Lily's Story

Four years ago today, in Shantou, Guangdong Province China, a baby girl was born. This is the earliest picture I have of her. She was teeny, tiny and had black hair. I would have loved to have held her in my arms and comforted her but that wouldn't happen until she was 16 months old. At the time Lily was born Jason and I had what I considered the perfect life. We had four kids 2 boys and 2 girls. We had just bought our "dream house" and life was pretty picture perfect. In early January when Lily was five days old and taken to the orphanage I was busy working on our new house. My biggest concerns in life were what color to paint the dining room and how cute I could decorate my kids bedrooms. As the orphanage staff examined Lily they discovered that she was born with a birth defect called imperforate anus something the majority of us have never heard of. Basically it means that her anus wasn't formed properly in-utero and she would need to have surgery to correct the condition. I am fascinated with accounts of American women who have had babies born with this condition and what their reactions were. This isn't something that is detected in a routine ultrasound so it comes as a complete suprise to most parents. Most parents are shocked and few, if any have ever heard of this birth defect. It just isn't something that people openly discuss. I have tried to imagine the circumstances surrounding her birth and wonder what her birth mother/parents thought when they discovered Lily's birth defect. I simply don't know how they reacted, but I am sure they were shocked and stunned.

At this same time a wonderful adoptive mom wanted to find out more about her daughter's orphanage. Through a series of miracles she did the impossible and was able to gain access to the Shantou Social Welfare Institute. That visit changed her life forever when she was asked to help a little baby boy who was suffering from a serious heart condition. She came home wondering how she could ever help the baby but couldn't get him out of her mind. She eventually raised the money to pay for his surgery and saved his life. After that the orphange told her about more children with medical conditions. Lily was among those children and as a result of this woman's generosity Lily received surgery in August of 2003.

At this time our youngest daughter Anna was 17 months old. We really wanted to be done having kids but deep down we thought there might be one more. One day in church I had a prompting and had tears streaming down my face. Jason asked me what was wrong and I told him that I knew we should have one more child. Little did I know that one month later we would be out shopping when we would meet a woman and her adopted Chinese daughter. They had only been home for 2 days. This woman kept trying to talk to us and I kept trying to ignore her. Finally we struck up a conversation and we learned quickly about Chinese adoption. The idea to adopt had NEVER crossed my mind, but within 10 minutes I knew I had a daughter in China. Jason felt it too and we went straight home and began researching agencies. Within a week we had started the process. Meanwhile, Lily's file was sent from the orphanage to the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs.

Jason and I were adamant that we would only adopt a healthy child. After all, we already had four kids and that was work enough without having to deal with health issues. I spent a lot of time on Yahoo adoption groups and one woman posted frequently. I soon realized that she was LDS so I became interested in her posts. Soon she announced that she had been looking for a baby that she had heard about who was missing her hand. It was a beautiful story and I hung on every detail and update. Our adoption agency, Heritage, had this little girl on her list. I kept looking at her picture and telling Jason that we could adopt a baby with a missing limb or some other minor special need. He still wasn't leaning in that direction but I was being more pulled that way as I followed this story.

One Sunday night I was in bed resting while Jason and the kids were watching TV. I read a post from this woman saying she had gotten new information on her daughter. She barely mentioned the little girl who slept in the crib next to her little girl, but said that she was available for adoption on Heritage's waiting child list. Heritage was our agency and I knew instantly that this baby was our daughter. I quickly had Jason read the post and we decided to call our agency the next morning. Our agency tried to get us to look at a couple of other kids on the list but I knew Lily was ours.

Three months later we traveled to China to pick her up. The moment we met her was one of the most meaningful experiences of our lives. Words can't describe how it felt to pick up this tiny and scared little girl. When I held her for the first time I felt that my life was complete.

Lily is the greatest miracle of my life. It is no mistake that she is in our family. Lily is very aware of her circumstances and that she was without a mommy for 16 months. She will often say to me that she cried for her mommy and that I took too long to come and get her. She understands that she was carried and delivered by another woman but that I am her real mom.

People often times say to us that we are so wonderful to have "saved" Lily from a hard life. I will concede that Lily's life is 100 times better for being adopted. She has access to the best medical services, she has a mom and a dad, grandparents, brother and sisters and she has the gospel. But in all honestly Lily didn't need to be "saved." She has been given so many amazing talents and gifts and perception beyond her years. If anything, she saved us. Because of her our eyes have been opened to the suffering throughout the world, to people who are lonely and the "least of these." It is humbling and an honor to be her mother.

Having said all that, Lily is still a kid and a strong-willed one at that. Perhaps the strongest-willed I have ever seen. She is one determined little girl. She has brought us great joy and great stress. Our lives would be SO boring without her.

Happy birthday Lily! I'm so glad she was born and I'm so glad she was sent to our family.

Lily's Birthday Party

Today my little Lily turned 4. I have so much I want to write about but it will have to wait until later when all the kids are asleep. We love her so much and I'm so excited she was able to have such a great birthday. It's hard having it so close to Christmas. I considered waiting until January but at her age that's a long time to wait.

