New Year, New Beginnings & New Miracles

*First off I must say that recently whenever I think about my life and maybe how hard things might be, I immediately turn my thoughts to people who are much, much sadder than I. I am training myself to do this in hopes that I in turn might be more grateful. I think about the fact that so many people in this past year have lost their fathers, their sisters, their brothers, their mothers, their grandpas, their wives & husbands to death. And as much as we know about families being together after we die, it must still hurt and hurt so badly. I try to comprehend their pain but it hurts too bad, I can't. 

And as much as the rest of us go through "our" trying times, I tell myself I'll take it any day if that's the trial I must face..and I'll feel blessed that I still have my family on this earth to be here with me to face these things. 

I do have a testimony that our Father in Heaven is over everything. He knows all. He has sent us here to become better, to learn from our experiences and sometimes these experiences aren't necessarily the ones we want to occur, but they will in the end be for our good. He loves us as does our Savior. They long for us to be happy even more than we desire it. And to have true, pure joy, not just fleeting moments of happiness. They see the whole picture where we can just see a little blip of it.

*Now for 2009. A New Year, New Beginnings, and New Miracles. Today a miracle happened. One you might have already seen, but I thought I'd share for those who haven't. We all know the story that captured Arizona's heart of Stephanie & Christian Nielson who survived a plane crash in August. In fact they didn't think she would survive; but guess who slowly & carefully typed her first blog post today?

*Click to witness the miracle:   NewNie

So Here's to the New! New beginnings and new miracles as we all begin together our New year!