Family Forever {adoption}

I am still pretty new to the adoption world and I found out this week that November is Adoption Awareness Month. Kind of perfect timing since I have been posting so much about our adoption 😀 Well today I am posting about one of the best days of my life. On Saturday we went to the Salt Lake Temple and were sealed as a family. For those not familiar with what that means, a sealing in an LDS Temple is when “husbands and wives are sealed to each other and children are sealed to their parents in eternal families. This means that if we are faithful to our covenants, our family relationships will continue for eternity.” –LDS.org

Because we adopted Alayna, we had to wait until the adoption was finalized to have her sealed to my husband and I. We believe that children are sealed to their parents and “the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers” -Malachi 4:6. In our church we do a lot of genealogy and have our ancestors sealed to us. How true this was about to become to me. For those of you that have followed our story, you know that Lauren and I have a shared ancestor a few generations back. I love that knowing in doing this sealing Alayna is connected to Lauren through her ancestors. I know that a lot of times birth parents and adoptive couples look at a sealing as a bonding of the adoptive couple to the child, but as a separation to the birth parents. I think just the opposite. We are all connected in the human race through ancestors and by doing this sealing it just connects us even more.

We arrived at the temple at about one pm and it was beautiful weather (the next day it would snow, so we lucked out!). My mom came along to help with the kids in the temple. After we got the kids all checked in, we did some paper work and we got dressed in white and went into the Celestial Room of the temple for about an hour until our sealing started. It is always my favorite room in the temple. The spirit is so strong and you just feel at peace. When we walked in, some of our friends, Mitch and Kristin, were already in there. They had done a session earlier and it was so fun to see them! When we walked into the Sealing Room we saw our family and friends and were overcome with feelings of love. I looked over at my sister and she said, “Where are the kids?!?” I guess we weren’t exciting enough 😀 Our sealer gave us some advice and quotes from apostles and prophets and read from The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The sealer also mentioned that our ancestors were also with us witnessing this sealing. I felt my Grandpa Park’s presence there very strongly and started to cry. I bet that whole Park line that connects Lauren to me was there too 😀 It was a sacred and special moment for sure. We could hear the kids in the hall and were all anxious to have them come in.

When they came in the boys were so reverent and serious. When Alayna saw Josh and I, she was SO excited! My mom handed her to me and immediately she started to give Josh and I “kisses”-you know the baby ones where they grab your face and open mouth kiss you? It was awesome. She was so happy to see us and we felt the same way! We all were able to kneel at the alter and be sealed together as a family forever. We got to look into the mirrors (one on each side of the room) and see our family go on forever and ever. Caleb said after that they were magic mirrors 😀 The kids were all so cute and happy and I thought I would be bawling, but for the first time that day I wasn’t on the verge of tears (I had cried plenty before–like when I was assigned my locker and they told me it was #427–which is Alayna’s birthday!!! What are the chances?!?) but when all my kids were with us at the alter, there was just so much happiness and peace. It really was so amazing. I just couldn’t imagine our family without Alayna in it. She really does complete our family and has changed how we are as a family. My boys are so much more compassionate and loving. My husband has become quite the softy and already Alayna has him wrapped around her little finger. I truly feel like she was always meant to be my daughter. Looking back when I had my two boys I would try to be ok with not having any other children, but I always felt there was someone missing. Alayna has filled my heart in more ways than one. She has made me a different person, a better mom and friend and I will always be thankful for this little miracle girl and the happiness and joy she brings our family.

Now I have to share this one funny thing I learned later from my boys. Apparently when they were getting dressed they were in a room with little lockers. The temple workers weren’t in there with them because they wanted some privacy 😀 So what did my boys (and another boy that was in there with them) do? Well lock each other in the lockers over and over of course! Corbin was the one that told me about it and Caleb said, “Mom, at least one of us stayed out of the lockers so we could let the other ones out.” Of course my boys did that in the temple. I wonder what else these cute little stinkers of mine will teach Alayna some day 😀 Good thing I know they love her so much and are always so cute and kind to her. I hope that lasts for a LONG time!

The next day I got a message on FB from a friend who was attending a baby blessing in my dad’s ward. He is the bishop in that ward and bore his testimony and talked about the sealing. My dad is not the type to tell me these things, so I asked her to write down what he talked about and send it to me. This is what she wrote, “He started by talking about his beautiful daughter and how she was blessed to adopt a daughter 6 months ago. He talked about how wonderful it was to go to the temple yesterday as a family and partake in the blessings of the temple and how she is now a part of your family forever. He talked about her baby blessing yesterday and how she, out of his 11 grandchildren, has never really liked him. But yesterday she let him hold her for over an hour. She was happy. He said “she and I had a long talk about how I was going to be the favorite now”. He talked about how Lauren and you are distantly related and how neat it was that she seems to have always been a part of the family. He talked about your sons and how excited they are to have Alayna in your family and how much they love her.”

I just love my dad! Glad someone was in his ward to tell me the nice things he said 😀 haha. My kids just love him so much and I’m glad Alayna has finally came around too (she has stranger anxiety really bad and there are VERY few people she will let hold her and not cry….like less than 6. My kids just LOVE their Papa and his double arm hugs, nicknames and are so excited to go camping/hunting with him.

I asked my boys after what their favorite part of the day was. Caleb said, “Being sealed to baby” while Corbin said, “Getting my Batman Lego.” Yes I bribed them to be good at the temple….he waited to tell me about the locker incident until the next day and even said, “Do we still get to keep our Legos?” They even knew they were being stinkers, haha. My mom said that as they were walking down the hall, Corbin would run ahead, almost to the temple worker that was leading them, stop, do a little dance, then when my mom caught up, he would do it again over and over. My kids make me laugh. I KNOW that God has a sense of humor because he created these funny little boys 😀

After everything we went out and took pictures and video. My awesome friends and talented photographers, Brittany Cascio and Tara Winsor were there to capture all of these (and many more!) amazingly priceless pictures for us. My friend Davey Orgill was there too (he is the one that has done all of our family films) to do a video….which will be posted as soon as it is done!!! It was truly an amazing day–one I am not to forget any time soon. We also blessed Alayna that night–but that is another post for another day!!! I’ll leave you with a few more of my favorite pictures taken by Tara and Brittany.