Hope in the Hopoate Family

Have you ever been called a paranoid parent? I have. As well as an overprotective parent, helicopter parent, etc. I have some thoughts on this. Elder Ringwood of the Quorum of the Seventy from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke on Joseph, son of Jacob in the Old Testament. I think parents can learn a great deal from his teachings on the story of Joseph. If you remember the story of Joseph, his brothers sold him into slavery. They were jealous of their father‘s attention to Joseph. Before they sold him into slavery however, his brothers actually wanted to kill him. It was his brother Judah who suggested that they instead sell him into slavery. Judah saved Joseph’s life.  Later in the story, these same brothers are traveling to Egypt and the same Judah promises their dad, Jacob, that he will keep the new youngest son, Benjamin, safe. In Egypt, Judah’s promise was put to the test. Young Benjamin was wrongly accused of a crime. Judah, true to his promise, offered to ...

 I’ve been inspired by a cousin who has a blog, that writing is a vulnerable form of therapy. I want to join him and share some life experiences that are meaningful to me. A few years ago I attempted my first sprint triathlon. It was right before COVID-19 when I signed up-the end of 2019. But it was canceled due to the pandemic. However, I still did it with my friend Susie Lee. She’s the best and we figured out our own course and made it happen and I loved it.  Fast forward 2 years and I hadn’t accomplished anymore sprint triathlons because I had another child and had fallen in love with hiking during the pandemic. But I was itching to do more. Malachi had asked me in December of 2021 about my goals and what a really big hairy audacious goal could be for me. So I said an Olympic Triathlon. After some back and forth I felt like I really could get there… but the steps to prepare me for that would be a lot more sprint triathlons and overcoming my biggest hesitation, the open wat...