Saturday morning, I overslept a little. Our youngest had been up several times the night before and I have been battling a nasty head cold. I meant to get up by 7:30 AM to run errands and get home on time to get dinner in the crock pot before the first session started. Instead, I woke up at 9 AM, and barely got back from the store at 10:55 AM. It took me another 45 minutes to get the groceries put away and dinner into the crock pot. I wasn't too upset because we using our DVR to record all the sessions and I knew I could go back and watch what I had missed.
Just before I got home, my husband received a call from work, with something urgent that had to be taken care of. He got the kids settled for conference, then ended up working all through the first session. I joined them just before noon.
Right after the morning session ended, my phone started ringing. My hubby, who had just finished working, answered it - hoping it wasn't going to be from work! It wasn't. It was my awesome friend, Amy. My hubby handed me the phone saying, "Amy says she could hear screaming all the way from Kansas this morning."Uh oh. I knew right then I had missed something important while putting away the groceries.
I put the phone to my ear and said, "What did I miss? What am I supposed to be screaming about?"
Amy just could not believe I hadn't heard. So she went on to tell me that during the Saturday morning session, five new temples were announced - including one for the Greater Kansas City area, and another for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
I remember saying, "Are you kidding me? Is this a joke? Are you sure?" I couldn't tell you how many times I repeated that as I logged onto my computer and headed out to LDS.org. And there in the Newsroom was the announcement.
A temple for Kansas City.
A temple for Philadelphia.
I just could not stop crying. What an incredible blessing from Heavenly Father. During my visit to Utah, Amy and I had talked about how there were two things I truly missed since moving to Kansas. 1 - my wonderful friends, and 2 - having the blessings of a temple nearby.
And now, the members of the church in this area are going to be blessed with an incredible temple.
My hubby and I gathered the kids together to re-watch President Monson's announcement. I told the kids President Monson was going to tell us where new temples were going to be built and that I wanted them to listen closely so they could tell me the locations. My youngest son sat on my lap, and my oldest daughter sat next to me, while my oldest son and youngest daughter sat on the floor. Tears welled in my eyes as I listened to the announcement, and joy filled my heart as I watched my oldest daughter's face fill with excitement. "Wow!" she said, "Kansas City's getting a temple!"
We paused the broadcast and talked about the importance of temples, about how Mommy & Daddy were married there, and how our family would be together forever because of that blessing.
My four year old son said to my seven year old daughter, "Now we can go there and get married to be together forever, too!"
My daughter replied, "No, Rob. You're supposed to get married to someone else, not your brother or sister, silly!" :)
I also talked with them about what a huge blessing it will be for our Church members in Pennsylvania, too. That's where I grew up and, like here in Kansas City, we drove 4 to 4 1/2 hours to get to the Washington DC temple. We would leave super early in the morning, and return very late at night, just for the opportunity to serve in the temple for two or three hours. And then, my four year old said, "We need to pray to Heavenly Father to thank Him for the temples."
And so we all folded our arms, and our little four year old gave a short, but truly sincere prayer full of faith and gratitude.
He said, "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the temple in Kansas and in Pennsylvania, and that I can give my Mommy a hug."
It was one of those sweet, tender moments a mother treasures forever.
It will probably be about three years before these two temples are completed, but oh, how excited and grateful I am for each of them! As more information becomes available, I'll share it on my blog.
