My heart has been touched

This has been a very sobering weekend. I have learned a lot about a lot of tragedies in the lives of my friends and I just want to share and ask that you give a hug and kiss to your little ones and say a prayer of gratitude for your healthy beautiful kids.

On a bright note, we put in an offer on a house and it was accepted yesterday, so I'll post more about that when we have more info, but after this you'll understand why we don't know a whole lot more than the offer was accepted.

I met an amazing family this year while fundraising for another amazing family who is dealing with something so difficult. A man called me and said he had to help, he saw Tegan's picture and couldn't get it out of his mind. He put together a whole other fundraiser and helped me make calls and run errands to get our fundraiser done. He was an answer to my prayers. His wife was awesome and came and helped us price everything for the garage sale and also helped us so much with the auction. They are great people and I was really happy to have met them. Keep in mind they didn't know the Salce's or me at all when they offered to help. The twist is that they used to live in our ward that we're in right now. They moved shortly before we moved in and when we first decided to look at houses to buy, guess who's old house was for sale? It wasn't the right house for us, but it got us looking. I went online and looked at a realtor website and called about a listing, not paying any attention to the name--I remember thinking how much this guy sounded like Danny, the guy who had helped me so much. Dennis and I went and looked at the house that night and Dennis asked, "Scott Keller, do you think that's Danny's brother?" I looked at the picture on the ad and said, that has to be they look a lot alike and sound exactly alike. So, we found our realtor. He has been great and has been very patient and willing to get us into a house we are comfortable and happy with. We put in our offer on Friday on a house on Noah in Chubbuck and I told Dennis to call him yesterday right before the afternoon session of Conference started to see if he'd heard any news. Dennis left a message and the phone rang two seconds later, it was Danny and he was pretty emotional, my heart dropped and Dennis just said, "I'm really sorry, let me let you go so you can take care of that." He got off the phone and told me that Scott had found out 5 minutes before that his little girl drowned in Vegas. I bawled. I can't imagine losing one of my kids. Yesterday was really hard, we didn't really know what happened or what we could do so we just kept praying for their family. Scott called Dennis back on his way to the airport and let him know we got the house and that everything still hadn't hit him. Dennis told him not to worry about us, but to take care and know we're thinking and praying for them. I remember the shocked daze Dennis was in the night he found Kent, when it hits him it's going to hit hard and I just pray for their strength in this tough time. I finally couldn't stand not helping anymore and called Monica to find out what had happened and if there was anything we could do. She said they went to visit mom's grandpa and the three year old was out back with the six year old, six year old came inside for a drink and when they went back out to check the baby was face down in the water. I can't even imagine what grief they have right now. It is horrible. I was telling my friend Ang about this last night and she said this happened to her cousin and both of her kids drowned just a few months ago. I am just sick over it. I literally thought I was going to throw up when Dennis told me what had happened. Please say a prayer for the Keller family, they need that strength right now.

Situation number 2. My friend sent me a request to join the group "give hope to benson and claire" on facebook. We went to highschool togetether and her brother is my brother's age--a lot of you know the Skinners. Anyway, her brother's kids were born with a rare genetic defect that causes their liver to produce too much oxalate and they both need liver and kidney transplants. You can read all about them and see these little sweethearts if you click the button for them on the right toolbar. They have gone through a lot and are struggling to keep her alive right now. My heart and prayers really go out to them and I hope you'll let yourself be touched by their story.

Situation number 3:
I got to catch up with my old roomate from Ricks, isn't facebook great? They got married right around the same time as us and had struggled with infertility just as we did, but they were never able to concieve. They have been able to adopt a beautiful little girl and are anxiously waiting to adopt again. I remember when we struggled that it was hard to get out of bed sometimes and it was hard being excited when all the friends around you were pregnant. They have not been able to adopt the last three times they tried and are frustrated with their situation, as I think any of us would be. I just really feel like things are out of our hands a lot of times, but the hands they are in are better qualified and will teach us and guide us and get us through. He knows us and He has a plan for all of us and He never punishes us, He teaches us and humbles us and brings us back to Him. The lessons we have to learn are just taught to us the hard way a lot of times.

Still another situation: As most of you know I've been doing fundraising for my friend Ang's little 2 year old Tegan who has a rare and aggressive cancer. We went out last night and talked a lot and this surgery they have coming up is so important. They have to physically remove her clavicle (collar) bone and clear off all the cancer cells from the tumor which is wrapped around nerves and blood vessles. It will be so intense. There will be three specialists doing the surgery as usually this type of tumor is in the brain or kidneys, but hers is on her chest. So, they need the oncologist, ear nose and throat specialist and neurologist in there. Imagine your little toddlers being put through that, the anesthesia alone is scary. She will be in recovery for a week or two and then right back through another round of chemo. Ang said they could be in Salt Lake until February or later, she really doesn't know.

My point with all of these tragedies is that it's so important to let your heart be touched by other people's situations. None of us are immune to sorrow. Heavenly Father put us here to help each other get back to Him and if we close off emotionally from people we really miss out on a lot and what are they missing from us. I would encourage you to leave comments on these blogs and let people know even though you don't know them you care. Pray for them, even though you don't know them, wouldn't you want the same thing for yourselves and loved ones if it were you? Everyone can do SOMETHING. Even if you think there's nothing you can do, pray, fast, put names in the temple (a phone call is all it takes). Send a card, (like I said, even if you don't know them), put a comment on their blogs. Let people know you care. Compassion is a gift. It's amazing how much your abliity to love will grow if you let it. Hug your kids and tell them you love them.