dressed in white

It's been a very special weekend. Some of our dear friends and neighbors were baptized on Saturday.. A family of five whose lives have been changed. We feel so blessed to be a part of their story... it's truly an incredible one.

Pictured: Mark, Courtney, Tyrisha (16) Sam (10) Keyonna (12) and my family.
(the girls were SO not enjoying their white baptismal suits. They kept saying they felt like convicts without the stripes.)

Although Mark is not the girls' biological father, there isn't a better Daddy around. He loves his family so much and wouldn't let them see or talk to the missionaries until he had fully investigated the church himself. They have all been through so much (you name it, they've experienced it) so when the missionaries from the LDS church came knocking on their door, Mark will be the first to admit that he was shocked when he let them in. He was never interested in finding religion, but religion found him. And he knew instantaneously that this was something different. Eventually he allowed them to teach his entire family. And the rest is history...

Ben will be 8 in a few short months and is getting ready for his own baptism. (How is this possible?) Witnessing the baptism of this wonderful family made him more excited for his big day... especially after seeing his Daddy in the water performing the ordinance. After the baptism, the whole family (as well as the missionaries) came to celebrate at our home for dinner. The kids played upstairs for hours while the adults talked downstairs. We literally laughed until we cried.

Adding new girls to our Young Women's Program has been such a blessing. I love my calling and feel so grateful to serve with the ladies that I do. These girls have added so much spice to our program!

And to say that my boys love Ty, Keyonna and Sam is a HUGE understatement. They literally beg to have them over. For Christmas, the girls gave me a special present. A book of coupons-- one for free babysitting for a whole year and one for cleaning services for a whole year. They didn't know what they were getting themselves into! Hiring THREE babysitters at a time is the only way to go.. Tyrisha cleans, organizes, makes dinner and disciplines while the younger two play, play, play with my boys. Every time Aaron and I get home from a hot date, my kids + Keyonna and Sam are dripping sweat. When I say they play, I mean they run around, wrestle, hide, have boxing tournaments... but you would never know they were rough-housing because Ty keeps everything so nice and tidy. When you have a system like this going on, date night should be every night. Our kids literally push us out the door and beg us to stay out late. We come home to spotless kitchen and exhausted kids. How blessed are we?