FAM R FVR

One of the reasons that Mormons do what they do, is because of Temples. We believe that in the temple, using proper Priesthood authority, we can be "Sealed" together for eternity. When we die, we look forward to spending eternity linked to our familiy members. Of course, there are standards of behavior that we must follow to qualify for these blessings, but it's usually the culminating goal that we have: To be "Together Forever". (Click Here for a more comprehensive explanation on the purpose of LDS Temples.)


This weekend, I had the pleasure to fly to Ohio to attend a Temple Sealing for my cousin. They have 3 children of their own. When the OB doc told Heidi she needed to stop having kids (for health reasons), she didn't give up her dream of having a large family. For the last 4 years they have been trying to adopt. After many struggles and heartaches, Jayden was able to join their family. Once the adoption was final, they were able to have him sealed to their family in the Columbus, Ohio Temple. What an amazing experience it was! Worth every butterfly in my stomach to get me on that plane!

Would you ever guess that Heidi didn't give birth to this child? No WAY! He is the cutest thing ever and I absolutely melted everytime he called Rob, "Daddy!"

Here is Jayden already preparing for Boy Scouts!

After a "girls only" shopping trip to Kohls... we had a celebration dinner at Applebees. I wish Megan could have been there to hang out with Cami. They are so much alike!Anutie Carol and Uncle craig corrupted the kids with their iphones....and there was lots of hugging and joking and even playing Dominoes (which I never got a picture of!)

Alec never failed to hit up a visiting adult to play games with him. Guess Who is one of his favorites!On Sunday, during church, my mom looked down and noticed her diamond was missing from her wedding band. Her ring was only about 18 months old, so this was shocking to everyone! We scoured the church (with the help of most of the congregation!) and then came home and scoured Heidi's home.

We had a group prayer, and Cami prayed for us to find the diamond. It was a sweet prayer and left many of the adults in the room teary eyed.

Here is a photo of some of the group doing a "grid search" on the family room carpet. (Can you tell we have a family full of cops?)This photo loaded upside down and I can't rotate it for anything, but my dad went through the trash from the church bathroom once we were back at the house. He said this was nothing compared to searching a home during a "meth raid"...The next day, after not turning up the diamond anywhere (and we tore the house apart), my dad found it sitting on the seat of our rental car. We hadn't looked in there at first because she hadn't been in that car for two days and couldn't imagine the diamond had been gone that long. But, there it was... a prayer was answered!

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend! Lots of good quality family time and lots of love being spread around! Okay, Heidi, now go find Baby #5 so we can do this again soon! ;-)

Note: sorry about the red-eye... my software to fix these things needs to be reloaded on the computer. Also, the title of this post is how I remember Heidi's license plate on her minivan. At one point, we were following her, and wasn't sure if we were behind the correct car, but one look at the license plate confirmed that indeed, we were following Heidi's van. (For those of you not familiar with Mormon catch phrases, it's short for "Families Are Forever".)