I Love Babies

I love babies. I love to babysit. I just love kids and holding happy little babies in my arms. Tonight, though, I really really love babies!!! Let me explain...

      My parents went to dinner with another couple tonight to talk about business, and Katie and I were asked to babysit 3 of their kids- one of which was a 10 month old baby boy. Throughout most of the night he was good, until it hit about 8:00. He then started crying and fussing; I could tell he was tired and needed to go to bed. He just kept crying and didn't like anything I was trying, from a warm bottle to rocking. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point, so I decided that I would go to another room and play some church music to try and calm him down in complete darkness. I prayed to Heavenly Father that He would help me to be able to get him to go to sleep, or at least help him to calm down enough to not be upset. Within a few minutes of rocking him to quiet music, he was asleep. I held him for a few minutes more to make sure he was asleep. During this time I watched him sleep. He was so peaceful and calm and beautiful. I know that Heavenly Father has a special place in his heart for babies. :) I do too.

Change=Growth

So today was the realignment of ward boundaries for the Billings stake. There were three new wards created, which means that every original ward is considerably smaller. For example, my ward, Blue Creek, had 15 young women, and now we have 5. It's sad that I won't get to spend a couple of days during my week with some of the most amazing girls I have ever met. But, I know that this change will give us young women more missionary opportunities and chances to invite friends to activities. This is a huge change to the stake and it will take some getting used to, but I am going to do my best with the arrangements:)

Status Update: Overwhelmed!!

I feel so overwhelmed tonight! I have so much going on right now and so much to think about. Tonight my parents started asking questions about college next year, and it is so much to try and think about right now. I feel like just not doing any of my summer school projects, not worrying about scholarships, and not trying to figure out how I am going to get everything done that I need to this month. a break sounds great right now... And a nap... I guess a few hours of shut eye will help me think straight tomorrow. Tomorrow! Yes. Almost forgot! Tomorrow there is a special sacrament meeting for almost all of the wards in the Billings Montana Stake- there are going to be major boundary changes. There has been such an influx of new members into our stake that they are having to create more wards and rearrange how the wards are laid out! I am having mixed feelings about this. My ward covers a huge part of billings, just because where I live there aren't a lot of members. Tomorrow, our ward is probably  going to be downsized considerable, which makes me very sad. I have a lot of great friends in that young women group, and most of them are probably going to be moved to another ward. At least I will see them fairly often, with seminary and such. I'm very curious to see what will happen tomorrow! 

I'm just going to end with one thought: I will definitely be relying on my Heavenly Father a lot this next year. I just don't think I will be able to handle all of the things happening in my life without His guidance, support, and comfort. I'll talk to you soon!

Heavenly Father's Watchful Care

     Until this summer, I don't think I've ever know just how much Heavenly Father watches out for each of us. That all changed a little over a month ago, on the first day of my summer vacation (June 4th). Now, for you to truly understand this story, you need to know a little bit about where I live. My family and I live on a 2.5 mile long dirt road a few minutes outside of Billings, and one part of it is winding across the top of hills, meaning there are drop offs on both sides of the road for a quarter mile. These have never scared me when I've driven since I see them every day. And now, for the story...

     It's the week before girl's camp for the Billings stake, and my two sisters and I are on the way to help our ward leader get ready for camp. After a crazy morning filled with excitement, chores, and getting ready, we are finally ready to go. But we are 1/2 hour late! In reality, this wasn't a big deal, but we wanted to get there as soon as possible. We rushed out of the house, hopped into our '96 Subaru Outback, and took of down the road about 5 mph faster than we souls have been going. I was driving. I didn't really think about my speed because Katie and I have driven fast on the dirt road before, and nothing has ever happened. When we reached the last 1/4 mile of the dirt road, we met the s turns, going a little faster than we should have. As I started to turn, I knew I was going too fast, and I could feel the car start to slide to the right. I tried to correct the slide, and ended up sliding the other direction! Both times we were so close to going off one of the drop offs that lined the road! As I tried to come out of the second slide, I over corrected, and we started to roll!!!! All I could think about was that We were going to die, and it was all my fault. Then the car came to a stop. Upright. Facing the road. I got out of the car to see the damage, and noticed that we had landed on the one part of the side of the road that we could land and survive. This was a miracle! We were about a yard from one drop off, and a few feet from another. And as my sisters got out of the car, we checked for injuries. The worst was an inch long scratch that was bleeding slightly. 

    Now, when people roll a car, most don't walk away, let alone with just scratches. And it wasn't by chance that we landed where we did. Heavenly Father was watching out for us that day. Now here's my final thought: Heavenly Father ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS answers our prayers. Not alway when we want. Not always with the answer we want. And not always in the way we think he will. But he will answer them. :)

~Emmalee