Seven years ago...

I was 6 months pregnant with Madelyn and we ventured to Nauvoo, Illinois. We drove from Atlanta up to St. Louis and saw the sites there. Then we went on to Nauvoo. There we were met by Michael's parents, his brother, and his sister and her boys as well as his grandmother. My parents also came. It was cold. There was snow on the ground and there was hardly anyone visiting the town sites. The missionaries at each of the shops were ecstatic to see us and followed us around. It was neat. We took the carriage ride that I remember taking so many times as a child. This time the ride was through the beautiful white snow.

You see, I grew up in the Nauvoo stake (Quincy, Illinois). I remember the bare ground where the temple used to be and the little box that held a replica of what the temple looked like. The sun stone and moon stone were amazing sites. I never thought that they would rebuild that temple.

Then they did. We have friends in the area still and they got us tickets to the open house in 2002. My grandparents, who were not LDS, got to go through. Michael and I got to go through the open house and I was amazed at the beauty of this temple on the hill that had been missing for so many years. My Mom's best-friend's daughter was the first endowment done in the Nauvoo temple when it was rebuilt.

When we decided to go through the temple we had to figure out where. We could have easily gone to the Atlanta temple, which is also very nice. The singles ward behind the ATL temple was the first place that Michael and I went together (in separate cars).

Somehow I just knew that no place except Nauvoo would be right. To my amazement Michael felt the same way. It was so neat because when we were at the temple we ran into a bunch of people who were in my ward in Quincy. I was glad they could share in that special time with us.

We share a love for that temple like no other temple. We have the temple stain glass stars in two places in our home. I really feel like everything happened for a reason. We were married in 2001 and the temple was not done. We knew we wanted to go before we had a child and it just seemed right then. So, Madelyn got to be there with us when we were sealed for time and eternity as a couple and family forever in my favorite temple in the "beautiful city".