To be fair, I don't remember any of them... but I came upon one with a picture attached. In the picture was a beautiful face that was brightened by the yellow coat she wore. (Yellow: My favoritest color! I'm always drawn to it!) The name accompanying this fab face was Senja.
"Oh, she must be from Finland!" was my thought.
That is where Old Man Mecham served yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars ago! (Not Mr. Mecham, but his wise old pops!) "Senja" is pretty much a sacred name in the Mecham house just for the reason that it is Finnish! I clicked on Senja's picture. And she had a blog. And then I read her blog. (insert a discussion on another day about blog surfing for the first time... Oh BOY HOWDY! It was a wild ride! Who knew everyone on the planet had a blog?) Then I started reading Senja's blog every day after I checked in on Stephanie's recovery post. I was a one of "those" ladies... the blog stocker kind... Senja lived a world away and I creepily knew personal stories of her life and where she was traveling! I loved that she spoke a million languages! I thought it would have been so "cooincidental", but not really, if I had found somebody that Grandpa Mecham knew... though I knew she was waaay too young for that. Mayber her grandparents! haha... Finally I had to come clean. I felt lame reading about her life without introducing myself... So I kinda made her my virtual pen pal. She was cooler than me. She had an etsey shop. I loved her jewelry. I even bought some darling earings that came clear from Sweden to Arizona! I kept in contact with Senja in the most blog stocking and facebook friendly way. Weird... Kinda! But maybe not for this day and age... but still it kinda is?? I could be a total wacko and she wouldn't even know it!
Fast forward to years later... The Mecham's moved to Poland. I can't remember if we were considering a trip to Sweden or Finland or what... but somehow I got Senja's phone number so I could text her. We (the Mecham admirers which consisted of Me and Mr. mecham, and the 3 Wee Mechams) hoped to meet Senja and her darling husband. And that is only the beginning of the miracle... because that was years to that point.
So here is the rest of the story:
Grandpa Mecham and Grandma Linda are coming to England to visit this spring. We are crazy excited! Grandpa will also take Grandma to visit his mission; a life long dream of his. Grandpa has been looking for a long time Friend of his whom he thought still lived in Finland; Pekka. He wants to see him so badly when he goes over. But he couldn't find him. He asked Nate to call a hopeful phone number but it turned out with no favorable results. Darn. Finally, I looked at Mr. Mecham and reminded him that this is his father's dream; to go back to his mission. We had to find Pekka. What are the chances that Senja would know him? Never mind that she lives in Sweden. She has family in Finland! We are members of the church, for cryen' out loud! You can find anyone in the church!!! So I swallowed my pride and I texted Senja. I was asking help of a kinda stranger... after all, she really owes me nothing... especially not a needle from a haystack!
"Senja, it's Becky. I have an England phone now... obviously. My father in law is coming over in April and we are going to Finland to visit his mission. He has a friend he cant get ahold of and I'm wondering if you know the best way to find people in Finland? I know it's a long stretch, but he is a memeber of the church and sometimes that makes it easier! :)"
She quickly responded: "Hi Becky, how fun for you guys!!!:) What's his name? I'll write my uncle who knows everybody:) Senja"
Mr. Mecham snatched the phone up in a bit of disbelief and responded with Pekka's name and last known hometown. Then Senja responded again,
"I just wrote my uncle and will get back to you. We'll find him:)"
The very next day I had message in my facebook inbox. It was a connection to Pekka's daughter from Senja. Not going to lie, My heart kinda lept. I couldn't believe it! I sent Cindarella a message about her father. She responded with Pekka's phone number and address. I wanted to hug Senja! I wanted to call Stephanie! But mostly I was beyond grateful for another miracle and tender mercie reminding me that Heaven is Oh sooo close and we have an extremely kind and gracious Father who watches out for us all the time!
