Our Story.....

Our story begins in April of 1994. Jake was just returning from a church mission in the Philippines and I was returning from Dixie College for spring break.  There was a dance for the young single adults in Modesto, Ca. This was our first meeting. My friend introduced me to Jake and his friend, Richard Ward. I of course was instantly drawn to Jake, but did not let on how I felt. I hoped he would ask me to dance which he did. We danced once, but that was it. At our next meeting in June I was even more attracted to him. I tried to get his attention by playing volleyball with the group he was with, but to my discouragement, he didnt seem to notice. FINALLY in July, we met up again, at another youth dance. This time I wasnt going to play coy....I asked him if he was ever going to ask me out. This took him by surprise, but I guess he liked my directness and we made plans to go out the next night. We have been together ever since. We were married in the Oakland Temple on December 17, 1994 and worked some odd jobs around the Clovis and Oakdale Ca. areas until Jake got accepted at Ricks College (now BYU IDAHO) and we set out for Idaho in the late spring/early summer of 1995. I was pregnant when we left, but soon miscarried after settling into our first apartment. It was a devestating blow, but to our delight it didnt take long to discover we were expecting again. I was working but started having complications and finally ended up quitting. I was the main money maker at the time and this affected our income drastically. So we moved into some cheaper apartments and awaited the arrival of our first child. Jake was bringing in a whopping $400.00 a month at the time and trying to go to school full time with a wife and a baby on the way was starting to become overwhelming. One day there was a knock at the door and I opened it up to find an army recruiter on the other side! I almost slammed the door shut right in his face, but then he asked for Jake and I assumed my husband had invited him over so I didnt slam the door in his face but politely invited him in. Jake had been looking into joining the service as a way to help with our finances and help pay for his schooling. He enlisted into active service around the same time our oldest child, a daughter entered our lives. This was in May of 1996.  We named our daughter Breanna Maye. Her middle name is a combination of my mom's middle name spelled May and my mother in laws middle name spelled Mae. I liked that I could incorporate both Jake's mom and mine....and am even more glad today since she was to be our only girl! Since then we have moved many times.....we have lived in New York, California, Idaho, Washington State, and Hawaii. Can you guess where our favorite place was? LOL! We have also had three more children, all of which are boys. Jacob Leroy Burden Jr. came to us next  in March of 1998. Nathanael Henry Kali Burden arrived in November of 2001 and Dylan Ray Kealoha Burden came in August of 2004. While we have to this day never fully settled, we have had lots of fun raising our children and watching them grow into fine young adults. They have experienced more in their short lives and have a broad understanding and tolerance of different cultures that they couldnt have received any other way. I am thankful to have been blessed with such a wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally and four beautiful stalwart children! I pray they may continue to stay strong in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that I may be able to teach them all the things they need to know to stay strong and faithful.