Sean Paul Hawkins

Sean was born on January 15, 1975 to Paul and Carol Hawkins.  He said for the first week of Sean’s life he was known as John Donavon. He is not sure exactly why they changed his name to Sean, however, his father wanted his son named after him. Thus Sean’s middle name of Paul. When they were deciding on the spelling of Sean, they felt strongly to give him the Irish spelling, even though many of their family did not like that. When he was about 9 years old, his mother, in doing family history research, found out that they were Irish.

I first saw Sean while working with his mother at their home when I belonged to American Mothers.  Sean was home from BYU and working with his father and brother-in-law, Jason, on their family business, HawkSoft, Inc.  At that time is was just the three of them operating out of a bedroom upstairs.  Sean passed through to the kitchen to get something to eat.  For some reason I was very impressed with him and wanted my daughter, MyLiege, to meet him.  After he went upstairs, Carol and I talked about how we needed to get our kids together.  

Steve also had occasion to see Sean when he reported back from his mission.  Steve said he was also very impressed with him.

I mentioned Sean to MyLiege, but as teenagers go she really didn't want to hear about my suggestions for her love life.  She was trying to decided if she should serve a mission or not.  About this same time she decided to go to the Temple to see what the Lord wanted her to do.  After fasting and praying, she attended a session.  When she came home she told me that the Lord wanted her to get married and start a family.  I gently reminded her that if she was supposed to start a family she needed to date.  Again, she wasn't really interested in my suggestions for her love life.  She did say that she would have to be forced into a situation to meet someone.  She and I were serving as Stake missionaries at the time and we decided to use the "Set a Date" program to see if she could meet someone.  She picked a date and we started to do a family weekly fast.  She was immediately called to serve as the specialist for the Young Single Adults to organize the annual YSA conference.  Her first task was to put together a committee.  Sean was among a few others that were on the committee and the rest, as they say, is history.  (That is subject to another blog.)

It was clear to see almost immediately that Sean and MyLiege were meant for each other.  It wasn't long before he was a permanent fixture in our family.  Sean and MyLiege were married for Time and All Eternity on August 22, 1998 in the Portland Oregon Temple.  Their first child, Djeryd Teancum Hawkins was born on January 6, 2000.  Steven Erik Hawkins was born on August 20, 2003 and adopted by them in March of 2006.  He is a delight to our family.  Josephyne Annaliese Hawkins was born on May 6, 2006 and Alyxandria Brynn Hawkins was born March 12, 2010.  They are now expecting another baby girl, Elisabeth Christine Hawkins due in March of 2014.

Sean is a wonderful asset to our family.  He is a strong priesthood leader in his home.  He is a great husband and father.  And as an added side note for me, I can say he is a wonderful boss, as I now work for their very successful company of over 50 employees in Canby, OR.  

Djeryd had this tribute to say about his father.  "My dad has always been very supportive of me. There have been several projects where we start the night before its due and he's there to help. Sometimes we have disagreements and arguments but he really is an awesome person. In sixth grade we made a pyramid for history the night before it was due. It was big and the teacher loved it. That same year I made an aqueduct that worked and it still does. My teacher loved that to. Whenever I was in a situation where I didn't know what to do he was there to help me along."

Sean, we Love you!