FAMILY

     This value is of course near and dear to my heart.  Family is EVERYTHING!  This is why we do what we do.  I remember when I was in UnderGrad & Dental School and it was so difficult.  We had little babies who would cry throughout the night, I was working full time, and taking 20 credits in UnderGrad.  Heidi was working full time and trying to be a brand new mother.  We kept on telling ourselves that we are doing this (working our tails off) now for our kids and our family.  We knew that we wanted Heidi to stay home with the kids in the future, we knew we wanted to have a good career where we could help people, and we knew we wanted to teach our kids good values.  For our family, Dentistry was the vehicle we chose to help get us there.  It felt like it was a hard road while we were going through it, but we look back and realize what we learned through the process was so worth it.  We now have this great opportunity to serve in Tonga as a FAMILY.  We have been blessed as family.  With those blessings, it is our responsibility to help others.

     The family unit is the fundamental unit of society.  If you look back in history, if the family unit is in tact, the father and mother are leading their family and teaching correct principles, society flourishes and thrives.  We need good Fathers and good Mothers to raise a great generation to carry on the legacy that we are trying to leave.  Our future generation (our posterity) and their success depends on how well we do with teaching, loving, supporting, and raising our children.  They of course have their own choice to do what they want when they are older, but we need to do all we can to teach good principles and allow them to make their own choices.

     I love my family so much!  We like to work hard, but we like to play hard too.  In fact, our family motto is "WORK HARD, PLAY HARD".  In Tonga, we plan to work and serve hard, and then have some time to play hard.

     Remember, FAMILY is EVERYTHING.  Your family and your memories are the only thing you can take with you when you leave this life.   SO........  Work hard, Play hard, and make some memories!