I feel like I should introduce myself. So many have moved into the ward in the last 6 months. Welcome to all of you! I'm RaeLyn Stoddard, homeschooling mama of 9, and my calling is the Relief Society Provident Living Specialist--in short, it's my job to help you be prepared. I used to include a weekly "blurb" in the Grapevine faithfully every week. My hope was to inspire my sisters to be prepared in a number of areas. You can read my past preparedness ideas on my "multipurpose blog" at www.byesboos@blogspot.com
Just over 6 months ago, we had a major life change. Our 9th baby, Eliana, was born 6.5 weeks early with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome--basically half a heart. We knew her diagnosis before birth, and planned on a regular delivery with a repair surgery taking place her first week of life, and bringing her home after a 4-week hospital stay. Life rarely goes as planned. I could write a book about our journey, but I'll give the short version. With Eliana's premature and stressful birth along with more heart problems than anyone could have foreseen, Eliana's journey included a miracle Heart Transplant when she was just 6 weeks old and weighing less than 5 lbs, making her the smallest baby to receive a transplant in San Diego County. We spent almost 4 months in the CVICU at Rady Children's Hospital and were blessed by so many people who worked tirelessly to help our little one. Even after transplant there were many issues for her to overcome, some that we are still working on. Now we are 5 months post-transplant and she is doing amazingly well. I won't lie, there are still really hard days and I still cry, but hard days and tears are slowly getting fewer and farther between.
I share this as most of my preparedness posts have to do with what I personally am thinking about, and events like this are life-changing. I am seeing "life" differently and hope that I have become a better person and learned things along the way. Heavenly Father has amazing things in store for us. It is up to us to us to discover and live up to our mission.
So, back to preparedness...I thought about talking about earthquakes, we covered that about a year ago. Fire season is around the corner, and I have talked about that too, here and here. Preparedness topics are endless, but today, I feel like service is what we need to prepare for.
It seems like it is usually easy to serve, not necessarily convenient, but relatively easy. I have often kept a freezer meal in my freezer, ready to go for someone in need. It was easy to do the grocery shopping for my brother-in-law's family for the first year after they had their twins. Sometimes it wasn't so easy to help someone pack up their house when they needed to move or watch an overly-tired 2 year old for a friend, but do-able.
Over the last 9 months, our family has been the recipient of so much amazing and heartfelt service. From meals, groceries, prayers, texts, cards, and so much more, it has truly been humbling. Sometimes I have felt that so many others deserve the help so much more than we do, but whenever it has come, we have been so grateful.
Service has two sides: one is the ability to give the other is the ability to receive. Our church is a church of service, and easy or not we need to be prepared to help when called upon. Sometimes that call comes from a compassionate service leader, and sometimes it comes from a still small voice whispering to us what needs to be done. For many (myself included!) the harder part is being able to accept help. I think being able to accept that help also comes in different ways: the Relief Society President telling you the ward will help, or again, a still small voice that whispers that it will be OK and yes, you need this right now...and even asking for help is OK.
Chances are, life will find us on both sides of the service spectrum at one point or another.
Preparedness is different for every person and every family. I challenge you to think about where you are, what the Lord wants, and what you are able to do to serve others. Also think about how you can allow others to serve you.
