dear caleb

Caleb with his Uncle Evan who baptized him!

my sweet boy!  it was such a joy to watch you this weekend enter the waters of baptism with so much excitement and come out with a beautiful smile spread across your face!  you were surrounded by people who love you including your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. i was so grateful for their presence and the love that was there!

you truly are an amazing young man.  you are my first born son and i look at you in awe of the person you are becoming...the priesthood man that you are preparing to be.  you are diligent and serious about being a good big brother.  you are a great example to your siblings.  they look up to you and will look to you for strength their whole lives and i am so confident that they will find it in you.

you have been such a blessing to me.  you have comforted me and blessed me with physical help often.  i can always count on you to help clean and and get the job done.  i feel your protectiveness of me and your desire for me to be happy.  i love that you give me "tips" on how to find a husband and have suggested your technology teacher because he tells such great riddles!  you are unselfish and i love that about you.

stay good, my son.  don't let the world take that from you.  you are going to be so brilliant and do such amazing things in this world.  remember to be who you are and don't apologize for it.  spread your goodness everywhere you go! you are kind.  never stop being kind.  people are drawn to you because they can trust you to be kind and gentle with them.

i love you! thank you for coming to this family.  i know that it is not a perfect family and there is much being asked of you right now.  there are parts of your childhood that hurt and i wish that i could offer you something different...something more perfect.  however, i do know that heavenly father has trusted you to be here.  he and i have faith in you and you will overcome unfavorable circumstances and lead the way back to Him.  as the caleb of the bible that you were named for, you are strong and brave and have the courage to look beyond the obvious realities of the world and receive your inheritance.

i am proud of you, my son!

mom.

Cousins: Sander and Caleb sharing their baptism day

fhe

tonight's family home evening was reminiscent of life in general right now.  getting everyone to come together took some coercion and maybe a couple of threats.  the prayer was sincere from adam but quite irreverent and joshua's idea of sitting "still" and mine are not quite the same.  the songs started out roughly as we had to practice a musical number for caleb's upcoming baptism.  starting with just me and maryn singing and others around and pouting, slowly, they all came together and by the end were all singing beautifully with adam playing a duet with me on the piano that needs a little work.  the lesson, again rocky.  maryn had prepared it and tried her best to keep it together with uncooperative "helpers", one sulker who sat with his back to us, and one who was supposed to be holding up the appropriate pictures but instead as jumping over and on the pictures.  we made it though to game time.  as we played "wolfie, wolfie, what's the time?"  my frustrations melted aways as we ran amuck all over the house with shrieks and giggles.  in this moment, i felt such love for each of these little rats and so grateful to be their momma.  life is not perfect but it offers perfect moments that make all others worth it.  i am truly a wealthy and blessed woman.