Indiana

Sometimes during the winter (OK all the time during the winter) I have some crazy ideas of things I want to do as a family in the summer time. I love having something to look forward to and anticipate. I have wanted to take the kids to a temple open house for a really long time, and when I heard the Indianapolis temple was completed and having an open house this summer, I was excited to prepare our family to go. As kids, Darryl and I remembered going to the open house for the Toronto temple with our families and it was so special. So we starting preparing about 2 months before after I found this awesome website that a primary president in Florida used to prepare her primary children for the Fort Lauderdale temple open house, including videos, scriptures, and count down of activities to do every night leading up to our trip. It even included children's "temple recommends". Our kids made a paper chain to count down and really got excited about going and reminded us if we missed a day.

I didn't have huge expectations for this trip, I thought it would be a fun little spiritual thing to do, but it turned into so much more than that. It helps that the people in Indiana are the NICEST people I have met in all our travels. Friendly, loving, smily and happy everywhere we went, especially the ward members. They were so welcoming and the kids probably said the wanted to move there 10 times over the weekend. The primary had a temple celebration with activities for the kids to rotate through. Sunday school and Relief Society was so nice and it made me so happy to be part of a worldwide church that is the same no matter where you go.

The temple was beautiful. We watched a video with the missionaries in the brand new stake centre before going in. Then we put our white booties  and walked through the doors of the temple. There was beautiful oil paintings done by local artists, one of the prodigal son in the chapel was my favourite. The baptistry was one of the most beautiful that I have ever been in. It was Carter's favourite. Chloe's favourite things was the diamonds on the chandelier and as soon as we walked into the celestial room she bent down and felt the carpet. "I had to see how soft it is" she said.

I got a little teary thinking about how many chances will I have in my life to be with all my children in the celestial room of a temple? I hope there are many, but I know that life/time/free agency/distance/health/circumstances etc. will all come into play as life goes on, so I treasured this precious moment and will continue to pray for more.

We left feeling amazing and the kids had a greater understanding of the temple. Mission accomplished. Then we were ready for fun at our first WNBA game. It was awesome! The Fever played great and won, then we got to line up to meet the coach and players.

Basketball, temple, hotels and un-interrupted time with these 4 people I love more than anything. I couldn't ask for anything more. Pretty much the best August Civic holiday weekend I've ever had.

I am grateful for the temple. I'm grateful to be entrusted with children to raise in this gospel. I am grateful that I have a husband to share these parenting adventures with.