My Favorite Veterans and a Cool Video on Adoption

I am grateful today for all of the veterans that have served and are serving to allow us all the freedoms we enjoy! Both of my grandfathers are veterans. My mother's dad was in the army during WWI. He cared for the horses that they used in those days. He was in California and due to be sent overseas to fight when he became terribly ill with the flu of 1918 that killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide! He was confined to his tent and by the time he recovered the war was over. My grandparents lived just a few houses away from us growing up. I learned a lot from them. My grandfather was a very hardworking man - even in his late 90s! He was the most amazing gardener and kept an immaculate yard. He often would go to a neighbors and just start working in their yards. I remember neighbors calling my mom and saying your 95 year old dad is out in our tree pruning it. Or your dad just cut all of our hedges down without our permission because he didn't think we had pruned them right. Most of the flowers at his funeral were from his own yard. My grandfather died in April of 1995, just a few weeks after I returned from my mission. For some reason I don't have any pictures of my Grandpa Warnick on my computer. I need to scan in all my old photos.

My father's dad served in WWII. He was a gunner at Pearl Harbor and saved many lives there. So many of his friends lost their lives during his service in the Marines. I can't remember exactly, but it seems like maybe 5% of the men he served with lived to come home. My grandfather lives with my parents and we are so blessed to get to see him a lot. He is an amazing man and loves to tell me the story of when his ship, the Enterprise, had been torpedoed and took on too much water. They sailed to Tonga and right up towards the shore. They waited until the tide went out and the ship tipped towards it's side and the water drained out from where it had been torpedoed. They welded it and fixed it and then when the tide came back in the sailed off. While he was in Tonga he rented a bike and rode around in Tonga. He met a girl there who was whistling "Oh Susanna - she had learned it from a missionary. That girl became his sister's pen pal. He said that the Tongans built a big fenced in area and put their women in there with huge armed men all around it to keep the sailors away from their women. When Hema and I were in Tonga, we saw pictures of the Enterprise in the museum in Tonga. I had the chance to live with my grandparents for a few months while I was going to BYU. I probably drove them nuts, but they were always so sweet and patient with me. My grandfather Hawkins is such an amazing man. I love to talk to him and have learned so much from him. (Check out his Enterprise hat in this picture!)

And now here is a great adoption video! Just 1 minute long. Enjoy!