I just haven't met him yet...

This song makes me smile!

just because I feel like it

"True, enduring happiness, with the accompanying strength, courage, and capacity to overcome the greatest difficulties, will come as you center your life in Jesus Christ. Obedience to His teachings provides a secure ascent in the journey of life. That takes effort. While there is no guarantee of overnight results, there is the assurance that, in the Lord's time, solutions will come, peace will prevail, and happiness will be yours." --Richard G. Scott

"We can’t predict all the struggles and storms in life, not even the ones just around the next corner, but as persons of faith and hope, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and the best is yet to come." --L Tom Perry (Let Him Do It With Simplicity)

"Men & women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace."--President Ezra Taft Benson

"Receiving the Holy Ghost is the therapy which effects forgiveness and heals the sin-sick soul."--Marion G. Romney

"May God help us to be a little kinder, showing forth greater forbearance, to be more forgiving, more willing to walk the second mile, to reach down and lift up those who may have sinned but have brought forth the fruits of repentance, to lay aside old grudges and nurture them no more." --Gordon B. Hinkley

"Where love is, there is no disputation. Where love is, there is no contention. Where love is, there God will be also." --Thomas S. Monson

"Our motives and thoughts ultimately influence our actions. Jesus repeatedly emphasized the power of good thoughts and proper motives: 'Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not' (D&C 6:36). "In Proverbs we read, 'For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he' (Proverbs 23:7)." --Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children." --Gordon B. Hinkley

" 'No one can assist in this work [unless] he shall be humble and full of love' (D&C 12:8). 'By love serve one another' (Gal. 5:13). Just as service is a natural consequence of love, so is love a natural consequence of service. Husbands, serve your wives. Wives, serve your husbands. Husbands and wives, serve your children. And to all we say, serve God and neighbor. As we do so, we will come to love the object of our devotion and thus be obedient to the first and great commandment of love." --Robert F. Orton

"By the way you live the gospel, you reflect [the Savior's] light. Your example will have a powerful effect for good on the earth. 'Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations' (D&C 115:5) is a call to each of you. It is a call to move to higher ground. It is a call to leadership—to lead out in decency, purity, modesty, and holiness. It is a call to share this light with others. It is time to 'arise and shine forth.' " --Elaine Dalton

"Sisters, don't be afraid to be different in our century! Sometimes we have to be different in order to maintain Church standards. So I repeat, don't be afraid to be different, but be as good as you can be." --James E. Faust

"A woman with a mother heart has a testimony of the restored gospel, and she teaches the principles of the gospel without equivocation. She is keeping sacred covenants made in holy temples. Her talents and skills are shared unselfishly. She gains as much education as her circumstances will allow, improving her mind and spirit with the desire to teach what she learns to the generations who follow her." --Julie Beck

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity." --Margaret D. Nadauld

"The Priesthood . . . is a perfect order and system of government, and this alone can deliver the human family from all the evils which now afflict its members, and insure them happiness and felicity hereafter." --Brigham Young

Smiling

Life is good.

WELCOME

(These pictures aren't the best, they came from my mom's cell phone)

Cadrian Blaine Thomas Reed was born on Sunday February 7th at 2:25pm. He came 3 weeks early and weighed 5 lbs 3oz and was 19 inches long. I can't wait to meet this little guy! Congrats to my brother Conrade and his girlfriend Steva, I love you guys.

August 21, 2010

LDS SINGLES CRUISE TO....

THE BAHAMAS!!!

Kristin's Life...

I have to apologize in advance for being such a terrible writer; English has never been my favorite subject, or even one that I was good at. Kristin I’m sorry if I put words in your mouth, there is no way I can express what you are feeling. This is my story of a piece of your life through my eyes. Thank you for letting me share it and be a part of it!

I always knew of Kristin, I knew who she was, everyone does. She is full of life, super spunky, fun to be around, optimistic, has tons of friends, and is super cute among many other things! Kristin and I didn’t become close until about a year (maybe two years) ago. We were sitting at the Hamilton’s for FHE when she started talking about her birth-mom and a little about her adoption story. I don’t remember the details of what she was talking about but I was interested in what she was saying, I’m pretty sure she was talking to my sisters Trisha, and Kandis. I pulled my chair up to be in the little circle they were in, and listened. At one point during the conversation Trisha looked at me and asked me a question about my thoughts as a birth-mom. Kristin looked a little confused and then I asked her if she knew that I had a baby that I had placed. Kristin is so cute, she got all excited and something along the lines of “WHAT!? I didn’t know that! You can be MY birth-mom anytime!” That’s how it started; we talked and talked, laughed and cried.

