A Great Man

I was lying in bed last night thinking. Thinking about how crazy/wonderful life is. Thinking about how busy everything has been lately, but how wonderful the weekend was. Thinking about how lucky I am to have married such an amazing man. But mostly thinking about how luck doesn't really have anything to do with it at all.

Thursday night we received a phone call from President Stacey asking us to brunch Sat. morning. We gladly accepted. Needless to say I couldn't sleep that night wondering what this "brunch" was really all about. Being good friends with his daughter and son in law back in WA we could only hope that they were in town and wanting to surprise us. Or maybe this was purely social. We wondered if we might be asked to speak at stake conference... but why us??? We wondered about new callings, mainly for Travis, something stake related. After a wonderful breakfast and a great time visiting (the kids are still talking about it), the truth comes out and Travis is extended a calling as the second counselor in the bishopric. Definitely not expecting that one.

The next few hours were pretty difficult for me. I struggled with seeing Travis, my husband, in this capacity. I wasn't putting my faith in "the process", for lack of a better term. I assumed the fact that we are permanent here must have had a big impact on the decision and wondered if he would have been chosen otherwise. I wasn't putting my faith in my husband or the hands that had chosen him. These thoughts, while I couldn't escape them, were breaking my heart and filling me with guilt. Through prayer and other reflection I started to understand what the Lord wanted me to understand. But it wasn't until Sunday, when Travis was sustained and stood to talk to the congregation, that I truly KNEW he was called of God. When he spoke and the spirit filled the chapel, I could feel the blessings that would come into our lives through this great service that he would participate in.

After the service yesterday Bishop Huxel sat down with Travis for a while to discuss things. He told him that while deciding who to call as his counselor he wasn't on his long list or his short list. He said it wasn't until last Sunday when he was scanning the congregation at church that he saw Travis and was strongly prompted that he would be the next counselor. The same day Brother Chipman came to him and said he wanted to add a name to the list and that it was Travis. The Bishop told him that that had already been confirmed to him. Hearing this information just reaffirms those feelings I got after hearing my husband speak.

Travis truly is a great man. The kind of man that gets up at 5am every weekday to catch the train and be in the office two hours earlier than anyone else just so he can be home by 6pm to have dinner with his family. The kind of man who will always make himself available when needed and thrives off of helping others improve their lives. He is an amazing father and a devoted husband and I count my blessings every night for having him in my life.