If You Wait Long Enough, Blessings Will Come

It has been a hard year. Maybe I shouldn't say the term "year" because that sounds super long. It has been a rough 6 months. Here's why:

• Our washer and dryer broke. It was expensive to replace 2 new machines.
• The broken washer and dryer caused a flood. We still need to replace some flooring. 
• I had a baby which is a big blessing. Getting mastitis 4x within a 2 month period was extremely challenging. Giving up breastfeeding was something else I dealt with which was an emotional, hard decision.
• I struggled with postpartum depression after having Isabelle and still struggle with it. Being a mom has been very difficult for me.
• Our couches became so worn out that we needed to replace them as soon as possible which cost several hundred dollars.
• Andrew lost his job.

The list seemed so much longer in my head. I feel like I'm missing some items. After hearing some sad news earlier this week, my list suddenly seemed small and I was glad for the trials we've been facing instead of the ones a relative of mine has.

A couple months ago, Andrew in all seriousness asked me: "Did we stop paying our tithing?" It seemed like so much was going wrong all at once.

We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I won't claim that all of our problems are now solved. Wouldn't that be wonderful? No, we still haven't replaced our flooring after the flood. My postpartum depression hasn't disappeared, but has improved. Andrew was able to find an excellent job within 2 weeks of being laid off. What an enormous blessing! He also had a few different options to choose from. On top of that, he started his new job this week meaning he will be paid severance and get a paycheck from his new company as well. Now, it's all starting to make sense and come together. Heavenly Father has been aware of us through these difficult times. I want my problems fixed immediately and he knows what's coming.Andrew getting laid off has actually been a huge blessing for us financially. It also saved me mentally to have him home to help with the kids for 3 weeks.

I wanted to bear my testimony on Sunday and share lots of the thoughts I've written. Everyone else had the same idea and I'm ok with the fact that I didn't have the chance to get up. (To be honest, I could have gone up and waited.) Something that I've learned through all of this is that I find peace in the temple. Over the summer, I was struggling with someone a lot. I decided to attend the temple every week and suddenly this person wasn't as hard for me to be around. While Andrew was out of a job, we both decided to go to the temple each week because we had extra time/ hands to babysit. We knew that everything would workout because of the peace we felt there.

The point of this post is to remind myself that God is aware of each of our needs great or small. His timeline isn't the same as mine though and I'm trying to learn to be more patient. Here's to the next 6 months. I'm confident they'll be different than the last 6.