3 Reasons I Love You (After 5 Years of Marriage)

Since the day we were married (5 years and 3 days ago to be exact), there has always been much symbolism for us in the number 3. 
We find it in the 3 kisses before he leaves for the day, the 3 knocks on the window when he comes home, the 3 honks of the car horn, 3 flashes of the headlights from behind, or the 3 taps on the red tail lights in return.

The symbolism is in the 3 squeezes of my hand at church, in a restauraunt, or during a movie.

3 is the number of times we've been pregnant, the number of loops on my wedding ring, and the number of sides on the diamond it displays.
Most importantly, 3 is the number of individuals in our marriage- Scott, myself, and God.                                                                   

My wedding ring, representing our 3 way relationship
with each other and God.
As we (the 2 bottom corners of the triangle, grow closer to
God (the top of the triangle), we grow closer to each other,
ultimately becoming one with each other and God.  

There has always been something special about the number 3 for me; (graciously borrowed as my lucky number from my older sister when I was little :)) But for US, 3 of any of these things holds the meaning of these 3 special words:

Wedding Day-
December 20, 2008

Happy 5 Year Anniversary, Scott!
I love you,
I love you,
I love you!!!

3 Reasons I love You.

Scott and I have a little tradition when we are feeling in love, as well as when we are feeling unhappy with each other and need a reminder of our love. This tradition is called (if I had to give it a name), "3 Reasons I love You." It's really easy; each of us just takes a turn telling the other 3 reasons why we love them. 

After playing this game so many times, our answers have started to get creative and quite detailed. After 5 years of marriage, the reaction we have to our experiences together are the reasons we continue finding new reasons to love each other.

Here are 3 of of the most significant reasons I have found, over the last 5 years of marriage, why I love the man I married.

Reason 3 

To kick off the start of our 5th year of marriage Scott and I had became pregnant with our first son, Isaac. 

The Tuesday before Isaac passed away, we were in the hospital listening to the decelerations in his heart. I had not felt him kick much if at all in the last several days or even weeks--the hole in his heart made him too weak to sustain the kind of kicks a full term infant produces. But as we sat in the hospital talking about the medical options of delivery and facing the difficulty that whatever rout we chose, there was a grim forecast and inevitable suffering on so many levels- physically for Isaac, emotionally for us, I remember being surprised by what I felt inside of me immediately following these words from our angel doctor:

"Choosing not to go through with the external version and waiting until he comes on his own in 3 weeks means you are ok with the possibility that he could go (pass away) inside of you."

I was feeling the peace and comfort in the last part of that sentence when just like that, I took 3 distinct kicks to the stomach from none other than Isaac himself. It was a miracle of sorts, that he could even manage a single kick, but 3 in a row with such pop was rather shocking to me, exciting, relieving, and hopeful. The 3 kicks Isaac gave helped me feel even better about that most difficult decision. 

Those were the last kicks I ever felt from him. 

Aside from giving me comfort in our medical choices, I recognize each of those 3 kicks as his way of symbolically leaving us with those three meaningful words-

August 2013

We were not aware of what this year would have in store for this baby, for our family, for our marriage. This was a pregnancy and a life that would mold our relationship with God and each other that no other way could. The experience we endured this last year and continue to endure until we can be with Isaac again, is one I am honored to have had so early in our lives, so soon in our young marriage. Because of it, we are closer to God, and we are closer to each other. 

Some time after the following events had taken place, Scott and I were talking in bed sharing our hearts with each other about the whole experience with Isaac, when I felt the strength within me and said to him - "We can do anything together, as long as we have each other and we have God."

Reason 3 why I love you: You are the best teammate I could ever imagine, my #1, my MVP. I could not do difficult things, great things, or anything in this life nearly as well without you. Even my relationship with God would take much more personal effort if it weren't for you. Thank you for being my #1 teammate, my MVP in this life and forever.  

We were married in the Nauvoo, Illinois Temple

of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints

Reason 2.

The night of our Texas wedding reception, there was an old mystery man with a beard, who came up to my dad told him, almost in whisper, these very bold words:

  "He will exceed your greatest expectations." 

I don't know what more was said if much else, but from the way I remember my dad telling it, it was almost as if he came and went with the breeze and that was the message he wanted my dad to know about Scott.

I realized my expectations were nowhere near "great" as I had thought when I was humbled by Scott's example of what it really meant to be great during a seemingly insignificant incident.

