text: Lots Of Joy And Love In Our House - Lauren Ricks — Encircle
  Lauren Ricks lives in Salt Lake City, UT with her wife and 2 year old son. She is a stay at home Mom who loves to do Pinterest activities with her son. When she was younger she began to push away, more and more, the fact that she was gay. This caused her to fall into a dangerous eating disorder. She had a professor at BYU that gave her an ultimatum. He said,
  "You can't take my final, until you see a doctor for this."
  She was put into an inpatient care center and that time away from everything made her realize that she might not want to go to church anymore. It gave her some separation that she needed. Also while in this care center she met a girl who was gay. It was the first time that she had every "really" met someone who was gay.
  "I just couldn't not be around her. I just wanted to observe her."
  After being around this girl she said everything clicked.
  "I am for sure gay!"
  When she and her wife decided to have a child, they didn't really have any role models of a two Mom family. To them it felt like uncharted territory. Bu through the support of their families, Lauren says,