Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Groundbreaking Recap

Ok, so Monday was seriously the most PERFECT evening!  Our hearts were just so full of excitement and gratitude and giddiness that we literally danced around our house when we got home!  Before I recap the evening events, I want to say thank you to a few people who helped make that night extra special:

Chrissy Probst, Julianne Rawlins, Lauren Hardcastle, Meghan Voss:  These amazing women planned, coordinated, and carried out the evening events.  These are my GIRLS!  I LOVE these beautiful, amazing women! We decided Friday morning to do this ceremony, so they had exactly three days to pull it off.  They are angels and wizards!

Bret Wright from Huish Construction:  We seriously love this man.  He didn't know us when he first saw a post on facebook asking for help and he has stepped forward as the builder-- a job he has already spent hours and hours and hours on.  He is donating all of his time.  Truly, Bret is one of the greatest guys we have ever known.

Jamie and Mickey from Walker Home Design:  These are the guys who have drawn up the plans for the home.  They are INCREDIBLE.  (The guys AND the plans!)  Again, this has been done free of charge.  Holy cow.

Jodi and Amber from Children and the Earth:  These women are so selfless.  Their foundation gives and gives and gives without the overhead that many foundations have.  They have been amazing to our family and because of our affiliation with them, people are able to have their donations be tax-deductible.  They have blessed our lives tremendously.

Munchkin Radio:  Mike was called Friday afternoon and was able to fit us in to his busy schedule for free.  He is an amazingly talented guy and his music/prizes/games kept the night fun for the kids.  All of my kids love this guy.

Great Harvest Bread:  These guys are so great!  They donated 200 huge and super yummy cookies for the event.  They are also helping with fundraising at their store.  WOW.

Honeyville Farms:  Donated the hot chocolate.  These are the same guys that have helped us with flyers,  fundraised $2,000 AND donated some food storage.  Amazing!

Karman Schulz Photography:  Took all the awesome pictures I'm about to post.  Karman has also agreed to do a time-lapse photoshoot of the home going up.  (:

Mia Love:  I know.  Can you believe Mia Love came?  This lady is the real deal.  She was so thoughtful and sweet and personable and wonderful with our kids.  I have no doubt she will continue to do great things in our community and nation.

Holly Richardson:  "Holly on the Hill" has been generous enough to share her insights and connections with us during this project.  Holly and her husband have adopted TWENTY kids (wowza!) and when their home was destroyed by fire, their community (Pleasant Grove) did their own "Extreme Makeover" for Holly's family.   It was Holly who shared this project with Mia Love and many others.  Thanks, Holly!

Coralee Moser:  A city councilwoman who has been so supportive of this project.  Such a nice lady.

Jill Kynaston:  Ok, I just had to mention Jill specifically because I was so impressed by her.  Jill is a blog reader from Payson (an hour away) that messaged us awhile ago to offer her brother's help on the project.  She is the sweetest lady ever.  I've never met her, but she drove all the way up here from Payson with her three adorable littles just to be here and support us.  Seriously.  Can you believe that?

Russ and Candice Smart:  These two amazing people are not only our laundry fairies and surrogate grandparents for our kids, they have also offered to do outdoor lighting for our home-- we are THRILLED.  Last night they came over to our house to drop off laundry and we visited for awhile.  After they left, Jeremy said, "I have to say, I'm so in love with those guys."  Perfectly put.

FRIENDS:  It made me feel SO GOOD to have friends and neighbors come out and support us.  Thank you to EVERYONE that was there.  I wished I had had the chance to thank you all individually.  We are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Ok, and I'm not sure how appropriate it is to thank our Heavenly Father on the blog rather than privately, but I just have to point out that we woke up to lots of snow on Monday morning.  We had so many people praying that things would clear before the groundbreaking.  At about 2:00, I spoke to Mike from Munchkin Radio who thought that he probably needed to back out because of weather.  I looked outside and sure enough, the snow was really coming down.  As you can tell from the pictures, our prayers were answered in a beautiful way.  We even had some sunshine.  God is in the details.  (:


