We are having an adoption fundraiser! We are so excited to be having a fundraising concert on January 10th at 7:00P at the Madison Junior High in Rexburg. It will be a fantastic cowboy concert with me, Tyler, and Tyler's famous dad Kevin (more about him here). We have been practicing hard, and it will be a great show. If you can't attend the concert, please consider donating the price of a ticket (or more!) to our online donation site here. While you are at the website be sure to view the amazing video Tyler put together! I love it. :)
More information about our concert and other ways to support our fundraising campaign can be found here.
We are excited to start our family through the miracle of adoption, and we would greatly appreciate your support!
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Monday, November 24, 2014
Joys and Sorrows
This is for Abby. Here's something to read. :)
I've been thinking lately about trials. It all started with me reading Alma 36:21.
"Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy."
I was trying to wrap my head around comparing pain with joy. I've always had things to repent of, but I think for most people it's hard really understand what Alma the Younger went through. A few days ago, I heard someone refer to the hardest thing they had ever been through. Their most difficult trial. It made me think of my most difficult trial. I'm sure I still have many difficult trials to go through, but it wasn't hard to think of the hardest thing I've had to go through so far. Spending year after year trying to get pregnant only to finally find out that it will never happen to me was devastating. Being selected by a birth family for adoption last spring only to have the birth mother miscarry a few months later almost pushed me over the edge.
And yet, after all of that, I know that once a baby is placed in our arms and we finally become parents, our joy will be exquisite. As exquisite as all of the pain we have experienced. More exquisite than I can even imagine.
This is what hope is to me.
I've been thinking lately about trials. It all started with me reading Alma 36:21.
"Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy."
I was trying to wrap my head around comparing pain with joy. I've always had things to repent of, but I think for most people it's hard really understand what Alma the Younger went through. A few days ago, I heard someone refer to the hardest thing they had ever been through. Their most difficult trial. It made me think of my most difficult trial. I'm sure I still have many difficult trials to go through, but it wasn't hard to think of the hardest thing I've had to go through so far. Spending year after year trying to get pregnant only to finally find out that it will never happen to me was devastating. Being selected by a birth family for adoption last spring only to have the birth mother miscarry a few months later almost pushed me over the edge.
And yet, after all of that, I know that once a baby is placed in our arms and we finally become parents, our joy will be exquisite. As exquisite as all of the pain we have experienced. More exquisite than I can even imagine.
This is what hope is to me.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
The Carrot Saga (Because it's the most interesting thing in our life right now)
We love to grow a garden each year. We have amazing soil so we can't take too much credit for it, but things grow in our garden pretty easily. Each year we grow a bunch of carrots in one of our little garden boxes next to the fence. If you've never had carrots straight from the garden, you are seriously deprived. They are so sweet and delicious. Apparently in my mind there are about 7 people living in our house, because we always end up with a ridiculous amount at the end of the harvest. Each year we have tried to come up with a way to preserve them so we can enjoy them throughout the winter. We have tried something different each year, taking someone's advice on their tried and true methods, and each year has been a complete failure:
- One year we tried putting them in buckets of sand with a bit of water so they wouldn't dry out too much. By the time we opened the buckets in January they had turned into carrot sand soup! I didn't think I added that much water, but apparently the moisture from the carrots multiplied in the buckets or something. It was so sad to see all of them ruined!
- One year we tried leaving them in the ground and added hay and leaves on top to keep them from freezing. Guess what? Nothing can keep the Rexburg ground from freezing solid. We couldn't even come close to getting a shovel into that ground until Spring, and by that time they had all molded. Disappointed again.
- Last year was the craziest. We dug them up and put them in big bins of dirt with no extra water. A few months in we opened one of the bins to get the carrots and they were ALL GONE! There was not one speck of evidence that the carrots had ever been there! They all just disintegrated into the dirt.
So this year we gave up. We just decided to put the carrots into storage bags in our fridge and use them until they went bad. This week, we used up the last of the carrots! The last one was just as good as the first and they never went bad! We were just working way too hard. I know it sounds silly, but it was so nice to actually get to enjoy all of our beautiful, delicious carrots.
And now I have Spring fever. I want the snow to melt so I can go play in the dirt and plant more carrots. :)
- One year we tried putting them in buckets of sand with a bit of water so they wouldn't dry out too much. By the time we opened the buckets in January they had turned into carrot sand soup! I didn't think I added that much water, but apparently the moisture from the carrots multiplied in the buckets or something. It was so sad to see all of them ruined!
- One year we tried leaving them in the ground and added hay and leaves on top to keep them from freezing. Guess what? Nothing can keep the Rexburg ground from freezing solid. We couldn't even come close to getting a shovel into that ground until Spring, and by that time they had all molded. Disappointed again.
- Last year was the craziest. We dug them up and put them in big bins of dirt with no extra water. A few months in we opened one of the bins to get the carrots and they were ALL GONE! There was not one speck of evidence that the carrots had ever been there! They all just disintegrated into the dirt.
So this year we gave up. We just decided to put the carrots into storage bags in our fridge and use them until they went bad. This week, we used up the last of the carrots! The last one was just as good as the first and they never went bad! We were just working way too hard. I know it sounds silly, but it was so nice to actually get to enjoy all of our beautiful, delicious carrots.
And now I have Spring fever. I want the snow to melt so I can go play in the dirt and plant more carrots. :)
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