Chad and I got our first digital camera as a Christmas gift in 2002 and, while I liked the idea of a digital camera, I was largely unimpressed since it took pictures with an odd hue to them and burned through two double A batteries in five minutes flat. I stubbornly clung to the film camera I'd taken with me on my missionary journeys and was content. Then, my trusty camera died, but that was okay...we still had Chad's mission camera...all was well. But then digital cameras we could afford increased in quality. We purchased one, were pleased with it, and soon we were all digital all the time. We happily downloaded our pictures onto our computer and I assumed that they were safe there, tucked away in a little folder on our desktop. Then came THE VIRUS; the virus to end all viruses. Our computer coughed, wheezed, choked and died. All those pictures disappeared in a puff of smoke; vanishing as if they'd never been. Of all the things we lost, the one I mourned the most was Grant's newborn baby pictures. It was a tragedy of monumental proportions enlarged by the fact that NO ONE else seemed to have pictures of him either.
Fast forward three years: My parents are at our house for dessert and chitchat. Mom rummages around in her purse and extracts a silver camera. "Do you remember when you helped us move out of our house before our mission?" she asks. Do I ever! It was just about the craziest four days I ever spent! We were trying to box up 20 years of life in that house and the clock was ticking. In the end we just started throwing things in boxes so we could clear out for the renters. "Well," my mom continued, "in all the rush to move out of the house our old camera ended up in a box. When we couldn't find it, we bought a new one so that we'd have something for our mission. I'd forgotten about it really. When we went back to the house recently, I grabbed some boxes out of storage so I could go through them and see what was there and I found the camera again!" She pressed a button, the camera blinked its red eye at me in a bright sign of life, and then she handed it over. "It's got some fun pictures on it, even after all that time in storage. See what you think." I carefully scrolled through the pictures and this is what I saw:
I smiled at the cute baby pictures and showed them to Chad. "Look," I said, "this must be Sandra's little Eli." Then I got to the next picture.
For heaven's sake...it was me! That baby was not my nephew Eli...it was GRANT!! Miraculously, wonderfully, amazingly in front of my eyes were pictures, newborn baby pictures, of my beautiful Grant. As I flipped back and forth between each precious one, memories flooded my mind of his peaceful Sabbath day birth, of the first flash of dimples viewed when he gave us a vague newborn smile, of Merritt and Grace's excitement at his arrival, of the wonder and the grandeur of birth. What a gift! What a blessing! What a tender mercy! I was reminded of Elder Bednar's words that "the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ." I am grateful to know that God's love for us is so great and encompassing that He would, in the midst of all His other responsibilities, take the time to restore to me this little snippet of Grant's life. Truly, truly I can say with Nephi, "I know that [God] loveth his children."
we are getting ready to haul the vines off in this picture, so the pile is already toppled over a bit.
Chad had removed all but this last section of green, which is now gone. It will take even longer to get rid of the roots that are tangled around the fence, but we've won a major battle here and won't surrender our gains. If we can get rid of the creeper for good, I'd like to plant grape vines along one fence and blackberry bushes on the other. Those would be plants to get excited about! 
Chad had removed all but this last section of green, which is now gone. It will take even longer to get rid of the roots that are tangled around the fence, but we've won a major battle here and won't surrender our gains. If we can get rid of the creeper for good, I'd like to plant grape vines along one fence and blackberry bushes on the other. Those would be plants to get excited about! 
