I'm thinking somewhere around 2037 we'll get a break...

A few minutes ago Christi and I were working side by side in Elli's room to clean up the fecal matter she had smeared all over her wall prior to falling asleep (which had now had several hours to dry!) I looked at Christi with a smile on my face and said, "I just want you to know now that there's no way I can be ready to leave in less than 48 hours. So you'll have to go to China without me." I don't think she took me too seriously. Man, I could really use a break...

Jeremy

Conversations with Jesi

Jesi was standing at the kitchen table, writing in an old math workbook of one of the older kids.

Jesi: Dad, this is my work.
Me: Great, Jesi. You're doing very good work.
Jesi: DAD, don't interrupt me while I'm doing my work! Cuz' my work is very more important than your work. Writing is more important than the computer.

So there:)

Jeremy

This and that...

I only have a million things to do before going to China, but as I know that Xander's adoption is going to be our main focus over the next few weeks, I wanted to take a few minutes to record a few of the happenings over the last month or so.

Our Taylor turned 10 on the 4th of July! I cannot find words to express how much we love him!!!! He is the dearest, most wonderful son we could have ever hoped for. Taylor is compassionate, extremely intelligent, righteous, fun, competitive, hard-working, ever so sweet, innocent, athletic, dedicated, cuddly, and just plain good. He is quick to to say "I'm sorry!" and sincere about it too. He often puts others before himself and in my opinion, has the most handsome smile of any 10-year-old anywhere! This year finds Taylor into reading, playing basketball and baseball, ice-cream sandwiches, pancakes, reading, scouts, riding bikes, reading, waterslides, Hershey bars, sleeping in (our only kid who likes to do so), playing with friends, oh-- and reading.

T's nickname has been "Sunshine" since he was a very little boy and it fits him perfectly. Taylor, what would we ever do without you?? You will always be our most darling, precious first-born! We are so thankful for the example you are to your brothers and sisters. You will never know how much we love you and how proud we are of who you are!

Taylor showing his gifts!


Getting the traditional breakfast in bed


This year we had the brilliant idea of a combined birthday party for Taylor, Jessica, and Graci. Their birthdays all fall within a month of each other, and planning three separate parties is a little chaotic. With the China trip coming up, it was a perfect year to celebrate with one great big party! We had about 50 kids in our backyard and it was so much fun! We were able to get a great deal on a giant, 18-foot inflatable movie screen-- like the kind they set up in parks for a "night at the movies." We hung up a dozen helium balloons for decorations and called it good. We had Jesi's friends play games on one side of the yard and the older kids on the other-- and played for about 45 minutes. Then we opened presents and had ice-cream sandwiches. By then it was dark enough to start the movie. The kids had all brought bean bags, chairs, or blankets. We passed out big bags of popcorn with M & M's and had a big cooler of water for them to fill up cups with. It was the easiest party ever, and it counted for THREE KIDS! We are thinking this is going to be an annual event! My camera died after taking just one picture, but my sister took lots and I'll post them when we get them. I do, however, have a pic of the girls right before the party. They wanted make-up on, and I cannot tell you how excited they were for their friends to show up!






As I went to find the birthday pictures on the camera, I came across all kinds of treasures! Graci had taken about 100 pictures of the TV-- gotta wonder what was going through her head! She also tried so hard to get a good picture of Elli-- and out of about 50, these are the best ones by far:



I'm not planning on hiring her as my personal photographer anytime soon, but do admit that Elli is very difficult to take pictures of! She also took SEVERAL self-portraits!



I also found this treasure-- so glad I took it as I would have forgotten. One day I had searched EVERYWHERE for Jessica, and was getting a bit panicky! No one had seen her for quite some time and I couldn't figure out in where in the world she could be. I called her loudly many times, and had looked in her room at least twice before I noticed this:

I'm calling it "Snug as a bug in a what?"

I realize I'm being completely random here, but here are a couple of stories to show how thoughtful Graci can be. I had taken her shopping at JCPenney, and she had found a "High School Musical" nightgown that she loved. It was on clearance, and so she on her own initiative bought not only one for her, but one for Jessica as well.


