ML #1 (Part B) Tell about your temple sealing

The Salt Lake City Temple
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints

May 22, 1981 was one of the happiest days of my life.  I felt like I had everything I had ever wanted or could ever want, and I was right. Sixteen months after joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I was finally ready and able to enter the temple of God, to receive instruction to gain a greater understanding of eternity and to be sealed to my family for time and all eternity.

We "Mormons" believe that civil marriage on earth is for this life or for "time."  As we also believe that families can be together forever, we believe the family has to be sealed together, in a temple of God, by one who has the priesthood power and authority to perform this ordinance.  Having lost both of my parents and all my grandparents by the age of twenty, the promise of having eternity with them is a promise so extraordinary, I could hardly wait the requisite year after my baptism to enter the temple!

The day finally arrived though, not quite six weeks after the birth of my second daughter, Samantha.  The fact that I nearly died giving birth to Samantha had given me a whole new appreciation for my own life.  The fact that we still didn't know the extent of Sami's heart defects, the possibility that we might not have her with us long in this life weighed heavily on our minds, but we had our new faith to sustain us and the promise of things to come in the temple.

When we arrived at the Salt Lake Temple, we had to leave the girls in a nursery while Randy and I went on to receive our instruction which ended in the beautiful, peaceful Celestial room of the Temple.

SLC Temple -  Celestial Room

After being given some quiet time in the Celestial room to reflect on the spiritual teachings and blessings we had received and the covenants we had made with our Father in Heaven, we were escorted to a sealing room within the temple.

Sealing Room
Salt Lake City Temple

After receiving some additional instruction from our sealer about the differences between an eternal marriage and a marriage for time we were also taught of the additional blessings promised to those who remain faithful and Christ-centered in their marriage.  Then we knelt across the altar from one another and were sealed together for eternity.  As wonderful as that blessing was, it didn't compare to the love, joy and blessing I felt when the women from the nursery entered the sealing room with our two beautiful little girls, all dressed in white (Meg with curls and a white bow in her hair).  

So like Megan, she entered the quiet, reverent room, looked at Randy and I kneeling across the altar from one another, and, in her chipper voice said, "Heeellooo, Mommy!  Heeelloooo, Daddy!"  So like herself, the twenty people in attendance in the sealing room with us couldn't help but laugh. I however, could do little more than smile as the tears welled up in my eyes. My love and joy has never been stronger than it was in that moment when I looked at my two little angels.  Megan was brought to kneel at the altar with us, while Sami was laid on the altar so I could touch her hand and our two beautiful girls were sealed to us as well.  Not only were we promised to have Megan & Sami to be with us forever, we also received the promise that all additional children would be "born under the covenant" and would be included in that promise and that blessing.

Randy, Meg, Sami & I
Outside the SLC Temple

I know the idea of a "forever family" may sound odd to some reading this blog who don't understand the teachings of the LDS church.  But to me, the teachings of the church were always more of a remembrance to me.  As I listened to the missionaries who taught me the gospel, I knew, in my heart and in my soul that the things they were teaching me were true.  I believe in an eternal family and having been deprived of a lot of my family in this life, I look forward to the day when I will be reunited with them all in the next life.

Being converts to the church, living in the state of Utah made us a bit of a novelty to the members of our ward.  Most members in Utah were born into LDS families.  But, as the novelty in our ward, we received untold amounts of love and support from our "ward family" as we prepared ourselves to enter the temple for the first time. Many of these special friends attended our sealing that beautiful spring day.

Our closest LDS Friends

There were two VERY special people in attendance that day.  Bart Chournos, the missionary who worked with Randy and I for six straight months.  Bart had promised me when I was baptized in January that he wouldn't be transferred until Randy was ready to be baptized as well.  Sure enough, Bart was transferred two days after Randy's baptism in March!  Our son, Barton, is named for Bart.  What a special friend and blessing he has been through the years, especially in his very close relationship to Meg!

Bart & Meg with Susan & Sami
Temple grounds
(Love Bart's afro!)

The other VERY special person with us that day was Susan Call.  Now, stories of Susan need to be a blog all in and of itself, but Susan was there for us, just as she was every day from the time we moved to Utah until we were sealed and every day since! She's truly a one-of-a-kind woman who loves people and you can't help but love her back!  My kids all grew up knowing her as "Aunt Susan," because she's just that close.

Have I mentioned how important that day was to me?  I don't know how to even express how important it was and still is to me to this day.  It was the day I knew I wanted to work in the temple, it was the day I promised to obey God's commandments and to keep my covenants; it was the day I was promised to have my children to be with me through eternity AND it was the day I truly came to understand and believe exactly how I could still have an eternity with my mom, my dad and all of my other loved ones.  "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I know who I am. I know God's plan. I'll follow him in faith. I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I'll honor his name. I'll do what is right. I'll follow his light. His truth I will proclaim."

"I Love to See the Temple"

"I have a family here on earth. They are so good to me. I want to share my life with them through all eternity.  Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can."

I bear witness and testify of these things, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.