"Hope is the abiding trust that Heavenly Father fulfills His promises."

I believe it was about a year ago that I heard a brother in our ward share this quote in a talk in Sacrament.  I quickly jotted it down because I had  often felt like I was losing hope for the promises I wanted fulfilled. The hope that Berrett and I would some day be parents.
Well we have had our up's and down's and I have often picked up that piece of paper and read it and silently asked Heavenly Father to help me to keep my hope alive and to believe He would fulfill His promises.
I can tell you today He keeps His promises!! A expectant mom and her parents and family have chosen us to adopt her baby girl.
We want to protect her privacy and the privacy of our future daughter so we won't be sharing very many details.  She is due in late June, early July and we are very excited!
We ask you our friends and family to pray for her, to pray for the father and their families.  Pray that they may be comforted and at peace with their decision.  Please pray that they have all that they stand in need of at this great time of change.  Also please pray that the Lord will pour out blessings on their heads for sharing this beautiful gift with us. Please pray for us as well.  Adoption is costly and we will have many changes to make in our lives as well.  I will say it again though, "Hope is the abiding trust that Heavenly Father fulfills His Promises."  I KNOW He does.

If I keep the commandments I can live with Heavenly Father again.

It's my turn to do Sharing Time in Primary this week.  We are talking about keeping the commandments.
I love to use pictures, games or object lesson's to make it entertaining, memorable and easy to understand.
I was reading back through previous "Friend" magazines and came across this.

I loved the concept...https://www.lds.org/friend/1994/04/sharing-time-keep-the-commandments?lang=eng
but needed it large enough for the whole primary.  I also didn't have the time to color it as well. So I made my own.

our boat... or life on earth

Pictures of the commandments... please realize that they include some modern ones from today's prophets as well as the original 10 commandments.

Keep the commandments anchor

Commandment bubbles or links with the script to match the pictures.

  I am going to start the same way the Sharing time lesson is laid out.  Writing the sentence on the board and having the kids guess the song while the pianist plays it.  Then I intend to share the history of the song as outlined in the above link.
I am going to ask the children if they have ever been in a boat on the water and talk about how the waves can make the boat move and be unsteady.
The circles with the words in them will be links from the boat to the anchor.  I will have the children throw the anchor over the back and I will clip one of the pictures to it.  As they bring it up we will match it to the scripted bubbles or links in the chain. We will talk about how obeying the commandments can anchor us from the temptations of life.  As we keep those commandments it will help us to return to live with Heavenly Father.

My ship on the ocean with the word bubbles and anchor and some funny little fish watching.

I also included some funny little fish and want to point out that times we don't know who is watching us and what we can teach them by being a good example After all the pictures have been matched, I will tie the anchor at the bottom and talk about how the ship is now secure. I will end by bearing testimony of the peace I feel when I obey the commandments and how they have protected me from temptation.  I am thinking I might focus on scripture study and talk about the song "Scripture Power."
Since this is just a plan in the works, I will have to let you know how it goes.

Well... it worked great!! Really a fun lesson!!

Count your many blessings....

I will admit that when it comes to infertility it can be difficult to find ray's of hope in your life. For instance-at the moment my first counseler in primary had her 2nd baby in January. My 2nd counseler is expecting her first in May. Our chorister is expecting in Msy- our activity day leader is expecting in May. I am surrounded by women who have given birth or who are expecting! In the past I have let myself become bitter at every announcement. And yet the only person I hurt was me!!! By withdrawing from those around me who have reason to rejoice I lose the chance to share their joy and their friendship. We don't know the stories behind these blessed events. One of my dearest friends has two children and yet has experienced many miscarriages. I sat and cried with her recently over her latest one. I learn about women of great strength when I let myself be a part of their joy or pain. My friend lost her baby later in a pregnancy the she had ever had before. She is grieving and yet when I called her for some advise and comfort about a situation I was in she put aside her pain and gave me some of the best words of advise and comfort. My 2nd counseler has struggled this entire pregnancy with morning-noon-and night sickness!!! And yet she withstands it because she wants to be a mom! Adoption has its struggles. Waiting- worrying about the expectant mom- praying this time it will all work out. But no matter how they get here each child is a joy!! I decided long ago I could choose pain or I could choose joy. So bring on the birth announcements- bring on the baby showers- I choose to count my blessings and to live with joy!!!!