We had a General Authority, Steven E. Snow, who is the Church Historian, (the perfect person to discuss these things with) coming to our stake conference. With every tattered thread of hope I had left I reached out to the stake president to see if my husband and I might be able to meet with him. I prayed so hard, I pled with the Lord, “Please let us be able to meet him so he can answer our questions and calm my troubled heart.” I also enlisted a few family members to pray for us to be able to meet with him. Despite our pleadings to God we were not able to meet and discuss our concerns with Elder Snow. We did get to chat with him for a few minutes after a meeting. He said exactly what I had prayed and hoped he wouldn’t, “We have to remember Joseph Smith was an imperfect man and have faith.” Those words broke.my.heart. He left us with his card to reach out in an email. Which I did. His email response did not provide any answers or comfort.
The Maldonados
True love stories never have endings. ~Richard Bach
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Just a Glimpse
We had a General Authority, Steven E. Snow, who is the Church Historian, (the perfect person to discuss these things with) coming to our stake conference. With every tattered thread of hope I had left I reached out to the stake president to see if my husband and I might be able to meet with him. I prayed so hard, I pled with the Lord, “Please let us be able to meet him so he can answer our questions and calm my troubled heart.” I also enlisted a few family members to pray for us to be able to meet with him. Despite our pleadings to God we were not able to meet and discuss our concerns with Elder Snow. We did get to chat with him for a few minutes after a meeting. He said exactly what I had prayed and hoped he wouldn’t, “We have to remember Joseph Smith was an imperfect man and have faith.” Those words broke.my.heart. He left us with his card to reach out in an email. Which I did. His email response did not provide any answers or comfort.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Pierce's Peaceful Hypnobabies Birth
My midwife Ramona is awesome and was going to come in to be at our birth even if she wasn’t on call, but we all lucked out and she was already on call and working that night! I was so so very happy about that. She was the one I’d wanted at Maizy’s birth, but she didn’t make it (No one made it actually). I love Ramona, she’s such a great midwife.

The nurse said she’d be back in about 30 minutes to check baby’s heart. Being in the tub helped with the shivering which helped me to stay relaxed. I thought these pressure waves are STRONG! I was able to use my hypnosis to stay relaxed, even through the strong pressure waves. I would just close my eyes and relax and let my body do what it was made to do. I wondering if the pressure waves were doing anything. So I reached down to check and I could feel Pierce’s head right there. I could only feel just a little lip of cervix. I thought, hummm I bet he’s going to come soon. I had been laying in the tub but felt like squatting at the edge would be good.

As soon as I did that I felt a LOT of pressure and maybe little urge to push, but nothing like I have to push now! I felt my body tensing up and I closed my eyes told myself peace and felt my body relax. It was amazing I could feel everything relax except my uterus. This was at about 2:23. With Maizy it took a few pushes to get her out. I thought I had some time. I asked the nurse to go get Ramona. She asked, Do you feel like you have to push? I said I don’t know. Do you feel like you’re going to have the baby? No, I don’t think so. At that point I didn’t really. I thought I had time for Ramona to come and check and see where I was. The nurse left to get Ramona and then the urge to push took over. At about 2:24 I told Brent, “GO GET RAMONA!” because it felt like a long time since the nurse had left to go get her! At some point I had gone from squatting to laying back in the tub.

At this point Pierce was crowing. Just like with Maizy, this part hurt, and I kept say oww, oww, oww. Thankfully Ramona got there. She first thing said let’s get you out of the tub…but I couldn’t. There was no way I could move. So I went from saying oww, oww, oww to I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, to pushing through another pressure wave. I think I had my eyes closed at this whole point. I don’t remember seeing anything. At this point Brent used one of the Hypnobabies tools to help me relax, he put his hand on my forehead and gently told me peace, this helped me to relax.
After that pressure wave passed Ramona tried again to get me to get out of the tub, but I couldn’t, another pressure wave came and she told me to pull my legs up into more of a squatting position, I couldn’t really even do that, she pulled my leg up for me, and took my hand. I remember feeling the strength of her hand, then her calm voice “ok Terina breathe, take a deep breath”. As I took a deep breath I was able to relax again. Another pressure wave came, big push and his head was out, another push and we brought him up to my chest.
![]() |
Look at Brent's face! |











One of the worst things about gestational diabetes is that they have to check the baby's blood sugar. so sad! I was so thankful Pierce's blood sugar was good every time they checked it!
At 5:00 we were moved to the postpartum room and I was tired! We tried to sleep but there are so many people coming and going it was impossible. At 8:30 Croix, Maizy, and Grandma came for a quick visit before school.




Finally around 9:30 I was able to get a little nap. It was a long day of trying to nap but nursing, people checking on us, my uterus contracting, did not make for much sleep. Brent and the kids came back around 5 and brought Kneaders, a sampling of desserts. I could only eat a bite of some of them….so much sweetness! It was great to see the kids and they just loved their brother. It made me sad as they were leaving Maizy didn’t want to leave us. She wanted Mommy and her baby to come home with them. After they left I literally couldn’t see straight I was so tired, my vision was blurry. Having a baby in the middle of the night is a rough way to start! So much sleep deprivation! Babies shouldn’t be allowed to come in the night, just during the day after Mom’s get a good night’s rest the night before.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
End of school party
We had Croix's end of school ice cream party this morning. It was cute. Mrs. Becchetti gave all the kids a little certificate and a memory book. There is a page for autographs, Croix had fun getting autographs and a few numbers for playdates. Mrs. Becchetti came and said "I just want you to know Croix is doing so much better then the beginning of the year. Those first couple were rough but he is doing great now." He really has grown leaps and bounds over the school year. I can't believe he'll be a first grader in a few short months!
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Illuminating Imigination
I entered this photo in a photo contest with the Mesa Public Library in the reading/libraries category. I was hoping to be a finalist. Would have been ecstatic to be a finalist. Then I got an email that said this;
(Future) Neighborhood Party
Our new neighborhood had a party. I love that they are having community events before anyone has even moved in. We had fun meeting new neighbors, eating yummy food and ice cream, participating in the games, getting faces painted, and playing on the bounce houses. We're going to love living in the Mulberry neighborhood, only three more months!
Swim lessons
The kids have started swim lessons. Maizy screamed the whole time the first day. Today (second day) she was in the pool a few moments without tears and screaming. I feel bad because it makes me laugh a little. She's just so dramatic! Croix does great until he has to put his face in the water, then he freaks out. In their defense the water is cold since it hasn't been hot and has rained.
In related news I've been doing swim lessons for about a month. The city of Mesa is offering free adult swim lessons, so I'm taking advantage. I can flop around but if Croix or Maizy fell in they would drown before I could get to them. So I'm learning how to swim. It helps that I can say...My swim teacher tells me the same thing, or I'm learning that too it's hard isn't it. So there ya go, the advantage to not learning to swim as a child, increased empathy for your children when they are learning at the same time as you.
In the Phoenix area there were more adult drownings last year then children, most of them were an adult trying to save a child.