Thriving and Surviving

6:30 Friday morning...I was sitting in our family room in my pajamas listening to boisterous laughter coming from  downstairs.  The source?  14 awesome teenagers and one amazing man who teaches them about the Book of Mormon in the early morning hours every school day (unless of course it is a snow day or a delayed start, which happens quite frequently here!).  Early-morning seminary is just one of the ways life changed when we moved across the country three months ago.  It's a different world from release-time seminary taught by one of many full-time teachers in a building adjacent to the high school campus.  It's especially different because it happens here in our home and I get to see it, or at least hear it.  I also get to hear about it after the youth head off to school and Todd comes up to change out of his white shirt and tie.  The youth in his class are incredible.  He is enjoying the study time preparing for the lessons and the growing relationships with the youth. Friday morning he had a big smile because of some neat things that happened during class.  He told me that he will really miss it next week when he has to go to Utah for a business trip.  That made my heart happy.  It has been a journey--just like everything the Lord asks us to do. He was really nervous about it at first, and it took awhile to find the groove, but the sounds coming from downstairs this week were a witness to me that it is working.  I think the kids are thriving and I know the teacher is.

 These pictures are of the Valentine breakfast and scripture mastery game Todd did with his class a week ago.

It has been a hard couple of months.  With the insane weather, the lack of a predictable school schedule, the variety of sick bugs that have made their way through our family again and again, and just missing that feeling of being settled, I have really struggled.  I feel like we have just been surviving.  I'm not complaining.  I know that some seasons are like that.  We all have those times, not because we have done anything wrong, but just because life is hard sometimes!  And, it makes me happy to feel the beginning of a shift from surviving to thriving.  In the past week we have had sunshine and warmer weather.  The snow has melted and the birds have returned to serenade us whenever we open the doors. It's the beautiful feeling of HOPE.  It's the perfect parallel for how I feel about our transition after moving.

Todd and I chaperoned the Stake Dance last weekend and had so much fun watching Brenden with his friends.  He was asking girls to dance he had never met and was right out in the middle of things learning new line dances with a great big smile.  He has some great friends, and some amazing girls in the ward have really reached out and drawn him in.  It was so good for my mommy heart to see him thriving.  Not everyone in the family is there yet.  That's for sure.  But, it has made me so happy to see and hear and feel some of those things lately as a witness that the roots are growing and these Utah transplants are growing in this Ohio soil!