I Love to See the Temple: DC Edition

Way back in January, after the Washington D.C. Temple Open House was announced, I reserved a parking pass for us to attend. Surely, I thought, Topher will be vaccinated by June, there's no way it would take longer than that. So I booked June 3 and put it on my calendar.

Ah, I was so naive.

As the time for the Temple visit came closer with no vaccine in sight for Topher, I started to get anxious. I really wanted us to visit the Temple before it was dedicated. The Temple is precious to me and I wanted to share that with our kids. The older three remembered visiting the Indianapolis Temple in 2015 and the Philadelphia Temple in 2016, but Sophie didn't remember either and Topher hadn't joined our family yet. This was an opportunity I didn't want to miss. 

But how could we possibly go if we're still not attending church in person? That's my test for any activity we're invited to attend: if we're not going to church in person yet, we shouldn't be doing (insert activity here) yet either. I prayed about it and talked with Bryan. We both felt like we should go, even if we just stayed outside and enjoyed the beauty of the Temple grounds. We would take masks and see how heavy the crowds were. If they were light enough, we would go inside.

Then I found out June 3 will be full of virtual moving up ceremonies, so we couldn't go on that date anymore. Bryan has been slammed with work meetings, so he and I sat down with our calendars and found exactly one day that would work: May 20. And that is why we all got up early last Friday morning and piled into the van to drive over three hours to see the Washington D.C. Temple.

We got there just a few minutes before our 11:30 parking time and had no trouble finding a space. There were other people there, but not enough to make me feel anxious about going inside. We walked quickly through security and up to the Temple to put the required booties on our shoes to protect the carpets inside.

It was so beautiful! I got teary-eyed several times. The kids were reverent and appropriately appreciative of what they were experiencing. We couldn't take pictures inside, but there are lovely pictures of the interior along with explanations of what the rooms are used for HERE.

We told the kids about our plans a week in advance since they would need to finish their Friday school work on Thursday. We also had some extra talks about what the Temple is and why it's so important. After that Topher kept saying how excited he was to go visit "God's house." He even drew a picture to take to give to God while we were there. As we drove away from the house that morning, soon after I took the first picture in this post, Topher said quietly, "I love going to God's house."

Me too, Topher.