We decided on a ladybug theme which was so easy. I got all my ideas from Family Fun magazine.

I've let go of wanting to do everything myself and let Lily and Anna decorate the cake. I did the frosting and they put the junior mints on.

I had planned on getting everything done last night but Jason and I ended up going over to his parents house until almost midnight. When I woke up this morning the house was a wreck and I had to make 12 ladybug beanbags for our game. Luckily today was Lisa's day to come and instead of doing laundry she helped me with the party prep. Thank goodness for Lisa! I wish I could have her everyday. It is truly what I need. But once a week will have to do.

I had the kids make these ladybug beanbags for a craft and then we did a beanbag toss with them.

Lily invited six friends. We were so glad everyone could make it. Things went well but I have to admit I was glad when it was all over!

I just did some quick math and realized that I've done over 30 birthday parties since Eli's first birthday party 11 years ago.

In the next 6 months I have five more parties! Anybody have great ideas for fun birthday parties?

Christmas Memories 2006

Wow! I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post. I posted last week but my internet went out for a few seconds right before I was going to publish and I lost the entire post.

Last week was truly a whirlwind of Christmas activity. This definitely ranks as one of the best Christmas's ever. The kids are all such great ages for getting into the Christmas spirit. Here are the highlights of our past week:

• Making my first ever gingerbread from scratch. I always buy the kits from JoAnn's or Costco but this year I was inspired by Family Fun magazine and made this gingerbread train. It was great fun for the kids. The oldest five were very interested in helpful and Jack was only interested in eating the candy. Yum! Thank goodness Jason's mom was here and was able to hold him while we decorated.



Hanging our with our good friends, Tony & Kelly. Jason and Tony took the older kids skiing and Kelly and I took the little kids swimming at the YMCA.


• Taking the older kids to see Night At The Museum. I got smart and got a babysitter to watch the younger kids and had a fun date with Eli, Jonah, Emma and Anna.


• Spending Christmas Eve Eve with my mom doing a craft she had made for the kids.


• Going with my mom to visit two ladies in a nursing home. One of them is 103. They were amazing ladies and my mom is even more amazing for visiting them every week. She is truly a bright spot in their lives. This act of service reminded me about the true meaning of Christmas.


• Anonymously dropping off gifts to a new family in our ward. They are recent converts and it was great to suprise them for Christmas.
  
• Giving Jason his top secret Christmas gift. I have been planning for several months to redo our downstairs family room with a byu theme. I gave it to Jason in honor of BYU's bowl game on December 21. He had no clue and was so suprised. I gave him this quilt on Christmas day. He loved it.



• Going to church on Christmas Eve. We had a great Sacrament meeting and Lucy sang O Holy Night in relief society. It was so beautiful and the perfect way to start my Christmas Eve festivities.



• Watching my kids dress up and perform the nativity program on Christmas Eve.
• Yummy buttermilk pancakes for dinner with Jason's parents on Christmas Eve.


• Seeing my kidsi n their traditional Christmas pj's.


• Catching Santa Claus in the act on Christmas Eve. Eli and Jonah claim they don't believe anymore and wanted to set up a video camera to catch him in the act. It was classic on Christmas morning to see them question their entire belief system as they watched the video of Santa in their living room.


• A fabulous Christmas day with happy kids and happy parents. All the kids were so pleased with the day. We hosted a family dinner on Christmas day. I was dreading it but it turned out so much better than I planned that I hope to do it again last year.

Merry Christmas to all and here's to a wonderful 2007!

All because two people fell in love...

Happy Anniversary!

Thirteen years today ago Jason and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. There were so many people getting married that day that when we reserved the temple in August we had to take a 7:50 am sealing time. Only two people in love could have thought that was a good idea. It was so cold and dark on our way to the temple. After our wedding we had a luncheon for all our family and friends in the Joseph Smith Building. Since today was Sunday we couldn't do much to celebrate. Last night we went with two other couples in our ward who also have anniversaries on the 18 (Doug & Julia) and the 19th (Jay and Lucy). We went to Outback Steak House and had a great time despite having an awful server.

Today I was downstairs working on our Christmas cards and Jason was upstairs on our main computer. He emailed me the sweetest anniversary letter. It totally made my day.

December 17, 2006
Spokane, WA

Re: 13th Wedding Anniversary – Salt Lake Temple, December 17, 1993 7:50 AM

To Andrea my dearest love,

Here is an incomplete list of 13 things I love about you on our 13th anniversary–

1. You love me.
2. You always think of our children and how we can meet their needs.
3. You do a great job with your calling, and do it with love of those you serve.
4. You are willing to share your dreams and visions with me so that we can work together.
5. You know what things are important to me and you support me in those things.
6. You have cleaned more poop off of and out of more things, and often at the most of inconvenient of times. I love you for this.
7. You are a great example to our friends and associates. People who know you love and respect you.
8. You have helped to create 4 beautiful souls, and you have unselfishly brought 2 beautiful souls into our family. I have a wonderful family, thanks to you.
9. You just give me a look and I know what you are thinking.
10. You are hot!
11. You trust me and are trustworthy. I know your motives are good and that you don’t keep things from me.
12. You are loyal. I know that my weaknesses are not spread around to all of your friends. My life is much better than I could have ever imagined, due mostly to you. It is much different than I thought it would be, but definitely better. Thank you for giving in to the persistence of an eager beaver RM who needed a date. I am grateful for this good life I have and for the good wife I have. I love you.