THE STOLEN COOKIES  :)

In our first year or two of marriage, we were attending a BYU Volleyball game on aFriday night in Provo, Utah. Sure, Scott enjoys watching sports, but that night we were going for the free pizza. As we cheered on the team and snarfed on our pizza, we noticed a couple people around us had the most deliciously large chocolate chip cookies that would be the perfect way to top off our free pizza dinner. We looked around for signs of cookies in other people's hands or cookies over by the pizza table but soon figured out that those few who had cookies had gotten them from the VIP room across the building. Obviously, the cookies were not for the fans, but we saw a few others with them and I persuaded Scott into going in to get a couple cookies for us to enjoy as well, no big deal. He went, came back with 2 delicious cookies that we stuffed in our faces and soon enough we were walking back to our car after the game.

Sept. 2013

Scott seemed so hesitant as we walked outside, and he kept looking back, like he had forgotten something. Finally he handed me the keys and said, "Here, go get the car, I 'll be right back." and with that he dashed back inside to who knew where or who knew why. When he came back out almost 10 minutes later, he approached the car with the biggest smile on his face. He seriously could not get that smile to go away and I'm sure his cheeks had to have started hurting after a half hour. When I asked him what he had gone to do he told me that he had gone back in to tell the coaches he had taken 2 cookies because he saw other people with them but wasn't sure if it was ok and could he pay for them. But while he was waiting in the VIP room for someone to "fess up" to, one of my broadcast reporting friends was in there with her VIP pass eating a cookie and recognizing Scott as my husband told him to take a cookie- "they don't care!" He felt totally silly because just after she offered him one like it was nothing, the coaches came in and Scott told them why he was there--to which the coaches responded that no, the cookies were not for the students but that he didn't have to pay and to not worry about it. 

It wasn't like he was even rewarded for being honest- he didn't get praised for coming back and telling he had taken a cookie, and he was even embarrassed when the girl offered him a cookie when he was in there in the first place because of a cookie (seems so silly, right?) - but when he came out of that fieldhouse grinning from ear to ear - it was not about the 25c cookies, the coaches, or any of that but the fact that on the smallest scale in the world, he felt the slightets bit of guilt knowing that he had taken something that wasn't his to take and he wanted to make it right, for no one else but his own conscious. No one would have cared, if they found out or not, it wouldn't have made a difference to anythone but to Scott himself, he could feel completely pure.

When anyone could justify something so insignificant and just brush it off and forget about it, he decided instead of doing just that, which he could have been ok with as well and just been better next time, he chose to put himself in an awkward situation over something so small but made such a big difference in his character and trust with God, and now, his wife. If a random coach can have his trust over something as small as a 25c cookie, I know as his wife, I can have his trust over not just the big things, but the small things too. The small things are what we deal with on a day-to-day basis and this is what makes the difference in anyone's life- the small things.  

Even in his weaknesses, imperfections and struggles, it is his heart that is ultimately what exceeds all expectations. I am truly humbled by his pure heart. 

Reason 2 why I love you: You have the purest heart I have ever known and make me want to be a better person because of it. Thank you for living and growing through the experiences of your life in such a way that has allowed your heart to become what it is. I truly look up to you and hope to become a better person eternally because of you, and with you. 

Sept. 2013

Reason 1.

Though I could tell more stories about Scott, I will spare any more on this outlet and save the rest for my personal journal, but as I think of one last significant reason I love Scott after 5 years of marriage, I would say it is the way I feel God's love for me through him, and it is so powerful. I realized at one point in my marriage how much God loved me because he manifests it in blessing me with Scott to love me in His stead.  

Thank you for not only loving me for me, but loving Heavenly Father enough to love me on behalf of Him, and for stepping up to that large plate. I have truly looked into your eyes and heart and have felt the love of God just by looking at you. You are a wonderful human being.

Reason 1 why I love you: You love God more than you love me, and so you can love me more than you ever possibly could without that love of God because you are learning God's perfect love and always trying to aspire to it. I love that I can feel God's love for me because of the Love you have for me on his behalf. Thank you for understanding your divine role as a son of God and as my Husband. I am truly blessed and honored to have you as my eternal companion. 

___________________________________________________________

December 20, 2013 marks 5 years of marriage with my best friend and eternal companion. He is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am a better person everyday because I have him to look up to and to lift me up. I love him so much more today than the day we were sealed together forever and that love will grow exponentially for eternity.

