A Wedding!

Our family is on that wonderful journey we all go on eventually. That of watching your son fall in love and get married to his eternal companion. We are so excited that soon we will have the daughter we have wanted for so long.

As a mom of four sons, I knew that one day I might be blessed with four daughters who would love our sons and marry they for all eternity in the temple one day. We are about to be blessed with such a moment. May 15th our son Jason Edward Otis is planning to marry Julie JoAnn Flink in the Jordan River Temple. It's so exciting!

We are in the midst of planning and praying our plans will go through without too much opposition. To date the opposition is strong, but we are overcoming the obstacles the adversary is plying us with so liberally. It is making us stronger and wiser. It is something we expected and have been prayerful as to what to do about it all. I guess this is good practice for the other sons getting married one day.

I am working on my faith right now. Renewing the faith to give my youngest son over to the Lord for safe keeping as he makes choices. The rules are tried and true in our home and his older brothers have thanked us for having them during missions and when they came home. We don't wish to compel any of our sons to do things our way, but as an adult the choice to stay under our roof does come with a standard set of rules. The choice is theirs to stay or go, but we hope they are prayerful in those choices and not driven to choose differently by someone who would influence them for reasons of their own. It's tough being a parent of single adults who do come home between semesters. For the most part it's rich with amazing blessings. I'm grateful for every moment we have until they are married and on their own 100%.

Life happens quickly. I remember being 19 and getting married to Terry. I thought I knew everything until I was 3 months pregnant and on an airplane with my childhood Island below me. We were leaving all I knew and loved for the Island of Hawaii. It was a time to cleave to my sweetheart and proved to be a huge blessing in our young lives. We had to work all our problems out together and to pray together and learn together. It was one of the happiest times of my life.

I'm excited for our son and his soon to be wife and all the adventures they'll have along the way. I know they will have a ball and that they will be prayerful together. I"m sure other weddings will soon come our way. It's like waiting for Christmas to come. You know it's coming, but not quite sure what surprises you will get. It's all good in the end. I'm a strong believer that the Lord will never give any of us something we cannot handle--with the Lords help.

So, just a couple of weeks before I get on the airplane for Utah! The invites have been mailed, the reception planned and now we get to prepare the house for guests and try to balance planting the garden, cleaning the house, packing and getting every needful thing ready. Amazing what you can get done with a family working together.