Winter Quarters, Nebraska

This is one of my favorite spots I have ever been to.

EVER. 

And this is only the second time I have been able to go.

So much history, so much a part of who I am and what I believe in.

So many emotions and feelings.

If you ever have a chance to go, don't pass it up.

This was the first time I have gone and actually walked through the cemetery.

The feeling on the grounds is unreal.  I don't even know how to describe it.  Seeing burial sites for newborns, and children, and teenagers, and adults and old folks.  People who gave up everything they had and traveled here in June of 1846 and there stayed and lived and died and suffered and persevered for a year before making the rest of the trek.

I felt so selfish about being so upset over my miscarriages, as I read headstones of 1 year olds who couldn't fight the harsh Nebraska winter.  I thought of the parents who held their babies and watched them suffering and then watched them die. I have so much respect and admiration for our pioneers.  I could never have been one of them. I could never have gone through what they did.

But I am so grateful for them.  They paved the path that brought us to where we are.  And it could not have been done with out their sacrifices.

This statue sits on the top of 7 graves of children.  The words in the ground say "Gird up your loins, fresh courage take. Our God will never us forsake." 

Pretty powerful.