Drew and I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, which was a dream of mine, since I thought of it as the city of the prophets, the really great malls, and the really nice people.
Andrew and I met at EFY. I had just returned from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Philippines, and he was splitting his summer between being an administrator for an inner-city boys camp in Chicago and being an EFY Counselor.
I was an EFY Coordinator at the time, and by Ricks 7 (the last session we served together at EFY) he asked me to dance, and the rest is history.
We married in January, 2001. We lived in Provo for a year while Andrew finished BYU and worked at the MTC teaching Hungarian and ESL. I had graduated and worked as a Research Analyst for LDS Foundation.
When Andrew graduated, we were invited to teach in Taiwan, and I felt impressed that we would have joy there, so we followed joy...and we had it in Taiwan.
We then moved to Washington D.C. (Fairfax, VA to be exact) where Andrew did an internship at the prestigous American Enterprise Institute, and then got his Master's in Public Policy at George Mason University. I worked at Omron Corporation.
Another impression for joy came, and it led us to Jinan, China for a year. That was the ultimate of joys, and I would give my life for my Chinese students at Shandong Normal University. I taught Government Officials and business people, and Andrew taught the Phd students. How we love them and how we love China.
We returned to America to get doctor's aid in having children. Through all of our joyful travels, we had not yet been able to have them.
So back to Washington D.C. I worked for the Church Education System in the famous Barlow building under David Rowberry. He is a spiritual giant of a man, and I was grateful to work with him. We also tutored two adopted Chinese girls, Alex and Eliana, whose parents owned a house that was the former Thai embassy near the National Cathedral. In return, they let us live in an apartment in their gorgeous home. It was amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that we found out that we were pregnant the day before our first fertility appointment.
Sarah Luella Rail was born tax day, April 15, 2007. She is our joy and our eternity. We love her, and what she has made our family. We hope for more and more and more.
Life is sweetness. The Church is True. Enjoy our blog.
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