I already had a brief inkling of what might be coming when I was invited to spend a delightful Saturday with a missionary couple charged with putting LDS Family Services together in Europe. They set a target date of November 2010 to get things up and running in France and asked for my assistance on a couple of things. I put that in the back of my head however to concentrate on day to day tasks like getting the youth of our ward ready for our end of year road show and generally on surviving. I saw the Lord literally provide for my every physical and spiritual need during this time. When I needed to go the temple to get a spiritual boost I found myself flying to Madrid in October for four amazing days. This is perhaps so difficult to imagine considering that I had not had access to my own resources since March.
As Christmas approached and it looked like a bleak year the French government came through and gave me a reimbursement of overpaid social charges. With this I was able to send money home for my children's Christmas, have a Christmas celebration with Aaron and go to Belgium for the New Year's eve Single Adult Conference where I met more wonderful new friends who have become such a part of my life here. For someone who has no money I sure have been having an incredible time!
All this is lovely and almost dreamlike but they are still like the fluffy stuff that you put in the ceiling as insulation. I was still looking for more-always looking out for the reason why I had come here to France, knowing that I was playing a waiting game. And then suddenly, after waiting for more than 2 years it was suddenly here! I received an email from the LDS Family Services missionary couple to let me know that a general authority would be contacting me about a calling to set up LDS Family Services in the Paris region.
It was agonizing not being able to say anything specific to friends until it was official but I did tell a special friend who was incredibly supportive of me and I told my children.
FINALLY, the Lord had revealed His hand. I was set apart by Elder Paya, an Area Seventy at the end of January and it was confirmed that I am not in France by chance. I already knew that but it gave me such a boost to hear it out loud. While it is clear that I would be focusing on the wider Paris region I did not expect to hear that I was to be made a member of a committee responsible to set LDS Family Services in place in France, Switzerland and Belgium. There is so much work to be done but I have been prepared and I am so excited!
