-by Erin

Something happened yesterday that reminded me that God watches out for me. I was reading books with my son at the library (I don’t go to the library very often). After about 45 minutes we walked up to the desk to check out the books we had chosen. There was a woman standing at the desk asking about library cards, and she looked really familiar to me. I was pretty sure I knew her from my previous hometown, in another state. After I was finished checking out my books, we walked out of the library at the same time, and I asked her, “Who are you?” (Yes, kind of uncouth, but I needed to know who she was.) She said, “Emily.” I said, “I KNOW you! What are you doing here in this state?” She said, “My husband got an internship nearby and we will be here for the summer.”

Now let me back up a bit. We only lived in the previous location for a year, but it was a wonderful year. Everyone at church was so welcoming and kind. We loved the town. We grew up a little bit there because we had no family to rely on, but our ward became our family. We miss our friends. We miss our ward. We miss a lot about that town. When we moved to our current home, I had a really hard time at first because I missed so much about our wonderful year, our wonderful town.

Emily and her husband Pete were in our previous ward. Her husband was my son’s nursery teacher (and he was awesome). Emily was in the Primary presidency, and I was in the Young Women’s presidency, so we didn’t get many opportunities to get to know each other. When she found out she was moving for the summer, some people in the ward told her to call me, but she said, “Erin and I didn’t get to talk much. She wouldn’t even know who I was if I called her.”

Since they are only going to be here for three months, they found a place that has cheap rent on a month to month contract, and is furnished. But it is in kind of a questionable area. They only got here on Wednesday night, and they are already having concerns with where they live. Emily was just hoping she could find a stay-at-home mom that she could hang out with over the summer, because her husband will be gone a lot (and they have a five-month-old baby boy).

I love how God put us both at the library at the exact same time, less than 48 hours after Pete & Emily moved here. I love how God knew that Emily would need me this summer, because she has no family here and she would likely be lonely. I love how God knew that bringing Emily into my life right now would be like bringing a little piece of our little town back to me for a moment. And now I have the chance to build a new friendship with someone, which I always love. So thank you, God, for reminding me that you care about me and that you watch out for all of us.