 It is so true, as we have worked to know our Heavenly Father better and come closer to Him, we have grown closer in love to each other over the last 5 years. I can only imagine what eternity of experiences and growth will do for our relationship and love. I am so excited and anxious for the work and the joy of it.
 5 years down, eternity to go!

First date- July 2008

Where he proposed to me when he got the real ring :)

(Insert - Lots of pictures that cover highlights from the last 5 years

 that I was going to put but now am not....sorry :))

The Waltons 2013 :)
(Isaac is in this picture in spirit- just like he is every day :))

Flowers in the Mail

I wasn't aware of the significance of today 

until this box came in the mail this afternoon.

 I felt special as I walked back home holding it because I knew what was inside and who had sent them--but I didn't know why. 

When I opened the box- I was caught off guard.

It wasn't because of the flowers themselves, but because of what they began to stand for as I read the accompanying note. 

I am touched.

Happy 3 month Birthday, Isaac!

We sure love you :)

And I sure love you, Scott. 
Thank you :)

Dear Isaac: A letter to Heaven, and the World - PART IV - "Time" Concludes

Part IV of IV

*About this post: 
The contents of this entry are broken up into 4 parts- and posted over the course of 4 days. describe tender moments very close to my heart and are of great worth and significance to me. I share them out of gratitude for my angel son, Isaac, my Savior Jesus Christ, and my Father in Heaven for the priceless wisdom and insights this experience has and will provide me for the rest of my life, and so to others. I wrote these things (and much more besides) with much struggle and dedication over the course of nearly three months. As the most sacred and most beautiful experience of my life, it is my great privilege and honor to share these things with any and all who read it.

Isaac's story: Post 7

Click here for Post 6

DEAR ISAAC: A Letter to Heaven, and the World

Hopeful Truths Gained From a Most Scared, Eternal Experience

Published 3 months postpartum

PART IV of IV- "Time" Concludes
Click Here for Part III of IV

I once believed this "bitter cup" that was set before us would be swallowed up in the miraculous healing of our son. 
Now, I recognize the blessing of a greater opportunity. We are blessed to build a brighter faith, gain a stronger hope and achieve a more glorious work as we actively take part in creating miracles of our own doing. Living a life committed to the gospel so that I will witness the literal healing and raising up of my baby boy, will be of the greatest miracles along the way.


Until then, Isaac is our little missionary, helping us bring about miracles within ourselves but more importantly, to others. As his mother, I am proud to let him Serve the Lord for however long we are to be apart. 

Before Isaac's grave was filled with earth,
Scott laid down the favorite tie from his own 2-year mission in
honor of that same work Isaac is doing on the other side.

If through Isaac's story, we are able to bring one soul to Jesus Christ, then the sacrifice Scott, Sydney, Isaac and I endure in this life is worth it--that another may be made "alive" in Christ.

We all must have this opportunity to hear the Gospel before our Savior will come again, before we all (the dead and the living--everyone) can be together again, alive in the flesh, alive in Christ.

Each of our spirits will find permanent residence in the bodies we came to this earth to claim for all eternity. They will be perfected, glorified, immortalized, never to be separated from them again. This is so, that we may receive a fullness of joy surrounded by those we love as well as the one who loves us most--forever learning, growing and progressing that we may one day be as He is and have all that He has. This, is a fullness of joy. This is what God wants for each of us. This, is the purpose of our Savior, and this is His work and His glory: the immortality and eternal life of man. I bare strong testimony of it and declare that with any struggle we meet in this life, big or small, self-inflicted or imposed upon us, we can turn to our Savior and find strength, peace and comfort to endure it, learn from it, grow from it, and become more like Him through it. We are given time here on earth for this very purpose. What a gift.

And so I leave off where I began, months ago before Isaac's short life ended. It was truth then and it is truth now...

"If I look at the past, present and future as one eternal truth as God does, what I see is my family- Me, Scott, Sydney, Isaac, our future children and grandchildren, the family that came before us and those who will come after us- together. That vision will be reality, in the blink of an eye. In some sense, it already is reality. I don’t doubt that Isaac will act as a guardian angel for our family as we dwell here on earth, and I don’t doubt that our ancestors and our future children are already acting as our guardian angels. But there will come a time when we will literally be with them again, all together, all made possible by our Savior Jesus Christ, through His atonement and the great Plan of Salvation.

