Even Better Than I Imagined

So often in life we are disappointed because things fall apart or don’t turn out as we had hoped or planned.  Like everyone, I have had my share of setbacks and failures.  But occasionally it is the opposite, and I recognize how kind God has been because amazingly things have turned out even better than I imagined - like the following:

Fixing up and living in the historic Cusick House was even better than we imagined.

1. Last summer I returned to visit family in the Willamette Valley for the first time in 8 years.  I remember fondly our time there and wondered if I had made too much of the climate and scenery in western Oregon as being ideal.  I was astonished, however, to find the Willamette Valley was even better than I had imagined.  It was more scenic, diverse, and beautiful than I had made it out to be.  I even took pictures of the roads and never saw one pothole, which is unbelievable after living in Michigan.
2. My courtship and marriage to Kristie, and my welcome into the Neilson family was even better than I had imagined, as I have written about elsewhere.  What a wonderful realization, that the person I married turned out to be better than what I hope for!
3. We moved to western Oregon to make our fortune in June 1978, only to have our business venture fail, resulting in me scooping beans at a food processing plant to provide income.  There was no way to see that only 7 years later I would be asked to be a school district administrator, along with being a computer consultant, and having the opportunity of living in and fixing up a wonderful historic home.  What we eventually were able to enjoy in Albany was even more than anything we could anticipate or envision.
4. When the call came to serve in the Jefferson Branch in 1999, there was no way to anticipate all the remarkable developments and opportunities which would come to us and our extended family during our time there, such as – Bree’s mission and marriage, Bryn’s master’s degree and internship in Geneva, trips to Romania and Geneva/Spain, Marta and Lisa helping in the branch, fixing up the Cusick House, Aaron graduating from college, and seeing the Jefferson sacrament meeting attendance double – just to name some of the incredible and unexpected blessings.
5. While Kristie and I had a desire to own, fixup, and live in an old historic home, there is no way we could have imagined or conceived of anything close to what we were actually able to enjoy and participate in with the Cusick House – thanks in no small part to our daughters, sons-in-law, Kristie’s siblings and nephew.
6. While it may be premature or bad luck to take a victory lap in the early stage of marriages, Kristie and I feel blessed by who our daughters married for time and all eternity.  You try to imagine as they are growing up, and especially in their young adult years, who they will marry (or who will marry them), and how they will handle/resolve the unique challenges and setbacks they will encounter.  As Bryn and Bree’s parents, we could not be more pleased with our sons-in-law – they are even better than we imagined.

This life certainly isn’t all beer and skittles, but it can be very rewarding and refreshing to recognize that sometimes the results are even better than we imagined.