Last weekend was a great blessing in the lives of my family. Starting with Friday night, when Steve attended the temple for the first time to Saturday afternoon when our family was sealed.
This is the Draper Temple, and we had a bit of an "adventure" to put it mildly in our attempt to arrive there at the appointed time.
I came across a quote by Boyd K. Packer that says, "It is evident that the work relating to temples bothers the adversary the most."
The adversary made a great attempt at keeping us from getting to the temple that night. As I was driving myself, Steve, my brother Brett and Alex, intending to drop Alex off at my sister's house and then pick up my parents to go to the temple, we had a bit of an incident. I was behind a big semi, and out of nowhere a huge block of hardened ice flew off the roof of his truck and hit my windshield. Luckily, I kept control of the car as it happened, and luckily the ice didn't hit us any harder or it would have completely come through the windshield. We flagged the truck driver over, he was very nice and concerned. I looked at the clock in a panic realizing we were supposed to be to the temple in 15 minutes. We quickly made some changes to our previous plan and drove, very carefully to the temple where Brett ended up staying with Alex till my nephew came to pick him up, and my parents hopped in the car to meet us there.
As I stepped out of the car, it took everything I had to keep it together as I'm shaking a hundred slivers of glass off my clothes and out of my hair and Steve is picking a few tiny shards out of my hand. Admittedly, my first thoughts were, "This is UNBELIEVABLE! Why is this happening?", but in retrospect I realize that the adversary truly was trying to keep us from the temple, but we must've had angels beside us who helped us get there safely. Alex really touched me when he said, "Mom, it's going to be fine."
When all was said and done, it was a great experience seeing Steve there in the temple and he loved it.
This is the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, where on Saturday we were sealed as a family. It was an amazing experience, one that I can't adequately put into words. Sitting in the sealing room, seeing the door open and watching Stephenie and Alex walk in looking so precious in their white clothes brought joy to our hearts that I just can't describe.
Alex, who is a typical, energetic and sometimes feisty 3 year old transformed into the most angelic, content and reverent little guy. He charmed the socks off everyone by the huge grin he had on his face the entire time he was there. As we were leaving, I asked him, "Did you have fun at the temple?" He replied, "I had a GREAT time."
It was a very cold and windy day, so we didn't get to take as many pictures as I would've liked, maybe in the spring we can go back and take some more.
We had almost all our family there to support us. My dear sister, brother in law and nephew drove through terrible snow and traffic from Sacramento in order to be there for us.
Our yummy luncheon put on by my family in our honor.
I truly don't know what we would've done without the help and support of my parents throughout this experience. I owe them the world.
FAMILIES ARE FOREVER....
At home after the game as Steve was taking off Alex's uniform, Alex said, "Ok, you can take it back now!" Hopefully he'll still be excited when he realizes that he has to play again tomorrow!
In other sporting news, Stephenie has been coaching the sophomore softball team at West High. She seems to be enjoying it ok, I think it's a good experience for her. She is a busy girl between softball, school and work, but that's ok because busy is good!