"As for the time being, I still cry at times; But more than the tears that drip down my cheeks is the amount of gratitude that I have for being given this marvelous opportunity to experience this pain and sorrow, that we may come to know and experience true joy coupled with tremendous faith, comfort and the invaluable opportunity to share the gospel.

I am forever grateful for all the blessings that continue to guide us through this experience--through this life.

It always was and still is only a matter of time and what we do with it--while we still have it. Individually, time will conclude for each of us, until the day when Christ comes and time as we know it, will conclude for all. 

He will then come to reign with peace and happiness. As brothers and sisters who made the choice pre-mortally to come to this earth to learn, grow and return back home, let us work together, prepare the way for our Savior and partake of the goodness and glory that will be ours as we live His gospel and share it with others. We are one big eternal family, all of us, and it will not be home without every one of us there. Let us each hasten the work before our time concludes, that our eternal life, God's greatest gift, may begin.



*To learn more about the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, CLICK HERE, or contact me :). THANK YOU FOR READING!

*I definitely have further plans to for Isaac's story- as his story will never end (and there is much yet to share)- but I take a break from it for now. 
It's been a while since I've written a "normal" update on my blog about our day-to-day lives. There sure is a lot to catch up on!! I want Sydney to remember what she was like at this stage in her life and so for our own sake, I will continue to write about our daily, normal lives. As always, thank you for reading and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at all! I love talking to people about the Gospel, about anything, and about life. :)

Dear Isaac: A letter to Heaven, and the World - PART III - The Letter

Part III of IV

*About this post: 
The contents of this entry are broken up into 4 parts- and posted over the course of 4 days. describe tender moments very close to my heart and are of great worth and significance to me. I share them out of gratitude for my angel son, Isaac, my Savior Jesus Christ, and my Father in Heaven for the priceless wisdom and insights this experience has and will provide me for the rest of my life, and so to others. I wrote these things (and much more besides) with much struggle and dedication over the course of nearly three months. As the most sacred and most beautiful experience of my life, it is my great privilege and honor to share these things with any and all who read it.

Isaac's story: Post 7

Click here for Post 6

DEAR ISAAC: A Letter to Heaven, and the World

Hopeful Truths Gained From a Most Scared, Eternal Experience

Published 3 months postpartum

PART III of IV- The Letter
Click Here for Part II of IV

In the last few months of his life, every member of Isaac's extended family wrote individual letters directly to him. There are 47 letters in total. Some were handwritten, some typed up, and many were accompanied by photos and drawings. These treasured, heartfelt letters were bound together in a book entitled "Letters for Isaac." Scott and I had no idea until this priceless book arrived in the mail the day of Isaac's memorial service. It now stands in the corner of our living room next to the three red chests holding items Isaac claimed in his short sojourn in "time." As his mother, I too have a letter for Isaac--a letter that stands for the truth I carry in my heart--truth that will lead me back to him. Not only have I held this letter in my heart for the several months before his birth, but for every month ahead I will continue to add upon it by the way I live my life and share my life with others.

Dear Isaac,
I write this letter as a reflection of the truth burning within my heart. I hope that reflection is as bright as the faith I have come to possess in it and emits even just a fraction of the warmth of our Savior's love. His love is the source from such burning truths.
When you were here with us, you were "Baby Isaac," but from the moment I knew you were gone, you were "Isaac." I could sense the largeness of your fully grown and mature spirit during those moments of comfort at the hospital, and I hope that one day my spirit grows to be as mature as yours is.

Thank you, Isaac. Thank you for your strong example. Thank you for all that you were before you came to our family, all that you are now and all that you are becoming. Thank you for doing your part in His great work. We love you for everything you contribute. I have gained a much closer relationship with my Father in Heaven, found a greater love and appreciation for others, and have now found an even greater purpose and deeper desire to become a better person because of you and because of Heavenly Father's blessing us with you.

I hope to share with others, through you, truth that I have come to know through my life, but especially through this lifelong experience with you. You have enabled me for the rest of my life to testify without shame or fear of man the glorious, beautiful, hopeful and joyful truths that I know are true.  I want others to have what we have. We have been blessed with something invaluable and we must share it!

God sure knew what he was doing when he sent you to us, and especially when he took you back. He knew all the many perfect impacts your life and departure would have on our family and even others. We sure miss you and often wish you could be here with us, but we know that through our Savior, that time is only "time" away. I am so grateful to know God was and is always in complete control. His allowing your departure to happen so soon is a perfect plan for us. It is a refiner's fire worth submitting to. The greatest blessings often come with the most difficult sacrifices, but it is worth it! Through all the ups and downs, I know that the greatest blessings are yet to come, surpassing all magnitudes of our pain and sacrifice.

