D&D and Disney (April 2019)

Hey Family, 

Great to hear your updates! It's also been so great to see some of you recently. :) We went to Disneyland last week and stayed at Rick and Wendy's on the way. The girls were so excited to see and hang out with their cousins. Jenna slept down with us in the basement (but I think she might have regretted that as it's hard for our girls to sleep somewhere new and were up a good part of the night!) We were going to stop in St. George again on the way home, but we left Disneyland early enough on Saturday that we could do the drive all in one shot, so we took it. :) 

Disneyland was a blast. The girls loved it and even though it was really crowded (lots of people from Utah since it was Spring Break for many districts) the weather was perfect, and with the MaxPasses, it worked out really great. We were able to meet up with Scott and Amy and Taylee, McKenna and Spencer our first day (their last day), and McKenna, Spencer, Taylee, Aniston and I were able to ride Space Mountain together. It was a lot of fun. 

Ani loved the big rides, and Noe loved the small rides. Layla loved the in-betweeners. Layla did Cars and Thunder Mountain and loved them so I think she'll dig coasters the way that Ani does. She is just so short that she couldn't ride as many! Layla's favorite thing about the trip was the hot tub at the hotel (which she insisted on calling a "hot pool.") We saw three plays (Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen) and all three were incredible. I've never been a huge "theater" guy, but wow, these actors are sure pros, and the shows were very high-quality -- funny for adults, entertaining for the kids. Vacations are exhausting and expensive, but it was a lot of fun, and I think the kids will have fun memories of this trip.

I'm finishing up my first semester at UVU in the next couple weeks. I'm looking forward to the Summer break. It's been fun teaching and I've enjoyed it, but the first semester is always the hardest since you need to develop your curriculum and assignments and quizzes and tests for the first time. Once you have it all developed, it is much easier. 

My job situation has been stressful for the past couple months. I have worked for Welfare for three years, and in January, we were told that Welfare and Self-Reliance Services are merging into a new department called (you guessed it) Welfare and Self-Reliance Services. :) My new boss met with me early on and told me not to worry - that I would be a key leader in his leadership council. However, as the departments were coming together I was placed in charge of all the communications around the merger. I was given a little team and one of our tasks was to understand the feelings and concerns of the 2,000 person workforce and relay these to the Managing Director. The strongest piece of feedback from the workforce was that there was an obvious lack of women in leadership. This is true, and I've been a strong advocate for women in leadership since I've been here. Most of the leadership roles simply didn't have women who were ready to take on those positions (which demonstrates an issue with our workforce), but my area did have capable and qualified candidates. I mentioned this to my boss and provided four names of women I would recommend for my role. He told me that I was right -- the organization needed diversity at this time, but that he saw me as a future managing director (his role) and that in order to be ready for that, I would need to take a step down into a manager role to gain operational experience. I hadn't expected this and it was somewhat of a blow (to lose my title, level, team, office, industry, etc. all at once).

The organization does in fact need diversity, so I agree with that call, but I couldn't help but feel like I was being adversely affected for doing the right thing for the organization. I felt somewhat betrayed by an employer I've given so many years to, but I also felt strongly that somehow, things would work out for the better. I thought about our infertility, and other times in life where we can't see the reason for something painful, and we feel like we're being treated unfairly. As I looked back on these times, I could see that in almost every case I could think of (not always), if you fast-forward a few years, that pain made sense and was necessary. In the case of our infertility, that pain and uncertainty led us to adoption - something we wouldn't have considered if things had worked out the way that we initially thought they should. If it weren't for that pain, we wouldn't have our beautiful Aniston and Layla. Likewise, I felt that this time (while uncomfortable and upsetting) was necessary in order to open up an avenue that I otherwise would not have considered or taken. 

In the past couple weeks, a new opportunity has come up in another Church department (Communications) that I feel really good about. It's a Director of Brand Management role and is very strategic -- and is back on the ecclesiastical side (no longer reporting to the Presiding Bishopric). They really want me and are fighting hard for me, and that feels great to feel valued. I agree with my boss that operational experience would help me to become a more versatile leader for the Bishopric, but the more I've thought about it, the better I feel about getting more experience with the ecclesiastical (not temporal) side of the organization at this point in my career. I'm so grateful for Danielle who has been so supportive while I've been freaking out about work. The truth is that its just a job - but when we spend so much time and energy in our work, it can sure feel like a significant part of our identity (much more than I wish it did). Grateful to Dad as well for a father's blessing that I've referred to several times throughout this period. 

Spring is coming and it is so fun to see our trees and plants budding with new life. I love Spring and Fall the best, and we look forward to this long Winter finally coming to an end (but not until after tomorrow's April snowstorm). :) Roxy got her Spring haircut and looks so cute (I'll attach a couple pictures). She's an old dog and we don't know how much longer she has, but when we get her hair cut in the warmer weather she looks and feels more like a puppy again. :)

Love you all, and hope everything is going well for you! 

Love, D&D&A&L&N&R
Email sent April 9, 2019