Miracles

Happy Fall! Summer has now officially ended - kind of sad to put away all the shorts - but it's nice to see the colors changing in the trees up on the nearby Jura mountains.  Yesterday, I drove with a dear friend to the Bern temple, and enjoyed 3 hours of good chat time.  It's always so wonderful to surround yourself with inspiring people who motivate you to lift and stretch yourself. We talked about everything from exercise and healthy eating, to having faith in ourselves that we can do anything (just like the bumblebee, how he scientifically shouldn't be able to fly, yet he does), to believing in miracles. It's fun to ponder on the big, huge obvious miracles - she had some incredible ones about obtaining a car and house right when they needed it, right when they prayed for it - or how our home was on the market in Texas for a year with no contracts, then right after we signed the job contract to work here in Switzerland, our house had showings for 7 days straight, then 2 contracts!!

So those stories are humbling, showing so clearly how Heavenly Father provides for us, but how often do we forget the simple, less obvious ones? Like, cute Kassie saying her glasses were getting blurry, so we called an eye doctor, got an appointment, and took her to get new glasses - just like that. Now she can see clearly again. (Here she is posing in them - they're purple - again - but these have cool textured designs on the side and rimless bottoms).

And the miracle of having 3 beautiful, very happy, healthy, capable children, who LIVE to have fun...

Here they are doing skits for each other. I love that they do that - Jen, Kas, Sterl and Steff and I used to do that all the time growing up.

And of course the miracle of getting to live in this paradise-like place...

There is also the miracle of Daron having a job, notwithstanding the fact that he's now under his 4th boss in 8 months, and 3rd CEO in 1 year! Things at HP are a bit crazy, but we're so grateful that he remains steadily employed, enjoying his coworkers and work environments (whether he's in Meyrin, or Grenoble, or right here in his home-office; there may even be a Dubai trip coming up - I've got to figure out how we can all tag along on that one!)

I think the kids, who are happily asleep now after we read Aesop's Fables together tonight at bedtime, would eagerly name the miracle of airplanes.  They've all 3 had a noticeably increased interest in the countdown to our trip back to America.  Kenny is asking how many minutes are in 2 1/2 months, and Stephen wrote in his journal about the 75 days left til we return to Texas for Christmas. Cute little kids -- so patient and good. What a blessing THAT has been - to have children that moved here happily, no rebellious attitudes or depression about us changing EVERYTHING in their lives in one big swoop: new house, new schools, new friends, new country, no more dog, new languages... we are so humbled and grateful for them and their sweet, open-minded personalities.