Tomorrow afternoon, Christian and I are flying to Oregon, where I will
speak to a group of Relief Society women in Keizer.
I've been working on the message centered around the theme of
"Joy in the Journey" for months.
As with every message I've been privileged to share,
I hope the theme of God's love, mercy, and grace shines through.
Tonight, Claire comes home to be with Gigs and Lottie while we're gone.
What a relief!
Last time we left Gigs and Lottie alone together, Lottie had
a mental breakdown. Whew!
Speaking of Lottie, her first month of school has been THE WORST.
She dreads waking up; I have to practically
push her out of the car in the carpool lane,
she's sad when she comes home
and has cried herself to sleep on more than one occasion.
She feels so lonely because her new schedule has excluded her from
last year's friend group.
At first, I was hoping she would just buck up and make new friends,
but I could see that it wasn't as easy as that.
And I feel so horrible making her go on this long, especially after the letter
she wrote to me and Christian:
Today, we had a great conversation with her principal, who was so very generous
with her time and willing to help her with a new schedule.
Lottie is vibrant, funny, creative, and clever,
and those things have been overshadowed by her dread of school.
After our conversation with the principal,
Lottie, Christian, and I offered a prayer, thanking God for solutions
to problems and good people who can help.
We've also committed to studying the Emotional Resilience course with her
which will help her find strength in the Lord and the tools to help her
overcome hard challenges that life WILL bring.
I want her to find joy in her little journey- even the hard parts.
But no one can do it alone.
It's been a super good reminder for me, too.
I hope she'll see an improvement next week!
She also showed me this photo of her with long hair.
She did one for Christian, too, and it made me laugh so hard:
