We had our first all-day rainy fall day yesterday. It felt like a Karen Carpenter song, as it was a rainy day AND a Monday. Ugh! I just felt slow all day, wishing I could have stayed in bed instead of going to our homeschool co-op. Nothing like co-op on Monday!!!! I mean, I enjoyed so many parts of it: the fact that I got to do a 10 minute-presentation to the moms on one of my many passions (family traditions), plus the fact that we, the moms, discussed Anne of Green Gables while making flower crowns. I’ve been wanting to discuss that book with other moms for years. So yay!!! But the rain poured all day until 6 PM.

But a plus for the day was that, for the first time, I left the afternoon class of 6-7 year olds that I mentor with Katie Hansen of houseofthebook.org, feeling refreshed instead of feeling like I’d been wrestling with pigs, which every week had felt like that, until yesterday. The difference was her magical storytelling plus she let them draw the story in new notebooks she gave them, AND they each got their own package of crayons.

All of that aside, just the rainy day itself was a little bit of a letdown after such a delightful General Conference weekend, which was this past weekend. We had relatives over both days: cousins plus my daughter and her little family on Saturday, then the same cousins on Sunday night. After so many years of living away from close family and friends, it’s so great to have people pop over all the time. God just orchestrated it that we moved back, then my husband’s sister and her family, then my daughter and her family this past summer.

I still figuratively pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming, that we are actually back with close friends and family, even though it’s been three years since we moved back. Not only that, one of my older children moved back in with us a month ago, to live here while he attends college, because he loves us so much! Seriously! He earned enough money over the summer to live on his own for the school year but he missed us the past 5 years that he’s been gone, so he asked to live with us. Score!!!

He said he moved back home because he misses our little family rituals! That would be our nightly and morning rituals of family prayer and conversation and weekend games, and family mealtimes. This has been very validating for me. I’m hoping to capitalize on his enthusiasm and get us all singing a song or two every night, since he’s such a fan of singing. He is definitely my favorite child right now! (None of my children read my blog so I feel safe in saying that, LOL.) We also went apple picking with one of my grandsons on Friday! Pics of that coming soon!

For months, I have had a habit to accompany going to bed to give my day a peaceful benediction, or in the morning, to dissolve the sluggishness of early morning and to help turn on the brightness of hope found in Jesus Christ. This is the habit: I read stories from the Gospel Library app of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s how I found this story. It’s just so delightful! The rainy day yesterday reminded me of it.

Here is the story, called, “Faith Under the Overpass.” In this story, a young man named Greg decided to start a hay-hauling business with his brother. They carried hay from eastern Washington over mountains to the Seattle area with a truck to sell to farmers to feed their livestock. They went on a few trips with their dad supervising, and then they were on their own. On their first solo voyage without supervision, the pickup was normal.

Here’s the rest of the story, copied from the October 2006 Ensign magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

“The return trip was uneventful until we noticed that it was starting to sprinkle just a bit. We immediately found an overpass on the freeway and parked underneath it just as the sprinkles turned into rain. We had not yet been able to purchase a tarp to cover the hay, and no animals can eat the alfalfa hay if it gets wet because it starts to rot and mold quickly. We knew that if we lost this load of hay, our business venture would probably fail.

“We sat under the overpass for quite a while, waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually, we realized that the Lord would help us if we prayed. My brother offered a prayer, and we waited. The rain did not let up. We decided that perhaps I, the elder brother, should offer a prayer. It started to rain harder. We sat there for what seemed an eternity. We knew that once we left the protective cover of the overpass, the next possible shelter was an hour away and home was another hour past that.

“Finally, one of us remembered the admonition that faith precedes the miracle, and we realized that we needed to exercise our faith. We put our trust in the Lord and left the cover of the overpass. To this day I remember every drop of rain that I saw land on the hood of the truck as we inched out from under the overpass. It was a severe trial of our faith, but by the time the cab of the truck was out in the open, the rain had stopped. The next two hours were filled with much prayer and thanksgiving.

“We made it home with our load in good shape, and as we were pulling the truck into the barn, the heavens released their pent-up downpour. Our business survived, and both of us were able to successfully fund our missionary service.

“Not all of my prayers have been answered this way, but I am very thankful for the lesson in faith my brother and I learned sitting under the freeway overpass in the rain.”

I just love that!!!! If you want more stories full of faith in God, please go here to get my Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook. It is full of enough stories you can read a new one almost every weekday for your family devotionals.