Finally a Mother???

Since Mother’s day has just passed and I’ve been thinking of writing a post regarding Mother’s Day for a couple years now, I figured I could combine two topics into one. My thoughts on Mother’s Day then and now as well as how we came to have a sweet little boy in our home. This blog post is probably going to be a lot longer than initially intended, but it tells the whole story.

I have never really enjoyed Mother’s Day celebrations, other than to celebrate the wonderful Mother that I have who still is and always will be the best Mother in the world and my best friend (I’m sure all of my siblings would agree with this statement). You see ever since I was 18 and first asked to stand after church to receive a flower, for being a woman over 18, I’ve not felt like a mother. It is hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t gone through something similar with an ache in their heart for the one thing they have always wanted, children. 

To me, I wasn’t a Mother because I didn’t have children. From the time that I was 18 until I was 26 I was single and avoided getting or tried to avoid receiving the Mother’s Day gift at church because I was not married and had no prospects and I didn’t feel like a Mother. Then after finally convincing someone I was worth having, and going from 26 to 40 as a married woman without having children, I still didn’t feel like a Mother. (I wonder even know if I can feel like a Mother or ever will).

When my husband and I first got married, well actually before, we discussed having children and if we would wait a bit (you know to get established, have the money , house etc.) and decided we would let nature takes its course and be accepting of any children we were blessed with. Skip past the 14yrs of trying - one miscarriage, three rounds of IVF with two miscarriages and two years of waiting/hoping to be selected for adoption – and we finally have a child in our home. The worst part of this whole experience was when people would ask if we had kids and when the response was no (or that they all had four legs – pets), the follow-up always seemed to be “is it by choice”; that in and of itself is a very hard question to answer because it would always bring tears and a very sad no (note the above reasons). I mean, if it was my choice we would have at least five, if not six children by now, but it wasn’t my/our choice, it was how things just happened to be for us.

So, now you are wondering how did we come to have a child in our home? We received an e-mail just after Christmas 2013 from our adoption profile on itsaboutlove.org simply asking would we be interested in adopting their 5yr old with cerebral palsy. I read the e-mail at least four times before saying something to my husband and then discussing it with my parents (we were visiting them when we got it). I didn’t respond for a day or two because I was researching online and contemplating what to say in return. I simply stated that we were interested in knowing more and whatever the family was willing to share with us and if they had any questions of us.

This was the response:

What a joy it was to receive a response from you two! To be honest, it felt like a Christmas gift to us. Logan just turned 5 in November and he the most amazing person! We like to call him “the ladies man”! Since he is non-verbal, he smiles a lot and works his dimples to get his way haha! He understands most everything we say and does a bit of signing. Logan has a light in him that is full of life.  We always joke around that we should have named him “Giggles” since he is always laughing! He has a belly laugh that will make you instantly fall in love with him. He is a sweet, gentle boy who loves being the middle of attention, loves tickle wars, absolutely LOVES Elmo and he also loves being snuggled. He loves walking in his walker as quickly as he can and chase the dogs lol! His favorite thing is shaking his head "no" and laughing when he wants to be a stinker haha!

He was born via emergency c section (lack of fetal movement) at 39 weeks and was in the NICU for ten days. He was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. Despite the diagnosis, he was thriving and meeting his milestones. At three months of age, we were hit head on by a drunk driver at 70-75mph. It’s a miracle that we walked away. After the accident, Logan’s pediatrician noted that Logan was regressing and suspected Logan had a traumatic brain injury.

5 years later, Logan proved his neurologist wrong. He is walking short distances with a walker (has a seat sling), understands what we say, has the most amazing smile and isn’t a “lump” like his neuro said he would be. He can crawl (which is huge!!!), pull to a stand against furniture and is starting to cruise a bit as well. He has come so very far and we are so very proud of him!

After the wreck, I had two reconstructive surgeries on my right collar bone. I am struggling with Logan’s weight since I have a 20# weight limit on my bad shoulder. My family lives out of state (we are in Texas) and my husband’s family is broken and not supportive. I am a stay at home mom to our two boys and my husband is a safety guy in the oil field. My husband is often gone on long business trips, leaving me to run the house myself. I heavily rely on my husband to help me with wheelchair transfers to his car seat, bathing and tucking him into bed since his room is upstairs. Logan is on the smaller side at 35(ish) pounds. My doctor has stressed to me that if I continue lifting Logan with my bad shoulder, that I will rip my rotator cuff.

