Families are Meant to Last Forever

In a day and age when many people have no interest in starting or maintaining a family, and all types of alternative lifestyles are being practiced and legislated by man, is there any solace for those who value traditional families? Is there any hope that real family relationships can remain intact beyond death? Does it seem almost hopeless for those who cleave to the institution of traditional families as they watch alternative lifestyles and legislation that promotes such lifestyles gain prevalence throughout the world? Might it appear as though traditional families are not only being dismantled year after year by worldly laws and practices, but many religions - perhaps all but one - decree that family ties end at death? Does it seem there is no hope of lasting, happy family relationships? Is it any wonder why so many individuals feel forlorn and worthless, living only for the moment, secretly or openly depressed, even suicidal? Take heart my friends. There is hope. Families, happy families, can still be forged, and they can last forever, in spite of worldly trends, confusions, and oppositions.

Ilyan Kei Lavanway is a proliferate yet undiscovered and unheralded Christian author. He served as a full-time missionary for two years in Argentina for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1986-1988. Since 2005, he has written and published over two dozen books of various lengths, ranging from a few pages to almost five-hundred pages. His education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a Master of Science degree in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
Mr. Lavanway is married and has an autistic son who has Down's syndrome. Mr. Lavanway grew up in Wenatchee and Waterville, Washington State. He is the oldest of nine siblings, seven of whom are living. He spent his high school summers driving wheat trucks and combines during harvest, earning cash to support his first love, the love of flight. He was an avid private pilot in his teens.
Ironically, for all his love of aviation, Mr. Lavanway's fourteen years in the United States Air Force never landed him a flight crew assignment. Nope. He was kicking it subterranean school in a capsule beneath the North Dakota plains as an ICBM launch officer for his first four years of service, followed by a year of really uninteresting work in a vault, on base. His next two years took him up near the Canadian border, to the giant, phased array space surveillance and early warning radar site outside Cavalier, North Dakota.
Then, he was off to California. Academic assignments filled the final seven years of his military service. By the time he was medically retired from active duty, he had discovered his passion for writing.
Since life has thrown him a few curves that make it impractical for him to return to flying airplanes any time soon, he has poured his heart into the written word.
Mr. Lavanway feels he has a God-given gift and responsibility to express eternal principles that will point sincere readers to the scriptures, to the living apostles, to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and ultimately to a personal relationship with God the Father, and with God's Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Ghost.