This blog will be a summary of faith, hope, despair, frustration and all things related to the upcoming incarceration of the love of my life, and my eternal companion, Jason. Its kind of disorganized right now, but we just want to get everything down and then we'll go back and organize once we have enough content.
In the near future, he will be sentenced to a minimum security federal prison sentence for a white collar crime, and we will be separated for a time. Jason is a loving husband, devoted father of three beautiful daughters and caring individual. We are both temple endowed, and were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. Keeping our covenants and our marriage and family together during this difficult time is our most important priority. If you are an LDS woman who's husband is facing prison (an lds prison wife) you are not alone, and we will endeavor to provide support, love and hope thru sharing our experiences.
Know this: the Lord is on your side, and will help you thru this trial. Dont give up on Him. Satan wants nothing more than to destroy your marriage, family and your hope. You will have rough times, but 'this too shall pass'. We will help eachother get thru this difficult trial.
Why a support site for lds prison wives? While there are general prison wife support sites, there was no specific support site for lds women. Jason wanted to create this site as a means of providing a support network for me and other lds women.
You can also contact either Jason or I (Desiree) thru the 'comments' link below each post. If no public comments have been made, it will say 'no comments'. Just click that and follow the instructions to email us directly or post a public comment
Desiree, How are you? Were are you guys at in the process? We are at the beginning of a 5 year sentence that with good time became 3 and a half years. His release date is Oct 2016. He started February of 2013. I have visited him quite a few times now. The waking up and getting the slap in the face with reality doesn't go away. I have 5 kiddos. It's hard. The thing that gets me through is being a rock to my children and husband. I try to figure out a way to make TODAY great. The stronger you are the stronger he will be. The stronger you are the stronger you kids will be. I know its hard. But there are really only two options. Fall apart and let satan win. Or let the Savior be the Savior and let him strengthen you and your family. Stick together. Don't listen to anyone who tells you differently. Satan wants your family. Your husband is not your enemy. It's hard to remember that sometimes. It sounds like he is pretty repentant. That is a good quality to have. Setting up blogs for women like us is a great thing to do. The prison my husband is in (not federal) its a state prison. They have Sunday meetings (they don't pass the sacrament) but everything else is the same. They even have prisoners who are "called"asked (not really called but sort of) to lead lesson and classes during the meetings. Last week they had someone from the stake high council there as a speaker in the meeting. They also have institute on another evening. They were studying Preach My Gospel but now they are watching sessions of general conference. My husband says during those meetings he feels like he is not even in prison. He says he can feel the spirit there. Its so different than the rest of the place. One of the things we do to stay connected and strengthened is we have a lesson schedule of what scriptures we read everyday. Old Test-Sunday New test-Monday Addiction Recovery Program Manuel-Tuesday-Book of Mormon-Wednesday and so on we have the chapters that we are reading picked out for a whole month and we each have a copy of the schedule. There are 15 lds guys in his prison. At his last one there were only 6. He has been through 2 transfers. Its hard but we get through it. It's good to hear he is going to be in a minimum facility. My husband was told the same thing but then when he was in intake someone threatened him and he wouldn't get in the cell with the guys but he wouldn't tell on the guy so he went to lockdown. Then they sent him to medium instead. It was awful. After 3 months we got him finally transferred. to a minimum facility. Things are so much better now. It's still hard but it's a lot bearable knowing he is safe. The prisons don't help you. Prison Talk (a website) has been a really good way to learn things. Another way was when I finally got to start visiting I met other family members of prisoners and they answered a lot of questions. I wish I knew more about federal prisons so I could help you. I think the best help I could be is a support of someone who is a member of the church. Dealing with ward members and walking into church alone is one of the hardest parts. I am here for you. And anyone else.
ReplyDeleteHeather, thanks for the update. Desiree will respond shortly - Jason
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