My Best Kept Secret

Sunday came way too fast.

Thinking about facing everyone and talking endlessly on about my diagnosis was not something I was looking forward to.

When I got up, I saw Keith had left me a note that said, "Good luck today. I love you."

What a good man I have. How blessed I feel to have such a wonderful companion.

And the good moment lasted just about that long - a moment, because Sunday morning chaos erupted around me.

Hello family. Let's get ready for church.

I thought with all the feelings of the last few days that we would wake up on a spiritual high and all peace and serenity would  reign in our home.

Not so much.

By the time I got all my grumpy kids to church, we were late and the only open seat was at the front.

Lucky me.

Alina was super grumpy. Par for the course. And Garrett spent quite a bit of sacrament meeting worried that I was going to die.

Holy smokes.

Keith was conducting and used the opportunity to talk about our situation and to bear his testimony.

He started by talking about how he sometimes heard people get up and bear their testimony and say how they'd had a hard week.

And he would wonder why their week was hard.

And then he said that he'd had a hard week.

He spoke about the great comfort and peace we felt and the reassurance that we had that everything was going to be okay.

We both have felt very strongly that God intended this trial for us and that everything was going to be fine.

Keith also spoke about his great love for me and how he felt like he was a better person for having me in his life.

It was beautiful.

And kind.

And loving.

And perfect.

At some point, I too felt prompted to bear my testimony and I got up and shared how much peace we feel and how I too have felt the reassurance from the Lord that everything was going to okay.

I also shared how good a man Keith is. And how sad I was, in a very selfish way, when he got called to be the Bishop, because Keith was my best kept secret.

Since I'm so much the face of our family, not a lot of people knew what a great guy Keith is, and now my secret was going to be out and I was going to have to share him.

One sister bore an especially meaningful testimony that I wanted share. She shared how one day she had gotten a call at work that something had happened to her husband.

He was in bad shape and she rushed home to his side. When they got him to the hospital, it was a very desperate situation and the doctors did not predict a good outcome.

In fact, they thought the outcome so poor that they were extremely concerned when she did not react as they expected.

She had received a strong reassurance that her husband was going to be fine. So strong, in fact, that she wasn't concerned when the  doctors predicted her husband's death.

They even called for social services to make sure she hadn't lost her mind.

But, sure enough, her husband was talking the next day and home by the end of the week. And she knew it would be so.

We feel very much the same way and hope that you too will feel the peace we feel.