Pictures

This is a repeat of a post from January.  This particular post was getting so many anonymous "check out my blog" comments that we deleted the original and reposted it here:)


First of all, I want to say that I had a very good reason for not writing last night.  I'll leave it at that!  But because I promised 50 posts in 50 days, I plan on doubling up one day--- sound ok?  (:

I've realized that we never did post the rest of our pictures from China.  As you may recall, we had a lousy internet connection there and had a super difficult time posting pictures.  So... this is a catch-up post to satisfy the grandmas' desires to see more China pics!

Us with Graci's "China Mama" and "China Baba" (foster parents for four years-- we LOVE them!)

Jesi holding Ling Long (Graci's "neice")  Notice the spread on the table-- this wasn't the kitchen table, just the table in the living room.  It was ALWAYS filled with all kinds of food that they were constantly offering us.  Such AMAZING hostesses!

China Mama and Baba and aunt and uncle-- taken in the aunt and uncle's home

Jesi and Ling Long-- they referred to Jes as Ling Long's "Auntie Jessica" (;  and as you may recall, they refer to us as Ling Long's "America Grandma and Grandpa"  Ha!  I didn't think I would be ready to be called "Grandma," but honestly, I loved it!  It was so much fun to hold her and realize that many of our own grandchildren could look so much like her!

Jesi was seriously like a rock star at Graci's former school.  The kids would touch her hand and then sway dramatically as if they had just touched the hand of Taylor Swift.  As you can imagine, Jesi ate it up.

"China Brother" holding Grace and Bei Bei (Graci's friend)

At a zoo in Hangzhou-- they don't exactly have the same safety precautions there as in America.

Feeding carrots to the bears!

One of my all-time favorite pics of one of my all-time favorite people-- Graci's "China Grandma"

Saying goodbye at the airport is always so hard, especially for China Mama.

Our "guide" turned friend, Sara, is on the left.  We LOVE her, and she has become part of Graci's China family since our initial adoption trip to get Graci.  They have taken her in as one of their own--  she was even there for the birth of Ling Long.

Gotcha Day-- taken moments after seeing Cali for the first time.  Such a beautiful moment.

Taken right after Cali was saying her goodbyes to her house mama, top left.  Lots of tears.  Such a brave little girl.  It broke my heart to watch her sadness-- I can hardly bear to look at the picture even now.

Taken the day after Gotcha Day, when we returned to the Civil Affairs office to make it all official!

Cali signing the papers saying she wished to join our family.  I believe Jeremy blogged about how special this was to watch...

Beautiful handwriting!

Ok, I just LOVED this family!  They were from Spain and they were seriously one of the cutest couples I have ever met!  This is their second day being parents-- beautiful!

We were given this gift of calligraphy by one of the officials to celebrate the finalization

Meeting Cali's biological relatives.  Above right is her grandmother.  Between Jeremy and myself is her auntie, and the man is the auntie's husband (whom she doesn't really refer to as "uncle")

Cali and auntie

Cali and granma

Saying goodbye.  I am happy to say that it wasn't really hard for Cali-- as Duna (far right) said, she was already much more comfortable and happy with our family at that point.  We were so grateful for the opportunity to meet them, but Cali isn't really interested in keeping up a strong relationship at this point, which of course, we honor.

Xi'an smog-- ugh! 

Cali's scarf was given to her as a going away gift from her house mama, and she wore it all the time.  (:

Ok, this doesn't even begin to do it justice, but this is a pic of the Terracotta Warriors.  One of the most amazing things I have ever experienced.  This is just one building out of three.

The girls (especially Cali) thought it was extremely funny to have me be their "dog."  The lady in the pink coat was our guide.

It was soooo cold and we had been walking a long time.  Cali was so sweet to offer to let Jesi ride with her.

Out of the cold into beautiful Guangzhou

Pedal boats

 

We always get such a kick out of the English translations on signs!

