Just 49 to go...

You did it!  THANK YOU for all of your help and for the kind comments.   I am committed to those 50 posts I promised!   Can you even stand the excitement?!!  (;   Parker and Taylor are thrilled-- they love to read the blog and have complaining lately that we haven't been writing often enough.  If tonight is any indication, they will not let me slack in those 50 posts.  ("MOM, have you written tonight yet?"  "MOM, don't forget to post tonight!"  "MOM, you promised 50 posts, remember?"  "MOM, don't go to bed until you write!"  etc, etc.)  I told them to thank my friend, "The Muse," and my mom, "LaRita," for beefing up the comments.  (:


Speaking of two cute boys, Taylor and Parker had a basketball game tonight.  They played GREAT and are so much fun to watch!  I'm so proud of them, if still a little bitter about the prank they pulled on me.  There is a lady that attends their games (her grandson is on the team) that is so cute.  She is enamoured with the kids and with our family dynamic.  She'll say things like, "Oh, there you are--  the lady that sits around and eats bon bons all day!" or "Oh, there's Miss Serenity," or "So how's the lady with the peaceful, easy life?"  She makes me smile.  Sometimes just having someone recognize that your load isn't light makes your load a bit lighter, don't you think?  (:

Well, I'm sure you will forgive me if I wrap this post up quickly.  You see, I managed to drop a small weight on my finger earlier today, resulting in this:

If you can't tell, it's very puffy and VERY sore.  This means that every time I type an "s", "w", or "x" I wince with pain.  Fun.  I'm not sure which hurts worse right now-- my finger or my throat.  After two weeks of wiping noses every other minute and having all nine kids cough all over me and rocking and holding the sweet littles as they fevered, I finally got the lovely sickness going around our house.

At least I can lay in my bed and eat bon bons all day!  (;


--Christianne

P.S.  Is it just me, or were there a lot of those aforementioned letters in this post?  Ouch!

Special Needs, Special Kids

First of all a big THANK YOU to so many of you who helped write in to Ellen.  We are truly grateful, and we are also very humbled and amazed by the many kind things that were said in some of these comments and on the Facebook page.  We have wonderful people around us.  We love you!

Tonight I took Cali, Lexi, Xander and Jessica to a fun activity at Elli's school.  This is the second time they have put on an evening like this.  The parents of a 14-year-old student at the school run an activity for siblings of kids with autism.  The children are there from 6-8pm and there are games and activities for them to enjoy.  Artwork, riding special bikes, general running around, eating cupcakes, etc.  Our kids have really enjoyed these evenings.  And the volunteers seem to enjoy our kids.  Both times I have returned to rave reviews about how sweet our kids are.  One kind gentleman talked to me about Lexi afterwards.  "Isn't it neat that she can still speak Chinese?"  This seemed to make him so happy that I decided to let him enjoy his delusion.  Lexi's Chinese consists of about 6 phrases that Graci has taught her recently.  She must have said every one of them to Cali tonight and convinced this man that she had brilliantly clung to her mother tongue despite not speaking a word of it from age 5 to age 8:)

One of the activities tonight was to write Valentine's card.  Jesi's understanding was that it was supposed to be written to themselves, which seems kind of interesting, but when Xander, Cali and Lexi were our only other kids to hear the instructions, I'm not expecting any crystal clear clarification.  Given the parameters, this is what Jesi wrote:

Apparently Jess has no doubt that Grace is her biggest fan.  Thanks, Graci, for being such a fantastic sister:)!

The last part of the evening is spent in the gym where they have really cool, large trikes, designed for kids with special needs.  There is enough space that Lexi can ride in a circle on her own.

They also had some plasma cars and said that Cali must have ridden them before, because she really lit up when she saw them:

As I observed my sweet children and looked at their artwork, I was particularly moved by Lexi's valentine:

My sweet, dear, Lexi.  Eight years old and not able to draw the simplest of pictures.  How taken for granted is the sight that most of us enjoy.  For some reason I have recently become acutely aware of how difficult every day tasks are for so many of our kids.  Sophi trying to get dressed or undressed.  Cali moving from her bedroom to the kitchen.  Lexi trying to navigate a room that all too often has become a small obstacle course.  And of course, writing.  One of the most basic of human tasks.  Something that has been part of human history for thousands of years.

