Prayers are heard and answered.

This story began Friday afternoon when Hakan informed me that he needed to return the book he'd borrowed from the school library. Unfortunately, neither of us knew where the book was. He began searching while I made Finnley some lunch. He looked in every room of the house but still couldn't find the book.

Aha! A testimony building opportunity knocks!

I took him aside and said,

"Do you know what I do when I can't find something?"
"No."
"I ask for help. Do you know who I ask to help me?"
"Dad."
"No. Who else might I ask?"
"Ummm..."
"I ask the person who knows EVERYTHING. Who knows everything?"
"You," he said assertively, but with half a smirk.
"No, Heavenly Father!"

I explained that when I'm having trouble finding something I've lost I say a prayer and ask for Heavenly Father to help me find it, and He does. I suggested that he do the same.

He wanted to check one more place first, but when he still hadn't found the book he asked me to come say a prayer with him. In the sweetest, gentlest voice I've ever heard him use he whispered,

"Jesus, please help me find my book."

After we'd said amen I told him to think and listen for a second to see if he had any new ideas on where to look. We decided to keep looking for the book after lunch.

As soon as he was done eating, the search continued. I walked into the boys' bedroom and over to the closet. On the ground next to the closet was a bin with some books in it. I rifled through them and spotted the lost library book.

I left it in place and didn't say anything until Hakan entered the room. I suggested that he look through the closet and to be sure and search the bin, too. He said he'd already looked there, but I encouraged him to look again. As I casually walked out of the room I heard him yell, "I found it!!" He came running after me triumphantly with the book in his hands and we both marvelled at how he'd found it in a place he'd already searched before he'd prayed.

Then I said, "Do you know what I do after I find what was missing?"
"What?"
"I say a prayer to Heavenly Father to thank him for helping me. Maybe you should do that, too."

He walked back to his bedroom and was gone for a minute, and when he came back said "Okay, I did it! I feel much more better."

Now it's Saturday afternoon. I was composing the blog post for Finnley's birthday and wanted to include a newborn photo of him. I clicked open the Pictures folder on my desktop but didn't see the file where the photo should be. In fact, the most recent photos I could find were from December 2009. I started to feel sick.

I searched and searched the computer but couldn't find any of our older photos.

Recently we had to reformat our computer because a lot of viruses were slowing it down, and in the process erased every document, photo, home video, movie, music download- everything. We saved what we wanted on an external hard drive, including (I thought) 9 years of digital photos. After the reformat I put the photos back on the computer, but now I was realizing that more than 5 years worth of photos were missing.

I checked on the hard drive and they weren't there. My one last hope was that somehow they'd been saved to a disc the last time I backed up which was... who knows? I couldn't remember. I knew I'd done it before we'd moved to California a year ago, but after we'd moved to Caldwell 4 years ago. Then there was the matter of FINDING the CDs. I had no clue where they were. I was feeling more and more anxious and the thoughts kept running through my mind, "Please don't let them be gone, PLEASE don't let them be gone..."

I thought of everything we'd photographed in those 5 years. Pyper, Hakan and Finnley as newborns. So many birthdays and Christmases and vacations, reunions, anniversaries, weddings and COUNTLESS everyday moments that we'd never be able to remember without those photos. I was near tears.

Then I prayed. I prayed that the photos could be recovered, or that I'd somehow be able to find them.

I went out to our garage and approached a pile of boxes that I knew contained a lot of office stuff. I opened the lid of the first box and there on top of a TON of other stuff was a wad of packing paper that hadn't been unwrapped yet. I picked it up and realized immediately that what was inside was a large stack of CDs or DVDs.

As I unwrapped the stack the phrase "Prayers are heard and answered" kept running through my mind.

The CD on top was marked in Sharpie pen and read "Pictures May '06 - August '06".

I found them.

I brought the stack inside and with a mixture of hope and anxiety searched the stack. It contained backup CDs with photos dating from October 2003 through April 2009.

Again, I wanted to cry.

My prayer HAD been heard and answered. Within minutes of my amen, those precious years of memories were in my hands.

I realized with sadness that there was a gap of about 7 months in 2009, but the overwhelming feeling was relief and gratitude.

My life is full of experiences like this. Over and over and over my testimony of prayer has been strengthened by them. And yet I'm still struck with a renewed sense of amazement and thankfulness every time.

My Father in heaven loves me and hears me and helps me when I ask.

Plain and simple.