Its so easy to see the Almighty when thunderous waters rush in, and mountains move. Its obvious who is in charge when life and death situations happen, when priesthood blessings heal the sick and when new babies bless our lives. And it was so clear, in that sacred prayer room, with our neighborhood and ward members- when we broke our fast- (while pleading for help on behalf of our friends)... we knew that Heaven was close and the Savior could heal us all. This is all true. But how could we have ever seen the ripple effects that would bless our lives many years later? There is no coincidence that something so profound as a simple text could find a long lost friend- a world away- through a daughter-in-law that sought out somebody cute in a yellow coat while following the recovery of a sweet friend. Its a mouth full... Its a bit mind-boggling to me! I honestly think we are often drawn to people because we knew them in the pre-mortal rhealm. I can't wait to see if I'm right!
Dear Stephanie,
Heaven really is here. Thanks for allowing the ripple effects of your amazing journey continue to bless my life.
God is good.
Dear Senja,
I knew you before this life. I will meet you one day, in the most uncreepy way. Watch us get put on a job in Sweden and I will be your assigned visiting teacher. Stranger things have happened. I think we will have a good laugh!
God is real.
Becky
Thursday, February 28, 2013
A little Miracle... Years in the making!
Oh man! I love spoting me a good miracle... They blow my mind, make me smile and remind me how good God is. He is good. Insert a little blurp about why I bring this up... (Stephanie's story is hers and she tells it masterfully! But it is necessary that I tell this one little part to make sence of this miracle.)
Years ago I didn't even know what a blog was. Stephanie invited me to read her recipe blog for some good vegitarian ideas... but I had no idea of the nieniedialogues. In August, after her accident, our ward and neighborhood had a fast and prayer. One day, when I have developed a masterful venacular I might be able to give due credit to how that prayer changed my life. For now I will just have to say, Heaven opened... right in that room! We knew that something of the grand miraculous type was going to happen right before our eyes. And nothing God delivered nothing shy of grandeur!
The bishop had mentioned, at that prayer gathering, that we could not visit the Nielson's in the hospital unit and that their families were taking care of their children... but we could follow the anticipated recovery on her sister's blog. That is how I was introduced to blogs. What a genius idea... a web journal! I followed that recovery every morning. And then one day I wanted to comment. There were a gajillion comments already... and wouldn't you know it, I was sucked in to reading them all.
To be fair, I don't remember any of them... but I came upon one with a picture attached. In the picture was a beautiful face that was brightened by the yellow coat she wore. (Yellow: My favoritest color! I'm always drawn to it!) The name accompanying this fab face was Senja.
"Oh, she must be from Finland!" was my thought.
That is where Old Man Mecham served yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars ago! (Not Mr. Mecham, but his wise old pops!) "Senja" is pretty much a sacred name in the Mecham house just for the reason that it is Finnish! I clicked on Senja's picture. And she had a blog. And then I read her blog. (insert a discussion on another day about blog surfing for the first time... Oh BOY HOWDY! It was a wild ride! Who knew everyone on the planet had a blog?) Then I started reading Senja's blog every day after I checked in on Stephanie's recovery post. I was a one of "those" ladies... the blog stocker kind... Senja lived a world away and I creepily knew personal stories of her life and where she was traveling! I loved that she spoke a million languages! I thought it would have been so "cooincidental", but not really, if I had found somebody that Grandpa Mecham knew... though I knew she was waaay too young for that. Mayber her grandparents! haha... Finally I had to come clean. I felt lame reading about her life without introducing myself... So I kinda made her my virtual pen pal. She was cooler than me. She had an etsey shop. I loved her jewelry. I even bought some darling earings that came clear from Sweden to Arizona! I kept in contact with Senja in the most blog stocking and facebook friendly way. Weird... Kinda! But maybe not for this day and age... but still it kinda is?? I could be a total wacko and she wouldn't even know it!
Fast forward to years later... The Mecham's moved to Poland. I can't remember if we were considering a trip to Sweden or Finland or what... but somehow I got Senja's phone number so I could text her. We (the Mecham admirers which consisted of Me and Mr. mecham, and the 3 Wee Mechams) hoped to meet Senja and her darling husband. And that is only the beginning of the miracle... because that was years to that point.
