I Know My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Yesterday, I found out that the appraiser who came to value our house, appraised it for $14k less than we were hoping. I was deflated, but knew everything would work out as it was supposed to. I was zen. My realtor advised me to wait to see what move the buyer made before doing anything ourselves. Good counsel. Today, the buyer had a long talk with their realtor and decided to appeal the appraisal. We should find out in a few weeks the results of the appeal.

Today, after working like crazy all week, on our last day of spring break, I decided to be a nice mom and take my babes to the cool park thirty minutes away. While I was there, I found this little number - a 5-leaf clover.

I have only ever found one other 5-leaf clover and that was amidst the drama of selling our last house. I don't know if you know this about me but I have a special relationship with clovers, four leaf, and I guess now five leaf as well. I am always looking for them. I don't always find them, but I can't help at least glancing down as I pass.

One time I found one that was the size of my hand. I decided Matthew could use some extra luck so I taped it to the steering wheel of his car. Even though it was brown and old, it stayed on that wheel for the next several years until I forced him to let me take it down.

In the last few years I only seem to find them when under some sort of stress. They seem to be Heavenly Father's little reminders that He is aware of me and actively working for my good. As I mentioned before, I found the last 5-leaf clover when we were in the midst of selling our PA house. Our house had been on the market for multiple weeks and we were really getting desperate to get an offer. We got one on the day I found that clover. It wasn't remotely a good offer, but it was still an answer to prayers.

When I found this 5-leaf clover I instantly knew that Heavenly Father wanted me to know how much He cared for me and my little family. I feel peace that He is once again actively working for our good.

Update: Our appeal has been approved and we are selling our house for what we hoped. Hallelujah.

Side note: A few days after finding the clover, I was telling my Sister-in-Law about it and she said that I found the clover because I was looking for it. At first I felt like she was trying to rob me of my intimate moment with my Heavenly Father. But I think she meant that I was actively looking for that reminder of His love and so of course He blessed me with it. My Heavenly Father loves me and I am so thankful for His personalized ways of showing me.

We Dyed Eggs

It's amazing to me what my children pick up without me ever saying anything. We have never dyed eggs before. Mostly because I just couldn't justify the mess. This year Boy Howdy was desperate for doing Easter crafts over spring break with dyed eggs as the foremost project. When we looked on pinterest for inspiration, he found emoji eggs and instantly wanted to recreate them. We had just watched The Emoji movie earlier that week so they were eager to recreate some of the "allergies" they had seen.

I believe we have a kissy one, a crying one, there's a Meh face and a high five. I was honestly pretty impressed with their patience for dying each egg individually for three minutes each. 

Happy Easter!!

Choose LOVE

A few weeks ago, one of my college roommates (or at least our next-door neighbor), went to a black-tie event hosted by Fenway Health (a LGBT health care, research and advocacy organization headquartered in Boston. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought a table to show their love and support. My friend was invited to have a place at the table and was encouraged to share the love our church has for the LGBT community, despite what they may think of us.

This has led to a beautiful discussion amongst our group. So much of it surrounding the importance of love in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel as though I've gone through a spiritual reawakening. I feel so alight with enthusiasm that if we could just choose love more often, love for God and love for our fellow men, we would be better aligned with our Heavenly Father than if we focused more like the Jews of old on simply and dutifully obeying the letter of every law. For me, a born rule follower, and one not naturally endowed with loads of compassion, this is a complete revelation.

Yesterday, feeling very inspired by the discussion of my college roommates I decided I wanted quotes about love to fill the walls of my new home. I even thought of a friend who creates beautiful artwork to design them for me. But then my heart was moved to think bigger. To sell her designs and use the profits to donate to a charity that promotes the furtherance of Love. It's not much, and we may never sell more than a few designs, but I want to do my part, no matter how small.

Thankfully I have a husband who studied both intellectual property and tax law in law school and finance in business school. And thankfully my friend is interested in designing for me and letting me license her work for my new project.

This morning as I was looking for quotes for her to design, I came across my new favorite scripture:
"And we know also, that sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength." - Doctrine and Covenants 20:31

To me this scripture rewords the famous scripture in Matthew 10:39 - "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." When we focus on loving God and our fellow men (and I think by extension ourselves) Christ's grace will cover our shortcomings and we will find that sanctification is a natural byproduct.

In other words, instead of worrying about perfecting myself little by little, even with the help of my Savior's atoning sacrifice, I am going to work on choosing love, and let Christ's grace take care of the rest. Wish me luck.

Our House Sold!

We put our house on the market last Thursday. That evening, we had our first showing, with about 30 minutes notice. Poor Matthew - I was out of town so he was left to tidy the house (which was clean, at least when I left early that morning). The following Tuesday our realtor informed us that they had put in an offer to buy our house.

Over the past few months I had been praying that there would be someone who NEEDED to buy our home. And honestly, I felt fairly sure Heavenly Father had it all in hand. So when I heard about the plight of our buyers, I recognized the answer to my prayers.

At least according to our realtor, the father is in the Navy and is deploying soon. He is trying to lock down a house for his family before leaving. They had already gotten denied on 10 other offers and were getting pretty desperate. They gave a full-price offer and clinched it with the clause stating they wouldn't ask for any repairs.

At first I felt bad to go back to the other people coming to look at our house in the next 24 hours and tell them they couldn't come after all, but Matthew and my realtor ensured me that they would somehow survive. So with that burden of guilt lifted, we both felt sure that this is the family Heavenly Father meant for our home. So after only 6 days we have both a house to move into and someone who wants to buy ours. Oh how thankful I am for such beautiful answers to prayers.

P.S. We should close on both houses at the end of April.