I am grateful for my brothers and sisters.

I love my family and I really love that it keeps growing. I grew up with 2 older brothers and an older sister. It always seemed kind of small, but it has grown a lot since then. Thanks to a few great marriages, I now have 5 older brothers, an awesome younger brother (yeah be jealous) and 6 wonderful sisters. I love my family so much and all the wonderful examples they are to me. It is such a blessing to have them around and see how strong they are in various ways. 


There are times in each of their lives that they have hard trials to go through, but they rely on the Lord and are able to be better for what they've experienced. I've seen this a lot lately with two of my brothers. They are both having health problems and now both are on chemo. Instead of feeling self-pity or questioning why it has to be them, they are both full of hope and working hard to get healthy again. I haven't even mentioned the hard work that my sisters are doing to take care of them. They are such a strength for their husbands as they've done all that they can to take care of them.


I love the my siblings that I was blessed to grow up with. Each one of them have been such great examples to me. Because I'm the youngest, I've been able to see the importance of the decisions that you make throughout all stages of your life. What really had the biggest impact on me was seeing their joy at their weddings. I realized that it was not only important to marry the right person (which all three of them did), but to also marry in the temple. There seemed to be a change that happened to each one of them and at the time I didn't understand it, but I knew that I wanted what they had. I now understand what was different about them. When someone gets married in the temple, they are not just married until death. They are married for time and all eternity. This means that they will have each other forever. The individual becomes part of a pair. That was the change that I saw in my siblings. I am so grateful that I followed their example and was also married in the temple.


I love having a younger brother. It is the BEST! Being the youngest in my family, I was a little worried about how it would be to be an older sibling. Luckily, I have one of the funniest, silliest, and sweetest younger brothers. I just love him so much! I am grateful that I will be able to watch him grow into a strong and righteous man.


I love all of my siblings. I can't imagine what life was like before they came around. They are all such great examples to me and I am so grateful to have each one of them in my life.