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Families are Forever

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My McNeill Family





















This has been a wonderful summer. My last post was about my family and the wonderful time we had with them. I feel so blessed to have not only one wonderful family but two. My McNeill family is wonderful. We were able to go and visit them the end of July. Lisa wanted all her children and their spouses to meet in the temple for her birthday. What a wonderful wish! Her wish blessed my life. Evelyn, Bryants sister made it happen. She had babysitters all lined out to watch our kiddos, even the babies. She organized a photo shoot for family pictures, and lots of fun activities. This woman is amazing!











As we sat together in the temple my heart was filled with so much love. I knew that I loved all these people, but at that moment It seemed that I realized just how much they all mean to me.











Lisa, she has become not only a mother to me but a friend. She has been there for me in all the times that I needed a friend and rescuer.I truly have come to understand the story of Ruth and Naomi, because I feel the same as Ruth. Wherever she is that is where I would like to be. Her people have truly become my people. And her testimony strengthens me!











Richard, is a father and friend. He is so loving, I always feel loved accepted wanted and appreciated. As I saw him next to his sweet wife, I felt so blessed, at the tender moments he has taken with me, to tell me how much he loves me, or just talks to me when he knows that I have been sad. Everything he says is well thought out, kind and wise. He is a great man.











Winslow and Melissa, these two people have been the example that led Bryant and I in our first year of marriage. We watched them, and were very impressed, we tried to follow there example. There is always a smile and a laugh from Melissa, and in some of my greatest hours of need she was there to hold me up. To cry with me, she remembers my heart ache, and I know that she truly does mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. Winslow has been there for Bryant too, Bryant had to be strong for me when our baby died, but when Winslow came, Bryant knew he had a shoulder to cry on and a brother to hold him up.











Clifton and Janelle, Clifton has been a great friend too, to Bryant, I know every time he calls and asks how Bryant is, it cheers Bryant up, he loves it. I love it, I know that he never forgets about us, he is thinking of his family and he loves them. And Janelle, saver of my cat ( she saved our cat from near death in 2007) and when she sees me I feel like she is so happy to see us, she is fun and funny, beautiful and a wonderful mother. I admire her in all her happiness, talent to make one feel they belong:)











Evelyn and Ian. Ian has become a brother to Bryant. Bryant loves to talk with him spar with him. He knows and gets so excited when we are going to see Ian because, Ian has a way of helping Bryant feel awesome and appreciated. Bryant truly has gained another brother and friend. They spar, and laugh. And I love to see them so happy:)Evelyn, now what can I say about this beautiful woman, who I met as a 16 year old girl, and she has become one of my best friends, someone I can talk to always. When I am with Evelyn, I believe that all my dreams are possible. She is such a wonderful aunt, I would have never thought how much this 16 year old girl would mean to me later in life. She has a way of teaching me and talking to me, helping me make sense of things. She makes sure that I don't' forget to have fun. I can laugh with her. She has followed in her mothers footsteps and at a moments notice she will come to help us with sickness or sadness. I only hope that I can one day help her as much as she has helped me!











John and Mandy, John brings the party and the positive happy easy going attitude. John has so many talents, and one of them we saw at Christmas. They came to visit and he played with Hyrum, Hyrum sometimes has a hard time warming up to people but not with John. He loved to be with him and felt comfortable and happy. I think that this easy going nature and a genuine love for others is wonderful. Hyrum asked where he got his left handedness, and Bryant said, well I guess you got it from my Brother John. Hyrum liked that. John is a friend to all. Mandy, is an achiever and a go getter, and has been so kind to me ever since the first time I saw her. Mostly I remember our time in El Paso, Bryant had been gone and I moved there and was alone the first month. John and Mandy came, and made sure I was okay, then we had Isabel's birthday party, we asked them to come with short notice, but I told them that I was going to be dressed up as Bell from beauty and the Beast and Bryant was going to dress as the beast. Well they came to our party dressed as a king and queen. Isabel loved it, Mandy made it in her heart that day and has never left. I felt that they made it a priority to be there for this simple party, because it was special for our little girl. Mandy had a tradegy of her own, and I felt so honered that she trusted me to watch over her sweet boy. It felt good to be needed. When Mandy came for Christmas, we felt honored that they would want to come spend this special time with us, we loved it.











