Sealing is an ordinance (ritual) performed in Latter-day Saint temples by a person who has the authority to seal. The purpose of this ordinance is to seal. To seal a living couple in a temple, the man and the woman kneel on opposite sides of an altar in the temple's sealing room while wearing the temple's ceremonial robes. In addition, dead men can be sealed by power of all the women they were legally married to while they were living.
When something seals the fate of a person or thing, it is certain that that person or thing will fail or die. Some refer to this informally as a temple divorce, but the terminology used by church leaders is the cancellation of the sealing. The doctrine of the Mormon Church is not totally specific about the situation of men or women who are sealed by power to several spouses. Now that I think about it, I want to say that when you talk about “sealing someone's fate” it's used when that person or thing tends to fail, but there's one last thing that assures it. Couples who have children after being sealed don't need to have their children sealed in a separate ceremony.
Couples who have children born before they are sealed can seal their children afterward. The teachings of the Mormon Church attach great importance to the specific authority required to perform these sealings. Recent changes in church policy also allow women to be sealed with multiple men, but only after both she and her husband (s) have died. The union of a sealed couple is considered valid only if both people have kept their religious covenants and followed the teachings of Christ.
Adopted children can be sealed with their adoptive parents once the adoption has legally ended. The sealing of a husband and wife and the sealing of children to parents are separate ordinances. Faithful Latter-day Saints believe that civil marriages dissolve upon death, but that a couple who has been sealed in a temple will marry after physical death and resurrection if they remain faithful. Although plural marriage is currently prohibited in the church, a man may be sealed with several women, in the case of widowers who are sealed with their deceased and living wives.