My awesome friend, Julianne, emceed the event.  She welcomed everyone out and introduced many of the people mentioned above.  She let Jeremy and myelf say a few words and of course we both blubbered our way through that.  I was so overcome with emotion and gratitude-- my heart was seriously just bursting inside.   Jeremy dedicated the ground with a most beautiful prayer/blessing.  Among other things, he blessed it to be a place of refuge for our children and others, where they would be protected spiritually and emotionally and that it would be a place of great service.   Parker read a poem he had written after school that day.  It was awesome-- I'll include it at the bottom.  Our family, along with Bret, Tami, Mickey, and Chrissy, were then able to simultaneously turn the earth with gold painted shovels-- how cool is that?   Once we dug a few shovelfuls, other kids came up and took turns while we all visited, had refreshments, and watched the kiddos have a blast with Munchkin Radio.  There were lots of fun prizes given out.

In other words, it was PERFECT.

I wish you all could have been there, but since you couldn't be, here are lots of pictures from Karman:

 The lot

 Lexi meeting Mia Love

 Cali meeting Mia

 Tami and Jodi from Children and the Earth

 Jer shaking hands with Mickey from Walker Home Design.  His son, Jamie is standing between them.

 Russ and Candice (can't really see their faces, but they are our laundry fairies), Bret (our builder) and Jamie (architect)

 Julianne introducing our family

 Me blubbering


 Graci, Bret, Amber and Chrissy (the woman who started it all)



 Cali, Parker, Jer, Graci, Me, Lexi, Sophi, Elli (helping her is Missy, her teacher at church), Xander, Chrissy, Jesi, Taylor, Bret, Mickey and Amber




 Parker reading his poem




 Cali's cute friends:  Rachel, Kara, and Jessie



 Julianne, Jer, and Holly

 Amber, Jamie, me, Jer, and Mia
 Jer shaking hands with Tim from Honeyville Farms


 Coralee Moser from Herriman City

 

Mike from Munchkin Radio

  
Parker's poem: 

Today’s the day we’ve waited for
We’re finally breaking ground
And as I’m standing here
I see great people all around

It was a magical day
The day we got the call
And Chrissy told our family
That she would help us all

Our family is quite special
With lots of different needs
Well, this house will take care of that
I hope you all agree

Like in the house we live in now
With Cali’s wheelchair
It’s hard for her to move around
And it really isn’t fair

Elli is amazing
We all love her so much
But in our house right now
She ruins all our stuff

When we build our new house
She can jump and sing and play
She’ll do that in her special rooms
That will brighten up her day

This is the greatest miracle
That we have ever known
And we just want to say
We love you, Puzzle Them Home!






11 comments:

  1. How cute is Sophi's little shovel? Such a thoughtful detail. :-) Wish we could have been there for the groundbreaking--it looks like it was an amazing event! Got your message yesterday, thanks! I had a great time with the family on Saturday! Love you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great pictures! We wish we could have been there! Jill Kynaston is my sister. We have both been blog followers and neither of us knew the other was following it. We are so excited for you and your amazing family! Thank you for letting us all be a part of your journey. You have definitely impacted my life, thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was awesome. I just feel lucky to be part of this miracle. And even more lucky to call you my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!! I'm teary-eyed too! You look GREAT when you're blubbering Christianne. Hugs all around....including for all those wondermous people helping you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful! Thanks for sharing. :) Can't wait to see you all in your new house. LOVE Mia Love!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amazing! It will be exciting to watch the progress on your blog! When do they think it will be finished?

    ReplyDelete
  7. That is fantastic! From the poem to the pictures to the power of prayer...PERFECT!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations and love Parker's Poem! That is so so exciting!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is extremely cool - all the "little stuff" that was covered - even a trowel for Sophi - guys - this is fantastic!!

    And yeah - 1) Never wrong to thank our Father in public - even on a blog!! and 2) God IS the details - be it snow or trowels, poems or prayers! And when I look at something like this I'm reminded that maybe God takes the time to "take care of" those that answer His call. I'm.just.sayin'...

    And we love you guys really lots too!

    hugs - aus and co.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So amazing! And how wonderful that there is a small trowel for Sophi! This is such an exciting time for your family! I'm so happy for you all!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment! It will be reviewed and posted shortly.