motherhood

his photo was taken at grand central station in NYC. talk about serendipity. i was visiting the city with my brother and two of our friends. we stumbled upon this exhibit. i felt it's message so profoundly about family, love, life and friendship. this specific picture was about a woman that was burned severely during the hiroshima bombing. she thought that she could never be loved because of her scares. all this changed when she met her husband and had a baby.

her story gave me hope that i'd one day find someone to love me despite all of my unseen scares. it also gave me hope that i could be a mother and feel love. i've had a hard time believing i'd find the right man to marry let alone have children. reading her story changed this mind set. what a blessing that god can speak to every soul's need!

mr. and mrs.

married for time and all eternity
may 3rd, 2003
in the mesa, arizona temple

things on our wedding day may not have turned out as planned. boy could i tell stories! ... but the important part, becoming a couple for time and eternity, was beautiful. it felt right. i will forever be grateful to find a man who knew where he wanted to get married and why. this has set the tone in every area of our marriage.

allison's mission

(photo of me and Josette on her baptism day - 1993)

part of my identity has been developed because i served a mission in southern france. living there was heaven. serving the lord was harder than i had ever imagined. i always knew i would serve a mission because i expected the man i was to marry to have served a mission. i believed i should be what i expected my husband to be. so i never really thought twice about it. i was going to serve the lord full time for 18 months.

another huge motivator for me was that i felt it would be the best thing i could do for my future children. my home was filled with faith... but i wanted to be an even better at teaching my children about Jesus. i feel like my mission was a "success" because i became more fully converted to the gospel of jesus christ. i know god has a plan for everyone's happiness. i feel this more deeply as i grow older.

Jonathan's Mission

I was blessed during my mission to gain a strong testimony that my Savior loves me and that the gospel is true. Along the way, I met some good friends and learned how to live life happy. This photo reminds me of good times. It has just rained, so you can see a glimpse of the Andes mountains through the pollution. The smile on the elder turned around reminds me of the joy I felt (and feel) sharing the gospel. More than anything, I am thankful for the two years where I learned to work hard for my God and became a man worthy of my sweet wife.

I also get a kick out of the photo because there is a dog in it. There were so many dogs in Chile. You learned to watch where you stepped.

allison's family - summer traditions

i grew up in a hard working family. my parents owned their own business. it often felt like they worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. they usually took sundays off but it seemed rare that we'd take prolonged summer vacations. (this explains why i live for vacations.) the highlight of our summers was going camping to sandbanks provincial park in canada. this is the best beach with in a 3 hour radius of our home in ottawa. sand for miles. shallow lake water. just plain relaxing. i'm looking forward to taking jonathan and azure there for their first visit in just a few weeks.