Big move, baby are pending

Lori and Mark Hacking found out less than a week ago that they were about to become parents for the first time.

They had planned on telling Lori's mother in Orem this Sunday. Instead, Thelma Soares found out she was going to be a grandmother Monday as police searched Memory Grove for her missing daughter.

When she disappeared, Lori Hacking, who is five weeks pregnant, was about to embrace a lot of life changes with her husband, Mark. The couple, married for five years this August, was just 10 days away from moving to North Carolina, where Mark Hacking was to start medical school. Their house was filled with boxes, and the movers were scheduled to arrive in two days.

"They were thrilled," Soares said of her daughter and son-in-law's move.

Soares, who adopted Hacking, said she is her only daughter.

The two stay in touch regularly through e-mail. She last talked to her daughter Thursday to ask if she wanted to go to a performance of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Hacking declined because her co-workers at Wells Fargo Bank were throwing a farewell party for her.

Lori and Mark Hacking both attended Orem High School. She was a sophomore and he was a senior when they met during a trip with friends to Lake Powell. Mark burned his hands in the bonfire that night and Lori stayed up all night to help him, Soares said.

"She called me (later) and said, 'I met a boy and his name is Mark,' " said Soares, who knew her daughter was falling in love.

Mark and Lori stayed in touch while Mark served an LDS mission in Winnipeg, Canada. When he returned, they were married in the Bountiful Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The couple started running together while they were dating, Soares said. The two enjoy a strong bond, she said.

Both Lori and Mark were excellent students, Soares said. Lori was a business major at the University of Utah and made the dean's list every semester, she said.

"She was very sharp. Very bright," Soares said. "She got an A in calculus. What does that say?"

Mark was also a straight-A student who majored in psychology at the U., Soares said. During that time he also took pre-med courses.

The couple made the decision to put off having children until Mark was done with those courses, Soares said.