Levin Gunter

So I just remembered what I came on here to post. I wanted to write a post about Levin and found myself rambling about other stuff.

I love Levin. I have loved the time I have had to spend with him. As with most people that knew him the first thing that comes to my mind is his sense of humor. I remember being very depressed toward the end of my pregnancy with Moroni. My mom came to visit to be there for the birth of her grandson and we went about the island doing things together that would be "fun", but I never felt upbeat or in a good mood. Ty couldn't seem to lift my spirits or my miserable attitude. I remember one night going over to the Gunters for dinner and just meeting Levin on the stairs he had me genuinely laughing before we even got to his apartment. I spent the rest of the night in the good company of my mom, my husband and the Gunters. The whole time laughing at Levin and his silly jokes. For the first time in a while feeling upbeat and light hearted. Just a couple days later we were at their apartment again so they could keep us company while I was in the early stages of labor. Amanda (obviously taking after her mom a little) by nursing me and making me comfortable while Levin (like usual) made me laugh through the contractions.

I love them and have appreciated all they have done for us. Levin has been such a light in our lives and I have been grateful for the laughs and memories supplied to us in a way that only Levin can do. I pray every day that the Lord might offer him the comfort that he has offered to so many in the past. Levin has had a week that will probably go down in history as the toughest he has ever had. After losing his beautiful and talented wife in a tragic car accident he is left to recover from some extremely painful injuries. He is suffering from a fractured skull, rib and clavicle. After being in ICU for a couple of days it was looking like he may be released from the hospital but right before leaving he was having difficulty breathing. It is an incredible blessing that he didn't get out of the hospital because he was suffering from a blood clot in his lung. To put this in perspetive blood clots (Pulmonary embolisms) are the third most common cause of death in hospitalized patients; about 30% of patients suffering from this will die. However, most will do so within the first few hours so hopefully he will recover and be able to lead a farely normal life. He will most likely have side effects for the rest of his life, but it shouldn't effect his ability to tell a good joke. Lucky for us!

We will continue to pray for a quick recovery!!

Learning so much

So it occured to me this week that Amanda is the closest person that I have ever lost. I have been around for the death of a couple of great grandparents, but I was so young it didn't effect me that much. This has been an educational experience for me. After having had a couple of psychology classes I have found myself analyzing the different stages of grief. So far I have not had the acceptance stage yet - someday I will get there.

I am soo grateful for the positive aspects of this whole experience. I have learned how important friends are to me. I have been so grateful to those that have been there for me recently. I am particularly grateful to Allyson for notifying me; it is nice just to know what is going on. I am grateful to Levin's mom, Thelma, who has been so willing to talk and to keep us up to date and involved with Levin's recovery. I have learned how much it helps when people offer condolensces and make themselves available to talk. It is such a blessing to be able to "mourn with those that mourn". I now have a better idea of how to help people in the future when they may have lost a loved one.

I have learned a lot about prayer. This may sound horrible, but I never understood the idea of praying for others. It always seemed to me that the Lord would comfort someone in need wether one person prayed for them or 500 people prayed for them. And the Lords will, will be done regardless of what we prayed for so I have always been focused on praying for the willingness to accept the Lords will. Now that we are praying for Levin everyday I am learning that the prayers for him comfort me. Of course the Holy Spirit would be the best comfort for him right now, but maybe my prayers are a way of sending my love and comfort to him as well. Perhaps us praying for him isn't just that the Lord will send His comfort, but more a way for the Lord to offer our Love and comfort to those that we pray for.

What do you think?

Amanda - we love you and miss you.

I have been hoping Ty would do this because he is such an eloquent writer and I don't feel that I can write about something so precious. I will do my best to put emotions into words.

Yesterday I received news that a dear friend, Amanda Gunter had passed away. We were close friends from BYU Hawaii. We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Gunters while we were living there. We went to the Big Island and Kauai together. We enjoyed playing games and having beach bon fires with them regularly. And of course we enjoyed Amanda's good cooking on a regular basis - because the Gunters were always THE entertainers for all of TVA (temple view apartments). Everyone knew them and loved them. Amanda was beautiful, friendly, creative, crafty, social, a talented artist, handy with hair and scissors and very loving. She had a knack for taking care of everything and everybody.

After Levin graduated from BYU they moved to S Carolina to be with family. Last Thursday they were driving back from visiting Levin's parents in North Carolina. Just before midnight their car swerved off the road. From my understanding in an effort to regain control of the car the car flipped upside down and then they were T-boned by an oncoming van. Amanda had been in the back seat setting Ansley (there 1 year old girl) up with a movie and had returned to the front seat, but had not buckled back up when the collision happened and was thrown from the car. She was taken to the hospital where she died later that morning. Levin is in critical condition and is in and out of consciousness. During one of his conscious moments he was wheeled into Amanda and had the opportunity to see her one last time before she passed on. He understands what has happened and has said that he doesn't feel he can love anyone ever again as much as he loved her.

She was an amazing woman. It was always awe inspiring how much she could get done in a day. No one, save Christ, is perfect, but she has to be about as close as anyone could be. Levin too is amazing and I know that he will be an incredible father and will be able to recover from all of this. Speaking of Ansley she is fine and in the care of her grandparents.

I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the blessings of the temple and to know that this is just a time apart and that we will be able to see her again. I just wish we could have had more time, but I guess the question of how much time remains. I don't think 5 more years would have been enough, nor ten, nor fifty. I guess I will have to work on being grateful for the time I was able to know her.

Say What?

Ty came home the other day and was in the kitchen doing something and Moroni pipes up and says "Daddy you make me sick!" So Ty assumed that Moroni is learning this from me and I must be saying this kind of stuff while he is at school. We laughed about it for a little bit and then went on with our lives...

until...

Later that night as things are winding down and it is just about bed time Moroni gets me in trouble again by saying "Daddy your impossible!" I am pretty sure I have never told Ty he was "impossible" before so I am not sure where he gets this stuff from.

It makes one wonder.

Potty Success!

So it has been a long time since I have done any blogging and since the last post Moroni has been (for the most part) successfully potty trained. We had tried potty training a couple of times before, but one day it just magically happened. Yeah!! We still have occasional accidents, but he is doing great with it.

One funny/annoying aspect of the whole experience was his refusal to have a BM in his potty. He said that the "poo poo was too dirty". So it took us a little longer to get him taking care of that aspect of the whole process, but we finally got it taken care of and I am grateful for it.