A couple things worth sharing...

Things tend to stay pretty light on this here blog and I must say...I like it that way. With all the drama that can sneak in through the cracks in our white picket fence, all the screaming and shrieking that can go on between two territorial toddlers (and a baby who thinks it's a game and enjoys immitating the shrieking) and all the moments of sheer exhaustion that I look around, backward and forwards at my life and feel utterly overwhelmed, I still am filled with a strong sense of gratitude and joy for all that exists in our world. So, for the most part, that "sense" is what is, more often than not, reflected here on these pages. Mostly told in pictures, this has been a way to tell the story of where we've been and what we've been up to with a few fun tags thrown in here and there. I enjoy it as a little haven of good memories and a place where I can talk as much as I want, knowing that at any time anybody could just stop reading if it gets to be too much (takes the pressure off me to try to pinpoint that moment myself!)
I don't intend to change any of that, but I have had a rather emotional and contemplative time in the last couple of weeks. Life has not changed much but my thoughts have wandered to many places I can't usually allow them to. Being sick and nearly non-functional has not helped me much this last week! It seems our little family has been passing around quite the cold, starting with James and finally ending with JC and I...though JC has managed to zoom through it and I am still, after a week, feeling like I just can't seem to get well! Anyway, all of that is pretty irrelevent but laying around trying to recover leaves my mind with room to wander.
I recently was blessed to spend some time visiting with an old dear friend. In the time we spent together, we realized that during our time apart, we have had some of the same kinds of experiences and thoughts concerning life...death...motherhood...and surviving all of the above! Our chat opened some doors in my mentality and a recent occurence threw them wide open. This same friend has some dear friends of her own who were handed a heavy burden to carry. In short, as I feel unable to give the right kind of explanation to the magnitude of this situation I have been following, a lovely couple with four young children were in a private plane crash in Eastern Arizona. Their names are Christian and Stephanie Nielson and they are continuing to slowly recover here in Maricopa County. I don't know them personally...well, I don't know them at all. But since I have heard and followed their story during the last weeks, I am deeply touched and inspired. For more about their sweet family, go here:
http://www.reachelandrew.com/NieRecovery/Home.html
I have been struggling with my emotions that have become intertwined in these dear people. Something about their story rings familiar to me but at the same time I could never claim to have experienced anything close to what they all are at this time. The only thing I can find to claim to relate to is that of the unexpected suddenly sweeping in and taking over your world. The sudden realization that there actually is no control but that sitting with our Heavenly Father and the grace that can enter our hearts along with that realization.
Having said all that, I still feel slightly out of place, talking about this family that I don't even know and feeling such emotion for them, sharing it with all of you. But, when I look back on times that I walked through in the past and think on how somebody as weak and easily defeated as myself could have survived, I find my answer very quickly. The grace of God and the kindness and prayers of family, friends and strangers alike are the things that carry us when we would have no other way of moving forward. I know that and I can never deny that the prayers of others can truly sustain. And not just the big things. The prayers of others can be what pushes you out of bed in the morning, what makes you able to smile and think, what makes you able to feel comfort, love and peace. At one time, the prayers of others helped me to eat when I should, to feel joy when it seemed I shouldn't and to put one foot in front of another, not even knowing what I was moving toward. It is an amazing and humbling feeling to experience the prayers of others literally, physically, holding you up...and to find that, in the greatest of tragedies, joy and awe can be found in that feeling. SO, that is why I delve into this. That is why I burst the light-hearted bubble of this blog and urge you to read about this family and feel some of those emotions I have been feeling. Because I've been to that place where all anyone could do was pray. I've felt that feeling, being sustained by prayer. And I want them to have as much of it as they possibly can.
Their story has also made me a better person, mother, wife. Maybe not much has outwardly changed but, again, my thoughts have. At times when I feel like I've given all I can give and one glance around my trashed house sends me into near hysterics, I think of them...and I know that the fact that a messy house is the biggest of my worries at the present, the fact that I am listening to my kids fight over a toy in the next room, the fact that I don't know what's for dinner tonight and I'm so sick I can't even think about standing over the stove anyway...means that I am standing in my home, I can walk into the next room and put my arms around my children. I can distract them from their fight by telling them that daddy will be home soon and maybe tonight we will eat pizza or corn dogs. I can push the toys to one side of the room and throw the cushions of the couch and loveseat on the floor to make a pillow maze around mommy. When they tire of that, I can hand them a pile of post-it notes and tell them they are bandaids to help mommy feel better, then get ridiculously covered in them. I can do all this without thinking about the fact that we're just adding to the mess or that the dinner they'll be eating isn't the most nutritional one they've had. I can kiss my husband hello when he walks in the door and kick the cat out of the way when he tries to maneuver his way into our hug (he thinks that he has first dibs on affection when JC comes home for some reason). And I can look at our life and know that it's not perfect but that that's not the point anyway. It was never meant to be. All that matters is that we are so blessed that we truly DON'T have room enough to receive it. And we wouldn't be where we are without the prayers of others.
Please, join me in praying for the Nielsons.
And, if any of you are still reading, don't worry...I've pinpointed the moment. I'll stop myself here. :)

P.S. After reading about the Nielsons, if your heart has any room to swell further, check out these pictures. I cried like a baby. I guess the official website is under construction, so this is the link to the photographer's blog. Just scroll down a bit and take it all in. They will be available for purchase soon, apparently, and probably all over my house. :)
http://rustyhelenrobsonfamily.blogspot.com/2008/08/capturedmiracles.html