San Antonio

We just got back from San Antonio. What a blast! I had to work for a few days there, but we still had plenty of time to play, so we made it a working vacation!

The first day we were there, we went to the San Antonio Temple. BEAUTIFUL! It's one of those smaller temples, but still absolutely outstanding. Every window was made of stained glass and so amazing. It's a little different in those smaller temples, but still, the spirit is there and you know you're doing God's work.

We went to the Alamo the third day we were there. How amazing. The feeling there is so sobering. . . to walk the streets where men died fighting for their land, their country and the freedom gives one a feeling of respect and remorse all at the same time. It's astounding at how small the Alamo really is.

Then on Thursday, I got done with work early, so we went to a place called Natural Bridge Caverns as well as the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. What an awesome day! The caves are tremendous. It's so neat what water, minerals and rock can do in a few thousand years. The Wildlife Preserve was by far our favorite thing. It felt like driving through the Serengeti with the animals all running around loose. We got to feed whatever animals came up to our car. As you can see, the zebras and ostriches were the most friendly. We laughed so hard as they took food right from our hands and kept sticking their whole heads in through the window. How fun!!! We're going to save our money for a real African Safari one day.

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures if you'd like to take a gander.

Tales from the Railroad

I wanted to talk about my job a little. I am a conductor for the railroad and I love my job. I get to see a lot of nature ,which I love! I get to see elk, deer, moose, bald eagles and antelope on a regular basis. I also get to do important work. On my last trip we ran a train that had the solid propellant rocket boosters for the space shuttle. How cool is that?! I also get to see some beautiful scenery. The run I am working on right now goes through a gorgeous canyon and ends up in Green River, Wyoming. I think every child played with trains as a kid and now I get paid good money to do it for real as an adult. Here are a few pictures I took with my cell phone. They are not the best quality but it was all I had with me at the time. The last picture is a picture or the Green River.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our dear friends who just adopted a child for the second time. We just got the announcement today and we're so very excited for them. They have been patiently waiting for a few months and have gone through some struggles in the process this time. We are so happy for them! We're just keeping our fingers crossed that we're next. :)

Dear Birth Mother

For our adoption, we had a to write a letter to the birth mother. Let me tell you, this is the hardest thing we've ever had to do. How do you put into words how grateful you are to someone for giving you the opportunity to be a parent? How do you demonstrate who you are in two pages or less? Our thoughts and feelings about adopting a child are so hard to put on paper. After much thought, here's what we finally came up with. We had to put it on 2 separate pages because that is the way we had to give it to the agency. Just click on them to read. Below the letters are the 2 pages of pictures we also put together.

How We Met

One of my very first roommates, Cheryl, was a wild and crazy woman. She spent a lot of time on the internet, meeting and chatting with people from all over the country. On occasion, she would find individuals in Salt Lake that she wanted to meet, so off she'd go to meet people she'd been introduced to on the internet. Well, I must have had a weak moment, because she somehow convinced me to put my profile on Yahoo. I posted a picture, my age, that I was "single and looking" in Salt Lake City. Almost three years later, I got my first e-mail from that profile.

Jonathan was surfing through Yahoo's profiles when he came across two profiles that he was interested in. . . mine and some other girl. He sent us both an off-line instant message. When I saw his message the next day, I checked out his profile. Cute guy, but he didn't look a day over 18 despite the fact that his profile said he was 32. The thing that interested me the most about him was the fact that his profile said he was a widower. That just touched my heart. I couldn't imagine being 32 years old and a widower. So, I dropped him a line just to say hi and to tell him that I was sorry to hear that his wife had passed away at such a young age. After that, we started e-mailing on a regular basis, talking on the phone, and eventually, we decided to meet.

We met each other for the first time on April 6, 2005 at Jim's Family Restaurant on 3300S and 900E., not far from my fist town home. We met there at around 6:00 p.m., had dinner and chatted until the waitress finally had to kick us out at about 10:30 p.m. I'd finally met a man that talked as much as I did. We talked about anything and everything, laid out all our baggage,
and had a great time. We've basically been inseparable ever since.

On September 9, 2005, Jon proposed to me and we were married on February 11, 2006 in the Salt Lake Temple.


I now work for the Government at Hill Air Force Base as a Program Manager and Jon works as Conductor for Union Pacific Railroad. We're happy and things just couldn't be better.

Adopting

In October 2007, after a little over a year of trying, Jon and I decided to add to our family through adoption. We decided that LDS Family Services was the best agency for us to work with since they offered such great counseling and financial assistance to their birth mothers. Anyway, we're very excited! Our paperwork is complete so we should be approved on about February 26th. Then we'll just have to wait! It makes us nervous but so excited at the same time. We can't wait to have an addition to our family. Jon's was so excited that he already set up the crib and a few things in the nursery.

Joined the Blogging World

Well, I've finally done it. . . joined the world of bloggers. I've fought this for a very long time, but now I think it's time. I kept saying that no one wants to read about our boring life. . . they probably still won't, but at least I'll feel like I'm with the times. :) Well, here's to post #1 with more to come.