An Update at last.. .

Ok, so it has been forever since I have made a blog entry. The date can attest to that. February was a crazy month for us. Earlier in the month, we had learned that Christian’s Aunt Cheryll had a tumor in her pancreas that has progressively gotten worse. Well on Valentine’s Day, the tumor had blocked off her bile valve and causing her liver to shut down. We went to the hospital that day where doctors placed a shunt in order for it to work properly. We spent the rest of the evening there, spending time with her husband, Christian’s Uncle Jeff. After this surgery, she never recovered from the anesthetic and her body began to quickly shut down. Christian’s dad flew out, since it was his sister, and spent 7 days with us. It was good to spend time with him when he was here. His dad then flew back last Sunday for the funeral that was March 3^rd. I came away from the funeral wishing I had known her better but also grateful for the plan of Salvation that makes it possible to get to know her better in the future.

In the amount of time we spent at the hospital, Christian and I realized how precious life really is. We don’t know how long we’ll be here on this earth and we need to make the best of the time that we have. As we walked out of the hospital, one night, I met a teenage girl, waiting for her someone to pick her up from the hospital. She didn’t look more than 16 or 17 years old and she was holding a brand new little baby that was born the day before. I watcher her face as she was truly in awe of this little life. As I walked away from her, my heart full, it brought tears to my eyes as I contemplated the true circle of life.

Also in early February, we spent time on Whidbey Island where Christian’s great Aunt and Uncle live. In visiting them we confirmed some genealogy so we could begin to work on his family line. I learned that Christian’s great grandparents were born in Italy and were married there and then immigrated to America in 1920. It was incredible to see the scanned pages from Ellis Island that shows their names. We took 4 individuals (his great-great-grandparents) and were baptized in the temple in behalf of them. What an experience that was! Neither of us had done family names before in the baptistry and it was amazing. We felt like we really did something and felt they had truly accepted our service. The next month, March, we did the initiatory, endowments and sealings for one of the couples. It was a very sacred experience for us and we plan to return soon to complete the same for next couple. Just knowing that I have their name cards sitting on my computer, it is so very real to me that they are waiting for US to complete their work. It is up to us to complete their ordinances here that they can do there in heaven.