Madison Elizabeth

Madison is our grown-up child. The one that people who've only know us for the past few years may not even know we have because we've never been lucky enough to have her live in England with us. The first Moran girl, the original, the redhead that started it all. For all of us, being a family divided has taken some getting used to. We've had to figure out how to stay connected and keep our relationships strong from 5,000 miles away. Through trial and error, asking our friends who've done it before us what works for them, and plenty of prayers, we've kind of figured out how to make it work. 

I realized yesterday when I was making a 2020 calendar for Jared's dad (it's the one thing he asks for at Christmas every year) that I have very few pictures of Madison. If you were to read all the posts on here over the past year or stalk my social media feed you wouldn't know much about her life. So today, we're going to do a little Madison update! 

For the past three and a half years, she's been studying German at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. She's soooo close to graduation at this point. Next semester she has to take four classes - two German language courses and two history courses - and then she'll be finished with her degree and moving on to what's next. The plan currently is for her become a teacher of German or History and we're keeping our fingers crossed it all works out the way she wants it to. Because she's nearing the end of her studies, her schoolwork and courses have become more and more specialized and focused on her major. She has been doing lots of presentations lately. Her most recent one was in German and about learning numbers in German. She received full points! She's also had to do presentations arguing for gender-neutral words in German. There are female and male words for many titles in German, for example a male teacher is a Lehrer and a female one is a Lehrerin. So one word for a teacher, regardless of gender would make life easier for everyone but I doubt it's going to be changed any time soon.

She's also recently started playing Dungeons and Dragons with her boyfriend and his roommate. I've got to say, my only exposure to D&D is from the TV show Stranger Things and from other movies and TV shows that basically stereotype people who play it as nerds. And Madison is probably a nerd, but according to the Washington Post, Dungeons and Dragons is cool? And really, we play some pretty nerdy obscure games around the table here at home (Starfarers of Catan, anyone?) so it's no surprise that she'd enjoy this new to her game. 

Madison lives in a furnished three-bedroom apartment that is marketed to college students but isn't official student housing. Each bedroom is meant for two people, so she can have up to five roommates. For a while now, she hasn't had a room roommate meaning she's been lucky enough to have her room to herself. In the last month or so, her landlord found a new renter and Madison has to share a room again. I've got to say, after talking with Madison this evening we're a little concerned about this new situation. Her roommate just turned 41 and has a son Madison's age. She's kind of starting her life over so a furnished apartment with low monthly rent is a smart choice. Madison started sharing a little about her new roommate with us and I just felt bad for her. First, this lady snores quite loudly and Madison is struggling to sleep because of it. Second, she's a smoker and while she doesn't smoke in the apartment, it's still not ideal to share a space with a smoker when you're a non-smoker. But I got worried when Madison told us that the reason this lady is starting her life over is because she was in an abusive relationship and her boyfriend is now in jail because of it. She has a caseworker and everything. That's actually kind of scary! I don't know how long this dude is going to be in jail, but leaving an abusive relationship is dangerous and the abuser often tries really hard to get their former partner back in their lives. We don't want Madison mixed up in what could be a potentially dangerous situation. We encouraged Madison to talk with her roommate and get some specifics on her ex-boyfriend, to talk with her landlord, and told her to not be afraid to leave if she doesn't feel safe. Being a parent of adult children is a different kind of hard. 

On to happier stuff, Madison has been singing alto in the Logan Institute Choir the entire time she's been at Utah State. She's actually already graduated from Institute, but I think it's one of her favorite parts of being at schools so she's still enrolled in classes (she and Carson are taking a class together this semester which I find to be so sweet) and singing in the choir and encouraging other students to come and see what Institute is all about. In May, Madison joined the choir in the Tabernacle at Temple Square to sing at the Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults with Elder and Sister Cook. They're getting ready for their Thanksgiving Concert and have just started working on their Christmas music, which seems kind of late in the season but perhaps they're just that good? They'll be performing their Christmas music at Temple Square on December 5th and we're hoping Emily will be able to see her sister's performance. 

Madison and her boyfriend Carson have been dating for a while now. I don't have exact dates, but they first went out sometime in the spring so at least six months. They're planning to get married and that such great news and exciting for them and for our family. Last I heard, Carson has the ring and has the first stages of the proposal planned. It's kind of crazy that a proposal needs to be planned and have stages beyond stage one get down on one knee and stage two pop the question.  Madison says he just wants it to be romantic and she finds that to be cute. So I guess stay tuned for more updates on that big announcement! 

You know how I know all this information about Madison's life? We've set up a weekly phone call appointment. It's been a struggle to keep in touch with her because of the time difference and the fact that we're busy with our lives here and she's busy with her life there. Madison likes to talk, but she's the kind of person who won't think to just text out of the blue or reach out for no reason. Honestly, I'm the same kind of person so I get it. But we love Madison so much and we want to know what's up with her. We want her younger sisters to still feel connected and have a good relationship with her. For a while we tried calling on Sundays, but with church schedules and the seven-hour time difference, it never worked out. So we asked her to look at her work and school schedule and choose a regular time each week that we could call and catch up. Here are the alarms on my phone. Wednesday nights are now a favorite around here because we get to talk with Madison!