In life we all have or struggles and our challenges. For the past two years or so, I have faced two challenges that at times were a test of my patience and sanity. Let's start at the beginning.
Shortly after we purchased our home, we could hear a lot of hammering going on late at night next door. We weren't sure what our neighbors were up to. We soon learned that they had built an unpermitted bedroom in their garage (this is against city code). Next thing we knew a troubled teenage boy moved into said room, then his girlfriend moved in and his friends began to come and go at all hours of the night. These minors would smoke weed outside our bedroom window and Bubba's window and wake us all up, it was really annoying and we didn't know what to do about it.
Fast forward to earlier this summer. My neighbor stopped me one day to tell me that she and her fiance had broken up (the troubled teenage boy was his). She had basically told him that she didn't want the girlfriend living in the garage and that she wanted him to lay the law down with his son, he didn't do it so she broke off the engagement. About this same time she lost her job. She wasn't sure if she was going to sell the house (it had nearly doubled in value), rent the house or stay in the house.
She decided to rent the house. She said she picked out a couple that she thought was close to Andy and I in age. She said they had a little girl around Bubba's age.
The first prayer that was answered was that we were able to go outside in our yard and not smell weed, we were no longer being woken up at night, the unpermitted room in the garage that had the potential to burn our house down was torn down and we no longer had to worry about teens breaking into our house to find money for weed.
Now to the second prayer.
Since we purchased our home I have made friends, but most of the people I am friends with are older than me and in different phases and stages of life. I have longed and cried and even pleaded with Heavenly Father to help me to become friends with someone who was in a similar phase of life as me-- pregnancy hormones have made these feelings of loneliness all the more intense. Someone who was religious, not necessarily LDS. And someone who would be able to go and do things on a whim without having to have it planned days in advance.
About a month ago my second prayer was answered. My new neighbor is a year old than me, her daughter is a month older than Sawyer. She is Christian and we have a lot of similar views on parenting and living a healthy lifestyle. She too has struggled to make friends with people who are in our same phase of life and hold the same beliefs that we do. We talk and go walking nearly everyday and our kiddos love to play at each other's houses.
I feel so truly blessed that a loving Father in Heaven has answered not only one of my prayers, but two. I feel so incredibly loved and blessed. A heavy weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.
I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. The answers may not always come according to our timetable or in the way that we want them to, but they will come in the way that he sees fit.
