The Christmas Elf

December was a hard month. I spent it sick. At first, I wasn't upset about that because I've not been sick since last year. About the middle of the month, my laptop crashed. Now I'm feeling sick. Actually, I managed to google up a virus in my avid search for clip-art. It was quite the nasty bug apparently, that came with friends. All those friends began eating files and disabling functions. I began to panic and called my brother in law (who I am SO thankful for!) and told him all about it. He says just bring it and he'll see what he can do. He was so calm. I want some of what HE takes!

By the time we got to Tennessee, the stress of life had managed to intertwine itself very neatly into my immune system and leave me quite defenseless. Daddy has a new dog, and evidently allergies can progressively get worse with repeated exposures,.... so I became instantly ill and stayed that way till we left.

On Saturday, we stayed with Catherine for a little longer than everybody else. I always love that time when its just us. We have such a different friendship as adults than we ever dreamed of as kids. Dave spent that whole day cleaning off viruses from my poor laptop. Late that night, he tells me it's clean, but it's a little handicapped. He says he'll reformat it and see if that helps, but chances are that its time to get a new laptop. So we leave it with him overnight to let him finish his magic and we head back to Mama's house for the night. The next day, we planned on going home because I was SO sick. I went to get my laptop from Dave, and find out just how bad it really is. I get back to Mama's and find Tommy's legs so badly swollen I figure it's best to stay there one more day to get his legs eased up and more rest in me. So I turn on my laptop to work on the Christmas gift I couldn't give yet,.... and find ALL my pictures from 2002 through 2011 are GONE. Now I'm devastated....and I started to cry... cried my eyes out. I just couldn't shake it either. If someone mentioned it, the tears came back. It was almost my last straw and I was feeling like I would need some medical intervention because I was headed to a bad emotional place. It occurred to me that this was Sunday and Manti's p-day is Monday. That meant I would be on the road and miss the chance to email back and forth with him. BUT,....I could send him an email and he could respond, and that would be SOME form of contact I could live with.

I went upstairs, got on Mama's computer and started an email. I told Manti all about my feelings. I told him how devastated I was and how much I hated life making me feel this way,... all the things you are NOT supposed to tell your missionary. Then I said to him that I knew all this was just bad feelings and that I had faith in him to teach me something better. I asked him to please tell me the good things about his mission, so that his happiness could be mine too. I asked him to tell me what was in the scriptures that build my strength and tolerance back up. I told him I knew I would be ok, but hearing that HE is ok and more than ok would be just the medicine to help. And i sent it.

The next day I got an email. It had pictures in it, and it had scriptures in it (telling me there must needs be opposition in all things) and it had comforting words just for me. He eased my feelings with his words and pictures. It was the birthday present I had needed. Only it didn't come from Santa,.... it came from the Christmas Elf....