DEAR FUTURE MOM | March 21 - World Down Syndrome Day | #DearFutureMom

This video is so sweet! I was on the verge of tears before it even started, I knew it was going to be good. I fought them, I fought those tears!

I hope you watch this video and love it.

A happy Down Syndrome Day to my sweet Sister-In-Law, Autumn. (Friday. Because I started this Friday and am now trying to finish it.)

This is a little story about how I got to know Autumn. It's also mine and Cade's love story. 

Oooh, you are in for a treeeat! :)

I can't be too sure when I first saw Autumn and I'm not sure when I first saw Cade either. I might have seen Autumn around stake activities when I was younger. Autumn is only about a month and a half younger than me and one grade below.

And Cade I probably saw first at the church playing basketball. I was either a freshman in High School or
somewhere around 7 or 8th grade. I was at the church basketball games a lot because my Dad was the Stake Athletic Director, sometimes I would help run the scoreboards. (I had zero complaints about those Thursday nights by the way.)

But I remember one night, Cade's parents and sister came to a game and I observed Cade with his sister.
That might have been the point I decided I liked Cade a little bit. I know I definitely kept my eye on him my Freshman year in High School. He was a senior when I was a freshman--even though he graduated with my
sister, was somewhat in the same circle as my brother who was one grade older than me.....and even though I remember getting in on a conversation he was apart of with one of our mutual friends.....He to this day can't say he ever noticed that I existed in High School. Story of my sad and awkward high school life--It's okay little Breanna, life gets soo much better after high school!

Anyways, back to Autumn. When she was freshman and when I was a sophmore, I was a peer tutor in one of her classes. I was so excited about getting to know her--well, and yeah..I thought her brother was cute too.... I was only in there for two weeks and then I got a different room assignment.

Cade went on his mission and came back two years later, I graduated high school...Cade dated, I dated....(not each other)...but during this whole dating scene, he has now mentioned, this is when he noticed my existion (that is not a word).

In August of 2009, on a Sunday, at a friends mission homecoming we officially met. Met--as in, I already knew who he was and he was near me so I just started talking to him and he wasn't freaked out that I already knew his name.
No pictures in the chapel rule? Oops. Took this picture to send to my brother who was still on his mission. But, it's kind of a permanent part of our story now....so, sorry to everyone in the picture who never wanted to be apart of our love story this much. Ha.

The next Sunday Cade walked in to church (a singles ward I had been going to and one he was checking out) with one of his friends at the same time and we sat by each other.

Later in that week, Autumn came into my work. I was working at a daycare and she was in a transition program that allowed her to go to a job site and help out for a few hours. Coincidence? Seriously, the timing... It was crazy. Cade and I were dating not long after. Autumn would come in two times a week and I would steal her to be in my classroom and she would tell me cute things Cade had said to his Mom about me. It's possible he didn't actually say those things, but I ate it up.;) I got to know Autumn really well that semester and missed her when she got switched to a different job site.

Autumn is always so sweet. She teaches me lessons all of the time. 

She taught me somewhere between 1-2 years ago about being quick to forgive. That was humbling. 

And a few weeks ago she told me that she was tired and said, "It's a good
tired though". With a confused look on my face and wondering, can being
tired ever been a good thing, I asked her what she meant. She said it
was from being so busy with church stuff and family things. "It's a good
tired". She is so positive. She knows how to count her blessings and that life is not to be taken for granted, even when it's tiring. 

She is special. And anyone who is
blessed to have a spirit like hers in their family is beyond lucky! I'm
so glad she is my sister!

2010 Buddy Walk

2013 Buddy Walk

Autumn speaking at 2012 Buddy Walk

I went in to labor with Aleah just a few hours after the 2012 Buddy Walk that Autumn spoke at. We like those buddy walks. And that Autumn.

And then holding Aleah the next morning before church