Leo's Sealing

Sealing 

An ordinance performed in the temple eternally uniting a husband and wife, or children and their parents.

For LDS families, an adoption is not complete at finalization.  There is a kind of spiritual finalization as well.  We call it a sealing and it means that Leo is now a part of our family, not only on this earth and in this life, but in the world and life to come.

Saturday was a very special day for our family, Leo was sealed to us for eternity.

Many members of our family traveled from Utah and Oregon to be at the Seattle Temple with us.

Leo was adorable, a perfect angel, and seemed pretty darn happy about the level of attention he was getting.

John Henry looked dashing dressed all in white.  He had been talking about going to the temple to seal Leo to our family for a few weeks now.  He was so excited to actual go.  He was reverent in the temple, and having our children in the sealing room was a sacred experience beyond description.

Leo's Story, part 2: Getting to Know Lisa

In preparation for writing this post I went back and read all of the emails to and from Lisa starting with that first email through the following five or so weeks until I flew to Alaska.  What a gift those emails are to me and what a gift they will be for Leo.

The emotions that I felt at receiving, reading and replying to each one were so poignant.  As I have reread them I have felt those strange, dizzying and confusing emotions again in a (thankfully) weaker form and I wonder at the complexity of the human soul.  I am at a loss to describe what getting to know Lisa through these letters was like.  It was overwhelming.  It became increasingly clear, however, that God had arranged for us to find one another.

Much of what we shared with one another would be meaningless to the rest of the world, but to me, it was a precious time.  Lisa shared with us what had drawn her to our profile.  Her criteria for a family was that 1. they must all ready have at least on child and 2. they must have a dog.  I was shocked to learn that of the more than 100 waiting families listed with our agency only five families meet this criteria.  We were the only family who described our dog's personalities in our letter.  (When we say that our dogs are part of our family, we mean it!)  It was also very special to learn that Leo had kicked and made his wishes known while Lisa read our profile.

The first phone call I got from Lisa (and I say I, because Lincoln was not with me) came to me while I was in a yarn store in Utah with my mom and sister.  This, to me, was another tender mercy arranged by Heavenly Father.  Knitting with my Mom, sister, and grandmothers is such an important part of who I am.  I felt like Lisa was joining us as my honorary sister.  From the beginning we talked to one another with the ease of women who have known each other their whole lives.  After we hung up I purchased some of my very favorite yarn, in what I would later learn was Lisa's favorite color, to knit a hat and scarf for her.  (She looks so beautiful in them too!)


slowly but surly, I will record Leo's story.  Part 3: Welcome to Alaska and Meeting Lisa will follow.