The power of the Book of Mormon

A counselor in our bishopric served as a missionary in Taiwan many years ago. He shared an experience about a fifteen year old girl who read the Book of Mormon and wanted to be baptized. Her father was a Baptist preacher that led a congregation of approximately seven hundred people. Being a preacher was not just a religious expression, but it was also his livelihood. He would not give permission for her to be baptized. As her birthday approached, she told her father that the only birthday gift she desired was for him to read the Book of Mormon. He had great disinterest in reading the Book of Mormon, but after her persistence, he reluctantly agreed. He read the book in a short time and was overcome by the Spirit that testified to him of the truthfulness of the book. After reading the Book of Mormon and feeling its power, he stood before his congregation and testified of his experience. He then opened his pulpit to the mission president and missionaries, who proceeded to teach the gospel to the congregation. Over five hundred members of that congregation were eventually baptized because of the faith of a young girl and the power of the Book of Mormon.

Just for fun...

Here are some recent pictures.....

Daniel....seven weeks old

He's already showing personality..

Isaac...eight months old

It has been snowing here ALOT, one day recently the horses were running around like crazy. I tried to get some good action shots, but it was way to cold to be standing outside, so these were taken through the window. Notice the snow? We now have about 18-20 inches of snow. It will definitely be a white Christmas.

By small and not-so-simple things

We had a visitor at church today who stood and shared an experience that was very moving. His name is Ernie and he is from the Ivory Coast in Western Africa. He now lives in Logan with his wife. They have seven children, but only the youngest few are still at home. Ernie works as a janitor at Mountain Crest high school, as well as another job in the evening.

Many years ago, Ernie and his family lived in the Ivory Coast. Ernie was a college professor and also owned ten different restaurants in the city. They had a large home and several nice automobiles (with drivers). They lived near several other family members, including Ernie’s parents whom they helped in various ways. They were very well off and they were quite happy with their lives. Ernie had a friend, Charles, who decided that he wanted to go to the United States. Ernie wished Charles the best, but indicated that he had no desire to go to the United States. He was quite happy with his life and family in the Ivory Coast. Charles went to the U.S. Embassy to apply for a visa to enter the United States. While completing the application, Charles felt like he should also apply for a visa for Ernie. Unbeknownst to Ernie, Charles obtained a second application and filled in Ernie’s information.

Weeks passed, and Charles finally received notice about his visa application. He visited Ernie and explained that his own visa application had been declined. Charles then proceeded to tell Ernie that he had completed a second application for Ernie, which had been accepted. Ernie had been granted a visa to enter the United States without any knowledge of or desire to obtain the visa. Ernie explained to Charles the he did not want to go to the United States. He did not speak English, nor did his family, and they had no reason to go to the United States. Charles replied that he did not know why he had completed the application for Ernie, but had felt something prompting him to do so.

Ernie explained the situation to his family and they all agreed that they wanted to stay in the Ivory Coast. They had many blessings and a comfortable life and were not at all interested in going to the United States. Ernie’s parents were aging and need help, and his sister was ill. It was important for them to stay with their family. Ernie continued to think about the visa and wondered why Charles had filled out the application. After a few weeks, Ernie’s family was having family home evening and discussed the story of Lehi in the Book of Mormon. Lehi led his family out of their comfortable circumstances, even though some of them really did not want to leave. Ernie mentioned this to his family, but they replied simply that Ernie was not Lehi and they reaffirmed their desire to stay in the Ivory Coast. Shortly thereafter, Ernie had a dream that left an indelible impression upon him. He still did not know why, but he knew that he needed to take his family to the United States. Ernie soon bought tickets for himself, his wife, and his children to come to the United States. The only person they knew in the entire United States was a missionary that they had come to know in Ivory Coast. This man was living in Salt Lake City, so Ernie called him and explained the situation. The man offered to have Ernie and his family stay at his home. With much trepidation, Ernie and his family boarded a plane and began their journey to the United States – leaving all that they knew and loved behind.

The family had a difficult time adjusting to a new country, a new language, and a new culture. None of them spoke English, and they were very discouraged and lonely. On more than one occasion, Ernie found his wife and children in tears wishing that they could return to their home in the Ivory Coast. Ernie felt sorrow for their despair, but he knew that, despite their challenges, the Lord wanted them in the United States. It was only a short time later that Ernie received news that a civil war had begun in the Ivory Coast. His parents and sister had been killed, and much of their city had been destroyed. Had Ernie and his family dismissed the prompting to move, they also would have been killed. Ernie immediately knew that the Lord had led his family from destruction to salvation. They continued to have challenges, but they now knew that they were in the right place and that the Lord had blessed them immensely. They still do not have all of the material things that they had in the Ivory Coast. But they are alive and they have each other and they have a knowledge that the Lord loves them.

