Think sharp and pay attention. This video is the perfect metaphor for what summer was like this year.

LINKS FOR HANNAH

I am holding the pink chain links that Lucy helped create for Nate who is counting the days before Hannah comes home. It has been a long separation for both and I am so happy that they can be together again. Hannah has been gone for FOUR whole months whilst studying in the BYU Jerusalem Center. She is our second daughter to avail of this wonderful opportunity. In 7 days, she will be home. Yeah, I know that there's 2 extra days in the chain but Lucy got a little exuberant.

Jordan found a wonderful summer clerkship working for the International Patent Office in Washington DC. Considering the economy, it was indeed a huge blessing that he landed a job. (It's an even bigger blessing for them that they found someone like Jordan to work for them!) Leland took his family to New Zealand to clerk for an esquire practicing criminal law. That has served him very well. This summer, Tascha accompanied us to Eastern Europe. I love that our children have had the great blessing of traveling to many parts of the world so that they can enhance and elevate their understanding of the human condition. The girls and Jordan have been to Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It's important to me to gift them with these experiences.

This summer is about to come to a conclusion. It has been fraught with challenges and new experiences. Hannah's special young man came back from Scotland very ill and we were afraid we would lose him. God does love him. He is so special---with a little sprinkling of something magical. God's hands cradled him and is still leading him. All that is behind him now and we can finally feel relief and thanksgiving that he has been spared...and healed. He is an amazing human being and we just love him fiercely. Now he can move on and do more amazing things. We are excited for him and his bright future and happy that he will be in BYU this fall.

I've never felt so close to the powers of heaven and the healing powers of the priesthood as I have been this summer. I started a list of the miracles---some so very obvious but every single one a magnificent manifestation that God has control of everything but our will. The list keeps on growing. I've never desired more to know his will and mind as I have this summer. Joy and gratitude fill me to brimming.

Hannah has indeed walked the paths where Jesus walked. She has floated in the Red Sea and touched the waters of the River Jordan. She has been to Bethlehem and picked olive leaves for me in the Garden of Gethsemane. She has been to the Garden Tomb, the battlefields of Megiddo, Galilee, Jordan and even sweated through the heat waves amidst the pyramids. But like I told her, it really isn't important where Jesus walked...what's important is what he taught.

I may not have swam in the Red Sea but this summer, God has parted it for me. I may not have knelt in Gethsemane but God has removed the bitter cup as we passed through it. I may not have seen the Old City streets were the Messiah healed the sick, the blind and the weary but he has done that very thing for the ones we love. I may not have seen Bethlehem but all I have to do is look towards the heavens and I see the brightest star in the darkest of night.

I do not have to see the face of God to know that He is real. But I do look forward to the day when I can see him.

This summer is the slowest of all summers. I often wished that it would be over and that Hannah would be back and her young man fully healed. Now that that scenario is about to become real, my heart beats faster and relief tastes like the food of the gods. It feels like the destroying angel passed through our door.

Though I passed through some time when I questioned the events unexpected that happened this summer, in my heart I know that challenges are not meant to punish man but to refine him. To purify. And my heart is full of gladness.

Tonight, I feel many things. And greatest of all is gratitude.