#GiveThanks

 This time of year has always been one of my favorites. This year I feel extra ready for the ever present feeling of hope, peace, healing, and faith. The holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving and culminating in the New Year, is a time of reflection, gratitude, and making plans. This year has been an extra-ordinary year of trials and unprecedented commotion world wide. Here in the USA we saw a booming economy brought to a screeching halt, the slow recovery, Millions of people out of work, Lives threatened by a Virus that is still not understood, and The Most Divisive Presidential Race in our History. 
Recently President Russell M. Nelson, The President and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shared a message with the world The Healing Power of Gratitude. In his message he challenged all who watched it to spend the 7 days leading up to American Thanksgiving sharing on their social media pages the #GiveThanks. I have been amazed at the outpouring of gratitude using #givethanks. In the process of taking the challenge myself I have decided that 7 days was not nearly long enough to list all of the things that I am grateful for. I will continue to use the hashtag, probably not everyday, to share a little bit of hope and healing. 

Kaitie at McKinley's graveside on Dec 12th 2012

I am grateful for the Plan of Happiness. Although life is hard and we often struggle to see the end from the beginning I am grateful for those who have changed my life, before leaving this earth. Two in particular that were only a part of my life for a short time but have left a lifelong change in me are Elder Joe Carnovale and McKinley Allene Kuchin. 

Elder Carnovale and I served together in Christchuch, NZ for 6 months before I was transferred to Hastings. It was December 20th 2007 when I received word that he had been hit on his bicycle by a truck and was in critical care. Being 20 years old this was my first experience with a brother being in this situation. When word came that he had passed my thoughts went immediately to his family in Australia and what they must be going through. the missionaries I was serving with and I spent the next couple of hours praying and singing, oh and crying a lot. I will never forget the feeling of piece that came over me as I studied the plan of happiness and the feeling of assurance that Joe was where he was supposed to be. To that point I had been teaching people about the Plan of Happiness and believed it was true but ever since I know without a doubt that our Heavenly Father really does have a plan for us and I am grateful for that Plan. 

Elder Joe Carnovale and I in Christchurch, NZ 

I am grateful for "The Game Played in Heaven" Rugby. When I returned from my mission I had been introduced to Rugby seeing as it is THE GAME in New Zealand. I watched a lot and played a lot of the non-contact fitness version "Touch" but this was in my opinion just a fun way to get together with my mission buddies on saturdays for an hour or so. My goal was to play basketball at BYU.  Being a 6' white boy doesn't usually bode well for chances at D1 College Basketball, especially coming out of a small town in Alaska. I got back to BYU after my mission and began preparations for walk-on try-outs. They were at 5am in the middle of the week (Wed-Friday) with the final call back of 10 players being on saturday at 7am. Well I played well and felt I had given it all I could but I didn't see my name on the call back sheet with the 10 players for saturday. The week before basketball try-outs a mission buddy and I had been invited to play "Touch" with the BYU Rugby Team by Joey, a friend from pre-mission freshman semester. At the end of that mornings fun Wayne Tarawhiti asked me if I would like to maybe play Rugby. I told him I would think about it and see how my week went, I would be at practice the following saturday at 7am if things opened up. Well things opened up and I showed up to Rugby practice what I thought was a couple of minutes early but apparently they started their warm-up 10 minutes before practice started. I found Wayne and he directed me into the drills. At the end of one of the most confusing, frustrating, and fun practices Wayne and Kimball Kjar approached me and told me I had a spot on the team if I wanted, although technically season had already started so I would only be a trial player for the rest of fall and if I proved myself I would be given a spot on the winter season roster. The next 4 years changed me almost as much as my 2 years of full time service in New Zealand. I will be forever grateful to Wayne, for seeing my potential, Kimball Kjar and Justen Nadauld for trusting me in positions and situations that I felt unprepared for, yet due to their trust I was able to rise to the occasion and succeed, and David Smyth for always pushing me to improve on and off the field. Without these 4 exceptional coaches/friends my time at BYU would not have had nearly the impact it did on my life. BYU Rugby is a Family that I am proud to be a part of. No matter that situation I find myself in I know I can reach out to my teammates and family.

These are just a couple of the experiences and individuals/teams that I am grateful for their influence in my life thus far.  Let us keep the light going and always look for the lessons we can learn no matter how hard the situation may appear. #givethanks

"Success Is Not Measured By The Position Someone Has Reached In Life, But The Obstacles He Has Overcome While Trying to Succeed"

    -Booker T. Washington

Detour ahead?