Jason made reservations for us at the nicest hotel in downtown Spokane and also arranged for a babysitter. We are going tomorrow night to stay at the Davenport Hotel and this will be the fourth time we've stayed there. We have many times regretted a December anniversary because we are so focused on Christmas. The only benefit is that it is so fun to stay downtown when it is so festive for Christmas. We plan to go to PF Changs for dinner and then a movie and some shopping.
We certainly didn't know thirteen years ago what we were getting ourselves into. We never imagined our life would be as full and wonderful as it has been. Every year we have had a milestone moment and have grown so close together. I look at our wedding picture and marvel that we thought we were so in love and that love has grown deeper over the past thirteen years.

Jason and I met at BYU in October of 2002. We dated for six weeks then I went to Israel for the BYU Study Abroad program in Jerusalem. Jason had been before his mission and that is how we started dating. I noticed he had a ring on his finger with Hebrew writing and asked him about it. He told me he got it in Israel and when I told him I was going too he invited me to look at his pictures. We spent every day together after that and wrote every week while I was in Israel. We saw each other when I got back in July 2003 and decided to get married in December. Right before I met Jason I remember I told a friend of mine that I definitely wanted a husband who loved to travel and who wanted to see the world. Little did I know how important that would be. Ten years after that time I told Jason that I felt we should adopt a baby from China. He immediately agreed. I am so glad that I have an adventurous husband who appreciates other cultures and is willing to travel all over the world. We have been to Israel together, China twice, the carribean twice and we plan to go to Brazil for the Curitiba Temple dedication.

Here are thirteen things I love about Jason:

1. He loves me unconditionally. He has never made negative comments about my appearance, weight, etc. Always makes me feel beautiful.
2. Righteous. Jason is rock solid in the gospel. I have never seen him waver in his beliefs.
3. He is spontaneous.
4. Great conversationalist. I often depend on him in social situations to carry conversations.
5. Supports me in my calling. At certain times of the year Jason spends all day Sunday with the kids. I know I wouldn't handle it as well as he does.
6. Always talks to me on the phone. I call Jason at least 3-4 times a day just to chat.
7. Is a great dad, spends lots of time with the kids.
8. Is always late to work so he can help me with breakfast and getting the kids ready.
9. Generous--Jason is generous with his time, money and resources.
10. Will watch girly movies with me. Jason loves Pride & Prejudice as much as I do.
11. Supports me in whatever I want to do. He never questions if I need a break to go shopping or to be with my friends.
12. Hard worker. Has provided a wonderful home and life for our family. We don't want for anything.
13. Great husband, father, brother and son. Jason works with his dad and brothers and has such a great relationship with all of them.

I love you Jason! I can't wait to see what the next 13 years will bring.

Ebay & Top-Secret Gifts

I just posted a week's worth of updates on my blog tonight. I have been so busy working on Jason's top secret Christmas gift that I haven't had any time to blog this past week. There's been so much to write about and it's a lame way to blog, but scroll down the page if you want to catch up on our week.

I've also been busy selling Christmas toys on ebay. I have heard that toys do really well on ebay so I decided to experiment with a few different toys this year. Now that i know how to do my postage from home there's no burden of going to the post office. I've done quite well and am suprised at how much people are willing to pay for that special gift for their child. I also helped Lucy and my friend Maddy sell a few things as well.

Windstorm

On Thursday night my friend Betsy called from McMinnville, Oregon to report that they were having a terrible windstorm and her power had just gone out. I was watching tv at the time and saw a teaser on the news that wind was heading our way. We woke up to no power. I looked out our bedroom window and noticed out trampoline was missing. Only the legs were left scattered around the backyard. I went out the front door and the trampoline was near the treeline of our property. It had blown at least 150 feet from it's spot in the backyard. We hope we can fix it. Several springs are missing. Jason tried today but it is a two-person job. I told the kids I would buy them a new one if this one is irreparably damaged. It's my best babysitter.

Not Just For Sunburns

The other day Jason went to an international market for some juice that he loved on his mission to Brazil. The lady at the market suggested he try Aloe Vera Juice. Doesn't it sound gross? It looks just like the gel you use for sunburn relief. He tried it and loved it so he bought some for me. Guess what? It's so tasty. Very sweet and good. I'll definitely be buying this as a fun treat for other people.

