Service and Fun

One of the things I admire about Brandon is his selfless love for others.  This usually translates into doing a lot of service for others, even random strangers.  He'll help someone move their broken down car to the side of the road, wake up early on a Saturday morning to help a family move, or even chase down some dogs that ran loose from their master.  This last bit of service introduced us to our neighbor, Anna.  Brandon got to talking to her, and we found out that she's from Brazil (Rio to be specific), she's waiting for her green card to come in while her husband works in California to keep the steady income they need for that whole process.  Later we find out that their landlord here was kicking them out earlier than they expected and they hadn't found an apartment yet to move to.  Practically without hesitation, Brandon offered our back yard to her two dogs, our garage as a storage unit for her stuff, and our spare bedroom to Anna while she looks for a dog-friendly place to live (and that's a hard thing to find in this area!).  They were really grateful and eventually accepted his offer.

So last week Anna stayed with us.  We weren't sure how long she'd be here; she said a month at the most, but it only ended up being about a week.  She used to work in California and Seattle as an au pair with two different sets of twins, so she knows babies, and she fell in love with Kayla.  No surprise there!  Kayla makes it really easy to love her.  She told us the day after she moved in that Brandon and I should go on a date and she's watch Kayla for us.  So we took her up on her offer and went on the first date in a very long time without Kayla.  We went to lunch and then the movie "Wreck it Ralph" which was a lot of fun (the date and the movie).

During the week, she took Kayla to the park while Brandon and I were at work.  They both loved it.  Anna took her camera and took some amazing pictures.  Here's a sample of a few of my favorites.

 You can see a little in that middle picture Kayla's top front two teeth coming in. so cute!  Anna's an amazing photographer!  It was so much fun having her here and telling me of her experiences of taking care of twins.  She's an amazing woman.  

She found an apartment in Provo at the foothills of the mountain.  It's got an amazing view, but quite a steep hill to drive up!  We moved her in on Saturday with the help of some fabulous men in our Ward. 

So thank you men for helping a total stranger.

Thank you Anna for being so amazing with Kayla and a friend to me.

And thank you Brandon for being so charitable to bring someone into our lives that ended up benefiting everyone. I love you.