Leavin my baby....

Strong convictions make a person do difficult things.  I believe in my religion with all of my heart, I know of it's truthfulness and can bear testimony to anyone of a kind and loving God and Savior.  I believe those things so deeply that today I left my son at the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah...not to be seen again for two years.

We hugged for a very long time, tears streaming down our cheeks.  I knew he would be fine, I knew I would be fine but, man oh man...I'm gonna miss that kid.  I'm so proud of him though.  He chose to serve this mission, yes...I whole heartedly supported him, but at any time he could have chosen not to become a full-time servant of the Lord.  Yet,  even though he was scared of the unknown...he did it.  And he did it well!  What a great looking son I have.

Our children do things to make us proud, some times they do things things that don't make us so proud but, today I'd have to say...was an incredibly proud day.  This young man...who gave me so much grief and so many gray hairs over the years really did good.  Oh, the stories I could tell about when he was growing up....lol.  But, to have him reach this point in his life where he is a clean, moral, worthy 19 year old male...willing to serve others...makes me more proud than I can even express.

Sometimes, sacrifice must accompany hard choices but it usually returns 10 fold in great blessings.  I know that this experience for Carson will help him identify both sacrifice and blessing and learn a greater understanding of what those are to him in his life and I know that by sacrificing my son for two years I will be blessed along with our entire family.

How blessed our family is to have the knowledge of a higher power and have a greater understanding of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, than many.  I hope that anyone reading my post will know that a they are loved by a loving Father in Heaven and a chosen Savior.  My son may even be on his way to find you and teach you just that.  May we all open our hearts and our minds so that we can be blessed.

judy