Ricky and Jenny- I saw these two sitting together in the temple, and I met Ricky when he was really young, and I realized he is not that kid anymore, but he is a man and a good man, who has a wonderful wife, another sister for me. Ricky has always been a dreamer and he is achieving his dreams, I am so proud of him, both Bryant and I are. and Jenny, what a sweet aunt she is always smiling always ready to help with the kids. It is because of her that I have so many pot holders and other knitted items from Isabel:)( She took out the time to teach Isabel how to knit). I realized as we were sitting in the temple and felt deep down that this special person is now my sister and part of my life and my family, and I felt so glad to know her and be a part of her life.











I cannot express all that I feel about my McNeill family, but my cup runneth over. The Lord has been good to me to let me be a part of these wonderful peoples lives. I love all of you everyone. I am so glad that I was able to see just how blessed and lucky I am!!!!

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  1. John BoyFebruary 26, 2012 at 3:20 PM

    I didn't know that you were blogging again! I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier - it was so sweet! I definitely need to share your sweet thoughts with the rest of our sisters. You are such a sweet woman, Audrey, with such a tender heart and I feel so privileged to have such a choice sister of our Heavenly Father as my sister! ~mandy

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Adoption is a Heavenly Gift

To all our friends, We have started this blog because we want to keep others in touch with us, but the main purpose of this blog is to let all those that we know and their friends that we are trying to adopt. We feel so strongly about this and know that their is a precious life that is destined to come to our home.To those of you that do not know this is our story.When Bryant and I met and shortly before we were married Bryant asked me what I would do if we could not have children. I thought it a strange question, I said I did not know. He asked if I would be willing to adopt, I said yes I would. He asked several other questions, and then we never talked about adoption. We were married and shortly after had our first son, he was beautiful but was born and passed away within fifteen minutes. This was a trying experience, yet it helped us understand how hard it is to come home without a baby, and that we just needed to have faith that he was ok, and that the Lord was taking care of our little one.Since then we have had (as many of you know) three beautiful children: a daughter and two sons. They are the joy of our life!Each pregnancy came with great challenges, and many complications to my health. After our second son was born we lost two other babies due to misscarriage, and full of complications. It was at this time, that a friend of ours suggested adoption. We felt we needed to have more children than the two we had at home. I pondered it, but thought that we should try again. It was then that I had another misscarriage.It was at this time one day I took our children to a story time at the library. As we were getting ready to leave, my daughter tugged on my arm. "Look Mommy look!" I turned to look, and there was a little african american baby girl. " She so cute!" My daughter said. I felt something in my heart at that moment, it seemed like a prick and the thought came, you need to adopt. I thought perhaps I made up the feeling, but could not explain it because it was so strong.I then went home and my mother in law called me, she did not know that we had even had the second misscarriage, because we did not tell anyone that I was pregnant. She told me she had been thinking, and felt to tell us that we should adopt. I felt a stirring again in my heart. Later that day Bryant came home and told him all my thoughts. I then remembered a dream that I had each time before I delivered our children. In the dream I have a child but am very surprised because the baby does not look anything like us. As my husband and I talked I realized the meaning of this dream. He then told me he always thought that we would adopt.It was then that my husband and I knelt down in prayer and felt such a strong feeling that we did need to adopt, that a child needed to come to our family this way.It was then almost five years ago that we got ready to adopt we did our home study and have been ready ever since. Shortly after we were finished with our homestudy, we had a surprise and found out I was pregnant with our youngest son. We almost lost him at 16weeks, and I was very sick. We were so blessed to have him come to our family. After he was born we knew I could not have any more children. Still the feeling that we needed to adopt never left.So we have been waiting, waiting for someone to choose our family. We are have gotten really close, and have even been chosen , but things did not work out. We are trying to be patient, the feeling that our family is not complete remains strong. Our children have been such an example of faith to us. Our daughter especially she said that maybe she could win a race to pay for the adoption. And our son said maybe he could win the Hamburger contest at Red Robin, and then we could adopt a baby. Our youngest is so fond of babies, so gentle and sweet. Our children pray for a sibling. I think even they can feel the Lord preparing their heart for their new brother or sister.Sometimes it is hard to wait, but we know that the Lord will bless us, and lead that special mother to us. We are open to "open adoptions" (where we keep in contact with the birth mother). We pray for the birth mother whereever she is and hope that the spirit will lead her to us. We hope that when we do adopt that if she desires we can stay in contact with her, and let their little one know who gave them life like some of our relatives who were adopted and whose birth parents have also been a blessing in their life.We ask that you can keep us in your prayers when you can that this will happen at the right time also. We want to ask you if you can please share our story with your friends and family in hopes that we can be found by that special mom.We are working with LDS Family Services and this is the link to our profile for more pictures and more about us. https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/11193581/ourMessage.jsfWe love you all, thankyou for your prayers

Love,Bryant, Audrey & kids