that my life is near perfection; its just that after coming so close to death, so much of my life seems heavenly. Every little thing seems like a magical gift from God. Therefore, I love almost everything in and about my life!

Family Reunion

We just got home from our Yellowstone trip with the family. What a blast it was!! There is nothing better than being with the fam and enjoying our time together. I love watching my boys enjoying every minute with their darling cousins. There is nothing better than being with cousins for my boys-not even Christmas! They love their cousins more than anything!! This trip was so rewarding in terms of seeing wildlife-especially bears. We saw bears; it seemed, every time we turned around. It was insane! My favorite was seeing a mother grizz with her two babies. The cubs were absolutely darling. They were both playing and seemed to not have a care in the world. It was a stark contrast to a small, orphaned cub we saw that was near Old Faithful Inn. This cub's mother was hit, and killed, by a car (we were told this by a park Ranger). It was heartbreaking! We watched this little guy foraging for food, but that's all we could do-watch. We wanted so badly to help, to bring him food, to protect him from the elements, to do anything, but all we can do is pray. The Ranger told us that they were determined to stay out of it and let nature take its course. It was so frustrating knowing that they had the ability to save this cub, but they couldn't. I'm sure its the same for our Heavenly Father-He has the ability to step in and save His children, but we need to fend for ourselves. We are here to learn; He is there for us if we will just turn to Him and accept His help. That's the only way we will make it in this life!

My First Talk!

Well-I did it! My first official talk on what happened to me in January 2009. How did it go? Well, that all depends on who you ask-if you ask my darling parents or all-to-biased hubby, I did phenomenally. If you ask one of the several hundred youth, I did pretty good. If you ask me, it bordered on terrible! Ever since I was in the coma, I have struggled with getting my words from my mind and out of my mouth in the correct order. I tend to stutter and fumble over my words which is an oddity because I have never stuttered in all of my life! The doctors are not sure if its from being in the coma or a result of some of the medications I'm on. Nevertheless; its insanely frustrating. I know that the Spirit was there, but I know that my message would have come across more effectively if the audience wasn't worried that I would completely lose control of my language skills! Del Parsons was the speaker before me and his message and his art were strong enough to bring an incredible Spirit into the group. I know his art very well but I was unaware of his story. To sum it up: he was a painter of portraits until he lost his wife and his daughter in an awful car accident. After that; because of a very sacred occurrance, he started painting art of the spiritual nature. He said that, as hard as it was to go through that, there was a moment that he felt completely encompassed by the Holy Spirit and he wanted to create art that evoked that feeling of love! It was incredible. I felt so honored to be present. I just hope and pray that in my next talk I will be able to deliver the message I want to without stumbling over my words.