My Cheese has Moved

A lot has happened in the last year. The most important thing though was that our family was sealed for time and all eternity this past week. We went to the St George Utah temple. We chose this temple because Korina's grandfather lives in St George, his health prohibits him from traveling too much, and we both really wanted for him to be involved. It worked out really well since our family is split between Idaho and Arizona, St George worked as a mostly in between meeting point.

Our sealing was special. And not just in the way that a familial sealing is special. The Lord really helped us out with it. The temple workers had told us that unless we had court paperwork showing that Kyle and Shyanne's father no longer had rights to the children they could not be sealed to us at this time. We had won in court two weeks beforehand and the court was supposed to file the minute entry that same day. They of course dragged their feet about it. We knew we would eventually get a copy and we were to the point where we figured that it was not a big deal and we would have the kids sealed to us in the Mesa temple whenever the court paperwork got to us. Our sealing was on Saturday March 24, 2012. The Thursday before Korina was having strong impressions to call the court. Seemed strange, we were already in St George visiting with her grandfather at that time. And when she decided to go ahead and call they were already closed for the day. She called them the next day. They told her the minute entry had been filed that morning and she would receive it in the mail in a couple of days.

Korina was ecstatic. She called the kids court appointed attorney Stephanie Stromfors (she is amazing by the way and was a HUGE help to us through this whole process), the kids had an attorney so that their best interests could be represented. She had felt that the best interest of the kids was to stay with us and have their fathers rights severed, so she gave us advice on how to proceed with things since we could not afford an attorney ourselves. Ms. Stromfors received the minute entry by email, and she was more than willing to forward it to us so we could have it in St George. Korina printed it out and called the temple within seconds. Then it was all ready, the kids would be sealed to us.

Usually when people are sealed their guests don't have to wear white as is usually the custom when going into the temple. However, the sealing room we had been scheduled for is off the celestial room of the St George temple. Meaning to get to it people would have to go through the celestial room, and so everyone had to wear white. It was really neat to see everyone in there dressed all in white. It was how I had always pictured a sealing looking until I actually went to one.

I think my favorite part was before Korina and I went into the sealing room. We were told to wait in the celestial room until the temple workers told us to go in. While we waited the kids were all brought in, all three of them all dressed in white. And they were being kids. Kyle and Shyanne both felt compelled to jump up onto the stairs, and Jayda was in a very pleasant mood. Mom had made white dresses for the girls to wear and Kyle was in borrowed temple clothes. His tie was the right length for a change and he was keeping it on. The sealing itself was special, but I had to smile when the kids came in.

Jayda, is our little addition. She is also the reason I haven't blogged very much anymore. She was born on July 21, 2011. She weighed in at 8lbs 3oz. She is the most fun baby to be around. And she loves to kiss me. She doesn't quite do it right. She just opens her mouth and presses it against random parts of my face, but she is the most fun baby in the world!

Other than that Korina currently works at Deseret Industries and they are paying for her to get a CNA certification. Kyle is in pre-school and they have helped him immensely with his speech. Shyanne loves to sing, she can recite Disney's The Princess and the Frog as she watches it. The other day I listened as she sang along with the JG Wentworth commercial.