Make that four years . . . ohhwee!

Yeah, Stephen and I are pretty much that old couple still holding hands that young romantic hopefuls wish they could be like-- except with wild running children who don't really let us walk slow enough to hold hands.

Unforeseen benefit of getting married Oct 24th? It hits around UPenn's Fall break every year. We spent our anniversary date (with kids) in Romney/Ryan land, a.k.a. PA outside of Philadelphia. Rural Pennsylvania is breathless in October.

Thanks Nathan and Robin for the temporary wheels, believe it or not, they made it back safely.

19?!?!

I am still giddy inside about girls being able to serve missions at 19. All of a sudden it just seems so much easier to be a woman in the church.

Now girls can go on mission at 19, have great spiritual experiences to take with them for the rest of their life, come home, get married, have the option of a big family at a decently young age without having race against the biological clock. What about their education? That was the one benefit, to me, of having girls wait till 21. But this inspired church is totally on top of that with its Pathways program so that even if a guy or girl comes home quickly and decides to jump into family, they don't have to be at an educational disadvantage.

I love that the future women of the church can have it all: a mission, a big family and an education. Okay, okay, they can't really have it all because the church policy on polygamy is unchanged so Stephen is still all mine. ha!

Stephen and I have been talking all day about the implications of this for BYU, singles wards, and the church in general. To me, it feels like the church has finally spread its wings and is off the ground. I can't wait to see what happens in the church in the next 10, 20, 30 years when so many more girls have had an opportunity to be missionaries.

Personally I love the way life worked out for me. When I came home from my mission, I knew it had been good for me, but it is only now coming up on 5 years of being home that I see how much I would have been missing had I not gone---#1 on that list would be Stephen. I realize that some girls are already mature and serve in other ways so it's not necessary. But oh, a mission full of difficulties, joys, successes and relationships make a nice little marathon for any soul.