Rasmania 101: Enjoying the Jackson kids

Elise arrived home from the hospital last Sunday. Monday morning Andy took Harvey to the doctor to get a bilirubin test, as his levels were medium when he left the hospital. Unfortunately, his count had risen, and he had to be readmitted to the hospital (a different hospital this time) for another 24 hours. This was discouraging for Elise, but she packed up and left again. This time Andy wasn't allowed inside. This was probably hardest on Beverly, who, though showing lots of love to little Harvey, was acting like she was a little unsure about all the changes.

Harvey, on a bilirubin blanket on the 27th of March

We enjoyed the rest of the week (until Friday) with the kids. Due to the lack of travelers, our plane from Georgia to Salt Lake City was cancelled and we were put on a later flight. This created a five hour layover for us.

Roy and I extended our walk after walking with Andy and
the kids. Max wanted to go with us. Andy told him not
to complain. We started walking and Max said, "I don't know what
complain means." He didn't complain. He's always a
pretty good sport.

Mav

Bevy and Harvey

Bevy, Mav, Harvey and Max

Max, playing in their kiddie pool

Max giving piggy back rides to Bevy

We got home late Friday evening which gave us Saturday to catch up on yard work. The house was nice and clean thanks to Caitlyn.

I was struggling to know what to write about today. This morning I had a conversation with Nan about what her family is going through at this time. (I've already let everyone know that Henry Oblad, Mark's son, was diagnosed with "All B-type Leukemia"). She mentioned that if the Lord answered all of our prayers immediately, everyone would pray. There wouldn't be a test of our faith. Of course, she'd like to have little Henry immediately healed, but we have to go through these things to learn and to build our faith, but mostly we are given these types of trials simply because we are on earth and they are part of the human condition. It started me thinking about prayer. Each month I call in to our Cook Family Organization meeting and hear about the genealogy in our family and the things that we, as a board, are trying to accomplish. Janet Porter, a distant relative, has been working on a new version of the Phineas Wolcott Cook journal. She has edited the journal by changing spelling and punctuation and making the journal readable. There are many pictures and footnotes and she had just begun the process of formatting everything. At our meeting she was telling us that she hadn't known where to put the footnotes. Should she put them as footnotes, at the end of each page, or just do end notes. She and her sister began the formatting process, but it didn't feel right to her, so she began praying about it. She said she prayed for 5 days when she received a call from Marcia Marshall (another distant relative who is on the board). Marcia had been reading a book about the Savior in the New Testament, and the notes in this book were placed in boxes, embedded in the text. She showed pictures to Janet and Janet knew that the Lord had answered her prayers. She said, "I had to eat chocolate for a few days because I knew I had to start all over."
Another example of prayer that she has shared in the past, is when she found Phineas' "Goshen Journal." Apparently, Phineas wrote many journals, but most were burned in a fire (probably on purpose by some of his posterity that remained in polygamy). The journal we have was pulled from the fire. When she was reading a paper by another genealogist, she came across a quote. The quote didn't have an author, but she recognized the writing style and she knew it was Phineas. She asked the author of the article where he got the quotation. He told her that it was in a file that the church had of the bishop's notes from Goshen, Utah. (Phineas was the bishop there for many years). Because these notes were in a "Bishop's file," the church wouldn't allow her to take the papers. She began praying. It took her 18 months to gain access to the file and another year or so to get permission to copy it. I helped her transcribe it. There were many pages that I would have given up on because they were written on in the normal way, then turned sideways and written over. She transcribed every word. She finally got permission to publish this journal for the family and as she said, "his testimony flows from every page." She felt that Phineas led her to this journal, because he wanted the family to have his words. This journal will be included with the current journal along with some letters he wrote that have not previously been published.
Janet is this amazing woman who does a lot of genealogy for the family. She documents everything and has had many experiences of finding some of our relatives through prayer. She's a great example to me and I was touched by her story. I know that the Lord answers prayers. He has answered many for me over the years, but most of the time, I realize in hindsight that my prayers have been answered. I know I can improve the quality of my prayers and I know I need to be more willing to "wrestle" for the answers I want. We can add our prayers to the prayers of Nan and her family for Henry--for the battle he has facing him for the next two years, for Katherine and Mark, and for his eventual recovery.

I know this has been a difficult time for many people--to be told to "Stay home, Stay safe." I think it's especially difficult for parents of young children. I may have been tempted to throw in the towel if this had happened 20 years ago. Here are a few "quarantine pictures."