Madison & Miracles

(Isn't Madison just Beautiful?)



I just wanted to post about my dear sister, Madi. She is such a joy in our lives and we love getting to spend time with her and seeing her sweet smile and hearing her laugh. This past Wednesday, our family got the surprise of our lifetime. It all started when our cousin Alex invited us to attend the Young Women Recognition Fireside because there was going to be a spotlight on Madi. We were thrilled to be invited knowing Madi was going to be spotlighted. We just thought she was going be spotlighted for turning 18 and graduating from Young Women's or something small like that, but were we wrong!

After the meeting got started, it was time for Alex to get up and present her spotlight on Madi. She started by telling the touching story of the day Madison was born and how things ended up with finding out her diagnosis of Autism. Our whole family was in tears. Then Alex goes on and tells how she thought about Madison while she was doing her Personal Progress and felt a great need to help Madison with hers because she could not do it on her own. After getting special permission from the Stake Presidency, Alex's wish was granted. She involved the young women and YW leaders of her ward and together they completed Madison's Young Women Recognition award which is a difficult and time consuming task that takes most young women a few years to do. It only took them a few months which is a miracle in itself.

Our family was completely surprised and so grateful that there were so many people who love Madison enough to do such a wonderful act as service as this. After Alex's touching talk, Madison was presented her Young Women Medallion with a book of all of her values and 10 hour projects signed off and the experiences the Young Women and leaders had with it. My parents went up with Madi in complete shock and tears streaming down there faces with great gratitude. Then we got to watch a beautiful video of Madison when she was a baby up until today. This whole fireside was so touching. The whole time, Denver and I had a hard time keeping the tears from falling on our laps.

We want to thank everyone who was involved in this wonderful act of service, it meant more than you will ever know.

Denver and I are so grateful to be able to be sealed together for Time and All Eternity not only to each other but also to our wonderful families! This wonderful act of service done for our family was such a great reminder of the importance of temples. In temples, families can be sealed together not only for time in this life, but also in the next life for eternity. Temples are also a place where family members who have passed away without receiving these great blessings also have the opportunity to be sealed to their families. What a wonderful feeling to know these things! Denver and I are so excited to have a temple just 3 minutes away from our home! We can actually see it from a distance from our own front porch (well it's really an old cotton haulin' trailer). We are already planning our weekly schedule to attend often! I couldn't really find a picture of it that I loved. All of the good ones are copyrighted....so I decided to use this beautiful one of the Mesa Temple where Denver and I got married. It is also gorgeous!