Being thankful in all things

Tonight we talked about Principle 7 (in our new book they are principles not steps) https://addictionrecovery.lds.org/spouses-and-families/7?lang=eng

We talked about ways to see the hand of the Lord in things.

A few days ago The Hubs asked me when we signed papers on the house.  I told him December 9th.  He asked me if that wasn't the same date that we had signed the lease on our apartment in Montana.  I told him that it indeed was.

Coincidence?
Maybe.
I don't think so though.  6 years ago we took a bold move.  After feeling prompted to leave California for awhile we took a huge leap of faith and moved our little family across the country.  we went from a couple hours from the Mexican border to a couple hours from the Canadian border.  a whole different climate, a different time zone, a place neither of us had ever been in.  Neither of us had ever been in the State.  We hadn't heard of the city before either until his sister went to school there.  She was the only person that we knew, and she wasn't going to be there long at all after we finally got there.  We were going from huge Metropolis to small secluded town, a town were people drive for 3 hours just to shop at Walmart because that is the closest one they have.  We went from a million people around us to 30,000 in our city and some of the outlying area.
We were told to not do it.  We were crazy to do it.  But yet we felt like that was where we needed to go what we needed to do.
We had a son who had many struggles.  We were told we were crazy to leave a place so rich with Doctors, specialists, hospitals.
We knew we were crazy to do it too.

Yet we did.
Why?
Because we felt like that is what God told us to do.

IT was hard.
It was COLD. literally 100 degree temperature change.
It was a blessing.
All those specialists we saw in California?  All those doctors that we went through trying to find answers?  They gave us none.  In our little tiny town where we signed our life away to thousands in student loans, HUD housing, Medicaid, food stamps. We gave our life to God and let Him do what He would with it.  Our little tiny town gave us answers.  Our son and daughter and myself improved greatly from the answers that the medical doctor we had gave us.  She lead us to so many great people that helped our son become who he is today.  People who gave us answers, who pulled him out of the world of Autism that was sucking him deeper and deeper in.

Did I mention that it was hard though?  IT was hard being so far away from anything that we knew.  It was hard going into such a small place.  It was hard to be so cold. It was hard to live in HUD housing.  To live off of student loans, and food stamps and be on medicaid. To be judged so harshly by so many people for "choosing" that route.  To be looked down upon for not "just getting a real job" even though we had put in thousands of job applications.

Then 4.5 years later we left there and FINALLY moved here.  We waited and worked for a job for 3 years after getting through with school.  We questioned, we pleaded, we yelled at our Heavenly Father.  WE begged, we bargained, we sat back and waited while doing all we could.

9 months here in an awful apartment with a terrible landlord we bought our first house signed on the same day that we signed our lives away 5 years before.
We appreciated our house from the day we got it.
But putting together the dates made me appreciate it more and realize that much more how much of a blessing it is for us.  Truly a gift from our Heavenly Father.  And to be able to have kept it through our hardships of this summer is truly a blessing.  Not only to have kept it but to now have made a huge improvement to it and to have paid off so much of the debt we accumulated this summer.

a coincidence?
NO!  and Blessing.  The hand of God in our lives.

Where has God been in your lives recently?  He has been there.  I promise.