a story of our life.

This is something I've always wanted to post, I'm not particularly sure of the reasoning behind me feeling prompted to share this post, but here goes nothing. What you're about to read was the longest 4 months of our lives, but here is a condensed version.

As my husband is finishing up secondary applications for med school, one of the schools asked the following question,

What is important to you that you want to make sure the Admissions Committee knows about you that is not already included in your application?

and he responded as follows. (I apologize for the formatting, it seems too much to change right now)

My daughter Lacy was about four months old when my wife, Beth, hurriedly carried her through a

narrow doorway. Her head was sandwiched between the frame of the door and the force of my wife’s

body. She cried but after keeping a close watch on her we felt strongly that she was fine. The following

afternoon we noticed swelling around the area she injured. An Otolaryngologist I was shadowing

recommended we watch it for a day. We took her to her pediatrician when it did not reduce. An Xray followed.  The small town radiologist assured police that Lacy suffered from a frontal skull fracture

incurred by purposeful blunt force trauma. As a result, we were interrogated for hours, forced to

meet with lawyers, I took time off from school – including studies for the MCAT, and police harassed

our neighbors and my wife’s workplace. My wife was threatened to be charged with felony child

endangerment. We were scared we may lose our wonderful daughter.

We decided to drive four hours to Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, UT where we

would meet with the specialists. Lacy was submitted to endless exams, X-rays, and CT-Scans. The

doctors concluded without debate that the original doctor had misdiagnosed. Lacy suffered from a bicoronal skull fracture, common in children her age from often minor incidents – our story was consistent with the incident.

My life is littered with experiences that will help me become a great physician. My personal statement

addresses some but not all. I went through a dramatic change of lifestyle that ended with me committed

to serving others, I witnessed my father be overtaken by financial hardship, I watched cancer steal

my mother’s life, I saw doctors in action as they helped my mother and as I shadowed them in their

workplaces.  Significantly, I’ve seen the immeasurable good that comes when doctors succeed in their

specialties. Unfortunately, I’ve also been the one to suffer when a physician stepped out of his training.

These experiences culminate in an unwavering determination to do nothing less than become the best

physician I can.

This is me again, I'm still amazed that my little family has had to go through this situation, but with that being said I'm happy to say that it has been the biggest experience for growth as a family that I could have ever hoped for. I know that the covenants I've made can keep my family together forever and I know that Heavenly Father knows us individually, all of us. I hope that people also see the importance of going to doctors specialized in their form of medicine, because sometimes doctors do step out of bounds and also how important and life saving a second opinion can be. Hopefully this post doesn't scare anyone, I've just felt prompted to share this experience for a long time. 

beth unfiltered.

“God’s universal fatherhood and love charges each of us with an innate and reverent acknowledgement of our shared human dignity.  We are to love one another. We are to treat each other with respect as brothers and sisters and fellow children of God, no matter how much we may differ from one another.”

Same gender attraction has recently been a thing of controversy and has occupied my thoughts, more than ever before. It is a matter that affects my family directly for arguments on both for and against and I feel it to be dear to my heart. I know it is a very controversial subject and everyone feels the need to protect their side of the argument, or their brother, sister, aunt, best friend or neighbor. I guess I just thought that maybe I could take the time to clarify a few things about what I believe. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and I can only hope that my friends and family do not get offended for what I have to say. I want to begin by quoting the main headline from the website MormonsAndGays.org:

Few topics are as emotionally charged or require more sensitivity than same-sex attraction. This complex matter touches on the things we care about most: our basic humanity, our relationship to family, our identity and potential as children of God, how we treat each other, and what it means to be disciples of Christ.

My husband and I have researched this site a lot, partly to look for guidance for church leaders and also to raise awareness on how we treat others that are attracted to the same gender. I don’t feel like it is my area or anyone else’s to place judgment upon people with different views than me and I hope that I can live my life up to that standard. I also understand the sensitivity of the topic, I will do my best not to offend anyone, however I will also try my best to stand up for what I believe to be correct principles, just as I’m sure many of the people reading this will. I recognize that this is a hard line to walk, especially since I know in the last few hours I have offended a few people, I apologize for the way that I went about what I said. Here are a few things to clarify my views.

First, I would like to acknowledge that I hold some things very sacred to me. Among those things being my religion and the sanctity of marriage. My beliefs are central to everything I do. In 1995, The LDS Church published “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. This document contains the beliefs that I stand behind 100% and I encourage everyone to read this document to understand a little more where my opinion comes from. I know this proclamation is true, but most certainly that “Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”  I would also like to point out that this encompasses much more than same sex marriage and is something that I’ll always do my best to try to stand up for.

Second, I would also like to share that along with my religion comes Christ’s second commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39). I can only hope that those that I’m around can know and see that that is what my family and I will always try to put first. One of my favorite quotes was given by a church leader in 2008, Thomas S Monson said, “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.” I can only hope and pray that others can see that I will always do my best to love my neighbor and put others before me.

I guess just to finish, I hope that others can understand my view point a little better. I am just trying to protect the things that I hold dear, but I will never let that get in the way of loving my neighbor. I hope that people reading this don’t feel judged or upset, but mostly just that they have another insight into their argument. Enjoy it or cast it aside, but please don’t feel like I’m attacking anyone, because that isn’t what I meant it to be.

Amongst all of the things I don’t know I do know this,  we are all children of God, I know that all humans deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and I know that I try very hard to constantly do what I feel and hope is Christ-like. I know that many times I am off key, but I try to always have the goal in mind or saying “WWJD”? I know better than anyone, except maybe my husband that I am full of imperfections, but I’m on this path trying to learn as I go, trying to follow the perfect example of our Savior, Jesus Christ.