My parents came to visit last Thursday to celebrate Daniel's birthday and baptism with us. It always means a lot to have family support, especially when you live far from all your extended family.
You know I always like to make a welcome sign for visitors. There's something just a little reassuring about pulling up in someone's driveway and knowing immediately that they remember you are coming and are excited too!
Grandma and Grandpa Hadlock are very easy to host. They are easygoing, helpful with the children, and patient. They took us all to Texas Roadhouse one night for dinner. Daniel was excited when they had him sit in the saddle and sang him the birthday song. Well, maybe he was mostly thrilled about a big birthday ice cream sundae!
The kids loved eating the peanuts and throwing them on the ground at the restaurant. Ben keeps teasing the kids in recent weeks that we are doing "cruise dining training." The older two do very well, but Christina needs some practice in patience. It was a delicious dinner out!
I enjoyed planning out the meals at home, around the crazier nights. We had Daniel's requested favorite dinner - chili cheese enchiladas. Hands down - the easiest meal for me to make. Thank you, Daniel. I'll consider this a tender mercy. Katie made her ham 'n peas creamy penne last night. And I made a frozen lasagna another night. We kept it simple, but enjoyed some fun dinners together.
It was a particularly busy 5 days with Daniel's birthday and baptism, Katie's Girl Scout Library lock-in, Stake Standards night (for me, Ben, and KT), Ben's stake training meetings, and a bowling party for one of Daniel's classmates. And that was just the stuff that felt "necessary."
Another fun surprise from the visit was their gift of the dvd - Cars 2. Mom said she goofed and mailed our Christmas gift to their house. When she realized the mistake, she decided to bring it in person instead. I don't think I've seen Katie and Daniel laugh this hard over a movie in a long time. These are their real smiles. Looking at this photo makes me grin too!
Aside from the baptism, the most touching part of the visit for me was participating as a family in doing some family history yesterday afternoon. Christina was playing outside with her friends for hours. This made it possible to talk together, explore the new Family Search, and actually get some names ready to take to the temple. Katie has pestered us for weeks about her goal to get baptized for one of our ancestors who had not been baptized.
I saw such great collaboration too in this experience. My parents knew about people specifically and remembered who had passed away in recent years. Katie was the prompting and reminder about our goal. Ben knows his resources and was able to quickly access Social Security Indexes and be helpful with Family Search. Once I got going, I provided the motivation and "stick-to-it." I tried to tap into each person's strengths and keep looking. Initially, Katie, along with Grandpa and Ben were able to get three females names "temple ready." That was exciting and felt so good.
After Ben and Katie petered out, I continued on and was able to find two more female names for Katie, along with some other work I can personally do. The Spirit was definitely with us and I was thankful that both my parents were so helpful and interested. I could feel the scriptural promise in action - “To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers." I felt it in tangible ways with those who were present and those who had passed on. I also emailed my aunt who lives in Oklahoma, hoping to do some of this work with her, at the request of my Dad.
It was one of the loveliest Sunday afternoons I've experienced in a long time.
In case you are interested, here is that index that Ben accessed. It's pretty amazing. If you haven't checked out the new Family Search, I was surprised by its simplicity and speed. Within an hour, we had prepared a name for the temple. That's sure changed from what it was like to do family history 15-20 years ago!
I loved watching my Dad play with the kids. He was so engaged with them and interested in their toys. Both of them went with me to take kids to school and pick them up. They are such caring, tolerant, and loving grandparents. I am trying to emulate them and be more like them.
It's probably not fair to post this one of them, since my Mom's eyes were filled up with tears. This is my sweet parents just before they headed out to the OKC airport. (Mom, who is 5'3, got a kick out of looking taller, since they were standing on our sloped driveway. Dad reminded me that they used to kiss on steps with their big height difference). I love these two!
We will miss them, but June will come quickly. I have to focus on the future at goodbyes and remember that time flies. It meant so much that they would come. Love you, Mom & Dad!
1 comments:
It's so fun when they come and so hard when they leave! glad you had a great visit. I went to the temple last week nad noticed that so many more people had family names that they were doing. It is getting so much easier. I love doing family names.
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