life is wonderful!

I love the moments in my life when I can pause and appreciate how wonderful my life really is. This past week and a half has brought me to one of those moments again. I flew out to SLC about a week and a half ago to help my sister, Lesley, with the last minute preparations for her wedding and reception. Ok, so the wedding was the easy part since it was in the temple, but all the other stuff is what took up our time. :)
Anyways, as you know by now from reading our previous posts, we're pregnant. The pregnancy has brought on some incredibly intense emotions that frankly I was not prepared for. I am still incredibly excited about the baby and the chance Mike and I have to be parents here in a few months. But I feel deeply and during the first trimester I had several of what I called my dark days. The raging emotions along with the miserable pregnancy sickness (it was definitely not confined to the mornings!) made it quite difficult for me to get anything done some days. In fact some days were so dark for me that it was a real physical struggle for me to get up and dressed, let alone leave the apartment to get anything done. I remember one day in particular when the darkness was so thick that the physical effort of getting ready to go out was almost too much. But I knew that if I didn't get out and doing something I could easily slip into depression and I was too stubborn to let myself go there. After many tears and several false starts I remember finally making it out the door with such a feeling of success that I nearly broke down into tears again. My errands that day weren't terribly successful because I didn't find what I had gone out searching for, but I had won a personal battle. I've still had a couple dark days since then but I haven't let them get to me. I need to mention here that my valiant and strong husband has been at my side every day and has provided the much needed support and comfort, especially on those dark days. In fact there were several days when he had the feeling he needed to come home from work early, so he would. When he got home on those days he found me crying, unable to do much else. He provided the comfort and lift that I needed on those days. (Thank you sweetheart!)
I didn't intend to go into all that, I hope it helps you understand where I'm coming from. Spending time with my family and dear friends has helped me realize that I have an incredible network of family and friends to lift me. I need to offer a special thanks to my parents and sister who have always been so loving and supportive. Thank you for just letting me cry when I needed to and for just always being there for me. Oh and thanks mom for always having tissues... ;)
Mike and I announced this week to our families and close friends that we're expecting and we have been almost blown away by the supportive and excited responses we have received. Thank you everyone!
So now back to where I was at the beginning of this post. Life is wonderful. Yes I've had some dark days, but the light and joy that is brought into my life because of family, friends and the gospel has changed that as of late. If the dark days try to creep up on me, I know I have all of my family and friends to listen and help drive the darkness away. We love you all and hope you realize how much you mean to us. There were days when I could feel the darkness creeping in, but then I would get a email or text or phone call from one of you and it pushed the darkness away. Sometimes just catching up on everyone's blogs helped! :) Thanks again for everything. :) LIFE IS WONDERFUL!