Merry "Mommy" Christmas!

December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas.  We love you all so much and are thinking of you fondly, wherever you are. Reading through these service projects has become one of the highlights of our Christmas season.  When people ask me if I am ready for Christmas, I pause to think of the gifts of service that we give each other. I am thankful that for Christmas we know that there have been 14 special services done because of the 14 special members of our family.

 

My recipient this year is Tiffany.  There are many ways that I could honor her, but I decided to focus on the big obvious one.  Tiffany’s family size has “exploded” and her time is being split between many family members, with very little time of her own.  I wanted to find someone, who due to a new baby, was stressed out and not able to do everything she wanted to accomplish. 

I had heard of a new 44 year old mother of twins, who had only been married for 2 years.  They desperately wanted a family before she was too old to have children, but she had to have invetro in order to do so.  She had a difficult pregnancy and 36 hours of labor, which resulted in a C-section.  After she had been home a week, and was starting to get a little strength back, she started severely hemorrhaging and had to have the ambulance take her back to the hospital.  She lost half of her blood.  She was in the hospital for several days and finally came back home to her new little family.  She is a cute girl, who has always felt on top of things.  This past month her health has prevented her from doing much of anything.

 

I realized she was probably feeling overwhelmed… similar to our Tiffany.  I contacted her and told her about our family project.  I told her I wanted her to think of something that she wouldn’t ever ask her Relief Society to do… and I would do it.  She wrote back that she had the perfect job for me, if I wouldn’t mind.  She explained that her hands were swollen puffy, because of the hemorrhaging, and that she couldn’t write.  She said she really, really wanted to send out baby thank-you cards for gifts and would like to send Christmas cards.  She said she would be embarrassed to ask the Relief Society to help, because it was a frivolous thing and the ward had already helped her with important things like cleaning, meal prep and tending the babies.  I said that was a perfect project and booked a time to do it.

I spent Monday at her home addressing and stamping envelopes and writing whatever she told me to write.   We did nearly 100 cards … many with thank you notes inserted… and she was thrilled.  She kept thanking me, because she said it was important to her… but others might think it was a silly thing to do, so she never would have asked someone to help her with them. 

I kept thinking of our Tiffany with her beautiful home and previously totally organized life… And thinking about the many things she would like to have time to do.  It was a privilege and honor to be able to help this new mother with something that was important to her. 

Merry Christmas, Tiffany.  We are very proud of you… with your big family ... and you are doing a great job!