Occasionally, for a special family function or other events, we old missionaries can submit a request to leave the mission for a time. I guess they figure the two of us aren't likely to get into any trouble while we are away (they don't know us very well, do they??) and we are likely to return when we say we will. So, we submitted a request to go to Alaska for five days. As you can see in one of the pictures we've posted, Brad and Sarah had their day in court and now little Madilyn Ray Thomas is officially, legally theirs. What a happy day. Better than that, though, was the day they took Madilyn to the Anchorage Alaska Temple to have her sealed to them for "time and all eternity." And that is the day we didn't want to miss.
Our request was approved and we started to arrange for tickets, planning to use our many accrued miles on our Alaska Airlines credit card to book our tickets. We found out that booking in September takes more miles than we had...and we thought we had plenty. For a round trip ticket on a companion airline, Delta, it would take 50,000 miles per ticket. Whew. So, our vacation planner daughter-in-law, Sarah, went to work: she found that we could get a rt ticket from SLC to Portland on Delta for $221. From there it would only take 32,000 miles...still a stiff price but doable. The tickets to/from Portland were available through Expedia which I have often used. When I clicked on the "pay now" button in the Expedia program the price changed to $340 rt. Since I had already booked the PDX to ANC leg of our journey I had to go ahead and buy at the higher price. The next day I checked Expedia again and the price of the SLC to PDX tickets had, indeed, gone up but only a few dollars to $240 rt. Again, when I went through the steps to ticket and got to the "pay now" tab the price changed to $380. Interesting marketing plan. I will no longer use Expedia.
That said, the trip to AK was worth every penny and more. The kids said they were having a custody battle over us....who gets Grandpa and Annie which days, for how long, who picks them up when and who takes them to the airport. So we just went along with the agreed upon plan. Lisa and her kids picked us up at the airport. (for a video of our arrival go to thecardsweredealt.blogspot.com) I started holding the grandkids hands and hugging them and kissing them and touching their little faces right then and didn't quit until we left to go home! When we go to see them again they will probably run..."Its the smothering grandma!"
We spent two days at Lisa and Joel's house. We went to school with Elizabeth so we could see her class and meet her new kindergarten teacher. We went on walks with Henry and Lydia by their home and added Elizabeth on a walk to the Matanuska River Park the next day. We read books and looked at treasures and played pretend with Elizabeth and Henry...and held Lydia as much as she would let us. At one point I found myself up in the loft in E's bedroom scrunched between the sloping roof and the dresser as we pretended to be camping. I was the child, E was the mother (her favorite roll) and Henry was the dad and the son and whatever else E needed him to be...:)
On Friday evening at 8:45pm Brad and Sarah picked us up and took us to their home in Eagle River. There we got to play with Madilyn, Lucy, Abi, and Chewy. Lucy and Abigail are B&S's Westies. Chewy belongs to Sarah's brother's family and is also a Westie. Madilyn crawls around the house looking very much like she is part of a pack of dogs! Saturday morning early Elder Thomas got up to use the bathroom and didn't shut our bedroom door good enough....suddenly the bed was rocking from the dogs all jumping up on it and then my face was covered in dog kisses! What a way to wake up :)
Saturday was the day for the sealing at the temple. Words cannot express what a beautiful, touching experience that was. Elder Thomas was one of the witnesses for the sealing and Madilyn's birth grandfather was the other. His son and sister were also in attendance. The room was filled with friends and family of Brad and Sarah's with not one dry eye in the place. The temple sealer, who has the priesthood authority to perform such sealings, explained that Madilyn would be sealed to Brad and Sarah "as if she had been born under the covenant" or in other words as if she was biologically theirs. More tears. Brad and Sarah kneeled at either end of the alter in the sealing room and Lisa held Madilyn on one side with Madilyn's hand on her mom and dad's in the middle. The ordinance took only moments to perform....but will last into the eternities. We are so grateful to those who helped to make this happen. What a beautiful family they are.
