Eli's Blessing Day

When we are young we are so busy being parents we forget to take in the blessings of family on a daily basis. I really believe that's why we're allowed to be grand parents and great-grandparents.

As I watched Tony bless and name Eli (our sixth great-grandchild) descriptive words of the moment failed me, because my heart was full to bursting.

That was November 3, 2008. Two months have passed and I've been able to put things more in perspective. At the time I was very ill and was to have had major surgery that very weekend, but because we had scheduled the blessing for that weekend I had to postpone it - not that I was excited about having the surgery either, but because that was the only day everyone in the family could come for the blessing.

The ceremony at church was beautiful and the words Tony spoke over the baby were unforgetable. The Spirit was so strong. After church we all went to our home for a post-blessing family dinner. I had prepared ham (a HUGE one), potato, macaroni and green salads. And Elisa had provided the cake, which was gorgeous. I'll try and post pictures of the food later. We had invited some very special, important people to our family and were enjoying ourselves immensely, catching up on everyone's life, when through the front door came our daughter Audrey and her daughters Jackie and Joscelyn and Jackie's two small boys (two of our great-grandchildren). You could have knocked everyone in the house over with a feather. We had not seen Audrey for 16 years. Jackie and found me on the internet via Classmates.com. She said she was looking for anyone who knew her mother in high school. I answered her back and told her I was her grandmother and had been looking for them for years. Then I told our daughter, Elisa that I had found Audrey - and she came to California from Utah to bring Lauren back to USC for the school year. Then Elisa and Lauren went out to Valencia and found Audrey and told her about the upcoming blessing and that we wanted them to come. And they did. We had a wonderful re-union and I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the internet and for Classmates.com! Hopefully we will remain connected from now on. I will never take my children for granted again. When I think that after my surgery I came close to leaving this old world then I am so dedicated to keeping my family together from now on. May God bless us all in that effort.