Touched By An Angel

Little known fact: I was a child actor. True story. I became fairly famous after appearing in Touched by an Angel Season 6 Episode 24 aka "A Clown's Prayer". My parents were frightened by how quickly my fame was appearing to mount after my brief appearance as audience member 22 and quickly pulled me out of Hollywood before I headed down the fast track to becoming Miley Cyrus. I am grateful for their foresight now, but was thoroughly crushed that I would not be joining up with Mary-Kate and Ashley to become the Olsen Triplets. 

Actually, this post has nothing to do with my brief moment of childhood fame. I just thought the title of the show I starred in was fitting to how I have been feeling lately. 

We are going to have to start this story roughly 365 days ago. Sel and I had taken on my road warrior parents as companions for our 27 hour drive across the country to our new home in Toledo. We left on a Saturday with the idea that we would roll into town on Sunday and I would start work on Monday. We hadn't found a place to live yet and asked our bro&sis-in-law if we could stay with them for one or two nights until we found a new place to call our own. I started work at the height of the branch's busyness and felt overwhelmed almost instantaneously. We ended up struggling to find a place to live for THREE months. So our two night invasion of my sweet in-laws turned into three months of us sleeping on an air mattress in my nephew's room. Throw into that mix the fact that my sis-in-law was going through the not so fun first trimester, my nephew was going through a really difficult stage, her husband was gone for a straight month, she was going to school full-time and you've got some really stressed out people. Or at least I was. I was so stressed out that I stopped having a period and was on the verge of tears daily. I spent a lot of days asking "Why in the world are we in this horrible new place?"
I kept getting an answer to my question by continually being the recipient of an overwhelming amount of kindness from those around us. I illustrate how miserable our first few months in Toledo were to show that even though things seemed pretty grim for awhile, we still had sooo much to be thankful for all because of the people we were being introduced to. My whole life has been marked by being surrounded by selfless individuals, but our first year in T-town has just been chuck full of angels. I mean, let's take my bro&sis-in-law for starters. They let us sleep in their 900 sq foot apartment for 90 days! Who even does that? Answer: The kindest people in the universe. After we finally left them in peace, they continued to do these little (huge) acts of love for us. They brought me countless flats of raspberries and brought Sel root beer to last a lifetime. My bro-in-law even made an Anatomy finals rice krispie treat for Sel just because he is that thoughtful of a brother.
My parents have also been so incredible and done so much for us. I grew up thinking all parents were overwhelmingly kind, helpful, and loving. Turns out, some are, but some sadly are not. I won't even try to list all the things my parents have done for us this past year because it would seriously be a 500 page novel.
I have especially felt the love from all the wonderful lady friends in my ward. When I was newly pregnant two friends offered to let me borrow/have some of their maternity clothes. I was then bombarded with boxes of baby clothes from three friends (one of them being the same angel who gave me the maternity clothes). I have had two showers thrown for me and was given some incredible presents from some incredible people. I have already had multiple offers from friends to make us meals or help us out once the baby arrives. One friend went as far to ask intense specifics about Sel an I's favorite treats, meals, drinks, etc so she could have everything prepared. I think one of the most touching things happened the other day though. Thinking about it still makes me tear up a little because I honestly can't get over how sweet this act of service was. One of my friends came to my house and gave me a two hour pedicure. She washed my feet, massaged them, filed my toe nails, and painted them a dazzling ruby red. While I reclined in comfy chair my friend sat on our uncomfortable floor whilst being 28 weeks pregnant and washed my super unattractive feet. I couldn't help but relate her actions to when Christ washed the feet of the apostles. How do people like this even exist?
I know I cry about everything lately, but when I sit down and consider all of the love we have felt since we moved here, I just can't stop the tears. I feel so undeserving and unworthy to be surrounded by friends and family of this caliber. Looking back, it is so easy for me to see that this city is exactly where we were supposed to end up. Ghettoness and all.
I have been counting my blessings lately to keep my mind off the fact that I am still pregnant. As you can see, it has been pretty easy to come up with a huge list that can easily consume my thoughts. I would, however, totally be okay continuing to ponder how lucky I am with this baby on the outside of me instead of still partying it up inside. I really need to get his career as a child actor jump started and if he doesn't come out soon, I am super afraid all the good baby spots on the shows are going to be taken.

I am that child sitting in the field.