Squeezing in all we can

Halloween came and went.  With our “Pre-thanksgiving feast” that we had with the family I just skipped Halloween.  I ended up picking up a costume for Ila Saturday before Halloween and that was the extent of my Halloween focus.  

We did go to the the ward Halloween party.  I actually took over a bunch of left overs desserts and rolls from Avrams farewell.  

Ok, let me back up a little.  Avrams mission farewell was on Oct 30.  That is a difficult event to plan for.  I had no idea how many people to expect.  I decided to provide soup, rolls, some desserts, and a hot cocoa bar for the luncheon.  Crystal, Mom and Nicholle each brought a different type of soup and then I made 3 different kinds.  I tried to spread out the work so each day for a week I tried to bake 2-3 batches of cookies/brownies.  Saturday I made 5 batches of dough for rolls.  

Avram has been trying to be independent in his preparation for his mission.  I told him I would sit down and work on his talk with him.  He said, “No mom, I’ve got this.”  I few hours later I turned on the computer and happened to find Avrams talk.  He had introduced his name and shared the topic he was to speak on…and that was the end.  I told Avram, its ok to get help.  I still call my mom and go over my talks with her.  I think that helped him feel more comfortable about his mom helping.   Well, I wrote a talk, handed it to him and told him “Here are some notes, you can use whatever you want or you don’t have to use any of it.”  He was grateful and took the papers.  I didn’t know what he had decided to do until I heard his talk over the pulpit.  He ended up using the talk I wrote but I was so proud of him because he practiced it and studied it a lot so that he was familiar with the talk and he didn’t have to read the whole thing.  

He presented himself so well and he did a great job.  Even two weeks later I have people telling me how well he did.  I know that there are many people in the ward that have watched him grow up and have a small understanding of the miracle that is standing in front of us.  

The farewell went well, we had nearly a perfect amount of soup and I had lots of left over rolls and desserts.  I think the kids, including Avrams friends, like the hot cocoa bar the most.  

Avram had a bucket list before leaving on his mission.  He had a few movies he wanted to watch (Jurassic Park series) and he wanted to go to the Zoo, Natural History Museum and the Aquarium.  His friends thought he was crazy and didn’t want to do these things, but this is Avram and I love this about him.  Crystal joined us for most of the events which he loved! He and Q have bonded a lot the past couple of weeks.  It has been a lot of fun watching them but in some ways its bad because it will be harder for Avram to say good bye.  

On Thursday we had a scone party.  These boys have come to my house many times for lunch.  I would feed them scones when they came over.  They love the scones!  We had this group over for one last lunch of scones and hot cocoa.  

The Natural History Museum was done the same way it was when he was a little kid.  He had little to no interest in 90% of the museum.  He was there for the dinosaur part.   (I love this kid)

This past Sunday Avram was set apart as a missionary.  He was so excited to officially put on that name tag.  It was wonderful to have the Adams, G&G Anthony, and Nicholle join us for this occasion.  Earlier that day we had fast and testimony meeting.  Briggs got up and bore his testimony.  He shared about how thankful he was to have shared a room with his best friend.  He said, we take good things for granted too often and then when its gone we realize how good we had it.  Avram had a hard time holding it together as Briggs spoke.  Those two have a special connection.  They have been through a lot together.

Adam and I also shared our testimonies.  I just kept thinking this may be the last fast and testimony meeting I have with my kids like this.  The next time we are together, things could be very different.  

It has been such a wonderful opportunity and adventure helping Avram prepare for his mission.