And yet.

I have also stopped to ask myself if there is not much to be learned from the way they do things.  Lexi patiently traverses our home, never in a hurry (unless she has waited a bit too long to start heading towards the bathroom, but watching the little dance/walk she does on the way there is worth the mental cringe as I wonder if she'll make it in time:).  She slowly makes her way through her meals, never stuffing her face to move onto the next important appointment.  I've never heard her complain about her lack of slight slowing her down.

When Cali needs to come up the stairs, she muscles her way up, using her very strong upper body.  Fewer than one time in ten will she accept help if it's offered.  When she brushes her teeth at night, she takes an extra few minutes as she positions herself either with one knee on the step stool or with one leg locked in place as she stands.

When Sophi needs to put her toys away, she patiently takes one thing tucked under her chin at a time.  One Barbie down the stairs and into the basket.  An arduous return trip back up the stairs, her shoulder and head leaning against the wall the entire time to help her keep her balance.  And yet she rarely, rarely complains about her disability.  In fact, she embraces it.

What tremendous examples these three are.  In the last two days I've read financial articles about McDonalds and Apple.  Both companies are under tremendous pressure because they haven't grown enough this year.  Stock prices are spiraling downward.  The talking heads are wondering how they will survive.  Both of these companies made millions of dollars last year!  And yet because they aren't going bigger and faster, they are in the doghouse and stock prices are falling.  Why are we so caught up in more, more, more?  Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from these innocent but effective teachers.  Slow down.  Enjoy your meal.  Look at a sunset.  Listen to the wind.  Spend more time with your family.  I believe these are a few of the myriad lessons that Heavenly Father is trying to help me learn as a parent to these magnificent kids.

I have been reading a wonderful book to Taylor and Parker.  It is called Fishers of Men.  It is historical fiction set in the time of the Savior.  Jesus is a character in the book, and the story follows a  family that comes to know and love Him and accept him as the Messiah.  As we have been reading about some of the things the Savior did and said while He was here on earth, I have been struck by similar thoughts to the ones I expressed above.  Peace, be still.  Take time to enjoy the little children in your life.  Look out for others who are need of your help.  Enjoy the company of those who are most important to you.

Life has so many lessons for me.  I hope I don't miss them as I rush off to the next meeting or basketball game...or McDonald's!

Jeremy

Feeling DeGENEROUS?

Ok, people, here's the deal:   Our darling friends from Puzzle Them Home have started a Facebook event.  The goal is to send 2,223 letters to Ellen on January 22-23 (today and tomorrow) nominating the fam to go on her show and get more publicity for Puzzle Them Home!  2,223 letters-- crazy, right?!  But I think it can happen!   If you have already written in, THANK YOU!  (:  I know that you are all busy people-- please know that we really, truly appreciate your efforts!   They have made it super easy to do-- it's all online and you can just copy and paste a letter they have written if you don't want to do your own.  You can read about it HERE.    This is my thought-- we have 248 blog followers.  If even half of you write a letter for both you and your spouse and find 3 additional people to write letters, that would be over 600 letters just from our blog readers.  That would be AWESOME! 

So... I'm going to make you a deal!  If you choose to participate, please leave a comment here as well as on the Facebook page.  If we get at least 50 comments here, I will promise to write (or bug Jeremy to write) 50 blog entries in the next 50 days.   That's 50 chances to read about exploding frozen root beer and parenting mishaps and Sophi-isms and tea parties and funny pranks and pratfalls.  I might even throw in a heartfelt post or two about dealing with trials and how I'm learning to "let go."    I know-- you can hardly contain your excitement, right? (wink wink)

--Christianne  (;

Science Experiment Part Deux plus Fort Fascination

Xander decided for his science experiment, he would determine the blast radius of a full bottle of salsa dropped from about four feet.  Impressive!

The kids spent the long weekend building, redesigning and rebuilding forts.  My favorite iteration came from Parker's engineering intellect.  Just tape a hanger to the ceiling, tie on some blankets and viola!!!

Jer

That's Exactly What I Meant!

