All our bags are packed

We're ready to go.

This time tomorrow we'll be in Idaho.

Off for a big adventure,

we've never flown together before.

And he's never flown blind. 

Travel plans are set, 

we're all prepared.

I hope it goes smoothly, 

we have to take syringes on the plane!?

(we got a doctor's note to cover that a month ago)

We'll see our Idaho Family tomorrow.

See you in a week.

Love,

J&S

Didn't your mother ever teach you?

Not to judge?

Mine did.

We are in our mid-twenties. 

We use handicap parking...legally.

Not many people can say that, not that we are proud of it.

But it's the truth.

We had an interesting experience a while back.

We are always being judged when we park. 

We know it doesn't look good for a young couple to park in the handicap spots.

We had just finished parking next to an elderly gentleman in his big red pickup,

pulled out of his parking spot and blocked us in, 

rolled down his window, 

and showed us a look that told us he was going to yell at us.

Then Joseph and his white cane exited the car,

and his face changed,

that man's face changed from anger, to shock. 

He drove away.

I thought it was funny, he judged us too quickly. 

He was wrong.

We went in the store did our shopping and came back out to our car. 

Next to our car was another man helping his mother into one of those electric shopping carts,

we were blocked in, we loaded our car.

He watched. 

He had a look of kindness towards us.

Without saying a word, he came up to me took and returned my shopping cart for me.

That man judged us too. But he was kind.

Not everyone is willing to pull us aside and tell us exactly what they think of us. (We've had a lot of those experiences too) But all of these types of experiences have made us more aware of  the fact that we are always being watched, by those that know us and love us, and by total strangers. It puts the pressure on to be good examples, not that we think of it too often, but it does cross our minds. 

All this goes back to the golden rule: 

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

*J&S*

Be thou Humble...

Ether 12:27-28," And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness."

Words like:

Blindness Surgery Disability Medication

Physical Therapy Charity Fund Unemployment

Social Security Adaptive Technology

Rehabilitation Infertility Medicaid

..Are Humbling.

• It's humbling to apply for social security, to be told that Joseph would be denied in the interview. Well he wasn't, which is also humbling.
• It's humbling to teach and be taught by children.
• It's humbling to apply for and file weekly unemployment claims.
• It's humbling to fill out forms for a hospital charity fund and to be approved.
• It's humbling to sit in a dirty government building to be interviewed for Medicaid, and to be denied 3 times.
• It's humbling to recieve and learn how to use adaptive technology for Joseph & to cry when I heard him read for the 1st time in months.
• It's humbling to apply for & use handicap parking.
• It's humbling to carry babies, it's even more humbling to lose those babies.
• It's humbling to listen to a doctor's diagnosis.
• It's humbling to accept help, you didn't ask for.
• It's humbling to have your life picked apart, examined, and spelled out for adoption paperwork.
• It's humbling to wait to be approved to be prospective adoptive parents.
• It's humbling to set adoption aside for the time being.
• It's humbling to watch your siblings make your parents grandparents, when you were expecting first.
• It's humbling when employment is lost.
• It's humbling to have church callings that challenge and intimidate us.
• It's humbling to learn Braille.
• It's humbling to do things you don't want to, but need to do.

While all these things humble us they are teaching us patience. In the April Conference Pres. Dieter F. Utchdorf said

" Patience- is the ability to put our desires on hold for a time- is a precious and rare virtue.

We want what we want, and we want it now.

Therefore, the very idea patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter. [...]

"Patience is not passive resignation, nor it is failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all we can- working, hoping and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring, it is enduring well!

"Everyone of us is called to wait in our own way. We wait for answers to prayers.

We wait for things which at the time may appear so right and

so good to us that we can't possible imagine why Heavenly Father would delay the answer. [...]

"We must learn that in the Lord's plan, our understanding comes

'line upon line, precept upon precept' in short,

knowledge and understanding come at the price of patience.

"Patience is a godly attribute that can heal souls, unlock treasures of knowledge

and understanding, and transform ordinary men and women into saints and angels.

" Patience means accepting that which we cannot change and facing it with courage, grace, and faith. It means being willing to 'submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father'. Ultimately, patience means being 'firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord' every hour of everyday, even when it is hard to do so".