The next day Madilyn was blessed in church. This usually happens when our children are new babies but couldn't be done in Madilyn's case until all of the legalities were completed. Again, friends and family were in attendance at Sacrament Meeting, where the blessings are usually done and several stood in the circle of priesthood holders during the blessing. The father usually holds the new baby up after the blessing so the congragation can see how cute they are....Brad held Madilyn up and I was surprised she didn't wave. She is so darling and soooo spunky...much like her mama. What a wonderful day. We spent the rest of the day with our kids and spouses and grandchildren and Sarah's family and my sister, Jo.
It was hard to leave. I cried, of course. Lisa cried....but Henry and Elizabeth said it was okay because "Grampa and Annie have to go back to their mission." And we did. Kissing and hugging the kids, grandkids and dogs one more time for good measure. We arrived back in SLC Monday evening and Tuesday morning we hit the ground running....again....with smiles on our faces. "Surely my cup runneth over."
Elder & Sister Thomas aka Grampa & Annie
Smiles All Around!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Heroes Among Us
Well, the problem is....the days and weeks go by soooo quickly that I just can't seem to get to the computer before the week is over. So what you see is what you get...So much for a successful blog committment!
I want to tell you a bit about a young man we met on our mission, Elder Allred, from Sugar City, Idaho (pictured above). Elder Allred was born in Haiti. His father was murdered and his mother died of an infection of some kind. He had at least one sibling that died in his arms....I'm not sure why or when; before or after his mother died. He was living in poverty and nobody wanted him. He had been baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons) when he was about 8 years old but we don't know the details of that event.
When Elder Allred was about 10 years old a member of our church who worked for the US government was in Haiti working on a project of some kind. He talked to some of the people who worked in the area where the project was taking place and asked them if there was anything else that they could do to help. The people of the neighborhood directed him to Max...a boy that no one seemed to want. The man called some people he knew in the United States, the Allreds, to see if they would want to adopt a boy from Haiti. The Allreds said they would and Max was sent to live with them in Idaho.
Young Max went to school in Sugar City, Idaho and graduated from high school there. One of his great desires was to serve a mission for our church when he turned 19 as most active young men in our church do. He got a job at a local grocery store, Broulim's, and began to save his money. His father told me that one day a fellow employee noticed that Max had forgotten to bring his lunch to work with him. The friend told Max that he could just get something there at the store and they would deduct the cost of the food from his paycheck. But, Max wouldn't do that: the money he was making was sacred money meant for his mission!
Sometime after Max turned 19 he filled out the necessary papers and submitted them, and then waited anxiously for "the letter" to arrive. Unfortunately, because Max had some learning disabilities and had graduated from high school without learning to READ, he did not qualify to serve a normal mission. Those who processed his application suggested he serve a mission from home as a Church Service Missionary at the Deseret Industries or the Cannery or something easier for him to do.
Max was devastated. He so wanted to serve the Lord in a mission away from home. His father said not long after that they learned about the Church and Family History Mission in Salt Lake City and that many young men were serving missions there even though they had some kind of disability that kept them from serving "normal" missions. So they helped Max to fill out his application papers again and they requested that he be able to serve in SLC. When his mission papers arrived in the mail and were opened, young Maxamillion found that not only could he serve in the C&FHMission, they WANTED him there.
One of the many miracles in Max's life happened while he was on his mission: a woman who specialized in teaching reading was serving in the same mission and she began to meet with Elder Allred daily to begin to teach him how to read. After she left, our zone leader's wife, a teacher by profession, also, continued his reading lessons. It is no wonder that there wasn't a dry eye in the room on the last day of Elder Allred's 2 year mission as he took his last turn reading the scripture reference for the day in our zone prayer meeting.
In my short visit with Brother Allred (Elder Allred's father) he told me that he had returned to Haiti to make arrangements for the adoption of other children there and had run into Elder Allred's uncle. The Uncle's first question was, "You aren't bringing him back are you?" I'm sure that the poverty in the country makes it difficult to feed yet another mouth and with Elder Allred's learning disabilities he would not be seen as one who could help them support the family. They didn't want him. Brother Allred assured them that he wasn't bringing him back....because they WANTED him. We all echoed that....we'd keep him with us in our mission forever, if we could. What a fun young man. He was usually very positive and helpful and worked hard... with a smile.
Elder Allred planned to return to Idaho (his family recently moved to Idaho Falls) and get a job...one that would pay more than the grocery store. We pray that the Lord's choicest blessings will be poured down upon this young man and his parents and their other adopted children. :) He has surely enriched our lives in the short time that we got to be around him.
He is one of our heroes.
I want to tell you a bit about a young man we met on our mission, Elder Allred, from Sugar City, Idaho (pictured above). Elder Allred was born in Haiti. His father was murdered and his mother died of an infection of some kind. He had at least one sibling that died in his arms....I'm not sure why or when; before or after his mother died. He was living in poverty and nobody wanted him. He had been baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons) when he was about 8 years old but we don't know the details of that event.
When Elder Allred was about 10 years old a member of our church who worked for the US government was in Haiti working on a project of some kind. He talked to some of the people who worked in the area where the project was taking place and asked them if there was anything else that they could do to help. The people of the neighborhood directed him to Max...a boy that no one seemed to want. The man called some people he knew in the United States, the Allreds, to see if they would want to adopt a boy from Haiti. The Allreds said they would and Max was sent to live with them in Idaho.
Young Max went to school in Sugar City, Idaho and graduated from high school there. One of his great desires was to serve a mission for our church when he turned 19 as most active young men in our church do. He got a job at a local grocery store, Broulim's, and began to save his money. His father told me that one day a fellow employee noticed that Max had forgotten to bring his lunch to work with him. The friend told Max that he could just get something there at the store and they would deduct the cost of the food from his paycheck. But, Max wouldn't do that: the money he was making was sacred money meant for his mission!
Sometime after Max turned 19 he filled out the necessary papers and submitted them, and then waited anxiously for "the letter" to arrive. Unfortunately, because Max had some learning disabilities and had graduated from high school without learning to READ, he did not qualify to serve a normal mission. Those who processed his application suggested he serve a mission from home as a Church Service Missionary at the Deseret Industries or the Cannery or something easier for him to do.
Max was devastated. He so wanted to serve the Lord in a mission away from home. His father said not long after that they learned about the Church and Family History Mission in Salt Lake City and that many young men were serving missions there even though they had some kind of disability that kept them from serving "normal" missions. So they helped Max to fill out his application papers again and they requested that he be able to serve in SLC. When his mission papers arrived in the mail and were opened, young Maxamillion found that not only could he serve in the C&FHMission, they WANTED him there.
One of the many miracles in Max's life happened while he was on his mission: a woman who specialized in teaching reading was serving in the same mission and she began to meet with Elder Allred daily to begin to teach him how to read. After she left, our zone leader's wife, a teacher by profession, also, continued his reading lessons. It is no wonder that there wasn't a dry eye in the room on the last day of Elder Allred's 2 year mission as he took his last turn reading the scripture reference for the day in our zone prayer meeting.
In my short visit with Brother Allred (Elder Allred's father) he told me that he had returned to Haiti to make arrangements for the adoption of other children there and had run into Elder Allred's uncle. The Uncle's first question was, "You aren't bringing him back are you?" I'm sure that the poverty in the country makes it difficult to feed yet another mouth and with Elder Allred's learning disabilities he would not be seen as one who could help them support the family. They didn't want him. Brother Allred assured them that he wasn't bringing him back....because they WANTED him. We all echoed that....we'd keep him with us in our mission forever, if we could. What a fun young man. He was usually very positive and helpful and worked hard... with a smile.
Elder Allred planned to return to Idaho (his family recently moved to Idaho Falls) and get a job...one that would pay more than the grocery store. We pray that the Lord's choicest blessings will be poured down upon this young man and his parents and their other adopted children. :) He has surely enriched our lives in the short time that we got to be around him.
He is one of our heroes.
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