Happy Birthday Sabrina!

This birthday  was such a special one! Sabrina turned 12. Her birthday was jam packed between 100 other things...Greg's first week of school...the brown county fair...HER FIRST TRIP TO THE TEMPLE! It was just a wonderful day.

The Fair! 

The temple trip

I was asked to write a little bit about our temple experience and I thought I would share it. 

In August of 2016 my oldest daughter, Sabrina, turned 12. As part of her birthday present we planned a trip to the Bismarck temple. We had so much fun planning and preparing for this experience. We booked a hotel room so that we could make a weekend out of it. We found a friend, Sister Vassar, who sent us with names so that we could learn about those people we were going to do the work for. We made sure that Sabrina was able to get a temple recommend on her birthday so that we could go.  The week of her birthday was a really crazy week at our house. It was my husband’s first week of the school year and we had many obligations.  As the date drew closer we found it increasingly difficult to make our temple trip happen. My husband even had a last minute work meeting scheduled that was going to make it so we could not make it on time to the temple on Friday as we had planned. We did not give up and did not cancel our hotel room. We had faith that things would work out and we would make it.  We knew that for Sabrina’s birthday we were going to take her to the temple.

Friday I packed the car and with faith and a prayer we waiting for Greg’s meeting to be cancelled so that we could make it. That sounds like a silly little hope but I knew things would work out and I knew if we wanted to attend the family temple time that night we needed to leave before that meeting was over.  At 2:15 Greg called and reported that his meeting had indeed been cancelled. I loaded all the kids in the car and as soon as he arrived home we pulled out of the driveway so that we could make the 3+ hour drive to the temple.

This was just one of the blessings that we were given to help this day happen. Our travels were quick and without incident.   As we traveled to the temple together our hearts were filled with excitement and anticipation knowing that we had been blessed to make this wonderful day happen.  Sabrina, Greg and I had the opportunity to look through the names we were bringing through the temple. We were able to figure out which people were direct family members and discover the years and locations that they lived on earth. It was such a neat experience to learn about those we were serving.

Upon arrival at the temple with my sweet Sabrina her eyes were shining with excitement and a little anxiety. Sabrina had been coming to the temple with us for as long as she could remember and had toured the Atlanta temple before it was rededicated but this was her first time when she would be allowed to enter a dedicated temple and experience the sweet blessings and spirit for herself.  The breathtaking beauty of the temple along with the wonderful spirit found there filled us as we entered the baptistery.  We were greeted with kindness and quickly prepared to perform the baptisms.  

No words can fully describe the tenderness of that day. I had not performed baptisms for the dead in 15 years and there I was sitting in the temple with my eternal companion on one side and my oldest daughter on the other. The spirit was so strong and testified to us of temple work, eternal families and the service we were doing. We felt united and surrounded by the love of those we were serving and our forever families.  

Doing this work together as a family made the temple experience even sweeter. I felt as though our bond to Sabrina as her parents had grown stronger and That the spirit had united us and brought us closer together as we served. After the baptisms were complete Sabrina and I were left in the baptistery just the two of us. We were able to sit in the peace and alone and look at the beautiful pictures that adorn the walls of the temple. We wished that we would never have to leave such a beautiful and peaceful place.  Of all the gifts that we could have shared with our daughter on her birthday this was the most wonderful and precious one. It will remain with us forever.  We left that night with our hearts full of the love of our savior, grateful for forever families and looking forward to the next opportunity we would have to serve together in the temple.