So here is the rest of the story:
Grandpa Mecham and Grandma Linda are coming to England to visit this spring. We are crazy excited! Grandpa will also take Grandma to visit his mission; a life long dream of his. Grandpa has been looking for a long time Friend of his whom he thought still lived in Finland; Pekka. He wants to see him so badly when he goes over. But he couldn't find him. He asked Nate to call a hopeful phone number but it turned out with no favorable results. Darn. Finally, I looked at Mr. Mecham and reminded him that this is his father's dream; to go back to his mission. We had to find Pekka. What are the chances that Senja would know him? Never mind that she lives in Sweden. She has family in Finland! We are members of the church, for cryen' out loud! You can find anyone in the church!!! So I swallowed my pride and I texted Senja. I was asking help of a kinda stranger... after all, she really owes me nothing... especially not a needle from a haystack!
"Senja, it's Becky. I have an England phone now... obviously. My father in law is coming over in April and we are going to Finland to visit his mission. He has a friend he cant get ahold of and I'm wondering if you know the best way to find people in Finland? I know it's a long stretch, but he is a memeber of the church and sometimes that makes it easier! :)"
She quickly responded: "Hi Becky, how fun for you guys!!!:) What's his name? I'll write my uncle who knows everybody:) Senja"
Mr. Mecham snatched the phone up in a bit of disbelief and responded with Pekka's name and last known hometown. Then Senja responded again,
"I just wrote my uncle and will get back to you. We'll find him:)"
The very next day I had message in my facebook inbox. It was a connection to Pekka's daughter from Senja. Not going to lie, My heart kinda lept. I couldn't believe it! I sent Cindarella a message about her father. She responded with Pekka's phone number and address. I wanted to hug Senja! I wanted to call Stephanie! But mostly I was beyond grateful for another miracle and tender mercie reminding me that Heaven is Oh sooo close and we have an extremely kind and gracious Father who watches out for us all the time!
Its so easy to see the Almighty when thunderous waters rush in, and mountains move. Its obvious who is in charge when life and death situations happen, when priesthood blessings heal the sick and when new babies bless our lives. And it was so clear, in that sacred prayer room, with our neighborhood and ward members- when we broke our fast- (while pleading for help on behalf of our friends)... we knew that Heaven was close and the Savior could heal us all. This is all true. But how could we have ever seen the ripple effects that would bless our lives many years later? There is no coincidence that something so profound as a simple text could find a long lost friend- a world away- through a daughter-in-law that sought out somebody cute in a yellow coat while following the recovery of a sweet friend. Its a mouth full... Its a bit mind-boggling to me! I honestly think we are often drawn to people because we knew them in the pre-mortal rhealm. I can't wait to see if I'm right!
Dear Stephanie,
Heaven really is here. Thanks for allowing the ripple effects of your amazing journey continue to bless my life.
God is good.
Dear Senja,
I knew you before this life. I will meet you one day, in the most uncreepy way. Watch us get put on a job in Sweden and I will be your assigned visiting teacher. Stranger things have happened. I think we will have a good laugh!
God is real.
Becky
To be fair, I don't remember any of them... but I came upon one with a picture attached. In the picture was a beautiful face that was brightened by the yellow coat she wore. (Yellow: My favoritest color! I'm always drawn to it!) The name accompanying this fab face was Senja.
"Oh, she must be from Finland!" was my thought.
That is where Old Man Mecham served yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars ago! (Not Mr. Mecham, but his wise old pops!) "Senja" is pretty much a sacred name in the Mecham house just for the reason that it is Finnish! I clicked on Senja's picture. And she had a blog. And then I read her blog. (insert a discussion on another day about blog surfing for the first time... Oh BOY HOWDY! It was a wild ride! Who knew everyone on the planet had a blog?) Then I started reading Senja's blog every day after I checked in on Stephanie's recovery post. I was a one of "those" ladies... the blog stocker kind... Senja lived a world away and I creepily knew personal stories of her life and where she was traveling! I loved that she spoke a million languages! I thought it would have been so "cooincidental", but not really, if I had found somebody that Grandpa Mecham knew... though I knew she was waaay too young for that. Mayber her grandparents! haha... Finally I had to come clean. I felt lame reading about her life without introducing myself... So I kinda made her my virtual pen pal. She was cooler than me. She had an etsey shop. I loved her jewelry. I even bought some darling earings that came clear from Sweden to Arizona! I kept in contact with Senja in the most blog stocking and facebook friendly way. Weird... Kinda! But maybe not for this day and age... but still it kinda is?? I could be a total wacko and she wouldn't even know it!
