Updates and Angels.

A recent image from Pearl's school.  Pearl is on the left with the blocks in front of her face.  Her teachers look so nice, don't they?

**First off, I want to express my gratitude of those who are in a position to give to us.  It has helped already and I thought I owed you an update to what we have been doing with the money.   Because of your help we were able to get the home study process started and also pay some of the fees for getting our background check going.  Soon enough we will put what we have been given together with what we have saved towards her agency fee.  So, thank you from the bottom of my heart.**

I often play a game with myself where I imagine that Pearl is with me. It's one of my favorite things to do - it makes me so happy.  I'll be driving to the store and pretend that she is in the back seat - I'll glance back and in my mind's eye she really is there.  What an unfathomable blessing it is that some day she really will be with us - that she will follow me around the house asking questions just like my others do.  I know that looking back this time will seem to have passed quickly but right now it seems like she'll never get here.  The day when I get to pick her up - when she will probably be so scared and not at all interested in coming with us - can't come soon enough.  I love to imagine that moment too.  I hope that even though she is overwhelmed and confused that she will be able to see and feel the love we have for her.

Right now, she is on the other side of the planet not knowing that her mother is in American dreaming of touching her black hair and caressing her little cheek and feeling her crooked little spine.   I feel such an immensity of love and emotion for her, my prayers are so fervent at times, I can't help but wonder if the sun shines a little warmer for her.  I can't help but wonder if in some way she can feel the momentum of change in her life.  So much has changed for us in the last couple months that I can't help but wonder if some little imperceptible something has changed for her too.  One thing I am assured of is that the power of my and Michael's prayers, as well as those of our sweet boys, has sent more angels her way.  Angels to bring her comfort and keep her safe.  You have no idea what a comfort that is.

There are some images taken last year of her that make me particularly sad.  Last year(2010) she left foster care and came to live at the orphanage.  I don't know why she did - if the family could no longer care for her or what but I do know that that transition was very difficult for her and some photos seem to show it in her sad eyes.  She had been living with a foster family since she was found at three days old and then at age three was sent away.  The orphanage workers said that for a time she did not speak to anyone there.  How heart breaking.  My poor little girl was so alone and confused.  Peter is three years old and I cannot imagine how hard it would be for him to go through something like that.  I hope that when we bring Pearl home that the Lord will ease the burden of that so it won't be as painful as going to the orphanage.  I hope the love of her mother and father and her forever family will help heal those wounds.  


My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.” On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.  

--The Ministry of Angels

ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles