Always and Forever

As soon as Kevin and I knew we were going to get married, Kevin started the paperwork process for him to get a temple clearance to be sealed to me since he was married in the temple to his first wife. Knowing how long this process can take, we decided to get married civilly first and our goal was to go through the temple on our 1 year anniversary.

Well...the process took a lot longer than we anticipated. Our first anniversary came and went and we were still waiting for some paperwork to be submitted from our bishop and stake president. At this point, we were expecting our first baby and our new goal was to be sealed before she came in October.

We received our letter from the 1st presidency in late August. Now came the task of trying to find a date that worked for everyone. My sister was getting married in September and we didn't want to steal her thunder, so we decided to get sealed on October 11th. That was only 11 days before my due date so we were praying that everything would work out for that day.

I guess our sweet little Charley wanted to be there with us because she decided to come 7 weeks early. (You can read about that story in a previous post). Since she was so early, she had to stay in the hospital for awhile. We didn't know if she would be able to come home in time for the 11th but we forged ahead with our current plan, praying that it would all work out.

Charley was released from the hospital 3 days before our sealing date. I knew that Heavenly Father would prepare a way because this was just too important for our family.

Since Charley was so little, we needed to keep her quarantined for 6 months so that her little body wouldn't catch any viruses or infections going around during the winter season.  We knew we didn't want to postpone this ordinance any longer, since it had already been 18 months. So I called ahead to the temple and told them about our special circumstance. They were more than happy to accommodate our needs and made sure that the temple workers in the nursery that day were healthy.

We were sealed in the Logan, UT temple surrounded by family and friends on Saturday, October 11, 2014. We had to limit how long Charley was away from home, so we weren't able to spend more time with our family and friends like I had hoped. I really wanted to go to dinner with everyone to celebrate our special day. But keeping Charley healthy was our number one priority.

We were able to take a few pictures outside after the ceremony to help us remember this special day.

Being sealed to my family for all eternity is the most important thing to me and having my sweet baby girl there to be sealed to Kevin and myself was the sweetest, most precious experience of my life. I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ who have made it possible for me to return to live with them and my family for eternity.