Search Results for: blog defining family

A Growing Family

My daughter recently got married, I think I’ve touched on it before. It’s a new world for me, this empty nest thing. Hailey and I have been alone for such a long time, a little family island unto ourselves. Now, I have a son in law and she has a husband. Our family is pretty spread out, we are in Utah and most of our relatives are on the east coast. Holidays are usually spent with friends. Now Hailey’s family has expanded in ways I never even thought about. Today we went to a baby shower for Hailey’s sister in … Continue reading →

Defining the Word “Housekeeping”

Housekeeping might not be the most interesting topic to people, but it is a necessity. Like it or not, it’s a part of life and a part of the responsibilities that we have. I was thinking this morning about the word itself and decided to look up its meaning. According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, there are three definitions to housekeeping. The first is “the management of a house and home affairs.” Doesn’t “management’ make it sound so much more important? Instead of saying, “I am a housekeeper,” I would much rather say, “I am a manager of my home.” The … Continue reading →

Defining “Cousins”

One thing that has always confused me is how to determine relationships among cousins. I know my parent’s siblings’ children are my first cousins. That’s an easy one. But then you get into second cousins, first cousins, once removed, and second cousins, twice removed. I have always thought that my first cousin’s daughter was my second cousin, and that my mother’s first cousin’s son was my third cousin. Guess what? It turns out I was wrong. The relationships among cousins are based on a couple of factors: 1) First second, third, forth, etc. cousins are the number of generations there … Continue reading →

Home Blog Month in Review: August

Did you have a good month? We seem to have packed an entire summer’s worth of activities in this past month. Now, it seems, it is back to school and time to get ready for autumn. Still, it is nice to look back toward warm sands and wearing shorts even as we will soon be crunching leaves and taking out the sweaters. August 1st Getting Out Grass Stains With summer in full swing, chances are that your family has been playing outdoors quite a bit. And with all of that outdoor play comes the grass stains, especially if you are … Continue reading →

Defining Moments

There are experiences in life that can wake you up and give you the opportunity to really evaluate your goals, and your priorities. These opportunities can often motivate you into action. Recently I had one of these experiences. I had a medical issue that could resolve itself in two different ways, one seriously altered my outlook at life and would severely limit my ability to achieve several of my life time goals. The other way was much less serious and far-reaching. Thankfully it resolved in the second way. However over the last month, as I went to the doctor, and … Continue reading →

LDS Family Week in Review: July 15-21

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From seminary to tithing to LDS secrets, this week carried with it a number of blogs sure to help and entertain you. Gospel Doctrine: In What Christ’s Resurrection Means to Each of Us, we discussed the impact of the resurrection in our lives. In Witness of the Resurrected Lord, we discussed various people who saw the Lord following His resurrection. In Doubting Thomas, we considered the disciples who doubted news of Christ’s resurrection. In The Value of the Old Testament, we discuss the relevance of the first book of the bible. In Did Not Our Hearts Burn?, we discussed the … Continue reading →

Family Home Evening: Pivotal Choices

This family home evening lesson is based loosely on “Life’s Lessons Learned” by Elder Joseph B Wirthlin. He gave the talk at the last General Conference. In the talk he shared stories of pivotal moments in his life, especially in his youth. This would be a great talk to adapt for a family home evening lesson, especially if you have teenagers. You can start out the lesson by reading Joshua 24:15. You can point out that we each must make the choice to keep the commandments and live the laws of the gospel. It is important to realize that we … Continue reading →

11 Things Some Adoptive Parents Would Like Birth Family by State Adoption to Know

Below is a list of things that some parents by adoption, as well as I have come up with and wish for our children’s birth parents and birth family to know: I love my children no differently than I would if I’d given birth to them myself. We have vowed to give our children the best we can possibly provide. We value many special characteristics that are a result of genetics and not by anything we could have given our children. We will not paint you in a bad light to our children. Having not been a birthparent, I can’t … Continue reading →

Birth Family and Entitlement in State Adoptions

I just wanted to touch on some thoughts I had relating to birth family, entitlement and communication. These are mostly things I wanted to get off my chest, but I hope someone who needs to hear them will have a better understanding of one adoptive mother’s perspective anyway. Allowing Contact with Birth Family Most parents I know would agree there is often a sense of loyalty within family—even within birth family. Whether or not this is true in any specific case, it’s because of this many adoptive parents are leery to allow much contact—if any, fearing some information, out of … Continue reading →

The Relationship with a Child’s Birth Family

I really can’t speak for the majority of adoptive parents when it comes to relationships with a child’s birth family. Each adoption is so unique. When we adopted through our state, we’d assumed our adoptions would be closed. When we adopted our first son, our adoption was completely closed. We had quite a time searching for birth siblings as a result. Though we know where the birth parents are, for safety reasons we have not and will not pursue openness of any degree. Thankfully because of the information we have acquired more recently from his other birth family, any questions … Continue reading →