Jesi was SO excited and the boys were a little jealous of their night masks. The girls went off into their bedrooms for the longest time and came up with these for the boys!

Another day, all the kids were gone except for Graci when the ice-cream truck came by. She pulled out her hard-earned money and went and bought ice-cream for everyone. She was SO excited to give it to them, and they were pretty happy too!


Realizing this post is all over the place... A few weeks ago the kids had their second annual "Downstairs Day." This was my sister's great idea to let me get all kinds of stuff done upstairs while the kids spent the day downstairs on their own. The night before, I get a schedule all ready and tape it to the wall, along with a laundry basket full of everything they will need-- food included. The day includes crafts, games, and of course TV. The kids LOVE it. One of the things on the schedule was to go into the storage room and make things out of play-doh. I normally couldn't get my kids to play long with play-doh, but I had a twist. I had given them directions to take anonymous pictures of their own creations for me to judge. I told them that I would look at the pictures at the end of the night and give a prize to the winner, stressing that they were not to tell me whose was whose. There was only one problem: the pictures all had the FEET of the one taking the picture, making it hard for me to be impartial! And the winner goes to...

Taylor!

In other randomness:

Parker's All-Star team!

Um, Jesi? That's a big bowl of watermelon!

Jesi, Graci and cousin Charity in curlers!

Sadly, I didn't take an after-curlers picture, but I do have a cute one of Jesi!


I have realized while going through my pictures that I need to take more of Elli, Taylor, and Parker! Somehow, Jesi and Graci seem to find their way into every other one!

On to China preparations!!! We are getting SO SO excited! Today Jeremy spent hours putting together a new dresser in the boys' room so Xander will have a place for his clothes. It wouldn't have taken hours, but this very good Daddy let his kids put it together with him-- we are talking start to finish. It takes a lot of patience to have four children trying to put together a dresser, and I was proud of them all.

I can seriously feel the electricity in the air-- I love it!! We love you, Xander Green! We will be holding you soon!

Problem Solved

The Lord provides a way. The very next morning after Christi wrote of our need for a laptop in China, my friend, Boyd, called and said they had a laptop we could use as long as we needed. In fact, he said that the night before, he and his wife had been discussing just what they should do with this laptop they weren't using. So we'll be able to keep in touch in China:)

We're getting so excited. Before going to get Graci, and now as we prepare to get Xander, I can't help but wonder what is going through their little minds. Are they excited? Terrified? Do they have any clue what is about to happen to them? Will he like me? Will he miss the orphanage as much as my Parker or Taylor would miss our family if they were taken to China to live with a family there? What challenging, challenging times little Xander is about to experience. And yet I have to think he will one day be very glad that this change has happened to him.

Pray for him.

Jeremy

Houston, we have a problem!

One of our favorite parts of the adoption process is sharing it with our family and friends and keeping a record for our children to have as they get older. It is wonderful to blog from China and feel like we have you all living the experience with us. However, we have just realized that Jeremy will need to leave his work laptop at home-- so we are without a computer!!

If there are any of you out there in cyberspace that know of a laptop sitting around just dying to get used, we would love to hear from you!! Otherwise, we'll probably have to share our journey after we get home.

On a happier note, after spending the ENTIRE day on the computer trying to get the best prices/itineraries, we have our plane tickets!!!! I can't believe we are getting so close!!! And it looks like we will welcome Xander into our family on Monday, August 10th, with the official adoption day being August 11th-- our 11 year anniversary! Can you imagine a better anniversary gift than this darling little boy?!!! (:

Thanks so very much for your kind words and prayers!! We appreciate so much everyone who has been part of this process-- even those we don't know, but who are following Xander's story and praying for him-- we love you!

Christianne

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." -- Isaiah 43:5

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!

