Sweet Spirit

For the second time in a month, I was witness to my son standing up at a church podium and proclaim the gospel and his sweet testimony. For our Primary sacrament meeting program, the primary presidency asked Jaxon if he would share his story of how he came to be with our family and how the temple has made us a forever family. I have to tell you that Jaxon has always been non-interested in his birth story. His cousin Branden is eager to share his but Jaxon seems so ok to not know details or particulars. When we went to pick him up our visit was such a short one that we promised that we would take him to visit when he was 8 years old. He told us that Rexburg was his home and he really didn't need to go visit somewhere he didn't remember. (We are now planning for 12) So needless to say, Jaxon was not super excited to stand up in front of grown ups and talk about something that he didn't feel like talking about.

So I made a deal with him. I would write some of the thoughts and feelings about the events that surrounded his adoption and our taking him to the temple and he could decide what he did or didn't want to say. In the end it was short and sweet and completely sounded like Jaxon. The day of the Primary practice was Jaxon's championship game for grid kid football so he had to wing the standing up in front of everyone.

The program, like always was touching and full of the spirit. But Jaxon's talk had the entire congregation sobbing by the end. He looked like a little missionary, confident and full of the spirit as he spoke. He told us that he thought he was going to vomit but honestly you would have never known it. His talk went like this:

Temple blessings unite families and my family has been blessed because of the sealing powers of the priesthood within the temple. I was born in Philadelphia to a woman named Michelle. She was not able to take care of me so she chose to give me to my mom and dad here in Rexburg. She wanted me to have a home where there could be a mom and a dad who could take care of me.

When I was six months old, my adoption was finalized and my family got to go to the temple so that I could be sealed to my mom and dad. My brother and sister were there. My mom says it was really neat to have all her children in the temple together dressed in white. Many wonderful things happened that day in the temple that testified to our family and others that we were meant to be together as a family.

Our family is forever, not just in words but because someone who held the keys sealed us together forever. I am grateful that Heavenly Father brought us together to be a family and the He blessed us with the gospel so that we can be united forever in the temple.

It was one of my most momentous spiritual moments. To see that little boy up there bearing his testimony knowing that things could have been so much different for him if ... but there again, this I know that he was supposed to be here. I know that the Lord has many great things for him to accomplish.

As the mother of this child and frankly all of my children, I feel a great responsibility to help them achieve their potential.