Thank you Isaac, for your sacrifice- for yours may be far greater than ours. Your willingness to subject your perfect spirit to an imperfect body and forego the joys of this mortal life is teaching others the greater joy of eternal life. 

We are all blessed because of you.

As I think of the most significant way to bless your sweet spirit, Isaac, I imagine it would be to help you from this side of the veil to accomplish the work Heavenly Father has for us. We will be your best teammates from "this side" in helping to hasten the work.  we are determined to do what it takes to return and be with Him again, and therefore with you and every one of God's children that chooses to return to Him. The drive for our doing just that is our testimony. I bare that testimony, to you and to all who will hear it, that the only way for true happiness in this life and a fullness of joy in the next, is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His truth has been restored in its fullness in these latter days through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Our Father would not leave us here without a way back to Him, and that path is by living His gospel. He is keenly aware of each and every one of us and he waits with outstretched hands to help us back to Him. I know because I reached back and have been so touched by them. He is there and he answers prayers. His love is as real as our experience with you. It is unconditional, incomprehensible and I have gained a much stronger and personal conviction of that as I've drawn nearer to Him through you. His plan is perfect, and we can become like Him if we do what it takes to get to know Him and return to Him. With this as my focus, I likewise will get to return and be with you again, Isaac.

We miss out only in our temporary separation but we are gaining so much more and will receive all and more that we miss here and now. We just have to be patient and wait upon the Lord.

Your precious body still needs to be raised to the full stature of your spirit, and your father and I will have that privilege. Even what we are now doing for Syd we will do for you after the resurrection, except our joy, pleasure, and satisfaction will be a far greater joy than we can possibly have in mortality because we will be free from the sorrow and fear and disabilities of mortal life, and we will know more than we can know in this life. This is a reality because of the eternal family we are through a temple marriage that seals us together forever.

This is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and by it and through it we have every hope! My testimony of this gospel is the most precious possession I hold, and the most precious thing I can share. Why else would I write my departed son a letter based solely on this? IT IS TRUE. It is precious, and it is necessary for the true happiness of each of us.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way back to Him and to each each other for eternity. There is no greater joy than eternal life.

I know that you are anxiously engaged in a good cause, Isaac, and all the while, you are constantly looking down at us. I know these things because it has been given me to know these things in more ways than one. I am excited to likewise be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and together in our world of mortality and your world of the eternities, we will help hasten the Work.

I love you, Isaac. I am grateful for the sacrifices we are able to make for each other that we may each progress in our own sphere until the day we can be together again. I look forward to the day you will return to our arms and we will get to raise you up unto the Lord, as promised. Until then, thank you Isaac, for raising me up unto the Lord. I am forever grateful for you and to you.

Love you always and forever,
Mom

Part IV- The last of this four part post will be published on November 4, 2013

DEAR ISAAC: A Letter to Heaven, and the World - PART II - Hastening the Work

Part II of IV

*About this post: 

The contents of this entry are broken up into 4 parts- and posted over the course of 4 days. describe tender moments very close to my heart and are of great worth and significance to me. I share them out of gratitude for my angel son, Isaac, my Savior Jesus Christ, and my Father in Heaven for the priceless wisdom and insights this experience has and will provide me for the rest of my life, and so to others. I wrote these things (and much more besides) with much struggle and dedication over the course of nearly three months. As the most sacred and most beautiful experience of my life, it is my great privilege and honor to share these things with any and all who read it.

Isaac's story: Post 7

Click here for Post 6

DEAR ISAAC: A Letter to Heaven, and the World

Hopeful Truths Gained From a Most Scared, Eternal Experience

Published 3 months postpartum

Part II of IV- Hastening the Work
Click Here for Part I of IV

Just two days after we buried our baby boy, in a most crucial time of need and direction, the most powerful and impactful words of my life came to my rescue. Drifting from the lips of the one I hold most dear, the eight simple words my husband spoke penetrated my heart and excited my soul. More than being of great comfort, these words were powerfully motivating. Coupled with so sacred an experience, I was and am forever moved into action because of them. 

