Lauren & Kirk

As I said before there has been some excitement at my house. Most of this has had to do with a relationship between Lauren & a boy named Kirk. Kirk and his family moved into the ward shortly after we did, about 8 years ago or so. They live just a few houses down from us. Lauren is friends with Kirk's sisters but Kirk and Lauren never really had much interaction before he left on his mission two years ago to Indianapolis, Indiana. Kirk recently returned from Indiana in the beginning of March.

Mutual friends in our ward set them up on a date. For their first date they went hiking to the Y. When I came home on the Friday night before their first date Lauren was frantically trying to decide what she would wear. To say the least it was kind of stressful. Eventually I encouraged her to relax. I mean it's not like she was going to marry the guy or something. It's just a date, no big deal! Well obviously their first date went well and they made plans for a second date, which happened to be to go skiing.

Kirk of course is an avid skier, Lauren on the other hand has never gone skiing. I guess that should have been my first sign that she really liked this boy : ) They ended up snowboarding and it turned out to be alot of fun.

Throughout the next week they continued to talk and made plans to go on a road trip with their mutual friends to Rexburg. Even though their relationship had continued to progress I think that things started to get serious the week after this trip.

I know that it might seem crazy that things have gone so fast for them and now they are engaged and planning to marry on August 4th, but the truth is that it has been such a blessing to watch the love between them develop, to see them come to the realization that this was the person they wanted to spend eternity with and to also have the ability to know that this was the right thing for them myself.

Kirk is an amazing guy! He has all the qualities that I would want in a man who will marry my daughter. One of those qualities is his faith and his willingness to do what the Lord wants him to do. And of course I am partial to Lauren : ) She is not only an amazing daughter but one of my best friends. I am so proud of her for always making the choices (even when she had to deal with some pretty hard things) that led her to this point in her life.

Congratulations Kirk and Lauren!