Our forever family

Today is the 4th anniversary of the day we took wee one to the temple to be sealed. In our religion we believe that families are forever. When a couple is married in one of the LDS Temples they are married for time and all eternity, and any children born to them are sealed into the family for eternity as well.

This belief has been a comfort to many a family who has lost loved ones that were entirely to young. It is one of the many things that got me through the sudden passing of my little brother in 2001. My parents were married in the Los Angeles Temple and so all of my siblings and I are sealed as an eternal family. I know I'll see my brother again, and this knowledge makes the days when I miss him the most a bit easier to get through.

Matt and I were married in the temple, but because our children will join our family through adoption we get to have the privilege of taking them to be sealed to us. Wee one's adoption was finalized just before her 1st birthday, so we decided to wait the couple of weeks until her birthday to be sealed, and have a huge celebration.

When I called the temple to set up a time for us to come and be sealed I requested a certain room inside the temple. The kind lady who I was speaking to told me that was an odd request, and she wasn't sure that it could be met. I explained to her that it was the room that my husband and I had been married in 6 years before. A choked up voice came back over the phone and said she would make it happen.

Because wee one was only a year old, she got to have a helper during the ceremony. We found out about this a few days before and decided that we wanted her birth grandmother to be the one to help her. When we called our Moms to tell them about needing someone to help wee one, they both said " Well you're going to ask "M" aren't you?" before we could even begin to tell them that we wanted to ask "M" to do it. Our Moms are amazing!

Wee one cried the whole time, but so did most of the women in the room. I don't remember much about what was said, but the feeling of peace is something I'll never forget.