The Lord works is small and mysterious ways to bring about much righteousness. We need to be willing to receive blessings from the Lord, even if doing so means that we experience some discomfort. We do not understand all things, but we need to have faith in the Lord and lean not unto our own understanding. Ernie is a great example of faith and courage.

A Name and other exciting events

The official release of version 6 is:

Daniel JaKwaun Edward

(Yes it is a bit unusual, but sometimes situations call
for a bit of compromise, and this is one such time!)

Notice the tongue, he really does keep it out like that most of the time.

We came home and this little guy has learned the army crawl! He doesn't do it very often on his own, but his siblings sure like to tease him and when that happens he can sure crawl a long way!

Here is our first picture taken with all the children. Daniel is almost a week old.

This is what our children do on a Saturday afternoon, in the rain. They put on
winter coats, life vests, goggles, and hats. As accessories they carry around
floating devices and marshmallow guns. And don't forget Joseph's wings!

By small and simple things

Here is an excerpt from a favorite poem entitled The Weaver (author unknown):

Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

As we look back at the last few weeks of our lives, this verse rings particularly true for us. A few weeks ago, we traveled to Louisiana planning to adopt a baby. Within hours after we learned that the birth mother was planning to keep the baby, we received word about another baby that needed a home. Given our recent experience, we decided not to say anything about it to anyone - not really sure what might happen. The baby was supposedly due on November 4th in Dallas, so we thought we had a few weeks to think about it. But, much to our surprise, we got a call on Monday (Oct. 11th) saying that the baby had been born at 2:37 AM that morning. We were still recovering from our family festivities last weekend, but we packed as quickly as we could and flew to Dallas Tuesday morning.

The birth mother's name is Tamika, and she is a great person. We spent time with her on Tuesday and much of the day Wednesday. Despite her love for the baby, she is not able to provide a stable family life for him. She signed papers yesterday and placed the baby with us. We are so excited to have him in our family. He is a tiny baby boy - he was 5 lbs. 6 oz. at birth and 5 lbs. 1 oz when released from the hospital.

We are still working on a name, so stay tuned ...

 

 

 

Families can be together forever

On Monday, we went to the court house and Isaac was added to our family by legal authority.


On Saturday, we went to the Lord's house and Isaac was sealed to our family by priesthood authority.

 

 

 

What a Day!

This little guy is officially ours!

Aren't they cute?

We went to court today and went through the official proceedings.
The people who are not familiar to you are the judge and the lawyer.

Such interesting questions that the lawyer asks: mainly to me and then they ask Mat if he heard, and if he agrees. Some of the questions I was asked were:

• If the baby has been in my home six months
• If I am at least 21 years of age and ten years older than the child (ha, ha)
• Are we (individually) capable of providing (emotionally and physically) for the child
• If Mat is willing to agree to the adoption (like it was all my doing!)
• In the event of divorce or death, that we are still to provide for this child
• Do we feel like we have established a bond of love and affection for this child, and other such interesting questions.

A picture of our happy family!

Afterwards we went to a well known local restaurant and had
THE SINK.
It was great fun. The adults had lunch and the kids gorged
themselves on ice cream. This thing must of been at least
ten inches tall with ice cream and toppings.

They ate and ate and ate........

and then they were sick.....

yet they kept coming back for more, and eventually
resorted to eating strait out of the sink!
They never did finish it completely but they sure enjoyed themselves.

It has been a great day. We look forward to this weekend when we
are able to take Isaac to the temple and make him eternally ours.

There's no place like home

We talked to the birth mother and the agency again this morning. The birth mother has decided to keep the baby. While we are disappointed, Katie and I both support her in that decision. We wish her and the baby the best. We have no regrets about how things have worked out. Since we are not going to get the baby, we decided to come home as soon as possible. We drove from Shreveport to Dallas then flew back to Salt Lake City.

On the flight home, I was reading the April General Conference Ensign and read Elder James B. Martino's talk entitled "All Things Work Together for Good". In this talk, Elder Martino says:

We may never know in this life why we face what we do, but we can feel confident that we can grow from the experience.

We are not sure yet what all we are supposed to learn from this experience, but are grateful for the opportunity.

We got our baby...

....just not the one we were expecting!

Its rather fun to go into Walmart down here and see lots of black baby dolls. This one doesn't look to girly.

On an even lighter note, I had promised my children some pictures and these are what we have.

This picture is for Joseph, he has been fascinated with golf carts and this one has four benches! Imagine the possibilities! It was parked out in front of the hospital.

This is our rental car. Rather nice I must admit. I was telling Mat that if we ever try this adoption process again, we just might end up with a Lexus or Mercedes. The cars just keep getting nicer!

Yesterday we took a bit of a road trip to see Aunt Betsy and these cute guys. At first Harrison wanted nothing to do with us. After a while, as you can tell, he couldn't stay away from us.

Benjamin was lots of fun and is starting to say a lot more words. It was alot of fun to see them and we hope that all goes well with you in the next several months. Thanks Betsy for a great afternoon.

