The birth of "Lake Fairview" and other rising floodwater wonders...

 This beautiful lake was a field two weeks ago. It's down the hill from our house, and every day it seems to grow larger and deeper! It's so weird to watch the waters of the Missouri River (a few miles east of us), the Platte River (a few miles south of us), the two creeks-that-have-grown-to-full-fledged-river-size all around us, and the new various bodies of water that weren't there a week or two ago. Crazy!

Former-field-current-new-lake near our house. Our subdivision can be seen in the distance to the right of that road you can see going up the hill. Great place to live...even during times of flooding!

It's been very humbling and touching to witness how members of our stake (Council Bluffs, Iowa Stake) are helping each other at this time. There are a number of homes already under water, and it's feared that more homes will be under the floodwaters in the coming weeks. Members have been helping each other evacuate, working on sandbagging projects, building up levees, opening their homes to accommodate evacuees, making room in basements, garages and sheds to store the precious belongings of those whose homes are being flooded, and doing a myriad of other small and great acts of kindness and selflessness. 

The Relief Society president of one bombarded branch in Iowa sent me a copy of an email she sent to the stake presidency, and it made me want to cry, for she listed every family and every member of her branch and gave a report on each-- if they had evacuated, where they were staying, if they were thankfully on high ground, etc. What a wonderful example of Christlike love this sister is, and what unity that little branch must be experiencing at this trying time! 

I've learned through our own experiences that the difficult times in our lives often bring us the greatest joys. That we feel our Savior's arms around us the most tangibly when we are going through our tough times. That we feel each other's arms around us during those same tough times, and that OUR arms feel astonishingly like our Savior's arms feel! 

When we meet him after we leave this life, I have a feeling we'll recognize Him immediately because we've been blessed here by so many who strive to serve us, and His arms will feel a lot like theirs... :-)