Fast forward to years later... The Mecham's moved to Poland. I can't remember if we were considering a trip to Sweden or Finland or what... but somehow I got Senja's phone number so I could text her. We (the Mecham admirers which consisted of Me and Mr. mecham, and the 3 Wee Mechams) hoped to meet Senja and her darling husband. And that is only the beginning of the miracle... because that was years to that point.
So here is the rest of the story:
Grandpa Mecham and Grandma Linda are coming to England to visit this spring. We are crazy excited! Grandpa will also take Grandma to visit his mission; a life long dream of his. Grandpa has been looking for a long time Friend of his whom he thought still lived in Finland; Pekka. He wants to see him so badly when he goes over. But he couldn't find him. He asked Nate to call a hopeful phone number but it turned out with no favorable results. Darn. Finally, I looked at Mr. Mecham and reminded him that this is his father's dream; to go back to his mission. We had to find Pekka. What are the chances that Senja would know him? Never mind that she lives in Sweden. She has family in Finland! We are members of the church, for cryen' out loud! You can find anyone in the church!!! So I swallowed my pride and I texted Senja. I was asking help of a kinda stranger... after all, she really owes me nothing... especially not a needle from a haystack!
"Senja, it's Becky. I have an England phone now... obviously. My father in law is coming over in April and we are going to Finland to visit his mission. He has a friend he cant get ahold of and I'm wondering if you know the best way to find people in Finland? I know it's a long stretch, but he is a memeber of the church and sometimes that makes it easier! :)"
She quickly responded: "Hi Becky, how fun for you guys!!!:) What's his name? I'll write my uncle who knows everybody:) Senja"
Mr. Mecham snatched the phone up in a bit of disbelief and responded with Pekka's name and last known hometown. Then Senja responded again,
"I just wrote my uncle and will get back to you. We'll find him:)"
The very next day I had message in my facebook inbox. It was a connection to Pekka's daughter from Senja. Not going to lie, My heart kinda lept. I couldn't believe it! I sent Cindarella a message about her father. She responded with Pekka's phone number and address. I wanted to hug Senja! I wanted to call Stephanie! But mostly I was beyond grateful for another miracle and tender mercie reminding me that Heaven is Oh sooo close and we have an extremely kind and gracious Father who watches out for us all the time!
Its so easy to see the Almighty when thunderous waters rush in, and mountains move. Its obvious who is in charge when life and death situations happen, when priesthood blessings heal the sick and when new babies bless our lives. And it was so clear, in that sacred prayer room, with our neighborhood and ward members- when we broke our fast- (while pleading for help on behalf of our friends)... we knew that Heaven was close and the Savior could heal us all. This is all true. But how could we have ever seen the ripple effects that would bless our lives many years later? There is no coincidence that something so profound as a simple text could find a long lost friend- a world away- through a daughter-in-law that sought out somebody cute in a yellow coat while following the recovery of a sweet friend. Its a mouth full... Its a bit mind-boggling to me! I honestly think we are often drawn to people because we knew them in the pre-mortal rhealm. I can't wait to see if I'm right!
Dear Stephanie,
Heaven really is here. Thanks for allowing the ripple effects of your amazing journey continue to bless my life.
God is good.
Dear Senja,
I knew you before this life. I will meet you one day, in the most uncreepy way. Watch us get put on a job in Sweden and I will be your assigned visiting teacher. Stranger things have happened. I think we will have a good laugh!
God is real.
Becky
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
A few noteworthies
Bailey is an incredible student. She has ALWAYS enjoyed school and learning. I admit, I was a bit offended when on the first day of Kindergarten she couldn't wait, thought it was the coolest thang EVER to be out and about learning in the big leagues and wasn't so keen on me wanting to go to class with her. Never the less, given a chance to fly and she took it! It paid off. This chica LOVES to learn! She is dedicated to doing her homework and completely SELF driven to excel in education! But no thanks to her mother... this child came pre-wired...
It was a fun little surprise when Bailey was just doing her homework and a teacher turned in one of her poems which was published. Bailey claims that everyone in England has their work published and so it isn't anything special. But I think its cool! And I think she should feel a bit special because somebody liked her homework assignment enough to publish it. Good job Bailey buns! You ROCK!!
