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| My Famous Brother, James |
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| KC Temple -- Almost Finished |
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| Liberty Jail |
After leaving the temple site we headed over to the Liberty Jail which is only about 10 minutes away. What a juxtaposition -- leaving the temple which shows the growth of the Church in the Kansas City area to go to the Liberty Jail, site of such a difficult time in the history of the Church in Missouri. I had a very profound spiritual experience at this historic site as a brand new member of the Church when I was just 19. I decided to drive here one day by myself while I was home for the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. I was a new convert and was feeling pretty isolated while living in Carrollton. There were no other members in the area, especially not anyone my age. I knew very little about this new church I had joined, but I did feel confident that I had made the right choice. I just needed to do some studying to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and it's history. Since Liberty was only about 45 minutes from my home, I decided to take a jaunt that direction. Since that day I have never come to the jail and found it without visitors. We always go through the tour with other people. But this first visit, I found myself as the only patron. I explained who I was, and the sister missionary gave me the tour. At the time of my visit I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. I had made some big changes to my life in order to join the Church. It wasn't so much that I had to change who I was in order to join. It was that I had been out of my skin for my entire life, trying desperately to find out where I belonged in this world, and when I found this Gospel, I was coming home. It felt right to me in so many ways. But now that I was home in Carrollton I found that many people didn't really understand this change in me. I couldn't really explain the feelings in my heart. Consequently, I felt persecuted. Looking back I was over-reacting, big time. But then, looking back, it seems as if I over-reacted about lots of things in my life at that time. Nevertheless, I was feeling badly-done-to at the time, and I sat at the bottom of the rotunda in the jail to hear the presentation about Joseph Smith and his colleagues as they were imprisoned in the Liberty Jail in the 1830s. First of all, I must say that I had no room to complain when I heard all the horrible conditions they were forced to endure in that jail. Words cannot describe it. But, for me the spiritual moment occurred as the narrator explains the despair Joseph was feeling as he pleaded to the Lord for the suffering saints and their condition. He then received the revelation recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 121: 7-9 which says: "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands." Well, as the narrator spoke those words, I felt as if the Lord were actually speaking them to me. It was an amazing experience, one of the choicest of my life. It gave me the strength to get through my first summer as a member of the Church and to have the courage to stand strong and make good decisions as I interacted with those I had known all my life to that point. So anyway, now I found myself, twenty years later with my sweet family of eight, seeing the exact same presentation and hearing the exact same words. I didn't have quite the same experience this time around, but I really didn't need it. I have endured, and my afflictions have been just small moments in my life. I have emerged stronger, and I have joy that is unbelievable to me. It was fun for me to think about those things as I sat in the jail with my family. Great experience!
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| At The Blue Grotto |
So after leaving the jail we headed over to Herman's sister's house in Kansas. The kids were super excited to see their cousins, and we were causing a huge cramp in their plans by being later to the house than we had originally planned. We only had enough time to get the kids situated and talk a little before heading out again. Herman and I left with Jason and Laurenda to go to my brother's restaurant in Brookside. I have heard tales galore about my brother's talent as a chef. He did make a dinner once for Herman and me as a gift, and it was fabulous, but I have never been to one of his restaurants. He has been featured on Kansas City television off and on, and there have been some great webcasts of his restaurants that talk about his talent, so I was eager to get a first hand experience. His restaurant is called The Blue Grotto, and it is located in an absolutely beautiful neighborhood in Kansas City. James is the Executive Chef there, and he is responsible for developing all the dishes on the menu. These are not ordinary dishes either -- they are custom made by James. Impressive! The Blue Grotto is sort of a pizza place, but not really. Almost all of their food is cooked in a giant wood burning oven, and they do not have typical toppings. When we arrived the waitress immediately seated us at The Godfather table. It is called this because it overlooks everything from a second story walkway. We already felt super loved and important. She brought us a menu, and I was completely lost. I'm glad that James stayed and sat with us, or we would not have known what to order. Even as he explained what ingredients were in each dish I did not understand him. I had never heard of anything. You don't find those ingredients at your local Wal-mart. We just had James order for all of us. It was absolutely wonderful! We got four appetizers, three pizzas, and two desserts. James and the owner, John, sat with us as we ate and talked about how they developed the restaurant and then the menu. The food was like the type of food you would find at a four or five star restaurant, but with more reasonable prices. John couldn't stop talking about how talented James is. He told us that Kansas City holds an annual competition for twelve local chefs each year, and James has been invited to participate the past two years. He sells out his tables within 24 hours each year. John told me that James was probably the most talented chef in the KC area. Wow! I was soooo proud hearing about him. It was amazing to think that he was my little brother who I teased mercilessly as a child. He always had a talent for cooking. Each evening a different one of the siblings would be in charge of creating our dinner, and normally we would do conventional type foods, but whenever it was James's turn, he would always do something daring and different. It turns out that that is a talent of his that has served him well in his life. It was just so amazing to sit there and feel like we were getting a behind the scenes look at life in a restaurant. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone in the KC area. It would be a great place for a date or a business meeting -- fancy, but not pretentious, and the food is divine. I'm headed back there again some day -- this time with the whole family. Check out this video about the restaurant shown on KC public TV:
The following morning Laurenda took Laney and me to a spin class at her YMCA so that we could work off all those calories that we had consumed. I've never been to a spin class before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, and wow! That class kicked my can. I used to be quite the biker in my youth, but it's been a few years, and I am badly out of shape. It was an hour long, and by the end of 30 minutes I was ready to collapse. But, I have my pride, and since no one else was quitting I couldn't quit either. I endured, even though my legs were shaking like crazy. By the time the class ended I was a quibbling mess, but I made it through. I hobbled down the stairs and headed to Laurenda's for a soothing shower. I thought that the next day I would be dead sore, but I did okay. Only my glutes were killing me. Going to this class made me motivated to start back working out next week. I can do it! I can! Really!
