Looking Up

yesterday (monday), was a good day! still sad, still hard, but a lot better than the one before. sunday, i was the lucky one who answered the phone when the medical examiner called, asking about jewelry, wedding bands, dental records, major surgeries - anything to help them speed up the identification process.

but i felt a change in the tide that evening. after a long day of visitors and phone calls and tears, we recieved good news. first of all, the leavitt group, who owned the plane, have been so gracious and are trying to do everything possible to help the families of this accident. mark leavitt, one of the directors, went on sunday to see the crash site himself so he could come home and tell our families more about what they suspect happened. he reported back that the intitial impact of the crash was immediate and they didn't suffer. a peaceful feeling came over me. that was an answer to my prayers and now i am able to look beyond the accident and rememebr my dad and brother. (we also want to say that we know david white was a great pilot and my dad and his staff loved flying with him. i am certain that he did everything possible to ensure everyone's safety and that has never been a question or an issue to us.)

later sunday evening, we were able to visit with our bishop and stake president. it is wonderful to have pristhood holders in the home! i will never take that for granted again. pres. whittier let us know that pres. boyd k packer has been interested and involved in this accident and wanted information about all the families of the victims. church headquaters is watching this closely and that gave me a calm reassurance of their love for us.

one of the concerns amidst all of this has been kamber, my sister-in-law and what she will do next. within a 24 hour period we were contacted by several different people from SUU, offering assistence and flexibility, as they want to help kamber graduate this semester as she had planned. she was planning on finishing her last 3 classes this semseter, graduating, and then staying at home with their baby. again our prayers have been answered as she is being given all the support and assistence she needs, to graduate from college as she and dallin had planned.

monday we attended a briefing put on by the NTSB (national transportation safety board) and the red cross. it was a neat experience to be with the other families who are suffering, as we learned a little bit more about the accident, the investigation, and what will happen in the upcoming months. after that was a meeting with the funeral home to organize burial services and caskets, etc. i have been surprised at the amount of stuff that needs to be done.

through this whole thing it has been too easy to focus on just my family. there were eight other people also! i realized this more than ever last night as we attended a beautiful memorial service put on by SUU. as i listened to the the words being spoken, and cried through the music, i looked at the pictures of each person and was able to more fully grasp how this is affecting the whole community and not just my family. this was a tradgey for all of southern utah. but it was a special memorial that really touched me. it was wonderful to see everyone who came out to show their respect for each person who died and their family.

this had been quite long but i want everyone to know that we are doing well. we are listening to the calls and messages, and looking at the blogs and reading the articles. we feel so loved and supported as we are going through this. thank you for what each of you has said and done.

dan arrives in utah today as well as my brother chris, from his mission in japan. we cannot wait for our family to be together!

we have also finalized the services for this weekend. there will be a visitation on friday night, aug 29th from 6:00-8:00 pm at the cedar north stake center. on sat morning, aug 30th, the visitation will be from 8:30-9:30 with the funeral service starting at 10:00 am. it will be for both my dad and my brother. it may be broadcast to a second stake center in case of a large attendance.