Grandma.Grandpa.

I am working in Provo this week for work so I have been staying with my grandparents that live in Orem so I don't have to do the commute. So I wanted to do a little shout out to the most amazing people I have ever met. 

My grandma's name is Carolyn. She is the mother of 8 children and grandma to 24 children and a great grandma to (almost) 2 kids! 

Many years ago my grandma was under an extreme amount of stress over problems in the family and she had a stroke that turned from that to Lupus and many other tissue disorders throughout her entire body. She lives everyday in essence amounts of pain and headaches. 

She has been to doctors all over to try to find a cure for her pain and yet doctors tell her over and over that there is nothing they can do due to the lack of knowledge to what the problem is. 

Everyday my grandma wakes up, goes to the gym and does her physical therapy at the pool. Comes home and gets herself ready with  her hair done, make up and cute sassy outfits and during all this listens to the scriptures on tape. She then does scripture study with my grandpa and they pray together as a couple. She then goes to start her serving for the day.

She is the first to make bread and take it to families in the ward that are need of some extra love. She is the first to send a card to those that need a pick me up. She goes every single day to see her friend in a nursing home and sits with her and talks about whatever her friend wants, just so she won't be alone. She never forgets birthdays and anniversaries, or neglects to call on special occasions. 

The reason I wanted to do this little shout out was because of an experience I had last night. 

Last night my grandparents were called by their Bishop to have a small meeting. I was in the family room and they all went into the living room to talk. I was listening to the conversation they were having and the amount of faith astounded me.

There is a family in my grandparents ward that are the "special" family and has many needs and problems that they like to dramatize and announce. The Bishop came to ask if my grandparents would visit/home teach as a couple this family. The Bishop knew of the burden this family are and the amount of hardship they could bring, but through prayer felt that my grandparents were the right choice to visit/home teach this family. My grandparents proceeded to tell the Bishop that this would be hard on them, but as the Bishop told them that he truly felt that they were the choice Heavenly Father needed in this familie's lives-my grandparents replied, "Bishop we will do as they ask, we will do our very best to make sure we fulfill this calling." Knowing how hard and time consuming this will be and the health my grandma is in, they still had such faith that if they took this calling they would be blessed. 

My testimony was strengthen at that moment when I heard them tell the Bishop they would take any calling the Lord asked. 

Both my grandparents are 2 people I hope Jeff and I can be when we are older. They have opened their homes to many and hearts to thousands. Even through my grandmas pain everyday she continues to serve and help others. I pray that she knows how much others look at her with admiration and love. 

I love my grandparents.

Infertility vs. Adoption

Since I have gone through the roller coaster of emotions for BOTH infertility and adoption I thought I would share my experiences with them both.

Infertility-

The amount of hormones they pump you full of for any form of infertility will make you a crazy person  to start off with. As a woman you have been gifted with the ability to have children. Men can do most of the same things we can. They can dance, design clothes, cook, clean, work, shop, vote, argue, wear skinny jeans, apply makeup, arrange flowers, kiss boys..all in all they can do anything a woman can-except give birth. 

It's hard to be told that your body cannot produce a child and your body is a "default." First you start fertility medicine and then they start the testing and then they start the treatments and next thing you know it, it's been 3 years and your hormones are jacked up and your body has no idea what is going on. The whole time you wonder if the money, tears and heartache are worth it and in the end when there's nothing to show but medical bills and 20 lbs added to your back side, it's hard to emotional take it all in. 

People like to add their opinions and insight on things they know nothing about and tell you special tea and pills to get you pregnant in a month, or their friend's sister's best friend went to this doctor and she got pregnant, or my favorite, "have you tried having sex when you're ovulating?" UM YA! 

Adopting-

My favorite of all time has been this one, "Why don't you JUST adopt and I bet you'll get pregnant right after!"

So, we should adopt a baby and pray that once we adopt we can FINALLY get pregnant? Think about this. I always picture my children in heaven waiting to come down and how would they feel if they knew that I was saying that the only reason I want to adopt is so I could finally get pregnant? We are adopting because OUR child is in heaven and is coming down through another body, not so we can get pregnant and have biological children once he's here. 

The roller coaster of adopting is a whole different amusement park itself. There are highs and lows and inbetweens. There's heartache and promises made, there's the best moments in your life, with promises broken. 

We are adopting because this is our baby.