1st Grade

I've always thought I have a special talent to put people at ease in conversation, to go with the flow, shape my opinions to others, etc. It makes for good chit-chat and generally I'm an agreeable person. But the other day it backfired in an unfortunate way. Emma has had a couple of rough kids in her class this year. One just happens to be the grandson of a woman in our ward. On Sunday she approached me and asked me if Emma had ever mentioned that her teacher is mean. Emma doesn't have any problem with her teacher and I don't either. She is one of the best in the school (in my opinion) and I wouldn't want Emma in any other first grade class. Since I knew this grandma doesn't particularly like this teacher I downplayed how much I liked her. She also talked to another mom in our ward and from both our conversations came up with a story that we were uncomfortable with this teacher's style. Nothing could be further from the truth. She told this to the principal in a meeting with Emma's teacher. When I got to school on Monday, Mrs. H was crying when she saw me and said she wished I would have told her that I was uncomfortable. I quickly realized that in my haste to put one person at ease I upset another person that means a lot to me. I've learned an important lesson that it's better to be 100% honest about how I feel about certain things, even if it causes a little discomfort.

On Thursday night Emma had her class play. I am so grateful that her teacher does this. It was so great for Emma to memorize lines and be in a little production. She was excited all December for this play. It turned out great.

After the play we went to our RS progressive Christmas Dinner. Lucy and I had a great time running out of gas and then getting sprayed with gas. Read more about it by clicking on Lucy's name above.

I loved watching all the little kids from our ward watch the school play. We love our church friends.

Emma's Pillow

On Wednesday night Jason took the boys to a hockey game. Emma really wanted to go but it would have been too late for her, plus Jason only had three tickets. I promised her we could do a project if she stayed home. She really wanted to make a Christmas pillowcase. I remembered I had some white pillowcases left over from girl's camp about 8 years ago when I was the craft leader. Luckily there were three left, one for Anna, Emma and Lily. Fortunately Lily and Anna forgot about the pillowcases and I put them to bed and Emma and I worked on hers. She was so excited and designed it first on paper. She decided to make rudolph. She was so excited about it she insisted I take pictures then she took her pillowcase to school the next day. She knew Mrs. Harvey would be so proud of her.

Book Club Christmas Party

On Tuesday our book group had a gift exchange. We usually meet at someone's home but since it was december we met at a trendy new restaurant, Twigs. We all brought a book to exchange. I brought Gift From The Sea by Anne Lindbergh. This has been on my list of must-reads for a long time. But I've just never read it. I was given The Kite-Runner. Since I had already read this book Rebecca and I traded and I got Gift From The Sea back! We decided to read it for January. Hooray! I have already mentioned how much I love my book group and Tuesday night was no exception. The girls are all the best. Kristen , Carolyn and I stayed until 11:40. Who knows what time the restaurant closed. They were probably ready to kill us.

Christmas Party

On Saturday, December 9, we had a Christmas party at our house. It's been awhile since we've had a Christmas party and I had a great time planning/prepping for the party. There were 20 people, including us. Our awesome babysitter Kari was successful at keeping our kids down in the basement. She is truly the best. We decided to have a mexican theme and had yummy enchiladas, chips, salsa, etc for dinner. We then had a Phase 10 tournament. Devin won with a low score of 140 ( I think). It was a great way to get everyone to mingle. Since it was KariAnn's birthday I made a chocolate torte cake for dessert.

Good, Old-Fashioned Fun

As I reflect on the amount of time, thought & money I have spent the past couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas, my kids reminded me today that there is nothing that's as much fun as a good, old-fashioned box.

Lily, Jack & Anna have been playing in this box all afternoon. Today is one of those magical days where I am loving being a mom and have gotten so much done. It was a preschool day which meant I had one hour, 50 minutes all to myself. I was able to go to JoAnn's, Target & Costco. At joAnn's I bought some cute cellophane bags for Angie's pretzel treats. At Target I picked up some cute Christmas Tee's for the girls to wear to all of our upcoming Christmas events.

When I got to Costco I realized that I didn't have my card but luckily there was Lucy in the checkout line. She let me borrow hers and i checked out quickly. I was even early to pick up the kids for preschool. This afternoon Jack took a great nap and I had the girls make some more pretzel treats while I made all the food for tomorrow night's Christmas party. I have everything done except dessert which i will make tonight after our ward Christmas party.

Love & Logic

I have always been a fan of Cline and Fay's Love & Logic. Eli is also a fan and has read the book and frequently gives us parenting advice. However, in the heat of the disciplining moment I find it hard to keep my cool and say 'uh-oh" or "bummer" like I'm supposed to. Last night all the kids were out of control. None of them were listening to us and it was total chaos. I asked Emma to put her backpack and boots away and she screamed "NO!" at me and stomped downstairs. I calmly said "bummer" and picked up her boots and backpack and hid them in my closet.

Imagine her surprise when she went to get her backpack this morning and it was gone. She was actually very calm and so was I. It was so much better than the alternative. I am really trying to be calm with my kids but sometimes they push me to my limits. Today was much better. Emma put all her stuff away when she got home and tomorrow the backpack fairy will return her backpack to her hook.