We left Laurenda's and headed in the direction of my parents' house in Carrollton. We decided to take the long way and circle to the Church sites in northern Missouri that the kids had not seen before -- Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman. There are not really any fancy things to see at these sites. They just mark spots of significance to the members of the Church. Sitting on a bench at Far West, I am always amazed at how different the area is now than it must have been in the 1830s when thousands of church members lived there. Now it is just nestled in between several farms -- so quiet. I remember when I first came there as a new member of the Church. I dragged my little brother with me as I drove there. I got out and saw a lady there. When I introduced me and told her that I was a new member of the Church, she yelled "Hurray!" and gave me a giant hug. That lady will probably never remember me, but I will always remember her. I thought that was a neat experience. There is now a little store next to the temple site, and it was fun to go by there and give them some business. I get the feeling that they don't see a lot of business there, and even those who come by probably don't spend a ton of money. So we were happy to give them some business. Adam-ondi-Ahman is also a very quiet, peaceful spot that overlooks a valley of a farm. Who would guess that such a place will be so significant in the latter days of this world? I first saw this place when my branch president and his wife drove me there after church one Sunday when I was home for the summer. Now it wasn't such a peaceful time because the kids were getting tired. But, we got to show them the place at least so that they can say that they've been there. We stopped at a little Amish town on the way to my parents' place, and I picked up some roasted cashews for my mom, since she loves them.
After a little delay to help an old man who had lost a very heavy tire on the highway, we made it to Carrollton. He gave us some delicious cinnamon bread from one of the Amish bakeries, so that was nice. My parents seemed happy to see us. It has been blazing hot this year, and I was worried about us being there since they do not have air conditioning. But, blessedly, the weather cooled off for the two days while we were there, and it was actually very pleasant. While I was there I collected all my old memorabilia from school to take home. My parents had accidentally thrown out all my yearbooks, and I was pretty upset about it, so I wanted to make sure that I was able to keep the things that were important to me. It isn't exactly that it is important for me to remember everything. In fact, I'd like to forget a lot of my early school life. But, I think that there are some things that my kids might find interesting. I know that I would like to know those sort of things about my parents. I'll need to go through some of the boxes soon to get rid of some of the things that I might have thought were important back then but are not so important now. I did find three diaries I had kept from the time I was 10 until I was about 17. It was interesting, and sometimes horrifying, to see what I had written. I was quite a drama queen, and everything was so important to me. I seemed to be pining for a different boy every day of the week. I was so insecure and mean-spirited sometimes. I could tell many times that I was trying to play a role rather than be myself. Laney and Savannah thought that some of the entries were hilarious. Herman hates to hear any of it. He wants to imagine me exactly as I was when I met him. Before that, he likes to think that my never began until I met him. In some ways he is kind of right. I was just struck to think about how different my life was without the Gospel than my kids with it. Having that direction in their lives and knowing exactly who they are and where they are going helps them to avoid the silly mistakes that I made as a youth. I am so thankful for that -- thankful that I will never find any crazy journal entries written by my girls that will equal the goofiness of mine. I wish that I had had that direction in my life as a youth. Things would have been a little easier -- or at least things would have made a little more sense.
It was a short, but nice visit with my parents. I have a hard time seeing them age. I want them to be around forever. It's not that they are totally infirm or anything like that. It is just that as my kids age and get ready to leave home I think about how soon my grandparents began to die after I grew up and left home, and it seems like that will be too soon for my parents. I need to find more time to visit them or I will regret missed opportunities. I do find that as they get older I am hearing more and more fun stories about my parents and their youth. My mom showed me the file that she kept about Bryan's adoption from Vietnam. They paid only $845 for his adoption, including a flight from Vietnam. I'm sure that was a lot of money at that time, but it pales in comparison with the $30,000+ that we are paying for our China adoption. It was a much simpler process in many ways back then, but it was fun to read about the things my mom went through at the time and compare it to my experience.
So the weekend ended, and the Blau family headed back to the homestead. What I learned this week: My brother is a famous chef. I love goat cheese and pate. The KC temple will be gorgeous. The Gospel is still true and essential in my life and the life of my children. Driving all day with hungry and tired children can diminish the spiritual experiences we have at historic church sites. My grandma and grandpa Lay had some sort of amazingly passionate love story. My dad can make a mean omelette. I love my family! (Okay, some of those things I already know, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded once in a while!)
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