That is what we are doing, or at least trying to do.

Doctrine and Covenants 104:82

"And inasmuch as ye are humble and faithful and call upon my name, behold, I will give you the victory."

Mission Call

My little brother,

Elder Dustin Shane Swanger,

has been called to serve,

in the

Tulsa Oklahoma

Spanish speaking mission!!

He reports to the MTC on Aug 4th.

Woo hoo.

Life Lessons

These are my beliefs & lessons that I've learned,

and will probably continue to learn my whole life long.

We are all here on earth to learn. Our loving Heavenly Father sent us to "this mortal probation [which] is a perfectly arranged test" (All These Things shall give thee Experience, Neal A. Maxwell). We are tested and tried and to prove ourselves and become as God is. We all have hard times- or trials, it's universal. Although the trials vary person to person. These trials are meant to help us learn, help us grow and become better people.

Trials are interesting. They affect us in different ways, and invoke different reactions. There are many common reactions to trials including trying to run away, look for an easy button and lastly face it and fight. I've learned that when you run away there's no where to hide. Your problems follow you, they don't disappear when you close your eyes. I've learned that there's usually no easy way out. "If it's not fair, it's not a true trial. Whit out irony, inexplicableness and injustice it may not stretch us sufficiently" (Maxwell). If we could just wave a wand and "abra cadabra" they all go away, we wouldn't learn anything. Then later we'd find that we were what needed to the fixing, and the trial the method.

"Life is a school of experience" (Maxwell). I am learning that trials all have lessons attached to them. We may not see them or we may choose to take the "woah is me" road and host a pity party. I am learning to trust my Heavenly Father. He knows best. He knows me. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it.

C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity:

Imagine yourself as a living house, God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of- throwing out a new wing here, putting in an extra floor there, running up the towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage, but He is building a palace."

Besides the painful remodeling with trials, I need to trust the Lord's timing. And it may take me a lifetime to learn, but I'll sure try. I've seen a few times in my life when things happened on the Lord's time table and not mine- and for reasons I wouldn't understand until later. For example the Lord prompted Joseph and I to start our family- instead of a family we've endured miscarriages & surgeries. But Doctor's wouldn't have known anything was wrong with me, reproductively. It's been almost two years since our 4th miscarriage we're still childless- then my husband lost his vision. It has been a blessing in disguise that we don't have kids while adjusting to our new life, I feel it would be so hard on us & definitely kids, if we had kids. I don't know where we'll be in a year, I don't know what we'll be doing. But I do know that things will work out, all will be well...

eventually.

*J&S*

Boo! ** update**

His mission call didn't come today!

**Update: His call left the office of the President, on the 14th!!**

We found this out because it was ward conference. And the bishop and stake president were apparently making faces at my brother, who then texted both of them. "no call yet" During the meeting!! The Stake President responded 1st with "I'll check" The Bishop responded later " Can't wait!" We got a call later that afternoon, letting us know the whereabouts of his call.

I still have absolutely no guess.

Which is funny.

And frustating to my brother,

so we've agreed that I will be trying to pull a Johnny Carson:

put his call up next to my head and make my guess then.

My Uncle is famous!

Sam Lincoln is Uncle Mick, That's awesome!! So funny!!

Saving our Garden!!

One Morning Val comes busting into the room.

"I need your cat,

there are hundreds of birds outside in the garden, eating it!"

"okay.."

Our silly cat sees the birds,

flattens herself into the grass (to be sneaky, I'm sure).

Then proceeds to do the slowest slow motion army crawl in the direction of the birds.

No help at all!

So we let Cookie outside to take care of the birds, instead she turns around and sits on the step and looks at us like "why did you kick me out"

So lets get the big dog, he'll get them for sure!

We send Tonka out.

He also sits on the step and looks at us through the door with a sad face...

Come on!

So Val and I grab the BB gun and air soft and shoot at the birds.

Problem solved.

Cookie Speckles & Tonka

Where in the World?...

Will this little Brother of mine go on a mission?

From Joseph & Shaylee

His papers are (finally) in. He should have his call by next Thursday.. Any guesses?