A Christmas Party With a Twist

On Saturday Jason and I are throwing a Christmas party. Unfortunately our ward is having a convert baptism at the same time. When they announced it at church yesterday I was torn because Jason and Jonah have helped the missionaries in several discussions with this family. The mom is a member who has reactivated herself. Her 10 year old son was baptized a few weeks ago and Jonah and I were the speakers. We really want to support this family. I was so pleased when my friend Kari Ann, who is the YW president asked me what we should do. The girl who is getting baptized is a young woman so Kari Ann really needs to attend. We decided that we would have dinner at our house and then go to the baptism. We will then come back to our house for dessert and games. A little unusual but I feel so much better now that I've made the decision.

Yesterday in Relief Society I overheard Lucy inviting her visiting teachee to meet at McDonalds for a play date. This woman is new in our ward and feeling alittle down lately and I was so impressed by Lucy's kindness, especially when I know how busy she is right now. Speaking of Relief Society our lesson was based on this book. The book had nice artwork and good message about keeping our lamps full. It would make a good girlfriend gift.

The highlight of yesterday was the first presidency Christmas devotional. I thought it was so good I watched it twice in a row. I was particulary impressed by the instruction to show kindness one to another this Christmas season. After listening to the messages, and inspired by the kindness of Lucy and Kariann I thought it would be fun to replace the gift giving at our Christmas part with gifts of service. I hope that I'm not too overzealous, but I'm really enjoying the true spirit of Christmas this year.

On a more wordly note I decided to splurge and buy one of these tees to wear to my Christmas party. I ordered it today and I hope it arrives in time. If you love Shade clothing check out their new basic black line. My friend Kelly is the sister-in-law of the founder of Shade. She just visited her while in Utah for Thanksgiving and told me the basic black dresses are to die for.

After all my enthusiasm for doing good this Christmas season I sure had a rough day. My Visiting Teachers were supposed to arrive at noon but didn't arrive until 12:45, totally messing up my naps for the kids. I am very grumpy when Jack doesn't get a nap. My 1.5 hour break from his energy is all that gets me through the day. Without it my fuse is short, but it's been short all day anyway. Mondays are always tough, especially after a nice relaxing weekend.

Long Time, No Blog

It's amazing how fast the days fly by, especially now that we have officially kicked off the holiday season. I've spent the past week spinning my wheels, taking one step forward and two steps back. This has been the busiest week. Sunday afternoon we were hit with a snowstorm. We came out of church to find our car covered in snow. Emma insisted we have a sledding party on Monday after school, so I let all the kids invite some friends. It was great fun complete with cookies and hot chocolate. The kids are loving sledding this year.

Every year our stake does a creche festival where everyone across the stake takes their nativity sets to the church where they are displayed. Our stake does a top notch job displaying the nativity sets and it's a really cool event, but it's a lot of work. I didn't have to do a thing but for some reason I found myself over at the church four nights in a row. On Monday I took my sets and Jason's mom's sets. On Tuesday I took Eli and Emma's sets over (I should have taken a picture, they made them out of model magic) and on Wednesday I took Jonah's set over. On Thursday I volunteered in the children's area. Tonight we went to dinner with some friends and then visited the Creche. This event is really such a nice way to remember why we celebrate Christmas. Tomorrow we will take the kids after church.

It has taken me the whole week to decorate for Christmas. I had the little girls make these ornaments. They are so proud of them and were thrilled to hang them on the tree.

Here is a picture of our tree. The decorations have already been rearranged several times. ha ha ha. I am cherishing this time because when I reach the point that the tree stays perfect for the month of December it will mean I no longer have little kids who love the magic of Christmas. We are already having so much fun this year. My oldest is still barely young enough to enjoy the magic and my youngest is old enough to be excited. They all think it's taking too long and we have at least five different advent calendars going.

I am feeling the pressure of Christmas coming fast and I've been frustrated this week trying to stay on schedule to complete all I have to do before the big day. On Thursday Lucy and I went to the mall to let the little kids play in a new play area. I had brought one of my projects to work on but didn't accomplish much. After Lucy left I decided to put my kids in the drop in daycare and work on my project. I sat on a bench in the middle of the mall and worked away for an hour. I can only imagine what people thought of me. It was a great hour.

The Day After

It snowed a little bit during our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and when we woke up this morning the ground was covered with about an inch of snow. Emma and Anna were outside sledding by 7:30 am. The rest of the kids joined them shortly and enjoyed about two hours of sledding. I was in heaven and so were they. On days like today I am so grateful that we found our house. It was so nice just to send them outside to sled. We have the perfect sledding hill. It doesn't look like much but Eli, Jonah and Emma were able to go from our back yard down to the road which is at least 200 feet. It was such fun day off of school for them. After they got done sledding Jason's parents picked them up for some major spoilage. They went shopping and to see Santa Claus 3.

Jason took the day off work and we took the little kids downtown to the Children's Museum and then swimming at the YMCA. It's so much easier to take them places when Jason is with me. I loved it.

