Blog Tag: family
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Dear Believer
Dear Believer,
I know it sometimes feels like you don’t know me anymore and that can be disorienting. I feel very much like the same person but I realize that in one very important way I have have changed and in that way we are now very different. I get that difference can be scary, and I try not to take it personally if you cross to the other side of the street when you see me coming or avert your eyes and pretend you don’t see me in public. In all honesty, I don’t always know how to interact...
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Guest Post: The Photo That Changed My World
by Jenn Nielsen
I’ve always imagined, a tiny baby wrapped tightly in a white blanket with a small blue and pink stripe, pink or blue cap on the baby’s head. A newborn’s first portrait, everyone has one; everyone but me. I have always been jealous of these photos and I often wondered, desperately hoped, that somewhere existed a well-worn baby photo of me. A picture treasured and deeply loved. You see, I was placed for adoption at four days old and in Utah, in 1980, all adoptions were closed. Little to no information passed from the LDS adoption agency to...
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Not Invited to the Family Thanksgiving Dinner
Next week is Thanksgiving in the United States. We celebrate with a big feast of turkey and mashed potatoes, various sides, and lots of pie. But this year I was not invited to the family dinner. It's not the first time. When my parents moved to my state two years ago, I knew things would change. I just thought it would mean that I was expected to show up to huge extended family holiday celebrations. I had mixed feelings about that. For most of my married life I have lived far from most of my family. But I have...
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April is Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. If you happen to see blue pinwheels in a park or on the lawn of a courthouse this month, they represent every child who has been a victim of child abuse within the last year. It’s a staggering sight and is a reminder of a very sobering statistic.
As a social worker I’ve dedicated the last few years of my career working toward the prevention of pediatric abusive head trauma and volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) with foster children in Northern Utah.
In my line of work, approximately 25% of abusive head...
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Lesson Plan: “Come, Follow Me” by Russell M. Nelson and A...
Since both Russell M. Nelson and Henry B. Eyring talked about eternal families at the April 2019 General Conference, I would discuss both talks together if I were assigned to teach about one of these talks.
As many of you know, our family experienced a tender separation three months ago when our daughter Wendy departed from this mortal life. In the final days of her battle with cancer, I was blessed with the opportunity to have our farewell daddy-daughter conversation. ...It was a tender, tearful moment for us. During her 67 years, we worked together, sang together, and often skied...
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Guest Post: How the AIDS Crisis Taught Me an Enlarged Vision...
By Maureen Edgerly
December 1st is the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day with the theme to "Know Your HIV Status." I saw an internet thumbnail pop up of Prince Harry having an HIV test, supporting this cause. His mom would be proud. Princess Diana was an HIV/AIDS advocate, visiting and embracing those experiencing this illness.
I graduated from college/nursing school in 1983 and immediately went into oncology. I remember a day in 1984 when I was floated (sent to a nursing unit where one normally doesn’t work) to the Infectious Disease unit and assigned to care for a young person...
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I Still Love My Children
Unbelievably, there is still rhetoric in the LDS church claiming that women should be at home with their children.
There are so many problems with this that I don't quite know where to start. Firstly, not all women in the church HAVE, WANT or CAN HAVE children. This should be an obvious reason why we shouldn't focus so much on motherhood. Secondly, our simplistic style of approaching the home and family is often lacking the nuance of personal circumstances and embraces gender normative roles, homophobia and anti-feminism. I used to think there wasn't a Mormon mould. I was dead wrong.
Today...
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Mourning and Remembering
Last General Conference Sunday, my mom got a call from her cousin, about her own mother, my grandmother warrior, Zena. Her body that carried her to both water aerobics and water coloring classes into her 90s was starting to shut down, and that shutting down was happening quickly. Hospice would step in.
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After the phone call, I walked around my apartment and city for weeks and thought, "My grandma is dying."
I am doing the dishes, and my grandma is dying. I am nursing my son, and my grandma is dying. (He has her eyes.) I am reading Dear Girl to...
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Unideal
Our new prophet, President Nelson, in a Facebook post clarifying his press conference address, sorted living situations into two categories: unideal and other. Sure, he made up a new word for the one group, and didn't actually name the other, but I guess that's because it sounds better than less-than-ideal and normal.
And, sure, it's not like we're stuck in one group forever. Living situations change. Those pesky YSA can get married, widowers and divorcées can remarry, childless couples can get pregnant or adopt. Part-member families can convert the holdouts and get sealed properly. Gay people can put their feelings...
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Building a Family
My youngest brother arrives home from his mission in two weeks, and combined with my sister planning a wedding, and all the changes coming up this year to our family structure, I've been pondering the subject.
I have a family here on earth, they are so good to me. And I want to share my life with them through all eternity. But my family doesn’t look much like the posters that we use at church to help define “family” for primary children. It’s not only that my parents are divorced, it’s also that many of the people I consider my...
What is Exponent II?
Exponent II provides Mormon feminist forums for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum to share their diverse life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Through these exchanges, we strive to create a community to better understand and support each other.
Exponent II was founded in 1974 by a group of Mormon women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These women were inspired by the original periodical, “The Woman’s Exponent,” to create a forum “posed on the dual platforms of Mormonism and Feminism.”
For 50+ years, Exponent II has shared women’s voices in its quarterly magazine, and members of the community have convened at an annual retreat. Our reach has expanded as technology has advanced: the blog, founded in January 2006, has reached millions. As we look to the future, we are focused on growth and building a more inclusive community.
