Monday, September 21, 2009

7th Annual Rieben Family Founder's Day

September 21st is one of the most important and celebrated days of the year in the Rieben household. It is a day that we look forward to all year long. This is the day that our family was created. Today we celebrated our 7th Annual Rieben Family Founder's Day!

Seven years ago, I knelt across an altar in the Washington, DC Latter-Day Saint Temple and was married to my amazing husband for time and all eternity. As we walked out of the Temple that day, hand in hand, a brand new family of two, we knew that the Lord had great things in store for us.


As we began to welcome children into our family our anniversary became more than a celebration of our marriage, but a celebration of our family as a whole. We wanted our children to grow up knowing that marriage and family are ordained of God and so "Family Founder's Day" was born.

Each Founder's Day we celebrate where our journey began as well as each member of our family. We also introduce our family theme and scripture for the year. For the next year, our family will focus on serving our fellow man.

Theme:


"Because I have been given much, I too, must give."


Scripture:


"And behold I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)


We celebrate all of the different countries and cultures that make up our family:

Beautiful, handmade wall hanging from Uzbekistan

Sunflowers to represent our children from Bulgaria and Ukraine


And, of course, no celebration is complete without cake!

Finally, we celebrate the love, faith and commitment that our family is founded upon and we thank our Heavenly Father for His amazing and beautiful plan for our family.



Happy Founder's Day!

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your video montage was amazing. thanks for sharing it!!!

Rita Andrews said...

love the video! and the idea of Founders day...oh love it too!

Stacey Kirchner said...

Happy Anniversary! Congrats on 7 wonderful years. And yummy cake! I hope you had a HUGE piece!

Anonymous said...

I still remember Richard coming in to my office in Admissions to tell me all about you and how things were going...then bringing you in to introduce you as his finance. I remember your wedding and being pregnant at the same time and meeting your triplets. Even though we don't talk often anymore, I consider myself very lucky to know both of you. Thanks for the amazing example that you are.

Megan said...

Val, you absolutely amaze me! What a neat family you have. xoxo

Heather~sheaaa6 said...

Wow what an amazing way to celebrate an anniversary!
And to add along a biblical stand and a heart wrenching video. =\
Thank-you for sharing this, it gives me some great motivation to include in my own upcoming anniversary in October.
God Bless you and your family!

Mamapierce said...

What a wonderful video. I just loved seeing all those beautiful pictures. You have such an amazing life, Valerie. I am thrilled to know you. xoxo

Thom and Jamie Stansfield said...

What an awesome idea! We may have to borrow it! Congrats on 7 years! Has it really been that long?!

Heather~sheaaa6 said...

I don't mean to be a pain, but how do you come up with the themes and scriptures? Ok, scriptures I know are in the bible. =) This is such a wonderful idea.

first lady said...

congrats on 7 yrs :) love the video

Kathey said...

I sat there and bawled through your video. It was so lovely, and the message so extremely well presented. I knew you were a talented lady, but WOW this just confirms it. Your family is fortunate to have you. My heart goes out to you and to all you are doing. I sincerely hope that your girls are able to come to you soon.

We went through the adoption process only once, and it wasn't nearly so difficult, but it left me with very tender feelings about adopted kids. It's a meaningful way to make sure certain children wind up where they are supposed to be. For reason's known only to Heavenly Father, they have to take a detour first.

Love, Kathey

Kristen said...

Your family is inspirational. Thank you for sharing your story in such beautiful ways; your story keeps me hopeful that the Lord's plan for our family will also be fully realized some day, somehow. I am praying for you as you seek to bring your girls home from Bulgaria.

Tyler, Claire, and Kylie. said...

Thats cake looks soo yummy!

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