Dressing up my Blog belongs to Rachel

I just have to say something about my Rachel. She is my middle child. She is the girl in the family. I'm so glad she is in the middle in between her brothers. When I see my three together with her in the middle I think, "What a perfect place for a sister to be - - in the middle!" In the middle she can be a friend to both brothers and in the middle she was always there to remind them that someday they would find someone like her or not like her.

When she was young and running through the kitchen, at times like a tornado the brothers would quip, "I'm not getting married if all girls are like her!" Then she would do something nice and thier hearts would soften and they were instant friends again. For the older brother, she was always cool, because she knew about cars and trucks and would even go to the races with him. To the younger brother, she had this fantastic quick sense of humor which he loved; and she also loved his hilariousness that came out when they were in the car together or at the beach. To this day, she misses Clay's humor, especially when her life gets a little more stressful than she cares for. They all three did concerts together and still today enjoy laughing over funny YouTube videos. Sometimes I don't get thier humor and what they think is funny but I'm the mom and maybe I'm not supposed to. I get joy just watching them all three laugh at the same thing at the same time.

To her dad and I she is the ray of sunshine who has brought us much happiness. She came into our lives 10 months after her older sister passed away and from the day she was born she was always there to comfort and smile at us as we continued to heal after Annie parted from our family temporarily.

Here's to my Rachel who calls me just to say, "I just called to say have a nice day," and then she has a cute story about Ashlynn before she hangs up. Today it was about Ashlynn's fall off the porch on the way to the bus. My day is always better after she calls because I'm reminded that I did something right because I have her.

Here's to my Rachel who fixes up my Blog because I can't figure out how to do it and don't want to. Here's to my Rachel who spends her husband's hard earned money and her free time on those who have less than she does. Here's to my Rachel who always finds a way to get through her own hard days and also finds ways to makes other people's day brighter at the same time.

Do we find our ancestors or do they find us?

Lately I have been amazed that the world is taking an accelerated interest in finding their ancestors. This is evidenced in the recent televsion productions on PBS's 'Faces of America" and NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" The premise of these shows is that professional geneologist research is done for celebrities and then the Geneology or stories of the celebrities past is presented to them on television. I have been interested and spell bound in a few episodes of Faces of America as I watched Oprah and Mario Batalli learn about their ancestory and how those relatives had similar interests and personality traits and even work interests. As they learn that their careers and even their charities are interests passed down through family lines, thier eyes light up and they become emotional as they finally meet their family and in turn learn more about who they are themselves. This week others like Susan Sarandon will be portrayed as they are presented and assisted in finding out their history and family members of the past on the NBC show Friday night.

The interesting thing to me is that celebrities and other people are just now getting interested in who they are and where they come from. What is this new phenom and why the sudden interest in researching one's relatives. Is it just a passing fad or the newest craze that will pass with time? I don't think so. I think the world is finally coming to understand what is important; thier family! I also believe that spirits from people who have passed away call to us to find them and make records and take that even further - - which I will explain at the end of this blog.

Finding ancestors, doing family history and writing our own personal history is not new to me or to the members of the church I attend (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.) Not only that we have been encouraged since we were children to write in a journal and create our own personal history, our church has the largest Geneological Library in the entire world right here in Salt Lake City where anyone in the world can come to learn more about their family ancestry. Our churh has presented family histories to all of the recent Presidents of the United States.
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/57628/Obama-family-history-presented-to-US-chief.html

The reason we seek out our ancestors is because ultimately we all want to know who helped us begin our own lives. We are all family and were family before we were born. We all have ties back to Adam and we are brothers and sisters who belong to the same family. It is no surprise that people are wanting to know how they are tied together into family lines. Who we are, what we do, what we enjoy doing is tied to someone in our past who had those same traits and passed them on to us. Family research can help us find someone from our family's past who is probably very similar to us in many respects.

So now we ask, what do we do with the knowledge of our ancestory once we have it? There's the question that is most important. We record it, we treasure it, we share it with others; but is that all? No, there is something else we can do. Our Ancestors who have passed away before us wait for us and even prompt us to find them for a specific reason. They are the ones who are speaking to us "from the dust" so to speak. They want to be found and then there is something else they wait for us to do for them. What is that act of service they are waiting for? For the answer to that question and others regarding families and extended families visit www.mormon.org. You will be amazed and hopefully encouraged even further to find your past.

Note - I have filled several journals in my life and recently purchased another journal. In that journal I have created a time-line of my life and plan to not only make brief daily entries but also stories about experiences in my life that I feel would be of interest to my children and their children so they can know me without having to search to learn about me.