Christi had taken Cali to the doctor for a routine visit.  I was rushing around trying to get on the road to work.  Taylor calls out, "Dad, Elli has a nasty diaper you need to take care of!"  OK, I can deal with this.  Not too unusual.  I get to work, being bombarded with intermittent requests from various small people who need Dad's services.  In the midst of all of this, Xander comes up to me and asks, "Dad, can we have a party?  Like with food and games and stuff?" 

Not exactly prepared to deal with such a concept right now, I reply "You'll have to ask Mom when she gets back."  Undeterred, he tries again: "But can we, Dad? It'd be fun!"  Ever the realist, I decide not to pass the buck to Christi.  "You know Xander, that's just probably not going to happen today."  Pause...Pause...I'm totally focused on the diaper change at this point...Pause..."So does that mean yes?"

In what universe...?

:)  Jer

Science Experiement

Maybe Jesi was feeling a bit jealous.  Left out, year after year, as her older siblings got to spend hours and hours with mom on their annual science project.  Maybe she is just a budding savant, looking for ways to express her scientific superiority.  Perhaps she felt a burning desire to express her inner Michelangelo, but couldn't reach the ceiling.  Or maybe she just wanted some cold Root Beer:

No way to clean this one but to take everything out and start from scratch.  Kudos to my brother Tyler who came for dinner, saw the mess and refused to leave until he had cleaned it spic and span.  Kudos to all involved for keeping smiles on our faces and chalking it up to a lesson learned.  (After the initial shock, we found out that we were lucky only one of the bottles she had imprisoned in the freezer had actually exploded...:)

Jer

Studio 5 Story

I'm always a bit worried when a story is done on our family because I don't know how it will be edited/presented.  Last Monday, Studio 5 paid us a visit and met our sweet kids.   They were such great people and we enjoyed getting to know them.   The segment aired today and it can be found HERE.  They did a fantastic job.  (:

-Christianne

Three videos worth your time.

Love this couple!



This story has always made me want to cry-- just thinking of that poor man!  And then I realize how much more sad it is when we live beneath our spiritual privileges...





One of my favorite videos of all time.   I meant to post this at Christmas but didn't... Now you can enjoy the Christmas spirit in January.  (: 

But I not sad!

Trying to escape my long to-do list that wasn't getting done and feeling quite overwhelmed by life, I sat down at the computer earlier this evening.  A friend had sent me an email asking me some questions about what it was like to parent a child with limb differences.  A little boy had captured her heart, and she wanted some input from me.  He is three years old, from China, and was born with only the top part of his arms.  He also has some major leg discrepancy issues.  This was one of the sweetest, most beautiful boys I have ever seen.  Sophi walked in while his video was on and exclaimed, "What?!  I have another friend!  He is like Sophi!"  She was so enamoured with him and loved watching his sweet videos.

After the videos ended, she asked why he couldn't walk without a walker.  I told her that his legs didn't work quite right.  Then she turned to me and said in the most expressive little voice, "Awwww!  He's so sad."  Thinking she was referring to his special needs, I asked, "Why is he so sad?"

Her reply, "Because he wants a mommy."

Be still my heart.

After a moment, she brightened up and said, "But I not sad!  Because I have a mommy!"   The conviction and the smile with which she said it reminded me that my long to-do list simply didn't matter.

She has a mommy.

PS  If you'd like, you can head on over to This Little Miggy to read a bit about our family.
It's in two sections, PART 1 and PART 2.

Honeyville Farms!

We love you, Honeyville!

http://honeyvillefarms.blogspot.com/2012/12/puzzle-them-home.html?m=0#.UPHhr6NlAb0

15 Minutes of Fame?

The lost girl from our neighborhood has been found!  Yay!  Christi was one of hundreds of volunteers who went out searching for her.  And since Christi hasn't been on the news enough  lately, she now has her picture on msn.com:  http://news.msn.com/us/missing-13-year-old-utah-girl-found-unharmed

She is not amused.

