Release

The first Sunday of this month, Casey was released as Bishop! Everyone asked if I was so happy about it, but honestly it has been very bittersweet and it has been quite an adjustment! When Casey was first called, a lot of people told me about the blessings that will come and admittedly in my mind I kind of thought "Yeah, yeah, the blessings," but seriously, the blessings!!! As you all know, it took us six years to finally get pregnant with Stella, but in the past five years, we have had three more precious children. Coincidence? I think not! We have had so many blessings come to our family that I can not even begin to describe them. I was actually kind of nervous that the blessings would stop coming because he was being released, but luckily Heavenly Father doesn't work that way. When Casey was first called, I was very excited to be able to have the opportunity to show Heavenly Father how much I love him by making this sacrifice, but President Hinckley said, "It is never a sacrifice when you get back more than you give," so yeah, we didn't sacrifice anything. It was kind of cool because in the beginning of summer, the Holy Ghost started whispering in our hearts that the time was coming for Casey to be released, then in July the stake president told Casey that they would start working on it (which Casey didn't tell me that until after,) then when I was in the hospital in August, the Holy Ghost told me that Casey was in fact going to be released soon, then we were officially told in September that his release would happen in October, which it actually ended up being the first week of November, but close enough. It really happened at a perfect time because that next week was the Primary sacrament presentation, so I had to be up front and then the week after that I gave a talk, so Casey was able to sit with the children both Sundays. Our new bishop is an amazing man and I love his counselors, as well. In fact, when Bishop Owen first moved into the ward about a year ago, Casey mentioned that he would make a great bishop. I love how the work continues to go forth. It will never stop. We had a very spiritual week the week after Casey was released because both of us wanted to know if we did an ok job the last five years, and we both received answers. I am very grateful that Heavenly Father still speaks to His children. I am grateful for an amazing ward family who helped take care of my children when Casey could not. I am grateful for opportunities to serve Him who has given us everything. I am grateful for his never-ending love for all of His children. I will forever be indebted to Him.