Anniversary

Last week was my parent’s 31st wedding anniversary. I had had a long day, what with having my ceramics critique at 8am and not coming home until after YW was over with that evening. It was cute to come home to a sign on the door (made by Laura) that said “Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad” and she had scanned a wedding photo and printed it all out. She put up a whole bunch of printed photos of Mom and Dad on the only empty space of wall we have. I thought that was pretty cute.


Back home we usually ate out at our favorite Mexican restaurant (and since their anniversary is on Cinco de Mayo, everyone’s celebrating!) but since good Mexican food is rather hard to come by in podunk PA, they settled for bringing home really good deli meat and cheese and rolls, a nod to the food at their reception that they never did get to eat. (Mental note: EAT at your reception!)

Anyhow, I’m really thankful for my parents and that they chose to marry at the temple. They both come from less active families and neither had their parents with them in the temple. My parents knew that was the right choice and the ideal way to start their family and I know we’ve been blessed for that choice. My dad was gone a lot on business until more recently and I suspect the fact that my parents are still married and that we’re close as a family has a lot to do with making covenants and keeping them.

I’m thankful for all the little choices that each of my parents made to be active in the church when they were younger. The four of us are the only active ones out of all of our family. My parents also each listened to the Holy Ghost (probably not fully realizing it) when they were making big life decisions before they ever met each other. My mother wanted to take a teaching job in Texas, but it didn’t feel right and she wound up serving a mission instead. I know my family is really blessed because she went on a mission. My dad was going to join the air force with his friends and be a mechanic, but something made him not sign those papers. Had my parents made those other choices, I doubt they ever would have met each other.

How did they meet? By attending Institute. They grew up 20 minutes apart but never met until they were in the YSA program outside of San Francisco. My dad was in the process of becoming more active and was pretty shy, it floored my mom when he asked her out. She also remembers that her sweater fell off the back of her chair and he was behind her and picked it up for her. I imagine it was a good thing that they didn’t meet until then because my dad is five years younger than my mother and she probably wasn’t going to think “He’s cute” when he’s 14 and she’s 19, ha ha.

My mother had a very good dad who was kind and patient and she was looking for someone with similar qualities. It was also important to her that he have a nice family and that he treat them well. She had dated other guys before my dad that were nice but had really strange families or they did not treat their families well. She really appreciated that my dad is really close with his family and does a lot for them.

My mother had turned down several marriage proposals before she met my father. Even though she was only 27 when she married (she married a 22 yr old! I think she was brave!), people thought she was going to become an old maid because she had turned down those boys. But she knew that those options weren’t the right ones.

I remember even as a young child Mom talking about how she fasted and prayed and went to the temple for guidance after my father asked her to marry him. That’s probably one of the most important things that my mom ever taught me- that you should involve Heavenly Father in making decisions. My poor dad, she left him hanging after he asked her the first time. He asked her on the balcony of the Oakland temple and she laughed because she didn’t think he was serious. She wanted to marry him, but she also wanted to make sure that this choice was okay with Heavenly Father. And it was. He asked her again in the car and gave her a little straw broom because “she swept him of his feet”. We still have that broom hanging in our kitchen, 31 years later. They got married and had me a little over a year after that. And four years later, they had Laura. And I’m really thankful that we’re a family and that my parents raised us in the gospel.

My parents in front of the Oakland temple after my dad took out his endowments:

 

              

                      A tintype souvenir photo from Pier 39 around the time of their engagement:

My dad's muttonchops make it look authentic!