We shared adoption stories with each other and talked about what it was like to be a birth-mom (me) and an adopted child (her). She always had a positive outlook on adoption and always expressed gratitude to her family and her birth-mom, which always made me happy and gave me peace. Since I’ve known Kristin she has been dying to know her birth-family, and her birth-mom most of all. (She had a closed adoption). One night when I was at Kristin’s house we went in her bedroom and she closed the door, we sat on her bed and she pulled out a file folder. “Look!” she said. It was a file her parents kept with all of her adoption paperwork, a few letters from Kristin’s birth-mom, and a couple of old pictures. I don’t think Kristin’s parents knew she had that folder, she found it and it was like finding hidden treasure. It was exciting! She had discovered a piece of who she is and her little bit of background information, a piece that she had always been curious about. We read the letters that her birth-mom had sent to Kristin’s mom, we looked at the pictures and cried and laughed some more. That night we also got on facebook and tried doing a little bit of investigative work (aka stalking), but didn’t get too far. There were a few things holding her back from contacting her birth-family. Mostly she’s never wanted to hurt her family, her real family. Kristin's family has other adoptive kids and they had a bad experience with Kristin’s sister’s birth-mom, so Kristin was more sensitive to her family especially her parents’ feelings on this matter.

Kristin moved up to Utah in August, and she’s been having a blast and making me miss Utah! Punk. Anyway, very long story short, (this is probably the part where you will want to read her blog for the details) she found out that her birth-brother (technically her biological half brother) works a MILE away from where she is living in Provo! She had a ton of experiences that led up to her birth-mom e-mailing her on facebook! There is WAY too much information, experience, and emotion in this part of her story for ME to share, I’ll leave that to her. I was on the phone with her when she got the e-mail from her birth-mom and we both just freaked out a little! Kristin started secretly (sorry girl I just blew it, guess it’s not so secret now!) e-mailing her birth-mom, they e-mailed a million times in like a two or three day time period. There are a few reasons why this was so fun and exciting for me. The first reason is that my sweet Kristin forwarded me the e-mails that were going back and forth between her and her birth-mom. The second reason is obvious; I’m a birth-mom and dreamed about this moment happening in my own life someday with Claire. The third reason is that I love Kristin and I know how much she had been anticipating and anxiously waiting for this time in her life! So for the past couple of weeks I have felt like I’m in a movie, or like I’m watching a really amazing movie that I can’t take my eyes off of!

Watching Kristin find her birth-mom and start learning new things about her birth-family has been an exciting, emotional, and heartwarming experience for me. I can’t really explain it and I know it sounds ridiculous but I swear I can feel the emotions that they are experiencing. I love adoption stories, I love happy endings. There has been nothing but pure love, joy, and happiness in this experience. Anyone who says adoption is selfish and terrible really has no idea, and Kristin’s story like so many other adoption stories will prove it! I can’t help but think about Claire and her adoption story. How grateful I am for listening to the Holy Ghost and placing Claire for adoption. She has the most amazing family and really has such a great life, she is one lucky girl! I know that Claire and I will be friends one day, I wonder what it will be like and I wonder what kinds of questions she will want to ask me. Timing is everything for any situation, and when you hear Kristin tell her story you will know and see that this was not just a coincidence, Heavenly Father had everything to do with the timing of Kristin and her birth-mom meeting (even if it has only been through e-mail and facebook so far). Adoption is a miracle and Heavenly Father has defiantly had His hand in all the adoption stories I’ve heard.

I will never be able to fully express the love I have for Claire and for Brianne and Trevor. My life would not be the same without them. Claire saved my life, literally. I would not be on the path I am now if it wasn’t for her, and for that I am forever grateful. Adoption is a sacred and precious thing for all who are involved, there are things that cannot really be explained unless you have experienced them yourself.

Adoption = LOVE

Kristin will be blogging about this soon I'm sure, her blog address is www.kristindavies.com

I love you girl! I'm excited for this new chapter that is opening up in your life.

wishing today was a lazy day

Today is one of those days that I wish I could just lay in bed with someone and spend the whole day doing nothing! I'm sleepy and want to be lazy, but I want company. Someone I can snuggle up to and kiss, but not just anyone, someone special. I want a few more days of 'nothing' in my life. Is that a bad thing, to want to be lazy and do nothing?

Skinny Jeans

I lost 10 pounds just from being gluten free for two weeks. My skinny jeans fit again and my confidence level just went up about a million points. I finally have been working out again and I can't even explain how amazing that feels. I signed up with my sisters and mom to run a marathon to benefit Autism at the end of March. Yay for getting back into shape! I've been an uncomfortable fat blob for way too long now.