Shortly after the twins came home from the hospital, I found myself with four kids all under the age of three. I wasn’t getting any sleep or reprieve. I remember many times getting on my knees and asking the Lord to bless the kids to sleep so that I could get even just an hour of rest. Yet through all my asking, I remember feeling like the help wasn’t coming.

On one particularly hard afternoon I snuck into my room and fell to my knees sobbing. I told the Lord that I couldn’t do it anymore and that I needed Him to show up. Shortly after that prayer I went outside to get the mail. In it was a package from a stranger. She had heard of my situation from a mutual acquaintance and felt inspired to send something. What she sent me was a necklace with a small charm attached that read, “I, can!” I felt an overwhelming love touch my heart and a feeling that said, “I am with you, and you can!”  The Lord knew how I felt, only He knew how I felt and he had not left me alone. I never did catch up on the sleep I was praying for at the time, but I can look back now and recognize that although the Lord didn’t remove my burden He gave me the strength and stayed with me to endure it. People ask me now, how did you do that? I truly could not have done it alone. I was carried through that time by an all loving Father in Heaven.

Abt the author: Maren lives in Murray, Ut.