It breaks our hearts, but we want the best for Logan. We want him to be surrounded by family that will love and support him. That’s something that my parents being so far away and my husband’s family can’t give.  We want fresh enthusiasm and love that is endless. We want him to be loved as much as we love him. This is a decision out of love, and we want to know he is with the right family that is ready to take on where we left off. We want the very best for our baby. We have and continue to pray deeply for his future. We are devout in our faith in God and we know He is in control.

Dave and I discussed it some more and then decided to fast and pray about it. We asked our family to keep us in their thoughts and prayers during the next fast Sunday so we could make the right decision. After completing our fast we felt like it was what we should do, so I simply sent an e-mail to the family stating “Yes, we are interested in pursuing the adoption of Logan.” It was determined that we would need to go out and visit (late February 2014) to make sure we were still comfortable with our decision as well as the compatibility of the two families, as it would be an open adoption and Logan has a Texas family (as well as all our family in Texas, Utah, Arizona, Idaho and North Carolina). 

The visit went well and we were able to become friends and family while discussing all of the ins and outs of having a child with cerebral palsy. We didn’t change our minds after meeting Logan and working with him, it just confirmed our feelings of needing to bring him into our home.

I should probably back track just a little here. Dave and I had already started the adoption paperwork (almost two years before this), just to be approved, have the home study done and be viable candidates for adoption. When we initially started the process it took us almost six months to get all the paperwork together, background checks done, reference letters sent and anything else that Virginia decided to throw at us. After our approval, the laws changed and we had to do more paperwork and training and after that we found out that our initial social worker wouldn’t be able to do our home study anymore and that it was going to lapse with their licenses so we had to find another social worker to help us renew our home study (this was about the same time we decided to adopt Logan).

We had to once again go through the whole process of collecting paperwork and getting background checks and references (yes, people had to vouch for us to say we would be good parents and we are not some crazy people {ok, we are crazy, but still}). It took another month or so to gather all the old papers and update what needed to be updated, have a home visit/inspection done and then a visit to finalize the papers. Once this was done it was all sent to the lawyers in TX, who had already begun the paperwork on their end.

Finally in April 2014, we received word we could travel to Texas to pick-up Logan. We coordinated being gone from work for two to three weeks in order to pick-up Logan and then visit family in Utah. We knew we needed a different vehicle so we purchased a 2004 Ford Excursion (we call it the beast). With the purchase of this vehicle we decided to sell Dave’s truck. I told my Mom we were going to sell the truck and she asked for how much, next thing we know my uncle buys it and we had to get the truck to NC. We decided to take it down on our way to TX. So, Sunday, 13 April, after church I headed to my parents, with the beast loaded for our trip and full of some stuff for my parents. Dave left VA right after working a twelve hour night shift on Monday morning and drove to my parents in the truck. 

After Dave arrived at my parents, we ensured my uncle had all he needed for his new vehicle, our truck and then headed down to TX. We had to make an overnight stop, but made it to TX on Tuesday afternoon, 15 April. We were pretty excited to see Logan and his TX family again. We did have to spend a couple days in TX, awaiting the ICPC (interstate adoption compact thingy) approval to take Logan out of the state of TX. We did finally received approval at 1:30PM on Thursday 17 April and were able to get back on the road again late that evening. It took another couple days to get to Utah, but it was worth the trip. Logan was able to meet almost all of his cousins and aunts and uncles as well as a grandma while we were there. After a few days visiting with family we headed back home and stopped in again at my parents so they could meet Logan. We spent a couple days there to rest before we made the last leg home.

Just the three of us...

So, that is how we came to be parents of a wonderful 5 yr old boy. This past Mother’s Day was my first “official” Mother’s Day and Dave’s first “official” Father’s Day is just around the corner. Realizing Logan is a blessing to both of us, Mother’s Day is still a holiday that brings back feelings that I’m sure will never go away, part of me would like them to and the other part would rather keep them as they remind me of the blessings I do have and they might allow me to sympathize with others in the same situation or who may still be struggling with not having children in their home. Don’t judge those of us who have a hard time with Mother’s Day, with or without children, by choice or not, as you may not know what we’ve had to go through in order to have a child or children in our home or what we are still going through to try and enjoy the day or celebrate the day as a Mother or for our own Mother’s.

Old Photographs Bring Back Great Memories

Yesterday while I was walking with my dogs, I was thinking of this photograph…

This one of my favorite photos from my childhood. I'm the youngest in this shot, though one of my little sisters was around somewhere. I was one and a bit back in 1974 when this was taken. My little sister was only a few weeks old, if she was born then. There are two other members of the family missing, but because this was in North Carolina, they weren't even thought of at this time. I like this picture, not because I remember taking it, but because I remember the sights and smells and people of where it was taken. My great grandfather had a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains and we use to go visit him there during the summer. We would drink from the stream with a wooden ladle tied to a branch. We would catch lightening bugs and chase each other around. It was a great time, but like I said, I don't remember taking the picture, but it always stirs the memories of my great grandparents.

When Pa died, we had already moved to Arizona, I was probably eight or so, though I don't remember and I don't think I even really knew. I just know that after going back to visit, we would only see Ma and I never though to ask about Pa. I do remember when Ma passed away though. She was well into her 90s, or was it 104? I can't really remember that much either, but I know she was very frail and many said that she was losing her memory. I know that whenever I visited, she made me feel as though she should remember who I was and always said I was her "little bug." (That is funny in and of itself because we use to refer to my little brother as "bug" because he had such big eyes.) Anyway, I loved visiting with her and this picture is one that was taken ten or more years before her passing…

I remember this day, she wanted me to help her fix her hair before she had her picture taken. I really miss her. One other thought then comes to mind while thinking of this day and the many times we went to visit Ma and Pa at their cabin. I remember peppermint tobacco. Now, I'm not a smoker and smoke usually bothers me, but there is something about peppermint tobacco that doesn't seem to bother me at all, it reminds me of Ma and Pa. I think Pa smoked it in his pipe more than Ma did and truthfully, I don't know if she did at all, but still, it's a memory that takes me back to them and their love for us.

I have the following photo on my mantel next to pictures of my parents and both sets of my grandparents. I was one of the lucky ones growing up, I had a great-grandmother and both sets of grandparents were living. Until two years ago, that is. I sure miss them. I still have my grandmothers, they are the best things in the world. It will be sad when they are no longer here, though I'm sure they will be happy to be together again. So the picture on my mantel…

I think this was the last time we had her out of the house before she had to be moved to a nursing home. I still kick myself for not going to visit her the last time we were visiting for a family reunion prior to her passing. I had the opportunity, but didn't take it. My only suggestion, take lots of pictures and take every opportunity you can to visit with those you want to remember forever, you never know when it might be the last time you are able to visit them.

Time….

This picture is of a gift from a few Christmas' ago, from a dear friend. He knew how much I loved Disney and so he bought me this vintage clock. I start my post today with this picture because when I look at it, I always ponder the subject of time...

Time seems to be an issue for me. I either have to much (not usually) or to little (most of the time) to do what I want. It either goes way to fast, when I’m enjoying life or goes way to slow, when I’m bored at work. The real thing is time never changes, it’s just how we each observe or keep it that really is the difference.

I don’t have enough time, it seems, to do all the things I wanna do, however, I also seem to waste my time doing things that really don’t matter, picture Farmville.

The best time is always the time I get to spend with my lover, and eternal companion DAVE. Every moment together is wonderful and sometimes, well most of the time in my opinion is there’s not enough of that TIME.

This is a wonderful clock sitting on my mantel and it is fun to watch too, even if it's just watching the time go by, but the little mouse heads at the bottom spin in order to keep the time going.

Sometimes, my life seems to be spinning just as these mouse heads do and I wonder when the spinning might stop or if something will come of the spinning.

The Story of Us...

Thirteen years ago today, I married the love of my life. I’ve told the story several times to many different people, but this is how I remember it happening and as it is our thirteenth anniversary, I figured I might as well blog about my fairytale beginning. Yes, it is only the beginning; it is not the end as we have eternity to be together and so it was the beginning of a new life - going from Me to US.

The year was 1999 and a friend of mine was having some success with finding dates via an online dating service. I had been chatting back and forth with some people via Hotmail’s single scene, but nothing ever really came to fruition. The site my friend was using was called ldssingles and I figured, that might actually work out better, because I hoped the individuals would be LDS and therefore temple worthy.

Let me insert a little tid bit here to explain. LDS is the acronym used by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since I was a child, I had wanted nothing more than to marry in the temple for time and all eternity. This meant, I had to date and marry a worthy Priesthood holder. You can find out more about the Church and our beliefs at lds.org or mormon.org. Many people know us as the Mormons but the true name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

OK, so back to the story. My friend tried to convince me for more than a month to try out this dating site, he was currently dating a young lady that he had met online and things were going well for him. I finally decided to check it out and created a profile sometime in the summer of 1999. I dated a few people, chatted with a few people online but nothing seemed to be going well. Some of the guys I dated were not living the word of wisdom or temple worthy. One guy, who I dated a second time, told me he hadn’t been divorced yet (he was dropped right then as were all those who weren’t temple worthy). Many of my friends told me I was being too picky and that it didn’t matter if I married in the temple or not, but I was not going to back down from this decision I made ever since I could remember.

Finally, I had had enough of the dating scene, the people weren’t panning out and it just didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so I didn’t pay to renew my subscription. By this time, it was well into October or November. A couple weeks after letting my subscription expire; I received an e-mail that someone had posted a note to my page. I thought that if I didn’t pay or renew my subscription that my profile would be taken down, that apparently wasn’t the case. I decided to pay for a one week period responded to the individual by telling them I was going to take my profile off at the end of the week and that he should contact me at my personal e-mail address.

He wrote back to tell me he too was thinking of taking his profile off. We chatted back and forth via e-mail for a few weeks before he gave me his phone number and asked me to call. I told him I was an old fashioned gal and I wouldn’t call him, but gave him my phone number so he could call whenever he wanted too.

I remember the first day we talked on the phone; I didn’t realize just how long we talked until well after my mother told me. Apparently, we had a lot to talk about because we were on the phone for about four or five hours. This was in December a few weeks before Christmas. We continued to communicate with e-mail and on the phone for awhile, and then we decided to meet each other. I told him I had rules regarding the meeting of individuals that I had met online and he had to be ok with these rules. I told him that it had to be a double date with a member of my family (brother or sister with their husband or wife or my little sister as my body guard). He had no problem with that and we decided to go on a double date with my sister Janet and her husband David. We were supposed to meet at my parent’s home, as I was renting from them, and go to a local steakhouse for dinner. When Janet showed up at the house, she had a bag of steaks and said we were going to have a cook-out at moms instead.

Let me interject a little tid bit into this section too. Not only was I renting from my Mom, because Dad was in Kuwait on a tour (keep in mind this was before the war), but one brother was staying in the other bedroom and one brother with his wife and two children was in the basement.

Since it was about time for Dave to show-up at the house, I just said, OK. Well, the boys were all out grilling the steaks when Dave showed up. David showed him in, through the garage and laundry room to the family room where we were all chatting and fixing the sides for dinner. David introduced us and then I introduced him to everyone else that was at the house, which was almost the entire family. My brother’s two kids wouldn’t leave him alone, they took to him like they had known him forever and that was not like them at all. Normally, they are shy around new people, but they like Dave from the beginning.

We had dinner and then stayed up taking for hours afterwards. After he left, and I think the next day because it was late, I told mom that he probably wouldn’t be coming back anytime soon. I mean, after meeting the entire family on our first date, who would right? Well, mom just smiled at me and later told me she knew he would come back because he looked at me the way dad always looked at her. Many times she said that the things he did and how he treats me reminds her of how my dad treats my mom.

OK, I was sidetracked for a bit. Well, now we are into January 2000 and Dave wants to go out again. The day he wanted to go out, I had to go to my sister’s house for her son’s birthday party, so I invited him to go with me, and then he could meet more of my family. He agreed so we spent the day with my sister and her kids. The kids took to Dave, all of them, those there for the party as well as my sister’s three. It was fun and since the next day was Sunday, I invited him to attend our meeting, especially because I was teaching in the Primary.

We saw each other at every chance, which was mostly over the weekends and occasionally he would take me to lunch. In February, the 14^th to be exact, Dave was over at the house. It was getting time for him to leave and so we were sitting on the floor while he put his shoes on and he just stared at me. I said “what” like I always did and he said “I could stare into those eyes for eternity.” I said, “I can let you do that.” And so that was the proposal. We hadn’t known each other but almost two full months when we decided to get married. We talked all the time and like I said, we spent all the time we could together. After that day, when we weren’t at work, we were probably together.

I met his mother and one sister at the same time his mom met my mom and I was introduced as the fiancé. I think it shocked everyone, because it was so short a time. But we started talking about dates and things. We had planned to have the wedding in October when my father returned from Kuwait.

I must interject here again, my father was on orders to be in Kuwait and Dave had met him via chatting at night during his breaks. This was something I hadn’t really realized until the moment that I’m about to describe.

We were chatting, via webcam, with my father; Dave and I were sitting on mom’s bed holding hands when Dad said, let go of my little girl. We just laughed, because dad already knew we were getting married and we were trying to figure out when. We figured October when he came home would be best, but then my mom had to leave the room and dad asked us to close the door. I did and he said, I want you to move it up, to the first week in April. I was shocked, are you kidding me, that soon, but he said that he was going to surprise my mom by coming home early for leave and so we had to have the wedding then. He said if it’s right, why wait. So I looked at Dave and we both shrugged and said, OK. Then I had to figure out how I was going to convince my mom that I was going to get married without my father present.

Things started happening really fast after that. My sister had created my bouquet; I think she actually started it when I started dating. My mother made my dress and all the while, whenever the wedding came up I had to conceal the fact that I had a secret. A couple times my mom had to stop talking because tears would come to her eyes knowing my father wouldn’t be present. We convinced her that the only opening at the temple was the date we chose and so we had to do it then and that dad understood and didn’t want us to wait. When we were getting our recommend interviews to be sealed for time and all eternity, the Bishop asked me if I couldn’t wait for my father, when I said I couldn’t lie to him and told him dad would be there but that it was a secret. I could see the relief and joy in his face after that.

It was really hard to keep the secret from my mom, I had never done anything like it before and so a few times when we started to talk about the wedding, I had to leave the room and I hated even mentioning it because I knew it was hard for her not to have dad there.

The day my dad was scheduled to land, Dave and I picked him up from the airport. We drove him to the town meeting, because my mom was the town clerk and she was taking the minutes. Dave and I stepped into the back and sat down; mom glanced at us and didn’t think anything of it. Then when they had a break, I motioned to the Mayor and he said that we had a special visitor from the Far East. Mom glanced up for a second then went back to her work, and then she stopped and looked up again, because my dad had stepped into the room when the Mayor said he was visiting and started walking towards the front. Mom started crying and jumped up. I think I even started crying at this time. She was so flustered that the Mayor excused her from the rest of the meeting. She couldn’t see through the tears to take more notes.

After we got them home, she told me she couldn’t believe we had pulled this off and that she wasn’t going to forgive me for lying all this time. (I think she has though, it was a good trick).

Dave and I were then sealed for time and all eternity on the 5^th of April 2000. Though our courtship was short, our marriage has been wonderful and we are very happy and plan on growing old and spending eternity together as one.

We did a lot of kissing.

Dave decided to shove the cake in my face and it ended up my nose.

Our first dance together

Walking down the stairs from the original front door.

I call this one dreamy eyes.

More kissing...

This was his Mom's favorite, leaning on the temple.

Again, our kissing at the doors.

Stretching for each other.

Happy New Year! Welcome 2013

Can you believe it is 2013 already? I mean, it seems like yesterday that I was in High School. I can't even remember how long I've been away from the West Coast, just wondering where the time is going. I know I think of many things I need to write, both in my blog and in my journal and yet, I haven't written anything in my journal for more than three months and it's over a year since I've posted on my blog. I know, I must lead a very exciting life right? Well, it's more like a very busy life. It seems like all I do is work, clean house, sleep, work, clean house, sleep...over and over again. This is why time is flying by, things are just going way to fast and it's because I can't stop to smell the roses, like I would like to.

My loving and wonderful husband and I went on a Cruise back in October. I had intended on writing how exciting and wonderful the time was, but when I headed back to work, I could do nothing but concentrate on work and since work isn't slowing down any, I'm just gonna hope to write a blog post at least once a month.

In the new year, people always set goals or make New Year's Resolutions. I wrote a whole blog last year about making goals and setting resolutions and some ideas to actually accomplishing them, but it was on paper, it never made it to the screen. That's my problem, I have a notebook full of blog ideas and yet, I don't sit down and post them. I always wonder who is reading them, or is anyone reading them? What do people think about other people's ramblings anyway?

My husband thinks I'm crazy, but sometimes you want to share stuff with people who don't really know you, hoping that they might find it interesting or who knows, maybe it is something they just need to hear. We never know how we are going to affect people with what we say to perfect strangers.

