Brother Branden

As soon as I heard the news about my brother's death around 4:30 pm on April 9, I left to Idaho Falls to meet up with my family to fly to Iowa to be with his wife and boys. My dad had called my brother, Branden, who was serving a mission in Hawaii. He wasn't supposed to come home until the end of May, but his mission president's wife urged him to go home and be with his family (her brother died a few years ago the same way). Branden went straight back to his apartment, packed in ten minutes, and went straight to the airport to catch a flight to Salt Lake.

The rest of our family woke up at 5 (or that is the time our alarms went off, but of course no one could sleep) to fly to Salt Lake and touch down long enough to pick Branden up and jump back in to the plane to head to Iowa. I will be honest, I was not in the mood to try to put on a smile, I didn't want to have to face another brother and think about the fact that I will never be with all of my brothers and sisters again on this earth. It was so hard! When I saw Branden walk through the doors we all just broke down and sobbed. We still had signs for him because we wanted him to know we were proud of him and loved him. We also had some amazing family who met us with a huge box of food (lasted through our 3 day trip to Iowa!), balloons and signs for Branden, so they pretty much saved us! (I will be doing an entire post on our family later because I have never seen anything like these earth angels I call my family!)

I feel so bad because Branden's homecoming was a sad day for us, and people have hardly talked to him about his mission. I am just in awe by the unselfishness and loving brother I have! Most people would be sad about the fact that no one had seen them in two years and was barely noticing them, but it probably didn't even cross his mind. However, we are going to make it right with Branden. Next month, my dad and Branden are speaking on my birthday in Salmon, and we are going to throw him a big party the night before. I am so grateful for such a loving, selfless brother. I have the best family in the world, and I just wish I could be more like them!

I am going to end my post now because I have so many emotions running through me I could go on forever, but two of those emotions are love and thankfulness, and I wanted to express that today.

(Keep in mind this picture was taken after the most traumatic night of our lives followed by no sleep! -- picture stolen from Aunt LeNell, thanks!)