{"id":4658,"date":"2014-06-05T00:18:44","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T06:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=4658"},"modified":"2014-06-05T00:19:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T06:19:31","slug":"i-hope-that-heaven-is-as-good-as-today-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/i-hope-that-heaven-is-as-good-as-today-was\/","title":{"rendered":"I Hope That Heaven is as Good as Today Was"},"content":{"rendered":"

My son Dalton arrived HOME today from having been gone for two very long years on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! \u00a0As we gathered at the airport with family and close friends to await his arrival the excitement was building like crazy. We had a huge welcome home sign for him and the little kids had handmade some signs of their own.\u00a0 We all waited at the base of the escalator at the Salt Lake City Airport just watching for him to appear at the top of that escalator.\u00a0 The suspense was killing us! And then finally it happened\u2026.he appeared at the top of the escalator with the biggest smile in the world.\u00a0 All of us broke out in cheers down below as he descended the escalator and he let out a great big shout of joy.\u00a0 The second he was down the escalator I ran right to him for the world\u2019s biggest hug.\u00a0 And then the tears burst out as I couldn’t contain the joy I felt at having my son back home again.\u00a0 The feeling was surreal to say the least.\u00a0 Next his sister came running in for a huge hug and once the women were out of the way it was all about his dad.\u00a0 He and Rollin bear hugged as they both laughed and cried at the same time.\u00a0 Then it was time for a family group hug with the four of us\u2026reunited together once again.\u00a0 That was the best part of all.\u00a0 Having the whole family together after two long years, all healthy and happy.\u00a0 That was HEAVEN! \u00a0Here are some pictures of him arriving:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Starting<\/a>

Starting to gather at the airport with our welcome home sign<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Both<\/a>

Both sets of Grandparents are ready to greet him<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Watching<\/a>

Watching anxiously for Dalton to come down the escalator<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mama<\/a>

Mama gets the first hug! BEST HUG EVER!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Little<\/a>Little sister gets second hug\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dad<\/a>

Dad gets third hug\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"FAMILY<\/a>

FAMILY group hug\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"Reunited<\/a>

Reunited again as a family. BEST FEELING EVER!!!!<\/p><\/div>\n

I couldn’t help but think to myself that I truly hope that when my time comes to die and have my spirit go on to the spirit world that what I felt today is exactly what it will feel like in heaven. That pure joy of seeing your loved ones all waiting for you and cheering as you enter.\u00a0 Feeling that sense of peace and \u201cI\u2019m home\u201d and unconditional love.\u00a0 It\u2019s that love of your family that makes heaven heaven in my opinion. There is just no better feeling than that. There just isn’t.<\/p>\n

I am so proud of my son for giving service for the last two years to the people of the Jackson Mississippi mission area.\u00a0 I am so proud of his willingness to sacrifice his time and talents to go out and teach people about how much their Heavenly Father and Jesus love them.\u00a0 Dalton absolutely loves the people in the south.\u00a0 He made lifelong friends during his mission.\u00a0 He learned so many lessons over the two years and it was evident that he has grown into a true man.\u00a0\u00a0 He has a sense of inner confidence and joy that radiates from him and it is awesome to see the growth he has experienced as a person these last two years.<\/p>\n

There are many things in life that can provide temporary feelings of happiness\u2026a cute pair of shoes, nice things, etc, but the love of family isn’t just a temporary feeling of happiness, it is an eternal happiness. Our faith and our family are the two most important assets we have in this life.\u00a0 They are the things worth fight for, worth working for, worth sacrificing for.\u00a0 They are what bring us true and ultimate happiness in this life and in our life after death.\u00a0 Being with our family is what makes heaven, heaven.\u00a0I hope that each of us will live our lives in such a way that we are all worthy to be together as a family in heaven someday!<\/p>\n

Thanks for letting me share my excitement about today with all of you! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Today was HEAVEN!<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Amy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My son Dalton arrived HOME today from having been gone for two very long years on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! \u00a0As we gathered at the airport with family and close friends to await his arrival the excitement was building like crazy. We had a huge welcome home sign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3789,101,204,224,3599,2177,4262,4271,51,1976,189,591,2971,4263,55,1163,463,2064,231,4261,464,80,351,349,4265,4260,264,4269,145,4270,4267,1782,4268,1015,4272,4266,4264],"class_list":["post-4658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anderson","tag-ashley","tag-awesome","tag-confidence","tag-dalton-anderson","tag-elder-anderson","tag-elder-dalton-anderson","tag-escalator","tag-family","tag-forever","tag-friends","tag-friendship","tag-grandparents","tag-greeted","tag-happiness","tag-heaven","tag-home","tag-homecoming","tag-hope","tag-jackson-mississipi-mission","tag-joy","tag-mission","tag-missionary","tag-peace","tag-radiates","tag-reunited","tag-rollin","tag-salt-lake-airport","tag-service","tag-slc","tag-spiri","tag-spirit","tag-spirit-world","tag-together","tag-together-again","tag-two-years","tag-worthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4658"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4678,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658\/revisions\/4678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}