I had been in the back room, the location of much searching, pondering and praying. I found myself doing those very things when an extremely intense desire and longing for home overcame me. I so desperately wanted to be there. I've always been comfortable here, always felt very "at home" on this earth with those I love, but for the first time, I literally felt the reality of my pre-mortal and post-mortal home. I don't know where those feelings came from since I am unable to recall by sight this place which I so longed to be, but I could certainly recall the feeling of it.  As I longed to dwell forever in that feeling, it was as if I was remembering it--miraculously recalling things I once knew that had long left my memory.

I sobbed as I tried to make sense of these feelings, explaining to Heavenly Father that "I want so badly to be where He is. I want to be home again." My feelings were so intense that I would have been ok with being taken up then and there. Then, in that instant, I thought of Scott; and Sydney.


 I thought of my family here, including, friends, acquaintances and others. I realized how each and every one that remains here on this earth is so incredibly special, just as Isaac is. I am so lucky to be here with so many wonderful others.
During my heartfelt prayer, I was calmed and comforted with the reassurance of my purpose here, right now, and the joy I may still experience here, even though the greatest of which incomprehensible joy I will look forward to experiencing there, according to how I live my life here.

Realizing the incredible worth of Isaac's soul, and understanding Heavenly Father's love for each individual soul, I began to grasp again and hold tight to the honor and privilege it is for me to be here on this earth at this time with these other children of his, my spirit brothers and sisters. I found a refreshed love for complete strangers--knowing where they too came from and where their spirits too ultimately long to return. I enjoy people more who I have been blessed to be here with at this time, and care less about temporal things. I am happier.  

Knowing the worth that it is for my spirit to continue occupying a body at this time, experiencing, learning and progressing, and that disembodied spirits do not live in the presence of God but await that time in the spirit world for the resurrection when their spirits will permanently reunite with their perfected and glorified bodies-- without the presence of both God and Isaac, and everyone else, it would not be home. 

As I told Scott of this experience, I mentioned that the only way for us all to be together, again in the presence Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, is for something already in the works. Our Father in Heaven, the literal Father of all our spirits, also wants us to return home to Him, so he created a way for us through His son, our Savior and brother, Jesus Christ. He broke the bands of death that we all may live again as He does, resurrected, glorified, and perfected. At his Second Coming, those who have passed through the gate of death into the spirit world, will rise up again from their graves, spirit and perfected body, never to be separated again.  Through His gospel, families, who have made and kept sacred covenants will also be reunited in the flesh, NEVER TO BE SEPARATED again!

"So I guess what I'm trying to say," I related to Scott, "is that I really want the Second Coming to come!" His reply were those eight simple words: 


"Well," he acknowledged, "we need to help hasten the work." 


To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, is His work and His glory. We will help hasten it by spreading the restored gospel to every kindred, tongue and people, that each may learn and choose to make and keep sacred covenants that will merit them eternal life--or a life forever as eternal families in the presence of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, in never-ending happiness.

"Isaac can be our motivation to be better missionaries, to live good lives, [in order] to help hasten the work," Scott went on to say.

To do our part in this great work, God planted within our hearts, through Isaac, a deep desire for this Second Coming to come to pass. We want to be with Iasaac again, in the flesh, 

and have the honor of raising his body to the full stature of his beautiful spirit after the resurrection. We want to live together as a family forever and to be in the presence of our Savior and Father for eternity in peace and happiness. This is why through my pregnancy with Isaac, Heavenly Father allowed my faith to grow incredibly and to keep believing in miracles, because although we did see many along the way and still do, the greatest is yet to come, when Isaac will not only be healed, but resurrected and perfected, as well as everyone who ever walked the face of this earth. This is why I need more faith than I had attained before he died, and I will work for the rest of my life to obtain that faith because through it and by it I will too not only witness it, but partake of it myself- the greatest miracle, the greatest gift God has to give, immortality and eternal life. 

We each play a part in Heavenly Father's plan. Isaac didn't need to stay in this mortal sphere of existence to fulfill his purpose, and he works now in another sphere in greater ways, given the capacities of a spirit.

Isaac gave up his time in mortality so that he may do a greater, more glorious work. I, on the other hand, am still in time, and I will honor Isaac with my time, as I do for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. As if our lives were not already committed to a life of living the gospel by word and deed, our commitment is now ushered by determination, desire, and destiny--It is our part of "the work." 

Together, with Isaac in the spiritual sphere and us in the mortal sphere, and by the power of the spirit, we will help hasten the work, together. Isaac is more than our guardian angel, he is our teammate. And so I speak to him by heart in my letter to Isaac.

Part III- The Letter, will be posted on November 3, 2013