Every day, several times a day, throughout all of 2009, our kids have prayed that we would travel to China before school starts. I was beginning to wonder if the Lord had different plans for us, but today we received our Travel Approval!!! (Insert Happy Dance!!) We are tentatively planning on leaving within the next 2 weeks!! YIPPEE!!! This means we will be back two days before school starts-- important for many reasons, including being able to have my school teacher parents watch the kids. We are feeling so grateful, and are still praying for the many, many families who have not yet received travel approval and have been waiting longer than us. It is so difficult to know your child is half way around the world and feel powerless to take care of him/her, and we wish you all SPEEDY TAs!!!

We have a million and one things to do before we leave, and I am beginning to feel just a bit panicked with it all!! But we know it will be worth it as we will very soon be holding our little Xander in our arms. SURREAL after all this time...

We are coming, Alexander Chase! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Too Many Titles!

P.S. (As in pre-script, not post-script. Usually I try to put on a song that has something to do with my post. This song is just cool:)

Have I ever told you about my little sister, Jen? She's a talented, sweet, beautiful girl. She is a great writer, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. Well, today I got an email from her entitled "Ode To An Empty Blog." It was a funny call to repentance for me. Here's a portion of her poem:

Onto the internet I log,
Cross my fingers and hope the blog
Of my brother and his wife
Will have an update (I have no life).


I check their blog about all six
Of their children – it’s quite a mix.
I also check the blog for Elli.
Did she learn a new word yet? (Like “jelly?”)


But alas, there is nothing there
Day after day, (feels like year after year).
Are they happy? Are they having fun?
What cute things have their kiddos done?

...

So write today, and make me happy.
Write anything…just make it snappy!

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Jennifer

So Jen, here's an entry, and it could be a long one. There are a few things I want to share, so I couldn't decide on a title. Instead, I'll favor you with subtitles as I go along:)

HI-YAH!!!

The other day I was in my office downstairs. I heard Jesi and Graci playing in the other room. By the other room I mean our family room/play room/guest bedroom. We don't have an extra bedroom, but we do have an extra king size bed. (An EXTRA king size bed ?!?!?!? you may ask. Well, it's too long of a story for this post, but you could chalk it up to "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.") Anyway, this extra king size bed is in the family room/play room/guest bedroom. The kids love to play super-wrestling-attack-jump-on-each-other and similar games on it.

This particular day, Jessica was Batman Girl. (See picture below)

(Not to be confused with Spiderman Girl!)

When Jesi is Batman Girl, she wears Parker's Batman gloves. These are really cool gloves that make batman-type punching sounds when the wearer moves their hands. So a little kid (or a dad re-living his childhood:) can punch the air with a bunch of cool sound effects. Anyway, from my office, I hear Graci scream, "AHHH! A spider, a spider!" I grab some tissue to deal with the invader and go into the room. There are Graci and Jesi, kneeling on the bed. Graci is looking somewhat scared by the arachnid. Jesi (who has no fear of bugs, worms, etc.) has made a fist with her batman-gloved hand and is trying with all of her might to smash the life out of the spider. Try to picture it. Jesi in her batman gloves, pounding away (and making sound effects) at this poor spider that is very dead by the time Dad arrives on the scene. I was cracking up!

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Have you ever watched something bad happen and felt like you were powerless to stop it because you could only move in slow motion...?

Last weekend we went on the 2nd annual Green Family Hike Up Lone Peak. This year, Christi's brother Matthew came with us. It's a great hike. Next year I'm going to take a GPS to see how far we go and how high we climb, but I'd bet it's about a 2 mile hike with about a 2000-3000 foot climb. It's a pretty good hike, especially when you carry a backpack that weighs 28 pounds and a gut that weighs 40. (Next year-no gut!!! But I digress.) Here are a couple of pics from last year's hike, since we haven't developed the ones from this year yet:






One of the things we like to do up there is sit on the big granite outcropping and look down into the valley below. It is a breathtaking view, made all the more wonderful by the fact that the only way to access this view is by a challenging hike. In other words, you feel like you earned it. We hiked up late Friday afternoon, looked out over the valley for a little while, then came down off the outcropping to set up our camp. After dinner, we went back up to the rock to see the sunset and watch as the stars came out. Even mid-July it can get a bit chilly up there at night, so we all brought our sleeping bags up to the rock to be cozy as we watched the heavens. Our sleeping bags were in stuff bags that were roughly cylindrical in shape. Shortly after we had come to the top of the rock, Parker put his sleeping bag down-still in the stuff bag-on the slightly sloped surface of the granite. It started to roll away. "Parker!" I yelled. But it was too late. I wanted to lunge after it, but I would have had to run downhill toward about a 30 foot drop-off. I helplessly watched his sleeping bag as it rolled down, down, and over the edge!