(But I am:)

Jer

I Love Adoption / Pray for Brooklyn

Oh my goodness, we LOVE this video!  A friend shared it with us today and we're so grateful!  Sophi walked in as I was watching it, and one of the boys without arms was playing the piano.  She exclaimed, "That's my FRIEND!  Now I have three friends.  'Cause there's that one girl and then Tisha and that boy playing the piano.  I have so many friends!!"  (:




On a sadder note, we have a neighbor who is missing.  Brooklyn is in Taylor's Sunday School class and in Young Women's with Graci.  Our whole community has rallied together-- it's been amazing to watch everyone do what they can to help.  When I was out with the search and rescue today, I talked to people from as far north as Bountiful who had come to volunteer.   Hundreds of people showed up.  It's heartwarming to know that there are so many caring people out there-- and yet, our hearts are heavy right now as a big storm has rolled in and there still aren't any leads that we know of.  Taylor, Parker, Graci and Cali joined the youth in our ward to hang yellow ribbons all over her home tonight.  They are all very concerned.  Please pray for Brooklyn and her family.

--Christianne

Tender Mercies and Tender Moments

Wow!  What a day!  I know, I know…we say that every day.  But it really is true.  Especially today!  (Saturday)  Some of you probably saw our “Tweet” video.  (If not, you can view it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l85zOQVm6ZQ)  We were trying to encourage some of our favorite celebrities to tweet about Puzzle Them Home.  Well………today we got our first tweet!  The Salt Lake City home show was going on this weekend.  The contractor and architect had encouraged Christi and me to attend so we could get ideas for the new house.  Then on Tuesday, Tammy from the Puzzle Them Home committee pointed out that Ty Pennington (of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition fame) would be in attendance.  Ty would be on stage for about an hour and then would sign autographs.  The committee reached out to the staff at the home show and they said we could get a chance to meet Ty.  We left our house about 9am with everyone except Graci and Elli.  We showed up early, got some of the limited seats for his time on stage (which was quite hilarious-he is an excellent entertainer) and then got in line for autographs.  When we got to the front, he had already been told a little bit about us.  He talked to us for a few minutes, learned a bit more about Puzzle Them Home, and said he’d be glad to help share our story!  Xander was on cloud nine.  He wants to be a "builder" when he grows up, and Ty Pennington is truly his hero.  Within a couple of hours Ty had tweeted, and later this evening he posted it to his Facebook page.  Within an hour it had over 500 likes!  How exciting!!!  Thanks, Ty!  If you haven’t checked out the Puzzle Them Home site, it’s right here.  Share it on Facebook:).

We got done with the home show about 2:00pm and rushed 30 minutes away to Taylor’s basketball game.  He played well in their loss.  At least 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.  Immediately following Taylor’s game we rushed back to within half a mile of where we had been for the home show to watch Parker’s basketball game.  He played well in a tight win.  This was with Cali, Lexi, Sophi, Xander and Jessica in tow.  They really were great sports!  (By the way, Christi managed to lose her phone at both the home show AND Taylor’s game.  She is very blessed and managed to find it again both times:).  We finally got home a little after 7pm!

Following a quick dinner of pancakes and bacon, Christi headed into our bedroom/computer room and worked with Graci to finish her research paper which is due on Monday.  I put all of the kids to bed.  Well, most of them.  Cali can be a bit impossible at night.  I never raise my voice at her or physically force her to do anything.  I also can’t speak Chinese very well.  So if she flat out refuses to go to bed, there’s not a lot I can do.  It’s kinda cute (and kind of annoying) but tonight it resulted in some very tender moments:

1.      Cali usually won’t let me hug her or hold her hand or kiss her cheek.  She'll let Christi, but her preferred method of showing her love for me seems to be trying to inflict physical pain.  Pinches, hits, etc.  (All in a teasing, fun way.)  Or to flash her “scary face” at me.  And let me tell you, this face is seriously scary!  Looks like a possessed girl from some horror movie.  But that’s beside the point.  Anyway, I was trying to convince her to go to bed, and she flopped down on the floor, put her arms in the air towards me and said, “I baby!”  “You’re a baby?  Do you want me to carry you?”  “Yes!”  So I carried her up into her bed.  She let me cuddle her up in my arms and kiss her on the cheek.  She put her arms around my neck and held me tight.  It was so sweet.