I started my Black Friday shopping at 9:00 pm on Thanksgiving night. I am actually, for the first time ever, done with all my Christmas shopping except for the kids new clothes. In our family we usually do a big toy, a dvd, a book, a game and a new outfit. This year I'm feeling a bit sad because I feel like this is Eli's last Christmas as a true kid. Also, last Christmas, we had just returned from China with Jack and it was a very minimalist Christmas. I didn't bother bringing out any of my decorations. Instead I went to Target and bought everything I needed to simply decorate a tree and called it good. This year I'm making up for it and spoiling the kids a bit more than usual and doing all our decorating and traditions. I'm so excited for Christmas. I hope it's not a letdown when the big day arrives. Anyway, last night I logged onto the Gymboree website to pick out outfits for the girls and discovered that their day after Thanksgiving sale started at 12 am eastern time which was 9:00 pm pacific time. I was so excited and picked out stuff for the girls and Jack and called it good. I also earned Gymbucks in the process. They have a new line called Park City Luxe which I can't resist since I grew up in SLC. Now I just have to figure out stuff for the boys. They are so hard to shop for now. I can't seem to figure out what they like. I may just get them gift certificates and let them shop themselves.

We were all reunited tonight for dinner and had the best leftovers. Everything tasted so much better tonight. In fact, I'm eating a slice of pecan pie as I type.

Tomorrow is the big BYU-Utah game. I can guarantee that Jason will be up early due to the excitement flowing through his true blue veins. Go cougs!

Turkey Day

We had such a great Thanksgiving Day. I love Thanksgiving because it is our holiday. Since we live so close to Jason's family members most of our holidays are spent with them which makes it difficult to create our own family traditions. Now that Jason's brother's kids are married and having kids things are separating a little bit. This year we decided to invite a family from our ward for Thanksgiving. They are in law school and I am sure that this is the first year in their marriage they have spent a holiday away from family. They have 6 month old twins and a 2 year old. My mom also invited a family from her ward who are here doing a residency. They also have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. It was the Thanksgiving of toddlers. Jonah asked me before dinner why we couldn't have Thanksgiving with just our family. Believe me it sounded great to me too. But I explained to him how hard it is to spend holidays away from family. I think both families were happy to be invited.

I made the kids' favorite orange rolls for breakfast and then we held our first annual family turkey bowl. It was a combination of football and capture the turkey (flag). I will post pictures later since I'm typing this on Jason's laptop. It was freezing but the kids had so much fun. We ran all over the yard trying to keep warm and finally Jason and I were ready to be done. Jonah and Emma both wanted to keep going so we consented and played a few more rounds.

I always forget how much time it takes to do all the last minute details for Thanksgiving dinner. I had made everything that I could the day before so I was feeling pretty good. Then I realized that we needed potatoes--minor detail. Luckily Jason peeled them all for me while I cleaned things up for the guests.

Since we had so many toddlers I brought a little sandbox in the house and filled it with rice and cups and spoons. The little kids had a great time and the big kids did suduko and built legos. It was a great dinner. I tried a few new recipes from Williams-Sonoma which I loved but which wee a little too different for Jason's traditional parents. Everyone left by 7:00 and I was exhausted. We got the little kids to bed and then hung out with Eli and Jonah having a great time. They are so much fun when it's just us and them. We need to do it more often.

All in all a great Thanksgiving Day.

An Attitude of Gratitude

I think this is the first Thanksgiving that I have been truly grateful for ALL of my blessings. I have always been grateful for my life: I have a great husband, kids, so many good friends, parents, siblings, in-laws, the lifestyle I want, etc. etc. But sometimes I find myself wishing I had more: a nanny, a housekeeper, more time, more money, etc. I want to fit all the phases of my life into today and have it all I guess. This week I did my visiting teaching right before Thanksgiving and I left each house grateful for what I have and where I am right now. The first lady has kids that are hers, his and theirs. Her youngest are very close together like mine and we really have a lot in common as far as our daily lives go. I think she has a total of 9 kids. I'm impressed by her because she manages to get a lot done. They are re-doing their house and every month when I visit she has tackled a different project. But she is overwhelmed by her life and I left her feeling grateful that it is just Jason and I raising our little brood and we're not dealing with ex-spouses.

The next lady has three little kids and works full-time as a nurse. Her disabled husband currently has a temp job and she told me she wishes she didn't have to work and could be home with her kids. I left her house feeling grateful that, even though it is sometimes exhausting being a mother of 6, I get to stay home with my kids.

At my next stop my visiting teachee wouldn't let me in the door because her house was such a wreck. I lefther house feeling grateful for my house. Even though it at times seems like a tornado has just run through it I am grateful to have a home that I love and that my kids love.