We looked for it on the sloped hillside beneath where it had fallen from the rock. It was just too dark to find a black stuff bag. So here we were, in the middle of nowhere, one sleeping bag short. Fortunately, this trip was in July (as opposed to last year's September trip!) The night was cool, but not dangerous. Parker slept the first part of the night in his clothes. He wore Christi's sweats on top of his own, and three sweatshirts. (He also wore a pair of my socks, which, for some 8-year-old reason, he decided were sufficient footwear to wander off in the woods in the middle of the night for a bathroom break! But that's a different story:) Early in the morning hours he got too cold, and Christi let him crawl into her mummy bag with her. What a great mom!

You know, I sometimes wonder why we love hiking and camping so much. My legs have barely recovered, and its over four days since we got home. I slept terribly (due primarily to the large root I failed to identify prior to laying out our sleeping tarp and the large slope of the ground I also failed to identify-oops!) It took forever to get the water to boil over our fire to cook our freeze-dried food. There was much clean-up after the trip was over. And yet, there are few things I enjoy more than camping with my family. There's something about getting out in nature. I think we feel a connection to our Father in Heaven that is hard to feel in the hustle, bustle and noise of our everyday lives.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE...AND WAY TOO MUCH TO EAT!

Tonight I went downstairs to put Elli to bed. I heard the sound of gushing water from the bathroom. The toilet had overflowed and continued to pour out water for somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour. Not good. There was about an inch of water in the bathroom and it had poured out into the hallway carpet and our two unfinished storage rooms. Remarkably, I kept my cool. I quickly put Elli down in her room and tried to figure out what to do. First I tried soaking up the water with towels, but I quickly realized that this would be almost impossible to do without WAY more towels than we own. Fortunately I was able to borrow a wet-vac from a neighbor and was able to make the headway into the mess. Christi had been at a church meeting, but I was able to get in touch with her and she rushed home to help.

Water, when in the wrong place, is a terrible thing. Nothing can really stop it. It seeped under the walls into the adjacent storage rooms. Fortunately, these are just cement floors, but several boxes that were on the floor got soaked. Right where it came into one room a queen size mattress set was propped up on it's side. (Yes, if you're keeping track, that technically means we have an extra king size mattress set AND an extra queen size mattress set. But you can't really count the queen. It's over 20 years old, has been passed down through a few generations, and is more like a model of the grand canyon than a mattress.) Bottom line-this added a lot of work, not just tonight, but through the next several days as we make sure everything gets dried out and try to rearrange the stuff we moved and took out of boxes to dry. But, you know, that's ok. Cuz' we really don't have much going on in our lives. We're not preparing for an invasion of 50+ kids tomorrow night for a combined Taylor-Jesi-Graci birthday party. We're not trying to get ready to leave on a two-week trip to China to adopt a 4-year-old with special health concerns. We didn't just find out today some news that is complicating this trip and the time-off needed to take it. We're not supposed to leave this weekend to be in Christi's home town for a family reunion. We're not in the process of trying to refinance this home and possibly put an offer on a new home for which I would be the general contractor for the final 1/3 of the work that still needs to be done on the house. Oh wait, yes we are! HOWEVER...it could have been much worse. It could have been an upstairs bathroom. It could have leaked for a longer period of time, or even at a time when we were gone.