2.      When I tucked her in with the usual, “Are you my little Angel?” she started to ask about the other kids' nick names.  When she got to Jessica, I actually knew the Chinese word for Princess.  Cali immediately wanted me to start calling her “my little princess” as well.  I wasn’t sure how Jesi would take this, so to alleviate any issues, I said, “Are you my little Princess” in Chinese.  This would not do for Cali.  She requested it in English.  I obliged.  My misgivings were well founded.  Jesi was quite taken aback that I would share her special title with someone else.  (Five years ago when we adopted Graci, Grace also wanted to be little princess.  At that time in the evolution of my parenting style I simply said “No.”  One of the many ways I lengthened the time it would take Grace and I to bond.  Graci was upset and I wasn’t very sympathetic.  Way to go, Dad:(  Anyway, this time I tried the best I could to work with both Cali and Jess to come up with a solution.  I explained to Jess that if I simply said “No,” Cali would continue to want to be my little princess.  But if I would say princess for a few days, perhaps we could ease her into something else.  So far so good.  We’ll see how it plays out.  In the meantime, it was so endearing to know how much Jesi loves her title.  She is, indeed, my little princess.

3.      Sometime after I had tucked her in, Cali again wandered (scooted) out of her room.  This time she came into the living room and asked me    to sit next to her.  She pulled out one of the large scrapbooks from the early days of our marriage.  We started looking at pictures of Taylor and Parker when they were 2-4 years old.  Cali seemed to really enjoy it.  I pointed out her Grandmas and Grandpas.  I pointed out some cousins.  Then we came to a page with my immediate family on it.  I pointed out my mom and dad and siblings.  When I came to Tiffany, I wanted to explain to Cali that Tiffany had passed away.  My Chinese vocabulary is very limited.  So to explain, I used the English words “dead” and “died.”  She did not understand.  At the risk of being rather insensitive, but wanting Cali to understand, I made a little death sound and cocked my head to one side with my eyes rolled back and my tongue hanging out.  She got the message.  (I actually did this with as much tenderness as I could.)  I then said the word for car and smashed one fist into the other palm.  Again, in the most gentle way possible.  But she understood.  She very sweetly leaned over and wrapped me up in the biggest hug she has given me to date.  It was the sweetest thing.

I feel so blessed.  Our children give me so much.  What a privilege it is to be able to rub shoulders with them on a daily basis.

Finally, I just have to say another thank you to the wonderful people who are donating to Puzzle Them Home.  The contributions continue both large and small, both in cash and through pledges of labor and materials.  We are so grateful for every single one.  We know these represent sacrifices and selfless giving on the part of so many.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your love and resources with our family so that we can soon be in a home that will fit our needs so much better. The plan has always been to break ground in February.  In order for this to happen, we need nothing short of a tremendous miracle in raising the funds needed.   On average, about 0.5% to 1% of the people who visit the Puzzle Them Home site are able to donate.  This means we need somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 million people to visit.   Just to give you an idea, during the last month there were just over 1,000 visitors.  We would so appreciate any efforts to share www.puzzlethemhome.org.  Thanks for all of your help and all of your prayers!

With deep gratitude,

Jeremy

A Bit Of This And a Bit Of That

Happy New Year!  Can't believe how fast time passes.  Here are few odds and ends based mostly around pictures I've taken on my phone:

Jess and Graci were loopy while waiting for our luggage in Beijing:

Jesi and Grace in their flip flops at the Beijing airport, reinforcing what a responsible father I am...

Some TIRED girls on the way home from China!!!

We were pretty tired on Christmas Eve (go figure!!!).  That, combined with some slick roads made for an abbreviation of some of our traditions.  But one that the kids could not have lived without was GRAND BAGS!  Ten Grand Bags require quite a bit of work to put together.  Not surprisingly, this year's version included several trinkets from China.