Signing out!

Time

What can a child expect from a parent?  Food.  Shelter.  Clothing.  Perhaps most basic of all:  love.  Why do parents love their children?  Simply because of the titles “child” and “parent?”  Flesh and blood bonds?  Because a child is so cute and perfect and helpless when they first arrive in this world?  This morning I read something that resonated with me.  “The deep love that binds parents to their children is forged by service to them through their period of total dependence.”

So how does a parent forge that love when their child comes to them long after the period of total dependence is over?  How does one welcome a 9-year-old or a 12-year-old into their home and instantly love them?  Can it be done?  How? I am sure that the answer is different for virtually every adoptive parent.  Some parents are more patient than others.  Some may have a greater capacity to love.  Some parents have an innate ability to see past difficult habits and behavior patterns a child may have developed and see right into the heart of the child. 

For me, I look at this journey as having two distinct parts.  First of all, I recognize that I have a duty, an obligation to love my children.  I’ve talked to enough dads that I know I’m not alone in this.  When our first biological child came along, I most certainly loved him.  Taylor was beautiful and precious, a gift from heaven.  But he was also smelly, cranky and an awful sleeper.  After a couple of months, I realized that my bond with him was less than I had hoped a father-son bond would be.  I loved him as a son, but the deep, meaningful relationship that Christi seemed to have with him just wasn’t there for me.  I felt kind of like a failure, and here I was just a few months into this whole parenthood thing. 

But I persevered.  Christi was patient with both of us.  I tried to do my duty and serve our little Taylor.  And then something happened.  He started to recognize me.  He got excited when I came home from work.  We could play one-year-old games together.  He began to talk.  I could make him laugh.  Suddenly, part two of the journey began to fall into place.  Part two is simple: time.  Time with another human being allows a deeper, richer relationship to develop.  Time allows mutual understanding to occur.  Time gives opportunities to serve, to help, to coach.  I’ll never forget something my brother Matt said when he came to visit us in our home in Spanish Fork.  He and Carla brought their only child at the time, a three-month-old son, with them.  Matt saw me playing with Taylor and made the comment:  “Oh.  I see you got the interactive model.”  Matt’s dry humor is something I’ve always enjoyed:).

I had a beautiful moment with Graci yesterday, and she had no idea it even happened.  When we first got Graci, I loved her.  I was grateful for the opportunity to bring this precious little spirit into our lives.  But I quickly realized that although she was about the same age as Taylor and Parker, I didn’t and couldn’t have the same relationship with her that I had with them.  While I could fully love her as my daughter, I had not had the chance to spend the time with her that I had with the boys.  It was impossible for an adoption certificate to recreate hours and hours and years and years of parks and parties, lectures and lessons, cuddles and comforts.  An adoption certificate simply can’t replace nine years of life lived together.

Yesterday morning as we were reading scriptures, I was sitting next to Grace.  She’s not big into hugs and such, but I put my arm around her and pulled her close to me.  She stayed cuddled up next to me.  As I sat there, I suddenly realized that the time barrier was gone.  We had spent enough time and gone through enough life experiences together that, for me at least, we could round up to a “lifetime” of being family.  It was a beautiful realization.  I’m so glad we get to spend the rest of our lifetimes together.

Jeremy

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!

Conversation I just had...

Sophi:  "I'm so lucky to have a Mom!  I love you really lots!"

Me:  "I'm so lucky to have a Sophi!  I love YOU really lots!"

Sophi:  "Mom, I love being your daughter.  Thanks for adopting me, cuz I don't wanna be alone!"

Me:  "I love being your mommy.  Thank you for letting me adopt you!"

Sophi:  "You make my heart soooo happy!"

(:

And just so you know we are real-- the morning was also filled with plenty of whines from this sweet girl of ours.  (;

I will blog about this weekend and the groundbreaking soon.  I'm just waiting for pictures.  (:

--Christianne