While I was not very happy with the situation, I was calm and collected throughout. How, you may ask, did I demonstrate such self-control? Well, I have this friend. It's called chocolate. Have you ever heard of Flipz? (If you are trying to diet, stop reading now!) Flipz are divine and terrible at the same time. They are pretzels covered in your choice of Chocolate, White Chocolate, or Chocolate and Peanut Butter. At Smith's they were on sale for $1.00/bag. Quite a deal! One bag contains four servings of 5 pretzels each-20 fabulous pretzels with a total calorie count of 560 calories. Christi thought it would be a great idea to stock up on Flipz while they were on sale-the kids love them. OK, I said. But (and I'm not kidding) I told her as soon as I got home with them she had to hide them REALLY well. This she neglected to do. We are both trying to lose a little weight prior to our trip to China. She wants to lose about 5 pounds in the next 2 weeks. I want to lose about 35. Anyway, I had to make repeated trips up and down the stairs in the process of cleaning up the water mess in the basement. Those doggone Flipz were just sitting there at the top of the stairs. Over the course of the evening I ate two bags of them all by myself. That's the equivalent of 4 and a half Kit Kats! What a pig. Well, there's always tomorrow. Maybe I'll shoot to lose 34 pounds in the next two weeks instead:)

Jeremy

What Fun!

Today I dropped the boys off for a baseball camp on campus at BYU. They will room together in the dorms for three nights. At first they were a bit nervous to go, but once they got there, saw their dorm rooms and got their meal cards, they started to get a feel for how much fun was in store for them. They will work on baseball skills from 9-4 each day. In the evenings they will be in a group with an adult counselor. Tonight they went bowling and played games. On Wednesday night they'll be going to Seven Peaks water park. They're very excited. It was fun to go back to my alma mater. Much has changed, but much is still the same.

On the way down, we were talking about how the older boys at the camp will be going to a dance with girls from a dance camp. I told the boys that someday they would want to go to dances, too, and that someday they would think girls were cute. Parker volunteered that he already thought one girl was cute. He then named a girl from school. I'll call her "Sarah" to protect the innocent. After Parker told me that, Taylor let me know that Parker also had an "arch-enemy." (Taylor's words:) I'll call him "Joe." Parker agreed that Joe was indeed his arch enemy. The reason for this is that Sarah likes both Parker and Joe. Parker said, "I was thinking I would like to trip Joe. Then Sarah would think he would he was clumsy! I wouldn't really do it, but I was thinking about it."

So Parker is noticing girls and has arch enemies. They grow up so quickly:)

Jer

Phone conversation with Jesi:)

I've been in New Jersey for the past two weeks for training with my new company. WAY TOO LONG!!! But, it's almost over. I can't tell you how much I miss Christi and the kids. I missed Parker's first baseball All-Star tournament (including a home run!) But I'll be home tomorrow.

Tonight I called home to say hello. Jesi picked up the phone and I recognized her sweet little "Hello" immediately. I asked, "Is this Jesi?" "Yes" I asked, "Do you know who this is?" She said, "Daddy!" "Yes, sweetheart." "Why are you calling, Daddy?" "Because I love you so much," I said. "What?" Jesi asked. "Because I..." "Daddy, I have to go get ice cream!" Click. Well, at least I know where I stand:)

Jer

Happy Father's Day!

I have the most amazing husband, dad, and father-in-law! In honor of them, I am sharing a few videos of wonderful father stories. The first one reminds me so much of what I would catch Jeremy doing with our kids!! The second reminds me of the teachings and example of my Dad. The third reminded me of what a hard worker my father-in-law is, his desire to provide for his family, and the way he has dealt with challenges.

I am so blessed!!!!!!!

(Don't forget to scroll down and push pause on the music playlist)

Too much fun with Photo Booth!

My kids love sneaking in our room and taking funny pictures on PhotoBooth. Sometimes, they even convince us to join in on the fun. Today, after taking some pics with the kids, I scrolled back to look at previous ones. I was laughing out loud when I found a group of pictures taken by my Jeremy. Alone. Apparently, he was bored??? Anyway, I'm posting them at the end of the slideshow. We'll see how long they stay on here before he discovers and deletes them! Love you, hon! (:

By the way, good news on the Elli front!