By the way, we decided at the spur of the moment to adopt an extra young lady while in China.  Let me introduce you to...Alexandria:)

At first, Xander was OK with his foray into femininity, but as time went by, he became a bit less enthusiastic about the idea:

We recently played a game of sardines.  Taylor hid in the "dress up clothes" closet under the stairs.  Parker found him fairly quickly, but the rest of the us took quite awhile (and maybe even required a vocal hint) before we could locate their hiding place.  No wonder!  (Look closely in the second pictures for a couple of happy hiders):

Can't remember if this was crazy sock day or 80's day or what.  Regardless, there are few guys who can pull off this look.  You get to decide for yourself whether Parker is one of those guys:)

 

Sophi helps Lexi read braille:

Lexi wants to be a cowgirl:

 

Christi and I at the New York toy fair last February.  Fun trip!!!

 

Poor Taylor.  Had to go on a food drive with our church youth group.  Got stuck in a group without any other guys in it.  Hard luck kid:(

After my camping trip to Escalante with Taylor, Parker and my dad, I let my beard grow out for almost a month.  Christi loves it (at least until I start to shave it in sections...):

Sophi likes to play trombone and use hot pads:)

So grateful for all my kiddos and so grateful for digital cameras!

Jer

Angels Among Us

This morning Christi and I had a hold-each-other-cry-together-it'll-all-be-ok moment.  Or few moments.  Cali is doing almost unbelievably well.  She seems to not only feel very comfortable with our family but genuinely seems to love us.  And we love her.  She is a delightful little person.  She deals with her disabilities with dignity and capability.  So much is going well.  And yet it still overwhelming.  We have nine children.  Compressed between the ages of 14 and 4.  Most of them with moderate to very severe special needs.  Between last night and this morning, Christi and I were not sure we were going to make it.  But God always seems to know what we need and when we need it.  Three particular things really felt like tender mercies today.

1.  As I lay pondering this morning (at about 4am-I'm still not quite off of China time), I was impressed with Paul's words regarding faith, hope and charity.  I hadn't read this passage lately, so I really felt as though this was a message from the Lord.  The message was simple.  Have hope.  Although it sometimes feels as though there is no way we can meet all of the needs of all of our kids, we must have hope.  I know-really KNOW-that each of our children is meant to be in our family.  And if it is right to have each of them, then I really can have hope that the Lord will help us and we will be able to lead and love this family of ours.  And once we have hope, we need to have faith to do what we need to do.  Sometimes it is the hardest thing in the world to do something as simple as get up off the couch and face the rigors of getting the littles to bed.  But it can be done.  And when I do it with the right mindset, it is really quite a joy.  So this morning as we were having our "moment," I was able to tell Christi about this communication I had had from the spirit and it left both of us feeling reassured.

2.  Immediately after we were finished talking, I received a text message from a long-time friend.  This friend understands the challenges of the first few weeks following an adoption, as he and his wife have adopted several children themselves.  They understand the jet lag and the language barriers and the bonding issues and the joy wrapped in exhaustion surrounded by love.  The text was very simple, just thanking us for what we were doing with our family.  But it came at such an opportune time.  It reminded us that the things we are doing go beyond just the impact they have on our own family.  It reminded us of how people are touched by our children and what an impact for good these little ones have just by living the way they do. 

3.  Tonight, as we were getting ready for bed, I received a call from another friend of almost 20 years.  This is one of those friends you don't talk to often, but when you do, it's like you never missed a beat.  He called me out of the blue and told me about a Christmas tradition his family has.  They work together, kids included, to help another family.  This year they chose our family.  (They were going to leave something for us anonymously, but my buddy forgot to bring our address along when they left:)  So they called to get our address.  I'm so glad they let us know who was giving the gift, because it gave us the opportunity to talk and catch up a bit.  Great family.  Anyway, after they left, we looked inside the gift bag they gave us.  First there was a book with a beautiful inscription, once again thanking us for what we are doing with our family.  Secondly, there was a jar with an incredibly generous donation towards our house.  It included lots of paper money, but also a lot of coins, which I imagine were from their kids.  What sweet, wonderful people.

I just want to express my thanks to people who listen to the promptings of the Spirit and reach out to other people.  You were our angels today.  You were the messengers that provided tender mercies that helped us remember that we really can make it and that Heavenly Father really is there and looking out for us.

Jeremy

Love our Lexi!

Lexi opens our closed door and comes barging into our room about a subtly as a Mack truck.  "Lexi," I remind her, "you can't just come into our room.  You have to knock first."

Lexi:  "So I should try again?"