I believe that everything has a purpose. Yes, this includes all of the bad stuff as well.  While in the moment we look at situations and wonder: "Why me?" "What did I do to deserve this?"  While there is no standard answer to these questions, everyone asks themselves these or similar questions at some point.  When situations that we personally believe should have gone a different direction take a turn for what we deem as the worst, we are given a chance to look inside ourselves and at our decisions to that point. 
Now to get to the point of all of this, for the last year and a half I have been pursuing a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California (it's in LA County).  About 5 months ago, I hit a speed bump.  I received a 75% on a written final exam. APU's DPT program has a strict policy that if you receive below an 80% on a final exam you automatically fail that course, no matter what grade you currently have in the course.  So the speed bump was that having now failed a course I could choose to retake the course and if I pass with greater than an 80% I could continue, but if I ever "failed" another final exam I would be immediately dismissed from the program.  So after talking it over with KD, I decided to retake the exam/course and continue pushing forward with a renewed determination in my study habits.  I was successful and until now only a select few were even privy to the information that I had hit this speed bump.  Now we are two terms later and I have received that dreaded second phone call (actually it was an email the second time around).  I have been dismissed from PT school and need to decide what to do with my life. I was given the opportunity to appeal the decision and for a little over a week KD and I discussed the possibilities, while seeking the Lord's guidance. The end result of that week has been my withdrawal from the program and our reliance on the Lord to lead us as we make this next step in our lives.

Currently we are house sitting for the summer, so we will be in California until mid August. This has given us the time we need to truly seek the Lord's guidance on our next step as well as removing the burden of paying rent and utilities for a couple of months.  When we are done house sitting we will be moving. But at this point we don't know where to.  
We have had an amazing experience here in SoCal thanks to all of our friends from church and school!  We will thoroughly miss each and every one of you who have been a part of our lives while we have lived here. 
(There are a lot of pictures, just a heads up!)

Christmas Lights with the Drews

Church Halloween Party

Halloween with the Drews

Horseback police at Target

St. Patrick's Day #1

Class Baby Shower

Family coming for Seeley's Blessing

Angels game with some Mormons (Lianne was in the bathroom)

LOTS of Sand Volleyball

My Big & Little

Bubble Run

Squad! (from day 1)

Post Finals week get-togethers

Wheelchair Basketball

We should have won that Intramural champs shirt

Seeley & Jordan

Helping take down Christmas decorations

Lunch time with his Asian Uncles

St. Patrick's Day Spirit Champs (2 in a row)

Group 9 w/ Maybel

Anatomy Group 9

Sea World with Chaz and Katie

Sport's Day 2016

San Diego Zoo with Chad, Melanie, and Rebecca

A year of blessings

This last year has been full of blessings, now it has not been without its struggles and challenges. Today marks the third birthday of our first child, McKinley Allene. There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss her immensely. I am grateful for the continued love and support from family and friends both old and new. This time of the year has so many mixed emotions for me.  It is this month that we were married, expecting a daughter to join our family, had to let our daughter return to our Heavenly Father's arms, prepared to move to California, celebrate the birth of our Saviour, and prepare for a new year with new possibilities.

But let me begin at the start of this year, 2015. The first blessing of this year actually came in July of 2014.  Having applied to 16 graduate schools for physical therapy, and subsequently being rejected by 15 of them without even an interview I traveled to Azusa, CA with KD and was given an impromptu interview and was subsequently accepted into my last chance school, Azusa Pacific University, for the 2015 school year.  As many of you know this blessing entered full force in our lives on my birthday of this year.  Since then I have been blessed to be surrounded by the a whole new support system. My classmates have become a second family, in the 10 months that we have been here I have grown closer with them than I would have thought possible in such a short time.

Throughout my time thus far in this program there have been many ups and downs, there have been times of high stress induced by both school and just life in general.  I have been blessed with an awesome support system in my wonderful wife, who is always pushing and encouraging me to do my best in school. There have been days when I have felt like there was no way I would be able to learn and recall everything I would need to so that I could pass a class or even an exam.  Through the guidance and encouragement of KD I have been successful to this point.  I am also grateful for my classmates and the encouragement and assistance that they have been in helping me to learn and grow. I would like to thank my class for the opportunity they have given me to serve them in any way that I can as our class president.  Coming into school I had no desire to serve in this role as I felt that I would be overwhelmed enough with just school and the fact that KD and I were expecting our second child around the halfway point of my first year in school.  As the terms progressed I grew in my desire to serve my class and decided that maybe being class president would be an excellent way to do this. 

There have been so many blessings that have accompanied school. Briefly, they include being able to commute to and from school on my bike everyday year round, countless offers to give me rides home on bad weather days, offers to baby-sit/dog-sit, invitations to spend holidays with friends, and many more.  Thank you APU DPT Class of 2017. You have no idea how much you mean to KD and me.

Another blessing has been our church family here.  Our ward has really taken us under their wing. From always checking in with us to inviting us over for holiday meals. Life out here would not be the same without the family we have gained through church. From day one they have been there for us, if it wasn't for them it would have taken us forever to empty our Uhaul before school started.

