May 9, 2010: Mother's Day which translates to "A Phone Call from Elder Asplund!"

Last year for Mother's Day, all I wanted was pictures. I really wanted the same this year, but I also was eagerly awaiting call from Ian who is now in Argentina. According to his letter, he would be calling sometime between 1 and 3 our time, so we left after sacrament meeting to make sure we would be home. Around 3:30, I got a phone call from his companion's mom telling us that Ian had been awaiting our call as per the email he had sent. What? I was supposed to call him?

Where was the email? What was the phone number? I searched through all my email addresses and couldn't find anything--until I checked one that I use just for spammers. There it was. I had done really well being calm, but then none of the phone numbers worked. I would call back his companion's mom and she would relay the message to his comp that we couldn't get through, they would give us another number to try, and that wouldn't work either. Back to her, and then another number. I think we tried 5 different numbers before we finally had success, and by that time, I was a wreck!

It was SO good to hear him! I can't even remember now exactly what we talked about, just that I loved hearing him. At the end of the call (which was about 20 minutes long), we had a family prayer with Ian saying it. And the tears came pouring out. I didn't cry when he left. I didn't cry when he was in the MTC and left for Argentina. I hadn't shed a single tear--until then. To hear how much he had grown in those few months was so overwhelming to me that I couldn't hold them back any longer. It was a great cry!

And we still got in our family photo shoot.