Letter of Acceptance!

Those of you who followed our adoption journeys to Elli and Graci know how much we love ladybugs! The story goes that one Spring, there was an influx of ladybugs around the nation, followed quickly by adoption referrals for families that had been waiting for a long time. Since that time, ladybugs have become the symbol of good luck in the adoption community. We know that there's really no such thing as luck, but rather a God who loves to have fun with His children! I am not stretching the truth when I say that every single milestone in our adoption journeys have been marked with ladybug sightings of some kind or other. All of these sightings have been fun and unique, but one takes the cake. It was when my dear friend, Heather, sent me a Valentine package in the mail. Heather had originally had Graci's file, and she and her husband wanted so much to adopt her, but it didn't feel right. Jeremy and I had decided to pursue her adoption and had just filled out our letter of intent. The day we sent it to China was the day I got the package from Heather-- full of candy and other Valentine goodies. It sounds too crazy to believe, but I opened up a salt water taffy to find-- you guessed it-- a ladybug. It was dead, of course-- but it was just the craziest thing. Who finds ladybugs in their candy?!! I immediately called Heather who swore she had nothing to do with it and we were just laughing our heads off at the audacity of it all. A ladybug in taffy? In the middle of winter?

Another time Parker came walking in the house with a ladybug on his nose. That day we received pre-approval for Graci. Another day, Jeremy and I were leaving for our first adoption parenting class and a ladybug flew in the window of our car and landed on my hand. These are just a few of our ladybug stories!

So, like I said, every step of every adoption has had ladybugs involved. Well, as we were outside last Friday night, Parker found a ladybug. Jeremy immediately said, "Our letter of acceptance must be coming!" He told me he was just sure it would arrive at the agency on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday, and they aren't there on Saturdays). I smiled and thought it was a fun thought, but that there was no way. I have been following TONS of adoption timelines, and nobody was getting them that soon.

I guess that shows that I need to kick up my belief in the ladybug theory, because lo and behold, yesterday we got the email that our LOA had indeed arrived, just 49 days after our LID!!! (Those of you following timelines know how amazing that is.) I happened to be on the phone with my dear friend, Kim, when I opened the email, and it was fun to share that moment with her! She is also an adoptive mom and is as passionate about it as I am. When I called Jeremy, he told me he had been waiting all day for the call. (:

So, what does this all mean??? It means that we should be traveling to China in 7-9 weeks!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!! After waiting so long, it seems crazy that it is that close! We are so very excited!!!

My kids have been praying every day for a very long time that we could travel before their school starts. I know others have been praying for us as well. I was beginning to wonder if it was going to happen, because there are so many waiting families whose timeline has been much slower than ours. Some people who got their acceptance letters yesterday had been waiting well over 100 days-- we were at day 49. I have no doubt that the many prayers offered in our behalf closed the waiting gap for us, and that the Lord knew the desires of our hearts to travel this summer (besides getting him sooner, it also worked out so much better for childcare situations).

At the same time, I know that the Lord knows what's best for every family, and that waits that may seem unfair or too long may very well have a good reason behind them. I could not understand why in the world Elli's adoption took so long, but it just so happened that if we had adopted her even a couple of days earlier, Jeremy wouldn't have gotten the 6 weeks paid paternity leave that his company had just implemented. So hang on, waiting families-- we will all have our children soon!!! (:

I have finally updated Elli's site...

...and am pledging to be better at keeping it up. (:

(As Jennifer put it well, Elli may not be forsaken, but her blog is!)

Click HERE to read.


Also, being Memorial Day weekend, we are of course thinking of our sweet, amazing loved ones who have passed on. We are especially missing those we have lost in the last few years:

Tiffany Rose (Jeremy's darling little sister-- died at age 22 in a car accident)

Grandpa Larsen (my grandfather-- a WWII veteran and amazing man)

Grandpa Green (Jeremy's grandfather-- a hard worker with a quick wit)

Grandma Nelson (my grandmother and one of my most treasured friends)

Keltson Blackburn (our sweet neighbor and Taylor's primary teacher)

and of course our darling Jacob and Emily.