Cole came home with a black eye today. He and a friend had a bit of a collision on the playground. Actually my first thought wasn't "OH NO! Are you okay COLE?" bur rather, "That poor son of a gun who hit that hard head of yours." I wonder what his head looks like. Anyone who knows Cole also knows that he has a pain tollerance that is unearthly and also a marbel head. My fav part was the little conversation on the way home.
Cole: "I've never damaged this side of my head before".
Becky: "what are you talking about?"
Cole: "I have finally damaged my good side"
Becky: "is there a bad side?"
Cole: "no. Actually all my sides are good sides."
right. okay then.
I never want to forget the snow situation in England... Because it is commidy to me.
I lived in Logan, UT for many years: 12 before I moved to AZ and then another 4 in college and married life to be exact! It knows how to snow in northern UT. NOTHING shuts down. The busses freeze over but still school goes on. Snow drifts can be feet high and traffic flows like normal. Kids are out playing like it was still summer but they have 19 layers on. One year our water pipes froze and many times we had to leave a drip of water on so that wouldn't happen again. Basically the snow plows are busy. My favorite snow memory was at Bear Lake when the family went to the cabin and we had to snow machine to the front door because the road in was too deep. Then dad pulled out the snow blower and dug out the drive way so we could pull the cars in. I know snow. I lived most of my life in AZ but I know snow!!! I love snow!
England snow. One day the ground was completely covered. It appeared to be a WONDERLAND! The site of it seemed to promise hours of sledding and families of snowmen in the yard. The boys could hardly wait to finally take the tags off their snow pants and break in the moonboots... But by the next afternoon the lawn looked as green as a mid summer day! I could not believe my eyes! Only one day earlier the town shut down like the blizzard of the century had gone through it! That is what makes me laugh... a tiney bit of snow will shut down the town, close the school and cause small amounts of panick. I finally figured it all out today though... What makes snowy roads so bearable in Utah is that they are plowed all day long. You don't find many roads that aren't clear. Here you don't find roads that are clear. So they are slick! Super slick! No wonder... Gotta love a good English snowstorm.
And the winner of the "awkward award" goes to me for my text to the bishop. Bishop McNee is our bishop. His name is Nathan. Nathan McNee. You can imagine that in my contacts list on the phone Nathan McNee is very close to Nathan Mecham. In a text for Nathan Mecham that started, "hey hot hubs" (which is a joke since I hate the word, "HUBS") I got a response back from Nathan McNee. Legend.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
A reminder of home. Lucky me!
I vowed that I would blog better because I believe with all my heart that my experiences in life are going to get lost as I go on and forget all the lovely people and the lessons I learned from each of them. As I have thought of it over and over I finally decided to act upon it instead of finding excuses to do it another day.
This is my super cool and funny dad. I miss him.
This is Brother Turner and his lovely wife. I hardly know them but they live in my Selby ward.
Today in church I subbed on the oregon for sacrament meeting, thus I was sitting on the stand for the entire meeting. As I looked out over the congregation I saw Brother Turner. To begin with he is a lovely person. He always smiles. And you can tell from looking at him that he is just chuck full of love for his family. But today his two little grand daughters were sitting on his lap and they were blissfully happy... And Brother Turner looked on them like he was the luckiest guy in the whole world. As I watched I thought of three things:
(1) Those are some lucky little girls to have a Grandpa to love that loves them. And I gained a respect for him because I know that he earned their love and trust. It was darling and I may or may not have started tearing up a bit.
(2) I was reminded of my sweet dad back home who's grands and myself feel the same love and respect for him. And I really missed that old man today and thanked Heavenly Father for his goodness in a silent little prayer right there during somebodie's talk.
(3) I started getting a bit giddy and I invisioned my future with Mr. Mecham... I can hardly wait for the day when our wee grands climb all over him because I know he will be this kind of grandpa. I know it because he had this kind of grandpa and his eyes dance to this very day every time he talks about him.
So Today I was Thankful for the men in this world who remind me of Heavenly Father's gentle and kind hand and how he loves us so much... And it reminded me how much I love and respect Him.
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