A Good Story and a Sad Story

Which one do you want to hear first?  I'll save the best for last.

A Sad Story
Ellie had a doctor's appointment on Monday.  She's just a few days shy of 3 months and she was "supposed" to start immunizations at 2, but whatever.  I scheduled the appointment for 9, since usually she eats at 7, plays a little, then naps and then is ready to eat again at 10.  Silly Summer, of course the doctor's office is going to be running behind, I just didn't count on how much.  Here's how it all went down (with a little venting about mixing sick and healthy kids).
We arrived at 8:50 and there were two entrances-one for sick kids and one for healthy kids.  When I got inside, I noticed the lobby nicely divided by a wall, with a walk through by the window for check-ins.  There was a window on the sick side and the well side, but only the sick side was opening.  Initially irratating, but not a huge deal.  I got paperwork and sat down.  Ellie had woken up, but wasn't fussing too much so I let her be.  When I took the paperwork back, I got more paperwork (hurray), but Ellie was unhappy about staying in the carseat and clearly having her nap cut short.  So I worked on my one handed writing and baby juggling skills.  But I was starting to get irritated at the wait.  By now it was 9:30, and I had overheard that one of the doctor's was a half hour late, so they were behind.  Splendid.  At 9:45, Ellie would wait no longer, so I whipped out my nursing cover and she went at it.  As I was nursing I noticed that more and more sick kids were spilling into the well child area.  The lady sitting across from me saw a friend of hers and invited her to come sit by her, which meant that her son was sitting next to me.  Not a big deal till the mom said "Yeah, my daughter has been sick and then my son woke up with a fever this morning."  WHAT!  Why are you letting your feverish son sit next to a nursing mother, whose baby is perfectly healthy!  The flu season has started pretty early here in the Dallas area, and that is the last thing I need!  I fumed.  Then the nurse called us back at a little after 10. 
But Ellie is doing great.  She weights 12.5 lbs and is almost 24 inches long.  She's definitely putting more effort into growing tall than into getting chubby.  It's funny because a lot of her 0-3 month onsies are big enough, but not long enough for her anymore.  She was having fun at the doctor's until the nurse came into to do immunizations.  I thought Ellie had cried hard at her two week checkup with the PKU heel poke.  I was sorely mistaken.  The nurse was great, and very quick, but Ellie got a shot in each leg and was not happy.  I held her little hands and arms on her chest while the nurse did, and boy did she wail.  I almost feel bad at how cute I think she is when she cries.  I might as well enjoy it now, because I know toddlers aren't very cute throwing a tantrum.  The nice thing is, she took excellent naps all the rest of the day. 

A Good Story
It was General Conference weekend!  We watched all four sessions at our ward meetinghouse in Mckinney and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I particularly liked President Uchtdorf's talk on the love of God and Elder Holland's testimony of the gospel.  I also really enjoyed Elder Callister's talk, and it gave some new insight into the gospel truths restored that I hadn't really thought about.  But more on that in a later post (mostly cause Ellie is going to wake up any minute now).  Here is the cool story:
On Sunday morning a very short woman and her two sons walked into the chapel just a few minutes after Ben and I.  The brother that was in charge of the building greeted them and they sat down and conference started just a few minutes later.  There weren't very many people at our chapel, but it was also being broadcast to the stake center, and I think a lot of people get BYUTV and watched it at home.  Anyway, when it was all over the brother introduced himself again to the woman and asked her name, which was Arlene.  I was standing in the backe rocking Ellie and overheard the whole thing.  She commented how she remembered this church being built (it's a faily new chapel), so she and her sons decided to come here today.  The brother explained that this is a very different meeting than what normally happens and how wonderful it was that she could come.  Then asked if he could introduce her to the missionaries, who taught people a little bit more about the church. She agreed, met the elders, chatted with them and they set up a time to come visit them.  Ben and I grinned at each other the entire time because we both knew what was happening inside the elders' heads.  Then the family left, and the missionaries looked a little shocked at what had just happened.  The one turned to the other and said, "She said she lived by Walmart, right?"  "Yes."  He pumped his arm and said "YES!"  I laughed and said how wonderful it was to have someone just show up for church and I wished it had happened to me.  He asked if I had served a mission, and I replied that I had.  He said "Do you know how golden that is, to have someone show up like that, and for conference?!"  We were really excited for the elders, but even more so for the family. They had just picked a church to come to that day and happened to stumble in on the one day when the prophet of God was addressing the entire church.  It was awesome. I pray that they come to experience the same comfort and joy I feel from having the restored gospel.