These visits just made me realize that I've been given a lot of blessings to help me get through this stage of my life and also for what is to come. Our lives have changed so dramatically in the past few years and I'm definitely not the same person I was a few years ago. I've definitely been humbled and become more reliant on the Lord. I have realized that every blessing in my life since Jason and I were married prepared us to adopt Jack and Lily. We are so very blessed and have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Deck the Halls

Cute ornament that Rebecca T and I made for our ward's Enrichment ornament exchange.

Operation Christmas Child

This year we decided to start a new family tradition in honor of Jack's adoption anniversary. It comes at such a great time of year because it's the perfect way to kick off our holiday season. I really wanted to do something special to honor Jack on his special day and as I was thinking about it I came across Operation Christmas Child on the internet. It's very simple. You fill a shoebox with gifts for needy children and Operation Christmas Child delivers them to children around the world. We went shopping for the items on Jack's Gotcha Day Anniversary and I dropped the boxes off today. Our kids were in heaven shopping for the other kids. It made them really happy to think of the children who will one day receive these gifts. This project has a special place in my heart since Lily spent her first Christmas without a family and Jack spent two Christmases without us. Today I was organizing my Christmas stuff and I got all weepy thinking of all the children who miss out on the magic of Christmas.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Today was the first day of parent teacher conference. I always sign up for the first day because I can't wait to hear how the kids are doing and see their report cards. We had great visits with all the kids' teachers. Emma's conference was very brief because I volunteer weekly in her classroom and know how she is doing. I was glad to hear she is well behaved in class because she certainly has her moments with me. Next we went to Eli's class. Eli came with us. He is doing great as well and his teacher was very complimentary. It's so wierd to think that this is Eli's last year of elementary school and he will be a big 7th grader next year. I truly cherished this year's conference knowing it's our last time. Jonah's conference was last and I was so pleased to find out he had made the honor roll. Fourth grade is the first grade that the school gives letter grades. Jonah has worked so hard this year and I'm glad his efforts paid off. The kids have all had to be so independent since so much of my time is consumed with the little ones. It's a good lesson for all of us that they don't need me to be successful.

Day from Hell

Excuse my language but there's no other way to describe it. It all started about 2 am when Jack made his nightly entrance into our bed. He's been doing this since we spent a week at the lake in July and he slept on the floor of our bedroom. Up to that point he'd been sleeping through the night in his own bed. When we came home he started coming into our bed at some point during the night. We didn't mind for a while because he's such a snuggly boy and I felt it was good bonding. But now we're so sick of it. We decided to practice some tough love and kick Jack out of our bed. When he came in I got up with him and put him back in his bed. He was back in our room within 10 minutes. We put him back in his bed and decided to lock our door. Jack has got such determination and will power it is scary. He cried for an hour and a half outside our door before he fell asleep on the floor. I think it made us all cranky for today. We actually had a good morning and I got so much done. I put Jack down for his nap around 10:45 and he slept until noon. We had lunch and then I thought it would be a great time to hit Target and Michaels. For the most part we did okay shopping, although it's always an adventure and I love to hear people tell me that I have my hands full or that my kids are going to fall out of the cart. Target must have major employee training on cart safety because I can't make it through the store without at least five employees asking my kids to sit down in the cart. I would like them to sit down too but I have to pick my battles and quite frankly they are so agile I can guarantee that Target doesn't have to worry about a child falling from the cart lawsuit. Lily really wanted gum when we got to the checkout counter and I bought some for her. She and Jack both do well with gum and will chew it without swallowing it until they get sick of it. It's better for them than candy which really messes both of them up (long story). Anna is the one I have to worry about because she will not keep it in her mouth. Yesterday the bishop gave the kids gum after church and I had to confiscate it from Anna with a big lecture about what would happen if she got it in her hair. I am sure that Lily was intrigued by that prospect. She is definitely going to be a girl who has to learn all her lessons the hard way. We were on the freeway when I heard her whimpering from the backseat. I asked her what the problem was and she just started sobbing that she had gum in her hair. I know she did it on purpose just to see what would happen after listening to my lecture. I had already promised the big kids that we could go to the book fair so I told Lily she would have to wait for me to get it out. I was mortified because Lily is almost four and her hair has hardly grown in her lifetime. I can't imagaine her losing any length since we've worked two years to get it into a cute bob. When we picked up the big kids I checked out Lily's hair and she had a BIG wad in the back. I told her just to wear her coat in the book fair and keep her hat on so no one would see. We already looked like one scary BIG family. Anna has recently gotten into the habit of sucking on her hair so it looked terrible. Poor Jonah never got his hair combed before school because he almost missed the bus. I hoped to just slip into the book fair, grab books and slip out. We were browsing and someone wanted to know if Jack was mine. I went around the corner to find him standing BUCK NAKED in the middle of the school library. I was so humiliated. I knew most of the moms who were in there and they are the ones who love to tell me I'm crazy for having so many kids. I guess they got their proof. I seriously wanted to beat Jack's naked bum. I got him dressed and took him out to the car and made him sit in his carseat. When we went back in he was much better behaved until we left and I noticed he had put a little bug vaccuum in Eli's bag of books so I had to walk back in and confess that we had stolen from the book fair. I seriously think I am swearing off the book fair. Last time we went (2 years ago because we were in China last year) Emma threw the hugest screaming fit because I wouldn't buy her one of the more expensive items in the book fair. I am sure that the same moms were there volunteering that day too.