The blessings this year have been awesome so I can't say that one of them is the BEST but the icing on top of this year of blessings (and I LOVE icing) would be the birth of our son on July 13th.  Martin Seeley was born almost a month and a half early.  He came at a rather inconvenient time in my schooling.  It was the 2 weeks before finals week of our summer term, so my stress level and such were on high alert studying and prepping for all of the tests and practicals I would need to pass to continue on my quest to become a physical therapist. 

It was a normal Saturday morning in our apartment, I was studying like crazy and also trying to be somewhat helpful by taking short breaks to do the dishes.  I got to a point where I decided my brain needed a break and KD was ready to get out of the apartment.  So as is our usual escape, we headed to Target.  As we walked in the door KD tells me that she needs to go the bathroom(8 months pregnant=tiny bladder). She comes out and says that she thinks her water is leaking. So we walk right back out the front doors and head to the hospital just to be safe. We get to the hospital and get her all checked in and situated. So we are at San Dimas Community Hospital and are nice and comfortable when the nurse comes back in and tells us that because Seeley has decided to come so early the Dr. recommended transferring to Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina.  So KD got to take a nice ambulance ride from San Dimas to West Covina.  While she was being transferred I had to run home and get her hospital bag packed and find a dog-sitter for Dunkin.  The Dog-sitting was the easy part we had so many offers from classmates that I just shot out a text and post on facebook and the first person got to take him home for a day or so.  I got everything together and Kat came and got Dunkin so we would not have to worry about him while KD was in the hospital.  So long story short, we went into the hospital on saturday afternoon and there was a ton of miscommunications and confusion so KD was being told to stay pregnant until Sunday the Dr. decided it was time to bring Seeley into the world.  Seeley had to spend 2 weeks in the NICU so that was rough because I was having to go from home to school then to the hospital every day to see him.  But when they discharged him he was quite the happy healthy little guy.

Since then Seeley has continued to grow every day.  It has been a huge blessing in our lives to have this little weirdo in our family.  While we wish that his older sister was here with us we are grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the understanding that it gives us about the eternal nature of the family.  Below are a few picture highlights and such from this wonderful year.  Let's hope that next year is half as full of blessings.

Seeley's First Halloween (we were a lumberkack family) Also pictured watching the RWC Final NZ vs. Aus

              

Seeley traveled to Montana

Third annual McKinley wreath

Seeley loves his new spoons

One Year

Mom and Dad donated to the St. Vincent's Hospital Wall of Fame.

Today marks one year since we said hello and goodbye in the same breath to our beautiful daughter McKinley. Truth be told it feels like it was just yesterday. I can distinctly remember everything that happened from Thursday December 6th 2012 until 1:41am on Saturday December 8th 2012. They were, to this point, the longest hours of my life. Throughout this week I have constantly gone back to those few hours. There have been times when I have asked myself "what if...?" While such questions can lead to placing the blame, for things that were out of my control, on myself they have been a source of strength to me. For me, when such questions make their way into my thoughts I take a step back and consider if there was actually anything that I could have changed or done differently. The answer to me that always wins is a resounding no. There was nothing that we could have done differently. While what we do with the situations and circumstances that we are placed in is our choice some of those situations and circumstances are beyond our control. The Lord is in control. He knew that McKinley only needed to visit this earth for a brief moment.

KD & Adam wedding monkeys

McKinley in her seasonal attire.

Throughout the year I have felt our Heavenly Father's  love for me. One of the blessings in my life this year as I have dealt with the loss of McKinley has been that of the presence of my niece Gemma Grill here in Billings. Immediately following McKinley's birth I was not sure if I would be able to deal with having Gemma around. Gemma was born almost exactly 1 month prior to Mckinley. As time has moved forward, as it does no matter what, I began to see what a blessing it was to have Gemma around. Whenever I was having a rough day I could go over to Gramma's house and hold Gemma. During the harder part of my transition Gemma served as a surrogate for my own little girl. I loved that Gemma would just cuddle up and go to sleep in my arms, or that she will always come to me. While watching her grow has been hard at points I can picture my own little girl as she grows.

Life never seems to fall how we plan it. I guess that is what makes it such a journey. Every twist and turn, bump and bruise, shapes us into who we become. I am grateful to have been blessed with such a loving and supportive family. I am grateful for a knowledge that my Heavenly Father has provided a way for me to be sealed to my wife and children forever, that even though McKiney did not get to stay here on earth with us we are and always will be her parents. She will always be in my heart and on my mind. I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I Love the holiday season. I am grateful for all of those around us who have been there for KD and I through everything. I am grateful for those who have been supportive and shown that they remember my little girl.

McKinley's birthday wreath

Happy Birthday McKinley Allene! I love you!
Families Are Forever.