Hi, I'm Stephanie

I am the mother of 4 living children and one angel. I lost my 14-month-old little girl in an accident. I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I am a student turned journalist, turned criminal defense lawyer, turned full-time mother, turned spare-time blogger. In 2008, the youngest of my 4 daughters died in a tragic accident. I have been making my way through grief with the help of the Savior and blogging about my journey. In 2009 I gave birth to our first little son. I find joy in my family, reading, ice cream, great food, learning new things, traveling the world, being social, and seeing the hand of the Lord in my life.

Why I am a Mormon

I am a practicing Mormon because as a teenager I read the Book of Mormon and spent a year studying the history of our church and the life of Joseph Smith. I also was praying that whole year to know for myself whether the church was true or not. I went on a trip back East to the place where the church began and where Joseph Smith had his prayer answered about which church was true. There I got a profound answer from God that Joseph Smith was in reality a prophet of God and that he really did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ in answer to his humble prayer to know which church to join. I felt a physical burning in my heart -- and it wasn't heart burn -- and I just KNEW that this was the Lord telling me that all I had been studying was true.

After my daughter died, my reason for being a Mormon took a new shift. I am a Mormon because I want to be with my daughter again. I want to raise her, as her mother, from the little girl she will be when she is resurrected and gets her little body back, to the woman she will grow to be. Mormons believe that families can be together forever. We believe that those who have lost children they have been sealed to will have the opportunity to raise them after Christ comes again if we live worthy. I am going to do all I can to live worthy of that great blessing. My heart tells me that one day I will have that blessing granted me if I continue on the path set out for me in the teachings of gospel of Jesus Christ.

Personal Stories

How can we develop greater harmony in our homes?

I have found that turning off the screens and spending time together having fun helps there be peace in my home. We also spend time daily reading scriptures, praying and eating dinner together. One night a week we spend having a lesson and a fun family activity. We teach our children to follow the example of the Savior and that includes being kind and loving to others. When they are fighting over something, I ask them how they can make there be a more loving feeling in our home. We want our home to be a peaceful place where angels (like their sister) will feel comfortable and welcome.

I feel more peace and love in our home when I am following the teachings of the church and working to keep our home and family safe from the evils that are out in the world today.

Please explain the part prayer plays in your life?

I pray many times a day. It helps me to gather myself and focus on the important things. It keeps me humble. It reminds me that I am a daughter of God. I feel my Heavenly Father's love for me when I earnestly pray to Him.

After my daughter's accident she was in the hospital for 2 days before she died. Thousands of people were praying for her, for me, and for my family. I KNOW .... I mean I KNOW the power of prayer. My daughter was not meant to be healed or she would have been. I personally felt the power of all those prayers on my behalf and they worked a miracle in me. Somehow I kept breathing, living, caring for my 3 other daughters, and I even was able to compose myself to speak at my daughter's funeral. I felt the prayers of so many from various faiths profoundly. I still feel them. Prayer is my lifeline.

How has the Book of Mormon brought you closer to God?

I love the Book of Mormon. I love the people whose lives are recorded in that book. I try to read it everyday. Sometimes I get out of the habit for a little while or I spent time studying the Bible instead. When I go back and start reading it again I am always stunned by the power I feel when I read the words of this book.

I learn so much from the examples of the prophets in the Book of Mormon. I feel like I know them. Their teachings help me better understand the Bible and the plan my Heavenly Father has for me. I can relate to so many of the experiences the people go through. For example, there are a couple stories about a people journeying through wilderness to a promised land. Sometimes I feel like my life is a wilderness and I just need to stay as grateful and humble and faithful as the good examples of the people in the Book of Mormon till I do indeed reach my own "promised land."

I also feel closer to the Lord just by reading the Book of Mormon everyday. It helps me gain a more heavenly perspective on daily challenges and brings more peace into my life.

Can you think of a specific challenge in your family that Gospel Principles helped overcome?

It has been 2 years since my daughter died now as I write this. 2 years seems like a long time. But in grief time, it is just a drop in the bucket. It is just 2 years of the rest of my life that I will be without my daughter.

But here I am just these short 2 years later, and I am happy. I have joy in my everyday life. My heart, that once felt so shattered that it physically hurt like a giant hole in the middle of my being, feels whole and well. I knew in theory that the Lord could heal broken hearts. But 2 years ago ... I just didn't know if anything could ever make me feel alright again, let alone happy.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ taught me that because of the Savior's sacrifice, He could take my pain and help me carry it. It taught me that He has not only the power to forgive and remove sin, but the power to heal hearts that seem unhealable. I know because I have felt my heart healed by Him. I don't know how it happened but little by little He has put the pieces of my heart back in place.

My faith is what has gotten me through this challenge. Without it -- without the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's teachings found here in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- well I just don't think I could have survived this trial. It has often been my sole source of hope and comfort. I thank my Heavenly Father that I had been taught these truths by my parents so I knew where to find them when I needed them most.

How I live my faith

I get up every morning with hope born of faith. I try my best to be a good mother to my children and a helpful and equal partner of a wife to my husband. I try to listen to what my heart tells me I am meant to do or say or write on any given day. I share my hope and my new enhanced perspective on the treasure it is to be a mother -- even of a whiney, sick, or tired toddler -- with others through my blog.

I volunteer at my children's school whenever I can. I work with girls aged 14 and 15 at church. I teach them lessons on a few Sundays each month and plan and produce fun purposeful activities for them one night each week. I LOVE these girls I serve. I pray for them and am there to help them in anyway and through any teenage drama they bring to me. I help them learn how to be strong members of their own families no matter what their family circumstances are.

What are some of the ways that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helps those around the world?

Stephanie answered...

My parents are retired. They decided to pay their own way to go serve humanitarian missions for the church in other countries. First they went for 18 months to Belgrade, Serbia and taught the highest judges in that country computer skills and English. They also went to Bosnian refugee camps to deliver humanitarian aid. A year after they got home they went on another mission to Kenya. There they brought fresh water wells and pumps to small villages and helped build schools. They delivered school kits, hygiene kits, newborn care kits, wheelchairs and mosquito nets to prevent malaria. They also built a co-op farm for a small town complete with an irrigation system.

Missionaries like my parents are all over the world helping wherever their is need. The church also supports in needy areas through donations to good charities like Catholic Charities or the Red Cross.
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Why do some call Mormonism a cult?

Elizabeth answered...

It's funny, I used to call the Mormon Church a cult too. I just didn't understand it.

Mormonism isn't weird or strange. Its members don't perform satanic rituals or brainwash teenage boys into walking around from door to door in suits and name tags (nor is anyone forced to -- everyone who chooses to serve a mission does so out of their own free will and choice).
I used to call Mormonism a cult because it seemed foreign and unfamiliar, which I deemed scary. The same thing happened to Jesus' first followers as well: they were accused of cult worship too! Others who understood little of what Mormons truly believe told me lies about so-called "practices" in the church which, in reality, were just made-up stories and falsehoods intended to give the church a bad name.
When it comes down to it, a lot of people just don't understand this church, and lies about it spread like wildfire. Mormons believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world, plain and simple.
Is that so weird or cultish?
Today, there are close to fourteen million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide, and more live outside of the United States than inside. That doesn't seem very cult-like to me!