Mat and I are doing well. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and we will keep you posted with what is happening.

Lean not unto thine own understanding

We spent most of the day with the birth mom and the baby at the hospital. We got to hold him and got to know her a little bit. She is having a hard time making the decision whether or not to place the baby with us or to keep him. She was discharged from the hospital this afternoon and ended up taking the baby with her. She cannot sign adoption papers until Monday, so she is going to keep him at least until Monday and make the decision. Katie and I have done a lot of talking and said a lot of prayers. We are still hopeful that she will place the baby with us, but we realize it is her decision. We tried to encourage her to make the decision that she feels is right. She asked how long we will be here and says she will call us soon. So, we do not know whether we will come home with the baby, but we do feel peace about the situation. Either she will end up keeping the baby and we'll know that we did all that we could, or she will end up placing the baby with us and she'll know it was her decision. At this point, all we can do is pray and hope for the best. We appreciate any thoughts and prayers you may have on our behalf and hers.

Over the river and through the woods

The flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas was fairly uneventful - which is good as far as flights go :). We rented a car, ate lunch with Katie's brother, then motored our way across eastern Texas and into Louisiana. There are a lot of trees here ... I like trees. We have not yet had the opportunity to communicate with the birth mother directly; all communication has been through the agency. That being the case, we did not quite make contact with her tonight (we made it as far as the hospital parking lot). We look forward to meeting her and the baby tomorrow.

Our new addition!

We have a new baby! On the 25th of August we received a phone call from our adoption agency. They inquired as to how life was going for us and if it was crazy enough. My reply was that I like to refer to life as "organized chaos"! Our agent then told us about a baby boy that was due in two and a half weeks in Louisiana. As you can imagine the last couple of weeks have been crazy. We were told that the birth mother was due on the 14th of September and with her previous pregnancy she was a week early. So we have been expecting her to come early and then she was late! Not just a day or two late, but eight days late and then they did an emergency c-section. The baby was born on Wednesday. Yesterday, being Thursday, we found out he was 6 lbs. 2 oz. We have had to wait for approval from the agency before we could leave. So here it is Friday morning and we are sitting at the airport waiting for a flight to Dallas and then we will rent a car and drive the rest of the way. As we find out more info we will let you know, and of course post pictures when we have them.

My Favorite new thing to suck.....

Jacob's new way to play piano...

First Day of School

Isaac and Spencer waiting for the bus.

Jacob and Matalyn waiting for the bus.

Jacob's first day of 1st grade.

Matalyn's first day of 4th grade.

Joseph's first day of Middle School, 6th grade, picture taken at 6:45 am.

So once again school has started.
The children are all excited to start,
so we hope that we will have a great school year

Jacob and Joseph at Bear Lake

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures of Isaac (and Spencer) from Grandma W:

Satuday activities...

We began the day with soccer, the last games of the season, then we did a few chores around the house, this is how Isaac spent his chore time....Notice his cute hat? Thanks to Aunt Betsy.


Then we went down to Grandma H's, afterwards we took a short walk around the lake. There is a really nice path around it now. The kids had a great time and Jacob is so excited to go fishing. It was a beautiful day and we are looking forward to nice weather!

Soccer, Soccer, and more Soccer..

We have spent many hours at soccer games the last six weeks. We have three children playing, and they each have two games a week. That means six hours a week at soccer games. Over all the weather has been great this year, usually we have lots of snow and cold but not this year, thank goodness.

This is generally how Isaac spent his time...sleeping :)

New pictures

I have added a few more pictures, so scroll down and enjoy. Some are pictures of seeing Justin and then the post just before that.

A few more pictures

We have been sparse on pictures lately, so here are a few more to catch up.

All dressed, hair done, and ready for church.

One of these kids is really sleeping, the other two are just pretending ... can you tell which is which?

Jacob thought Isaac might like to try his 3-D dinosaur glasses ... they make you dream in 3-D.

Thanks, Help Desk

Isaac received a gift from the best Help Desk I've ever worked with.

Hhm ... what is this ...

... a gift? for me? Can I open it? ...

... thanks for the gifts, Help Desk!

Have you wondered where we have been?

So have you checked repeatedly to find out how we are doing? Have you been disappointed that there have been no new updates? Well, now I remember why I haven't kept up on my blog! Being home and having four other children, well, there is a lot to do in life and unfortunately, keeping my blog up to date, is not really high on my priority list. Sure I want to, but it just doesn't happen:) Does anybody else struggle with this? Or is it just a personal thing? But never fear, I am going to try and update you on the last couple days of our trip and then continue to tell you how life is going with our new addition.

We have really appreciated your love and support during this entire process.

Baby Doll

Remember the doll that I mentioned earlier, that Kenya bought for us?  Well, here is a picture of the doll.  The doll measures 13 inches long.  Just an idea of the size of Isaac!