Once Upon A Time

There was a girl.  This girl had been through some rough stuff.  She didn't mind usually though because her life had gotten better.  She had a decent job, she was back in school working on her bachelor's degree, and most importantly of all, she had found the love of her life.

This girl thought that as long as the trials she had suffered through were worth something -if she could use them to help others- then they were worth while.  Any time she thought how nice it would be to not have to have been through certain things, she thought of her wonderful fiance and how she never would have met him had her life not taken the path that it did.  She supposed she might have found someone else, and her life might've been fine, but she knew she loved her fiance more than anything else in the world and having him around helped her forget her difficult past.

When her love proposed, she was over the moon with joy.  She was thrilled to be able to marry the love of her life.  But very quickly this joy was tainted by a tiny bitter pill.  She had been married before.  She could not be married for time and eternity to her fiance as her sealing to her former husband had not yet been canceled.

She and her new fiance filled out the application for her sealing to be canceled.  She wrote the letter describing what her marriage had been like.  She was interviewed by her bishop and stake president and though those men cared about her and didn't want to hurt her, they had to make her relive her painful past so they could know whether it was right to recommend that her sealing be cancelled.

She began to have nightmares again.  Dreams like the ones she had when she first got divorced.  She was losing sleep and beginning to stress.  Her hoped for wedding date had become impossible.  So, she moved her wedding date back and began to re-envision it.  Her request to the First Presidency of the church was finally sent off and she was given an expectation of when she should have the reply.  Her friends and family encouraged her to begin planning her reception.  She began to feel a little of the excitement again.

But the days past into weeks and she began to worry again.  If there is one thing this girl is good at, it is thinking of worst-case-scenarios and stressing herself out.  She began to be sad.  She wondered if she was good enough for her request to be approved.  Would Heavenly Father allow her to marry her sweet fiance?  She knew her Heavenly Father loved her and wanted her to be happy.  Surely he would let her be sealed to the man she loved, the man her Heavenly Father had sent to her.

But her faith in the process was beginning to waver.  She became more and more depressed and frustrated.  She felt humiliated that she could not even set a firm wedding date.  It felt like she was being punished for everything she had already been through.  But it had been her choice to marry her first husband, so maybe she deserved to be punished.

Talk of wedding plans stressed her so badly at this point that she could barely even speak of them without shutting down or bursting into tears.  Everyone kept telling her the letter was on its way.

Her bishop was released and a new one was called.  Though this had no effect on her plans, she was sad to see her friend go and anxious to meet her new bishop and let him know of her situation.  Last Sunday, she met with him for tithing settlement and she let him know about some of her fears.  She had been told her new bishop was very in tune with the Spirit and when he paused and told her, "I think your letter will come very soon" she almost believed him.  But the doubt and depression had sunk too deep.  She could not let herself hope.

And then, last night, she came home to find a note from the post office letting her know a package was waiting for her at her apartment office.  Her heart gave a little leap.  Could it be that her letter was waiting for her in the locked office?  She wished she could get in to see.  She waited patiently but anxiously all the next day for her work to be over so she could rush home and to the apartment office before it closed.  She kept telling herself not to get her hopes up.  She'd opened her mailbox with high hopes too many times and it chipped a little piece of her heart each time she discovered the letter she was looking for was not there.  She realized that the note had said a package was waiting for her... not a letter.  Perhaps then, her Christmas gift from Grandma had already come.  That would be alright.  She always enjoyed opening Grandma's gifts.

Finally, work was over and she was standing in the apartment office.  She was waiting for them to bring her package.  She heard the attendant shift a large box and her heart sank just a little.  It wasn't a letter then.  The attendant came out with a large box from another company and they discovered the package had our girl's address on it by mistake.  It wasn't even Christmas from Grandma.

Disappointed, the girl walked to the mailboxes and opened hers.  She saw she had two letters underneath a magazine.  She lifted the magazine and realized one of the letters was from the church.  The other was from Grandma.

She threw the magazine away without even looking at it as she excitedly started tearing open her letter from the church.  Please let it be good news, she hoped.  She was walking home as she read that her prior sealing had been canceled and she finally had permission to marry her love in the temple.  Her heart soared like it had never before as she half ran/half danced the rest of the way home.  She happily opened the card from Grandma (thanks for the gift by the way!) and laughed when she read Grandma's Christmas wish for her was for her to receive her letter from the First Presidency.

She immediately thanked her Heavenly Father asking him to forgive her for doubting.  Then she called her fiance and her family with the good news.

IT'S HERE!!  I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!! HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!