Me:  "Yes.  Knock, and I'll say 'No.  You can't come in.'"

So sweet Lexi knocks. 

Me:  "No.  You can't come in."

Lex:  "But I want to tell you something."

Me:  "Not right now.  Mommy and I are talking."

Christi then gives me a pouty look with big eyes and an extended lower lip indicating that she thinks Lexi is about as cute as can be and I'm a big ogre.

Me:  "OK, Lex.  What do you want?"

Lexi:  "Can you slip me for 20 bucks?  Get a CD?"  Christi and I start cracking up.  Lexi:  "That's what Parker told me."

Love our kids!!!

Jer

Stunning

At Cali's request, I put a little bit of make-up on her and curled her hair for church.   Um, wow!  As Jeremy said, "This girl is not going to have a hard time getting a date."

Also, I don't know if we mentioned that our fabulous friends lined up a special homecoming for Cali, complete with Santa Claus!   KSL did a nice write-up on it-- you can find it HERE.  Oh, and I have a favor-- someone on there left a comment asking where we found Cali's profile.  I tried to leave a reply, but because I had already left a reply to another comment, it wouldn't let me (there is a one reply limit.)  If someone happens to go on there and reply to that comment stating that Cali was found on the wonderfulwaitingkids website, that would be so great!  (You can't give the complete URL or it won't post.)  I would die if someone is really interested in adoption but didn't know where to go!!!


We are exhausted.  We are not ready for Christmas.  We are still recovering from jet lag and me from my ear infection/vertigo.  We are a bit stressed.

But we are TOGETHER.  (:

--Christianne

Can't You See, Dad?

Lexi was standing in front of our locked bedroom door, about to be charged with breaking and entering.  (Yeah, we have pretty much no privacy in our lives.  Our bedroom is grand central station around here.)  I noticed her fiddling with the lock and said "Lexi!  You can't go in there!  There are Christmas presents."  Lexi quickly replied, "I can't see."  Me, not catching the significance, "Um, that's right.  You can't see."  Lexi: "I blind!!!"  Suddenly it dawned on me.  "You're right Lex.  You're blind.  You go right on into the Christmas present room:)"

Jeremy

Home At Last!

Just a quick note to let everyone know we made it home safely. The rest of the trip went fairly smoothly, and we had a warm reception when we got here. More on that later.

It was a beautiful moment when we knelt down and had our first family prayer with all 11 of us together.

Welcome home, Cali. We love you!

Dad


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Are You Kidding Me???

I'm not sure why I thought our travel on the way home would go smoothly. It never does, particularly when I'm a single parent shepherding three kids back to the U.S. so why would this trip be any different? We planned layovers that allowed plenty of time, so the travel gods found different ways to play their funny games in our lives.

 

At the "travel home" meeting with our CCAI guide this afternoon, we got the first hint that all might not go as planned. We booked one itinerary all the way from Guangzhou to Salt Lake City. Usually this means you can check your bags all the way through, giving you more lenient weight restrictions on your luggage because it's considered an international flight. Unfortunately, our layover in Beijing is 12 hours (we have a hotel room reserved) and China Southern would not let us check the bags through. So instead of having a little carry on luggage to get to our Beijing hotel, we have four monster bags in addition. It also meant we were restricted to 24 fewer pounds than if it had been checked as international baggage, making my packing job more tricky. Nonetheless, we got everything in our bags, on the shuttle, and to the airport in plenty of time.

Two of my sweet daughters, who enjoyed their pedicure earlier in the day, had begged me as they were getting ready to go to let them wear flip flops. They wanted mommy to be able to see their beautiful toes when she picked us up at the airport on Friday. So of course, being the softie that I am, I acquiesced. I mean, I know we're flying first into frosty Beijing and then to snowy Salt Lake City, but how much time would we really be spending outdoors? Just a short walk from the airport to our van in the covered, short-term parking lot, right? And a short walk from the airport to the hotel shuttle in Beijing. But no. I forgot about how China builds their airports. Even as everyone on the airplane disembarked, I still didn't realize it. It was only after I picked Cali up and carried her to the door of the plane that I realized I also had to carry her down the double flight of stairs to the tarmac.  On the tarmac we had to walk about 30 yards to the shuttles which would take us to the main building.  So Jesi Graci had to walk through the snow in their flip-flops.  I look back and Jesi is struggling to pull a carry on bag with one hand while pulling up her jeans so they wouldn't drag and get wet with the other hand.  Crazy Americans!!!

