On the 27th January it will have been 10 years since Our West Family began!
Ten years sounds like a long time, however for us it has gone like a heartbeat.
So much has happened and changed for us, This decade has seen 3 house moves, 6 children, 2 redundancies, 6 jobs, 2 wards and 1 school.
But one question always comes to mind..... would you change a thing?
My answer would have to be No.
Everything which has happened, everything we have done and achieved and experienced both good and bad has made our family what it is today.
So in the spirit of celebrating a decade Of being The Wests, here is a look back at our life - since the digital revolution!
(We have our wedding pictures up finally, though only since yesterday! But alas no baby pictures of evidence of the first 5 years)
It all started on a bench
Though it started well before this picture was taken....
Two years earlier in fact!
It began the day David was to go to the temple (LDS) before serving his mission.
A group of rather lovely young men and well me were at the temple that day.
(If I recall correctly there was Tim beard, Andrew Lamb, John Mcconnachie, David West and well me!)
I was the painfully shy type, however during the evening and after trying to get someone to deliver pizza (and I think failing) we all settled down to read some scriptures.
I being the crazy person that I am insisted on sitting in the doorway on a chair propping the door open, as the study was to happen in the boys room.
David led the study and he taught with a conviction I heard never seen before, The spirit could be felt in my heart like a burning beacon. I think that was the day I truly got a testimony of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
By the time we had finished reading it was time to go to bed, I could not sleep for want of trying.
I was far to excited about the evening which had passed, and could not get that mysteriously amazing man, David out of my mind.
I picked up the scriptures and before opening said a little prayer, I asked something I had never asked before and to this day not sure why at such a tender age I would ask such a question.
I asked "Heavenly Father, Is this the man I am going to marry?"
A little out of the blue, I mean other than a light crush I had been to shy to even speak to this man, but ask the question I did.
After closing the prayer I opened my scriptures and looked down, it opened to Doctrine and covenants chapter 6, my eye was immediately drawn to verse 23.
'Did I not speak
a to your mind concerning the matter? What greater b can you have than from God?'
That took me a little by surprise!
A month or so after that I went to general conference, but I was a little distracted by the fact this intriguing young man was there. I wanted to know more about him, but was so shy about talking to him.
Thankfully he wasn't so shy and he came and sat with me and we talked for hours, about anything and everything.
That night David went home and prayed about me and to his amazement got the same answer as I did.... obviously neither of us knew the other had done this.
A short while later I got an invitation through the post, it was addressed to just me, not my family.
It was an invitation to attend David's farewell for his mission.
It occurred to me that moment that maybe he liked me too!!!
I wrote David a little to read on the plane, it just laid out my testimony and wished him well.
Of course he did not wait until he was on the plane to read it, he read it that evening
I got a call asking if I would like to meet up before he went away for a unofficial date - of course being so shy and of such a tender age I had my family and one of my closest friends come too.
We went bowling, which I am possibly the worst person in the world at! (David's colleagues could tell you all about just how terrible I am after bowling before this last years Christmas party!)
We decided to go to Mcdonalds before David had to go, just myself, David and my friend went, we talked for a little while and then to my shock David brought out a big jar of jelly belly beans!
On the tag it read "I would walk a million miles for one of your smiles!"
The jar contained 730 jelly beans, one for every day he would be gone.
Soon after that the day was over and David was off to California for two years to serve the lord.
We wrote regularly and got to know each other as friends first off, which made for an amazing foundation for marriage, I would say the perfect way to start out.
When David came home, I met him at the airport with his family and a few other people.... which almost didn't happen due to the fuel strikes of 2000!
I took a balloon and giant teddy for him (and to hide behind - I was still a very shy person, and to be honest was worried about what David would think of me when he saw me).
We went to David's branch presidents house for dinner but as David had not been released yet it still felt very awkward, He spoke with his mum much of the time there, until finally it was time for him to be released.
I went with him for this, it was amazing!
Straight after David and his mum took me home, but in the car we sat in the back and David reached out and held my hand.
My heart was all a flutter, all the awkwardness was gone in that moment.
I knew again he was the one for me, he was going to be my eternal companion, my forever love.
The next day we went to Alton towers, David and I were not interested in the rides at all, we for the first time ever went on the swans and just talked, we went for walks and talked. I don't think we actually went on any rides that whole day!
Toward the end of that day we had our first hug, he just fit so well, his arms felt amazing and such a comfort around me. I felt like as long as I was in those arms nothing could ever harm me and life would be perfect.
One week after that date, sitting on the bench pictured above, where we had first spoke before that all important scripture study, David proposed!!!!!!
He presented me with a sister missionary badge with Sister West on it after getting down on one knee.
He had written me a letter which explained how he was likely to be nervous, it said all sorts of lovely things and then there it was "Rebecca, Will you Marry Me?"
I turned to him on his knee and said "Is that a proposal?", He replied "Yes, Will You Marry Me?".
Well you can imagine my response..... well you know my response because 3 months later we were joined as husband and wife.
Three months later we found out we were expecting our first child, and so our family began!
So that is how it all started out, it seems like only yesterday, I can still feel the butterflies in my tummy thinking about it and every time I think about my wonderful, lovely young man David!
I think I will have to continue this in another post tomorrow.
I got little carried away with amazing memories and must tend to those crazy incredible six children I mentioned we have now!!
I hope you enjoyed our love story and come back to find out what happened next.... maybe I will even scan some early marriage and baby pictures.... watch this space!
Being relatively new to the wonderful world of photography I do not have all the editing and taking of pictures down to a Tee but hopefully with lots of practice I will get there. This is were I heart faces comes in!! They are kind enough to give a challenge once a week of editing a picture, which they give you on a Friday.All different people from around the world have a go at there idea of "fixing" the picture. Everyones idea of what makes the perfect picture may differ considerably and that is what makes this fix it Friday so fabulous. Everyone editing the same picture all coming out with a whole new prospective.
