Journal entry 18 March 2021

A month ago Jim Fuller wrote a letter asking me to write a page about our relationship and my conversion.  We exchanged letters updating one another about our lives.  I mentioned to him that we had had a new baby added to our family every year since 1993; but that I was worried because we were already two months into 2021, and no one had announced a pregnancy.

Yesterday (Marjorie's birthday) we and the Bradford family met at Judy Brazofsky's orchard, and pruned it.  I wielded my chain saw and made the big cuts.  Hyrum, Anne, and Heidi wielded hand saws and big pruners and made other cuts that I suggested.  Marjorie and the smaller kids took the pruned branches to the burn pile.  In a little over an hour we had finished the whole orchard.

As Marjorie and I drove home, Marjorie revealed some shocking news.  Heidi had told her that she was pregnant!  Heidi's youngest is four years old, and she thought that she was through having children.  She has 10; and now she's pregnant with number 11, at the age of 43.

The shock didn't end there.  In less than an hour after getting home the phone rang.  I had earlier told Marjorie that I wasn't going to answer any phone calls that day because they would all be birthday wishes from her children.  This call was from Ivy.  She wished Marjorie a happy birthday, and then announced that she was pregnant.  Marjorie told her to call Heidi.  This will be Ivy's sixth.  She is a busy Primary president, she's sick, and her house is a wreck, she says.  Marjorie is getting ready this morning to go to La Grande and clean Ivy's house.

It was a memorable birthday for Marjorie.  In the space of an hour she learned of grandchildren numbers 54 and 55.

Back in 1994 our second son was on a mission in London when I wrote to him announcing that his mother was expecting a baby.  The news knocked him for a loop.  His companion, Elder Saunders, from Vale, Oregon, had just gotten a similar letter from his mother announcing her 13th pregnancy.  The two elders marveled over the news until Matt noticed that my letter was dated April 1st.  Dad had fooled him!  The elders had a good laugh.

Subsequent letters kept mentioning the pregnancy, so Matt was shocked all over again.  Marjorie was 46 years old.

Heidi's second son left on his mission March 3rd, Heidi's 43rd birthday.  He's doing his MTC at our house.  Like Matt, he is in for a shock when they get ready to tell him that he'll be meeting a new sibling when he comes home from his mission.

For our own part, Marjorie and I returned from our mission in 2015 to meet seven new family members.