Luckily we got home and I fed the kids, cleaned the gum out of Lily's hair (using lots of peanut butter and olive oil) and got everyone right in bed. Of course this was Jason's day to work out of town so I was on my own, but once we were back in the safety of our own home where no one could gawk at us I got back under control. I'm feeling much better now that I've written this rant and Jason's home and all the kids are sleeping peacefully.

Adventures in Babysitting

Last night Jason and I decided to go to dinner with his parents and some of their friends that were visiting from out of town. We called our babysitter Carrie. That's right I said "babysitter" as in one babysitter. For some reason we have a hard time finding people to babysit. I'd like to think it's because we have six kids, but I really think that most girls aren't that interested. Carrie, however, has awesome parents that require her to earn money to do certain activites. Besides buying clothes and paying for her own entertainment, Carrie has to pay to participate on her soccer and basketball teams. That generally means that she'll say yes. Yesterday she said yes even though it meant she had to leave a Satuday EFY session before it was over. She always does a great job and the house is always straightened, but last night she was out of control. When we came home our house was spotless and I don't mean just the kitchen and family room, I mean the whole house. It looked like we'd had a cleaning service come in. Even our playroom was CLEAN! What a difference it makes. It made me want to just throw money at her. I think we'll start going out several times a week just to keep our house clean.

One Year Anniversary!One year ago today a sweet two year old boy got on a bus in Shantou, China and drove five hours to Guangzhou, China. What was he thinking as he made that drive? He had probably never been in a bus before and most likely had not spent any significant time away from his room on the third floor of the Shantou Social Welfare Institute. In his hands he held a small photo album with some funny looking people that his loving nannies had told him about. There was a picture of mama, baba, jie, jie, . But how much can a two year old mind comprehend? In his reports he was described as a boy who like to push a chair over to the window and watch what was going on outside. I suspect he enjoyed the drive and the new world that was quickly opening up for him. Jason and I were waiting for him at the end of his journey and we’d been waiting for him a long time. Earlier that year, in April, we had received word from our adoption agency that they had just received a list of children available for adoption and three were from Lily’s orphanage. We had had such a great experience with Lily and knew we wanted to adopt another child from her orphanage. There were two girls and a boy on the list. Both girls were older than Lily and we didn’t want to disrupt our birth order.

I had never considered a boy but when Jason heard there was a boy on the list he said he would be very interested in hearing more. When we heard that Jack had the same medical condition as Lily we knew it was meant to be. Within hours we had made the decision to adopt Jin JiaXing who we would name Jack Xing. Xing means Star in Chinese and he was given that name with the hope he would shine like a star.

So finally, after months of waiting and longing Jack was about to become our son. There aren’t words to describe the emotion of adopting. When Jack walked into the room he took our breath away. There was something so familiar about him to us, that faint recognition, that very brief glimpse into eternity where understanding is increased. Jack was tentative at first and wanted nothing to do with us. He began to cry and cling to his nannies, not wanting to be separated from them. Luckily, I had brought some M & M’s and persuaded him to come to me to get some. He settled in and the transition went pretty smoothly. Jason and I were overjoyed to hold him in our arms after seven lonely months of waiting to look into those deep brown eyes.

Here are some highlights of the past year with our Star Boy:

Homecoming: Jack had a rough time with us in China, but when he walked into our home for the first time he was a changed child. He ran right downstairs and played with his brothers and sisters and seemed to realize that he was home. Lily was also so happy to have a little brother to nurture.

Christmas: I think Christmas will always be bittersweet for me knowing that there are children in this world who will never what it means to have a mother and father. We were so happy to have all our children with us for Christmas, but couldn’t help but think of those left behind. Jack didn’t seem to understand what all the gifts meant and was very uninterested in the whole day.

Surgery: In January Jack had surgery in Cincinnati. He and Lily wowed (and terrified) the doctors and nurses with their activity level. We found out that Jack’s medical condition was worse than we initially believed, but had faith that his life would not be impacted in a negative way. He has thrived since January and will be able to live a completely normal life.

Sealed in the temple: In March our family was sealed in the temple. Jack is ours forever. So grateful for the knowledge of forever families.

Nature Boy: Jack loves the great outdoors and loved the snow, camping, boating, swimming and running around. He learned how to swim this summer and is a little fish.

Twin Terrors: we have nicknamed Jack and Lily the two headed monster because they are unstoppable together. Their minds are quick and so are their little bodies. We never had to babyproof until Jack and Lily arrived on the scene.

Shantou Reunion: In July we went to Denver for an orphanage reunion. Jack got to see some of the kids who were in the orphanage with him. Since he had just turned three Jason and I enjoyed this more than he and Lily did.

We are so grateful for Jack and love him so much. What a difference a year makes!