We love you.

Turn up your speakers and enjoy!

(Side Note: I've played on stage with Jon Schmidt before:)

Jeremy

Falling in love all over again!

I got the most amazing phone call on Monday, and it has had me smiling ever since. Let me start at the beginning. A few weeks ago, I was just DYING for some new info on our sweet little Chu Chu. Anything. Updated measurements, a picture, word that he was doing well-- I just needed something. It is so difficult to be waiting for someone we already love so much and have so little information on how he is. Well, I googled his orphanage, to see if I could possibly find a picture of it. What I found, is that there is an American adoption agency that has volunteers there in his city! I emailed them, praying that they might know something about our son. Well, on Monday I got a call from a very sweet lady, who after verifying that we were indeed talking about the same boy, told me that YES, she did know him. In fact, she has HELD him! She was there last summer and she KNEW OUR BOY!

My heart was swelling as she told me how much their staff loves our little guy. She said that there was something very special about him, and that they had prayed over him while there at his orphanage, and have continued to since coming home. Not only that, but she contacted the staff there, and they took pictures and gave us updated measurements. So these pictures were actually taken THIS WEEK! Imagine that! What a blessing to a mom just dying for a shred of news. She told me she would email me the pictures, and I was a mess for the next little while as I waited for them.

It was worth it.

Are you ready to see the sweetest little smile in the world???

You can click on the picture to make it big! (;



I cannot look at these sweet pictures without smiling myself. He has my heart. I love every square inch of him! I just want to eat him up!!!!!

Just when I thought I was on top of the world with these brand new fun photos, I got another email from the same woman, who told me that one of her coworkers has VIDEO of our boy! Imagine that! I have contacted him and am anxiously awaiting seeing sweet Chu Chu in action.

I am so grateful and indebted to these wonderful people who have done so much for our son. Because of them, Chu Chu is in a situation where he is in a foster care setting much of the time. He has been loved and prayed over for some time now. It is such a good feeling to know that there are others out there who are watching over him when I cannot. What an amazing blessing from a loving Father in Heaven.

P.S. As far as names go, I think I have lost the "Thomas" battle. We are now toying with the name Alexander Chase Green. It has been so difficult to come up with something that everybody likes, and this may be it! We could call him either Alex or Xander, or most likely, both. I personally like Xander, as it would fit with Taylor and Parker, and I think it's unique and fun! Also, his Chinese name, Xu Chu, and American name would be kind of similar-- Xu Chu and Xander Chase. I love Alex too. What do you think? (:

Mother's Day

We had a good Mother's Day:) Christi got breakfast in bed-eggs, bacon, lemon poppy seed muffins, and orange juice. She got the usual conglomeration of homemade kid presents. I won some points with my gift this year. About six years ago, Christi vacuumed up her wedding ring. We were able to get it out of the vacuum bag, but it had been severely disfigured. Since then, Christi has purchased a $7.00 crummy junk ring at Walmart about every 2 months. These rings turned green or brown or some other ugly color long before she would replace them. (Side note: One time Christi was talking to a friend while wearing one of her discolored Walmart rings. The friend glanced at Christi's hand and commented-Wow! A two-tone wedding ring! How cool! We laughed at the prestige to be found with this dime-store special:) Anyway, for Mother's Day I secretly took her original wedding ring to a jeweler and had it fixed. She is still smiling to have a real ring on her finger. I copped out with a Stouffer's lasagna for dinner, but it was delicious. I did make one of Christi's favorite desserts: Thai sticky rice with Mangos. The sticky rice is sweetened with coconut milk. It's delicious! So Mother's Day was good.

