#BecauseofHim

Last week my dear Watson's brother came to town and we had a whole week of fun with everyone. Aquarium, Zoo, Hike, Easter Egg Hunt, etc.  One of the things we did was go to the temple to do sealings (learn more here). All my dear Watson's siblings and their spouses, and his parents, were there.  It was a cool experience. 

We had the great privilege of having a man named Brother Mourik conduct our sealing session.  The same Brother Mourik that President Monson talks about in this talk in 2011. Here's the story:

President Monson was dedicating the Frankfurt Germany temple and had an impression to announce Brother Mourik as the opening speaker. President Monson asked Elder Asay who was traveling with him if Brother Mourik was at the temple dedication that morning. Elder Asay gave President Monson a note saying Brother Mourik wasn't there and was instead planning to attend the afternoon session.  President Monson got up to the pulpit and announced Brother Mourik as the first speaker anyways.  Meanwhile Brother Mourik had received a strong impression that he needed to get to the temple right away.  He didn't understand why, but he had another church leader drive him to the temple as fast as possible.  When he arrived, the song had just ended and President Monson stood at the pulpit again to announce Brother Mourik as the first speaker. 

Brother Mourik bore strong testimony to us during that temple session about many principles, including what he learned that particular day with President Monson about ALWAYS being obedient to promptings received.  Another thing he talked to us about was that as a patriarch (since age 36) he knows that children are foreordained to come to Earth at a specific time, and we are selected to be their parents.  Given my current state, that really touched me. I don't know why, but I hadn't really thought of it that way yet.  I've mostly just been worried about how to handle all the stress and change, but in that moment I finally realized the great blessing and privilege Heavenly Father is awarding my dear Watson and I by sending us this baby boy. 

It made me realize: I can't mess up...I've got to take seriously my responsibility to raise this child, and my other children, to know Jesus Christ and the way to return back to Him someday.  But it also made me realize that I can expect the Lord's help along the way.  He cares, He wants us to succeed as parents and He wants our children to return to Him. I can pray and fully expect He will help me know what to do along our parenting journey.

This is what's on my mind this Easter Morning. Because of Him in 3 short weeks (hopefully two...crossing our fingers) we get to be parents to one of His children, sent to Earth at this time and sent to us specifically to be his parents. And the best part? We'll be together as a family for eternity (read more about eternal families here).

Happy Easter.

Girls Weekend and Kidney Stones

I can't even find the right words to describe how grateful I am for these women.  My sisters (including SIL's), my mom, my grandma.

Thanks to the famous Oscars selfie, we were confident we could get a good selfie of us all.

These are my Japanese nieces and nephews.  I miss them.

They left their families and came from all over the world to have a girls weekend, and threw me a baby shower while they were at it.  It was so much fun. I'm also grateful for my brother's (including BIL's) for managing their families alone for the weekend so we could do this.  Here's a special shout out to Scott who had 7 kids including 1 year old twins who weren't all the way weaned and sleeping through the night yet. Way to go man. Hands down, my sisters, mom and grandma are cooler than yours.

I had kidney stones last weekend. That was awesome. And by awesome I mean totally NOT awesome. I did get an ultrasound out of it though, and we got to see our cute little boy move his lips. To me the coolest part of the experience was that I could be writhing in excruciating pain and my baby was virtually unaffected.  That is pretty amazing.  I've noticed a few things haven't quite been the same since 'the stones'.  I'm not sleeping well anymore, and my energy and emotions are a lot more up and down than before.  I was practically dead until Saturday and then all of a sudden felt like I had a 32 oz Dr. Pepper.  I was bouncing off the walls and stayed up late sewing. By the way, I did NOT have a 32 oz Dr. Pepper. It's also harder, mentally, to accept that I still have 6 weeks left of this. I'm hoping my belly grows a bit bigger to give more room for me, the baby, all my organs, and the food I apparently have to keep eating.  We're a little crowded right now.

I look a little crazy-eyed.  It was hard to be happy. The monitor was showing I was having regular contractions, but they were so small....I couldn't even feel them. In fact, I still don't know what a Braxton Hicks feels like, even though I know I'm having them.

6 weeks and we'll have a baby; 8 weeks and we'll live in Maine. I usually try not to think about it because every time I do it gets harder to breathe.

StayCation

We did a little staycation this last weekend in SLC. It’s amazing how fun something like that can be.

We decided to make it a trip of trying new things. Aside from walking around Gateway and City Creek, everything else was a first for us.  

• We stayed at a nice hotel in the ghetto that required us to walk past the homeless shelter to get home every night. That was a little scary, but really the only downside to the entire trip. 
•  We went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and instead of getting a caramel apple like we usually would, we got a cashew caramel bear and a macadamia nut caramel bear. They were good, but more expensive than if we had shared an apple. Oh well. Here’s to new things.
• We hiked Ensign Peak: very, very slowly. I enjoyed imagining Brigham Young on the very same peak making a layout of their new city.  Cool stuff.

• We walked around Trolley Square.  Don’t people get shot there or something? I think that’s why I’ve never been. We didn’t get shot, but we did get some delicious samples in Williams Sonoma (who knew?)

• We had lunch at The Pie – underground hole in the wall pizza place right next to University of Utah. Instead of getting a BBQ pizza like we would usually choose, we got the Wise Guy pizza – basil, goat cheese, tomatoes, balsamic vinaigrette reduction, chicken, artichoke hearts and pure deliciousness.

• We watched the BYU tournament game in our hotel (not new, but oh well).
• We watched Gravity in our hotel room. I never want to go to space.
• We ate a meal at the Cheesecake Factory. We’ve had cheesecake to go before, but never a meal. We waited about 70 minutes and for the first time ever, shared an entrée (orange chicken and rice instead of chicken and mashed potatoes like we’d usually choose). It was tasty and covered with pea pods. Poor allergic husband.  They were easy to remove though, and he didn’t have any reactions.
• Then we got a slice of cheesecake to share – banana cream. This was the best part of the whole trip. I don’t like cheesecake, but Cheesecake Factory does something different. It is sooooooo good.

Those bright lights against the building way in the background say Cheesecake Factory. We kept forgetting to take a picture until we were too far away.