To say that this has been a stressful few days would be an understatement. It has been one of the most amazing and incredibly hard things I've ever had to witness. This week, my Brother-in-Law (with the loving support of my Sister) decided to "Come out" to the public as a Gay man, who is married to a woman, and is also an active member of the LDS Church, or a Mormon as it is more commonly known.
I have known about this for many, many years. I can't remember why I was told when I was, but I remember it was when I was in High School before he went on his Mission. I honestly can't remember my complete reaction.. I just remember being really curious as to what that meant exactly and what he was going to do. I had known him my entire life, and I knew that he had a strong Testimony of the Gospel and that he really did just want to do the best thing for himself. I could support that completely.
At the time he was dating my Sister and so I wondered what it would mean for her. I got to watch as they fell in love, as my Sister questioned herself whether this was the right thing for her.. and I got to support her when she made the decision. I was there on their Wedding day.. I got to see the wonderful love they have for each other as they made their promise to be together forever. I know that what they have is real and special. I've watched as they've had their wonderful girls and I've seen what an incredible family they are. There is nothing but love in their house. I know that they have a strong Testimony of this Gospel, that they love our Heavenly Father and they will do whatever is asked of them.
Sharing their story was clearly not an easy decision and one that they did not make lightly. I want it stated that I fully support their decision and am behind them 100%. There was a lot of work, and prayer that went into this post and I'm awed at how it turned out.
As their family, we were informed it was coming out a few days before they actually posted it, and asked for our input on their rough draft. I was impressed with their first copy, but am more so by the final product. They told us they were going to be posting it on June 7.. the day they would be celebrating their 10 year anniversary.
Being in Scotland right now, I am 8 hours ahead of them and so I spent the entire day very anxious and nervous. I was checking my Facebook every 30 minutes to see if it was posted yet because I was scared of how it would be received. Sadly, because of the time difference I wasn't able to see it until the next morning when I woke up. Even though it had only been a few hours, there was already a pretty big response. Almost everything that I saw was positive, and the few "negative" comments weren't even that negative. I was relieved. I spent all of yesterday on the computer. I couldn't pull my eyes away from all of the comments people were giving.I felt myself get so happy and tearful when people would say wonderfully nice things.. and get really upset or angry when they were mean. That part was not easy.
As the day progressed, it just started spreading faster and it finally got to the point where I couldn't keep reading the comments because they were just coming too fast and I would never be able to read them all. I stopped reading last night when there were 250 comments on his blog. This morning I woke up and there are now 1171. WOW!!
Honestly, I'm not sure what is going to happen now that this is out there. I hope for only wonderful things for them and their family. I hope that this will just be a Blessing in their life. I hope that people can continue to be understanding and supportive. I also hope that people will continue to share it. You may not know my Sister but you know me.. you know what kind of person I am. I would never lie about something as personal as this and I hope that you can help spreading the positive image behind all of his.
Here is the link to his post. It is beautiful and I hope that it can help many people.. in whatever way they need it. http://www.joshweed.com/2012/06/club-unicorn-in-which-i-come-out-of.html?spref=fb
My beautiful Sister Lolly, and her wonderful Husband Josh.
Their beautiful family. Anna (6), Viva (almost 4), Tessa (almost 2)
I love you Lolly and Josh!
