Skip to main content

We'll Build This Love From the Ground Up

Dear Reader,


Family ties are great. They are hard to maintain sometimes, but they are well worth the effort. God gave us families for a reason. I have seen it time and time again that being part of a family can help you come back from any setback or go forward to accomplish any goal.

It must be said that my family is perfect for me. Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He helped Lauren and I come together to form our own family and bring together our extended families. My in-laws are very generous and my parents are very loving. My siblings (in-laws included) are all fun to be with and they each teaches me in little ways. This past year with new family and lots of grand experiences has shown me how it important it is to be part of a family.

This time last year, Lauren and I were preparing for our wedding and thinking about where she would be applying to grad school. Last fall we worked hard to finish as much school as we could and we planned to wait on have kids until she was done with grad school. We figured we would start trying to have children in her last year of school. That way, we could have kids while she could obtain a stable job and I could go on to grad school.

Last fall was also when my father-in-law was expecting to finish out his calling as a bishop in the ward where they lived back east. That calling ended 6 months before expected. Shortly thereafter, there was a big change at his workplace that ended with him starting a new job in Utah, meaning that he and my mother-in-law, along with her parents, moved to Utah. This happened just before mine and Lauren's graduation from Brigham Young University.

However, all of these unexpected things came together because of what happened to us as a couple. We were inspired to start trying to have children. We found out we were pregnant in January.

This means that everything fell apart and came together at the same time. My in-laws were gracious enough to let us rent out their basement in Utah because we decided it was probably not a good idea to go out of state for grad school while having a child at the same time. It was just too much.

That is why family is so important. Thanks to our family, we will be able to manage having a child while Lauren is in school and I am working. It would have been a much harder ocean to navigate had these things had not all come together when they did.

Thus we have embarked on the adventure of living close to family: in-their-basement close. This means that we are also close to my parents and for the first time in years, all of my siblings are within an hour of each other. It is an adventure that I am more than happy to be on, even though it is far from the adventures that I imagined we would be having at this stage for our family. We are very excited for our family to get a little bit bigger, especially after seeing so many changes in all of family over the past year.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Am I Proud to Be an American?

This weekend is the 4th of July, or Independence Day in the United States of America. One of my favorite songs during this time of celebrating the country is "God Bless the USA." The words paint a detailed picture of the beauty of the United States, both in a physical and emotional aspect. Our country is often depicted in a majestic manner such as this, making it seem like the greatest in the world and we often hear those bold words, "I'm proud to be an American."  With all of the issues that have been cropping up over the past couple of years such as impeachment, systemic racism, foreign intervention, and most significantly the COVID-19 pandemic, I have reflected deeply about what we celebrate with the 4th of July. These issues are just a few of the many that have made me wonder about the country we praise so proudly.  Am I really proud to be an American?  Thomas Jefferson wrote the candid words of the Declaration of Independence, which were th...

You make me dance like a fool, forget how to breath, shine like gold...

Dear Readers, Ok, so I can't fit the entire title into the title box. It's a good song, go look it up: "You make me smile." The title can apply to anyone, I've found. The rest of the lyrics would probably refer to a best friend or a significant other, but anyone can make you smile. They all have the own way of doing it. Some are just funny all the time and you can't help smiling when you're around that person. I know some who take care of people so well that you just smile when they're doing something for another. Others you can talk to about your problems and no matter what they say, it seems to make sense and you feel better...thus a smile. Ok, a smile doesn't always come in that case, but people usually smile after that. Anyone can have a blonde moment and make everyone smile because of it. I'm glad I've got friends who can do all of these: have blonde moments, take care of others or have an episode of hyperactivity that you can't he...

I've Been Watching You

Dear Reader, Our little boy has not even arrived yet and I am already feeling the pressure to a good example. All growing up, I was always told to never do anything that I wouldn't want my children to know about/do themselves. "Always be on your best behavior, your children will watch you." I will be honest, I have always agreed with that idea and I think it is a good way to live your life. However, I didn't feel the weight of that responsibility until my wife got pregnant. I feel like I am getting more and more pressure from myself to be a perfect example, even though this little boy hasn't even met me yet. That's why I am relating so much with this song right now. I know, this isn't too deep. I just wanted to share the song more than anything.