Ok, so I went off topic just a little bit there. I am going to set some goals for 2013, nothing major, no I'm going to lose the 35 extra pounds I have (mostly because I hope to be pregnant in the near future and so losing weight, though important, isn't a goal right this minute), but something that will help me to relax and spend a little more time with my thoughts or with writing, because I do love writing. I just love typing and putting words on paper and I ramble when I talk, so I kinda ramble when I write. Anyway, to get me started, I've got a goal to write in my journal at least once a week and blog at least once a month. I figure if I can do at least 12 blog posts this year, it will be more posts than I have done in the last two or three years I've had a blog.

I have a funny goal that I would like to set, or have set for 2013. My house seems to be a disaster area and has been for a few months (long story that won't be told here). So I have a goal to clean my house, I mean, I clean it every week; I can't seem to find the time during the week, except to occasionally do the dishes, because of being away from home from 6 to 6 everyday and because I would rather spend time with my husband, I love him and enjoy every minute I can spend with him, he is my best friend and my eternal companion. There I go off topic again, but still, I vacuum and clean the bathrooms, but I have a lot of clutter that needs to be cleaned out and so my goal is to clean out that clutter and get rid of the stuff I don't need or didn't use during 2012. So cleaning my house is more than just dusting and mopping, it's going to be a one room at a time thorough going through and getting into the habit of putting things away instead of piling them up.

I hope to make 2013 better than last year, these few goals will help me along, but I also know that I will continue to make other goals along the way and so the ultimate goal is to just stay on track with all of my goals and as Dori from Finding Nemo says: "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" and eventually, we will find what we are looking for or we will accomplish that one goal that makes us happy or happier.

It's almost time for Halloween...what does that mean?

Yes, Halloween is just around the corner, but what does that mean? Does it mean Christmas is also just around the corner, or maybe the New Year? Well, yeah, it does that too, but what it means to me is that Fall is in the air and leaves are turning colors.

There's something about the earth when it is all green, but then when it starts to turn the many shades of Autumn, it is beautiful still. The world is a wonderful place and all of the colors we see when the air gets crisp is just wonderful. Mountains turn from shades of green to yellow, red, orange and brown. Sometimes in the right light, they even look as though they are on fire, because of the wonderful shades of yellow, orange and red. I love the fall, it's time to bring out the sweaters, hoodies and rakes. Yes, to clean up all the leaves that have fallen from the trees.

Halloween is my favorite time of the year, I love being able to dress-up as something else. I love being scared and scaring others, I love having the opportunity to be something or someone else for even just one day. The question this year, is what shall I be? Something scary, like last year or the year before or the year before? Maybe I'll make my own costume this year, I love to sew and when it gets chilly out, there's nothing like sitting down and sewing or scrapbooking, which is something I'm just getting into these days.

Yes, Halloween is my favorite holiday, it always has been. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and the meaning behind it, but I like having just one day to be someone or something other than myself. It's great that it is just the one day too, because I love who I am and I won't change anything about me; but one day a year, I can be something or someone else.

This photo was taken last year, though I think I've been Sally from "A Nightmare Before Christmas" at least three or four years running, she is my favorite and last year, Dave was Jack Skellington. The perfect couple, but what to be this year?

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who have fallen in the fight for our freedoms and in our protection. It is a time when we should remember that we are free because of others being willing to give their lives for us.

I have a special place in my heart for those who serve in our military and continue to support for and fight for our freedoms. I have many family members who are in the military, as well as a husband and serving myself. It is for love of country and the desire to continue to live in a free country that I serve.

On this Memorial Day, I find myself thinking of my Grandfather, who passed away a couple years ago. He served in the military and was honored for his service in World War II. Due to a fire, we do not have any of his records, just his memories and they were shared with my Mother before his passing. These stories are enough for us to recall the great service he provided so that we are free today.

This also reminds me of the need to keep my own record. Writing down the happenings in my life. Though they may seem like small things today, one day, they may be helpful to someone else. Keeping journals and histories is how we know what happened in the past, there is a need to keep these records now so that those who come after us can remember what we have done. Maybe they can learn from our mistakes.

On this Memorial Day, I am going to remember those who have served and those who are serving. It is because of them that I have the freedoms I do today and I will never forget nor take for granted these freedoms.