P.S.

I neglected to explain the why's behind the surgery and people are now confused, so here's the short of it: a year ago, a car ran over my foot. I didn't stay off it of like I should have and was hiking, running, playing volleyball, etc., on it FAR too soon, and ended up damaging a nerve that now appears to be permanently weakened. So after a year of doing very little physical activity besides walking, we decided that it was probably time to just take the little guy out. A week and a half ago, Dad took out part of the nerve, but now it looks like he has to take out just a wee bit more, and cut a ligament that seems to be putting some some pressure on the nerve ending, hence this week's (probable) Surgery #2.

At this point, I feel like a quick recounting of some related blessings is in order that have proven to me, once again, that Heavenly Father is really very good to me:

1. I don't have health insurance, but I know this really great surgeon named "Dad" who offered to do it pro bono. This helps. I know it's not pleasant for him to operate on family, but I'm grateful for how concerned he is and how much he wants me to get better.

2. For several months, I tried to plan fun things for this summer, and kept having a nagging feeling to leave things wide open. I even received some hearty encouragement (dare I say near-begging?) from Scott and Alexis to come out to North Carolina, but I had a pretty clear feeling that it was a bad idea (said feeling was not welcome. I badly want to see them and my nephews because Summer 2008 was the best on record.) I assumed that these frequent "Mackenzie, don't do that" feelings had something to do with job search/starting grad school/moving, so I went with it, but now I realize that Heavenly Father, as always, foresaw this sudden decision to have surgery that has already required almost two weeks of convalescence and will surely require a few more. If I had planned all that stuff, this situation would be far more complicated. As it is, however, I can just focus on getting my foot better.

3. On a related note, I felt an urging to move to Salt Lake ASAP, so I moved the day after work got out. Such a hasty departure seemed unnecessary, but it is SUCH A BLESSING to have already moved in to my new apartment, unpacked, decorated my cozy, adorable room, learned the area, found a job for next year, figured out what ward I'm in, dealt with Crazy Man B at the post office (update: reported him), and completed the myriad of tasks that accompany moving, and I cannot imagine how unbearably stressed I would be knowing that there was still an apartment full of all my junk in California that had to be packed up and moved across a few states. That might have killed me. As it is, however, the only thing I have left to do this summer is to get my foot semi-healed before August 18. That's a fair amount of time.

4. Timing. I've had this problem for a year, and suddenly now I need surgery? When I just happen to have six weeks open and available to sit on a couch guilt-free without missing work, school, or anything vitally important (minus Pioneer Day???).

5. Mom, Mike, Dad, Rusty, and Cam have been helping me out for several days now, and it ain't over yet. They're super good to me. Sure I don't love sitting on a couch for weeks, but I'm grateful to have an excuse to be home and hang out with my fantastic family for a few weeks.

6. Things could be infinitessimally worse. It's hard to justify being upset over having an itty bitty nerve removed and not being able to walk for a mere month when people have WAAAAAYYYYY worse things to deal with. My thoughts tend to revolve around my foot right now, but when I think of problems I could be dealing with, I'm extremely glad to be having a foot problem, I'm ashamed that it bothers me at all, and I'm reminded that my life has been unarguably easy.

I guess the point I want to make is that it often seems like when something difficult is happening, it's always surrounded by a lot of blessings. Sometimes I just imagine Heavenly Father up there figuring out how to make 'hard things' as bearable (and even, at times, quite pleasant) as possible. I mean, this foot thing has been bugging me for a year, but I never had to miss work from it, I was never kept from doing things that needed to get done, and I was still able to do a lot of things that I wanted to do. And now that I finally need surgery, it's at the absolute most convenient time, it's FREE, I have nothing that desperately needs to get done, and *bonus* I get to spend time with my family.

In short, Heavenly Father watches out for us.