 

We were supposed to arrive in Beijing at 11:15. Our hotel is 5 miles from the airport, so I figured with a little luck, I might have the kids tucked into bed by 12:15. The baggage took forever to come off the plane, but it gave Graci and Jess the chance to further cement in everyone's minds that Americans really are strange.  They were both extremely loopy from fatigue, and they played pat-a-cake type games and chased each other all around the baggage claim area, even slipping and falling on occasion.  When the luggage finally did come out, we were missing Cali's wheelchair. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally the airport staff guy who had been assigned to push Cali in the airport wheelchair (until hers came through baggage claim) told us to wait in some nearby seats.  He told us this in Chinese, which was loosely interpreted by Graci.  He made me move Cali out of the borrowed wheelchair into a regular chair and then he took off with the airport wheelchair, which I thought was wierd.  After several minutes Graci said, "Well, are you going to go look for Cali's wheelchair?"  "Isn't that guy looking for it," I asked.  In the flippant way that only Graci has truly mastered she responded, "I dunno."  "Welllllll, didn't he say for us to wait while he went to look for the chair?"  "I dunno.  I don't understand everything in Chinese."  Ah, parenthood.

 

So I wandered off to see what I could do.  I couldn't really take the girls with me, 'cuz now we didn't have a wheelchair!  So I left the three musketeers (or stooges, depending on how you look at things) alone with all of our luggage and started traipsing into the great unknown of the Beijing airport, looking for someone who spoke a little English.  With a bit of luck the wheelchair was soon located and we headed towards the front doors of the airport, where we were extremely late meeting a shuttle for our hotel.  By the time we got on the shuttle it was 1:15am.  There was one other family on the shuttle-all dressed in heavy winter clothing.  With heavy winter boots on.  And me with my daughters in flip flops.  Remember, I had hoped to have the girls tucked in by 12:15.  But this is China.  This seems to be my destiny as I embark on these trips.  So intead, I got the girls tucked in at 2:20am.

 

Now would you like to hear the crazy part?  After the girls were tucked in, I wanted to call Christi.  I had to call several times on the pathetic Skype connection I get here before she even picked up.  Then I had to call a couple more times before she could here me.  And when I finally did get a connection we could use, albeit one that kept going in and out every two seconds, I realized it was Chrissy Probst (of Puzzle Them Home fame) that I was speaking to.  Remember, she's going in and out terribly.  I hear her say that Christi was ok.  Dead spot.  They gave her some medicine for the neausea.  Dead spot.

 

Me:  "Is she at the doctor?"

 

Dead spot.

 

Chrissy:  "No.  The emergency room.  An ambulance had to pick her up."

 

Dead spot, with my laughing almost hysterically over it.  Chrissy has to think I'm the worst husband in the world.  She tells me my wife went by ambulance to the emergency room and I start cracking up.  Remember, it's about 2:00am here and I'm exhausted.  I had called Christi to tell her what zany adventures in travel we had been having, and I find out her news.  It's almost too insane to be true.  But that's our life.  And it struck me as funny.  What sobered me up was when I heard Chrissy say, "They ruled out stroke."  Stroke?!?  Are you kidding me??? 

 

At that point she explained what had happened.  (The reason she originally started the conversation with "Christi is ok" was because she had left me a voice mail a little while ago which I hadn't yet listened to.)  Christi had been feeling nauseaus and light-headed.  She called Chrissy and asked for some help getting Elli out to the bus.  When Chrissy came over, she found Christi on the floor and unable to get up.  That's what I got with over our terrible connection.  At this point, she seems to be doing ok.  They have her on fluids and gave her meds for neausea.  They think it's an inner ear thing.

 

So now I'm about to go to bed.  I have to get up in 4.5 hours and catch a plane across the Pacific.  My wife is in the ER recovering from a collapse.  We could use your prayers.

 

Thanks,

 

Jeremy