What do you want to be when you grow up?

I always wanted to be a teacher and a doctor...an OB in fact, to deliver precious babies into the world.

Obviously as a child, I didn't realize all that being an OB entailed. I thought it meant I would be the first one to hold them fresh out of Heaven.

....babies...sigh....

I think being a teacher was always a more realistic dream....

From the first grade through middle school, I would ask my teachers on the last day of school if they had any extra worksheets, colored paper, glue, pencils..etc, that they didn't need.

They always asked why before they handed me the goods, and my answer was always the same.

"So I can play school with my sisters over the summer."

(Of course I was always the teacher. )

I'm sure they thought, what the heck kind of kid thinks playing school all summer long is "play", but they gladly gave me anything (and everything) they wanted to unload...ahhh...Christmas in July baby!

Years passed, and I never did become the teacher, or the baby delivering doc. Instead I became a lovesick puppy who waited two long years for my high school sweetheart to return from service as a missionary, so that we could get married and live happily ever after....and so I waited, and so he came, and so we are.

Three years into our wedded bliss...the children came one after another. I really never paused to reminisce about my childhood plan.

Not until our firstborn hit the 3rd grade.

Some pornography went around the school that year...what the HECK!

I was shocked. I was sickened. I began to panic.

I thought "Oh crap...now we HAVE to tell her where babies come from before she figures it out from a smut magazine"

So we had the talk..and it hit me.

I GREW UP.

and

I AM OLD.

I started to think about what I wanted for my family, and myself.

Really wanted.

And what I wanted was to have a happy family and be together always.

If kids today were looking at dirty mags in elementary....what will they be doing in middle? I remember middle school when I went, 23 yrs. ago, and it's bound to be a whole lot worse now. I watch the news, I know there are bombs, and guns, and stolen innocence, among other things. And 18 years from now, having lived through all that, would we still be happy and together?

I really started to stress.

We started looking at moving. Moving to an area with better schools or maybe private schooling, but knowing the kids would be in a better school, or even private school... didn't give me peace.

We continued to pray.

Which led me to read and ponder.

Then in December, something magical happened.

In searching to solve my worries, I found my answer and it was going to solve more then just my worries,

I would fulfill my childhood desires.

I first realized, that I did grow up to deliver precious babies, 5 of them..and I was the first to hold them...fresh from Heaven.

I still wanted to be a teacher. But to teach other children, while my favorite children are being taught by someone else, just didn't make sense. I want to be their teacher.

I read scripture passages that inspired me, like

D&C 88:119-Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of LEARNING, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.

I also found reassurance in words from President Gordon B. Hinckley. He spoke of the great blessing of motherhood:
“Let every mother realize that she has no greater blessing than the children who have come to her as a gift from the Almighty; that she has no greater mission than to rear them in light and truth, in understanding and love."

&
“I remind mothers everywhere of the sanctity of your calling. No other can adequately take your place. No responsibility is greater, no obligation more binding than that you rear in love and peace and integrity those whom you have brought into the world”

And so I begin my new career as their teacher. I finally, after a year and a half of stress found my answer, peace, and my true calling in life.

Not only did I always know what I wanted to do when I grew up,

I actually get to do it.