On Mother's Day morning, the ring got us into some conversations with the kids about our dating life. They were fascinated! It was so cute. They were particularly drawn to three stories:

1. Our first kiss. Christi and I hadn't technically been on a date yet. We were both counselors for a youth camp at Brigham Young University called Especially for Youth. (It is an AWESOME program, if you ever get a chance to send your teenage kids!) As a counselor you have virtually no free time during the week. It's a blast and you get to meet a lot of other college kids who are also counselors, but you have no unstructured time to just hang out. Saturday night is the only night you can do your own thing. So one Saturday night, a bunch of us decided to go to a country dance. Christi and I had flirted some, but nothing serious. (Besides, she had just volunteered to serve a year-and-a-half long mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I didn't figure there was much use in my pursuing anything with her.) Whenever we discuss this particular dance, Christi reminds me that I didn't ask her to slow dance even once. We danced a few fast dances, but nothing slow. I did, however, ask Christi's close friend to slow dance a couple of times. Oops! Another friend drove us back to BYU campus, where all of the counselors were staying in the dorms. During the ride, Christi and I got talking some more and I started becoming more and more interested in this attractive, fun girl. So when we got back on campus, I chivalrously offered to walk her back to her dorm. Before she went inside, we sat outside and talked. And talked. And talked. And I realized what a gem Christianne truly was and is. So at one point I said to her: "I'll bet you a quarter I can kiss you without touching your lips." Christi, thinking "How cute, he's going to kiss me on the cheek," said "OK." I told her to close her eyes. She complied, and I planted a kiss right on her lips. I said "I lose. Here's your quarter.:)" She was pretty surprised, but let's just say she earned a few bucks that night.:) The boys couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces as they heard this story, and are determined to use that line at some point in their future.

2. Christi's decision to marry me (vs. her high-school sweetheart). Christi had dated a really great guy all through high school and had fallen in love with him. The two of them (and most of their small town) were sure that they would get married after he returned from serving his two-year mission. I met Christi the last week of June, 1997. Her high school sweetheart was coming home from his mission in September of 1997. Even with limited math skills, I was able to see that I basically had 2 months to make this girl fall in love with me and forget him. Man, I did everything I could to win her over. I gave her so many flowers (including one week where she received some every day). I called her. I sang to her. I played guitar for her. But in spite of my best efforts and her growing feelings for me, she made it very clear that I was NOT to propose to her until after her missionary returned. YEAH, RIGHT!!! Here's the girl of my dreams, ("She's almost perfect" my future mother-in-law informed me the first time I was introduced to Christi's family-and she is!) and she expects me to sit around and wait for this other guy to come back and remind her of why she loved him??? NO WAY! I proposed to Christi the night before her missionary returned from Italy. (I planned a GREAT proposal date, if I do say myself, but that's a story for another entry.) Anyway, toward the end of a perfect evening, I got down on one knee, and, with my hand shaking visibly, held out the ring and asked, "Sweetheart, will you marry me?" Her response? "Did you ask my dad?" ??? Did you ask my dad??? Fortunately, I was able to answer, "Yes." (Yet another story. Yes, I had asked her dad. I had driven the 2 hours to Ferron, UT. Her family already knew that I had chronic problems with punctuality. I had called Dean ahead of time and asked if I could come and talk to him. I'm sure he knew what was coming. He agreed to meet me at the end of his work day outside the school where he teaches. So, as usual, I had timed things to the last second. I would have been on time if there had been no complications. I really would have! To get to Christi's home town, you have to drive through a 60-mile long canyon which for the most part is one lane in each direction. This is the truth: A semi-truck had crashed in the canyon, spilling huge amounts of re-bar all over the highway. Traffic was stopped for a long time. I was terribly late to an appointment to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. Not only that, but there was no way to call and let him know. There was also nothing for him to do but wait for me. We had agreed to meet outside the school. So when I finally showed up at least an hour late, poor Dean was still sitting sitting on the curb in the hot summer sun, waiting for me. It's a wonder he didn't just scowl and say "Get out of here and leave my daughter alone!" Instead, he completely cemented himself in the position of the world's most wonderful father-in-law (no offense Dad, you're awesome too.:). We went into the school, sat down at a couple of students' desks, and talked for a little while. Small talk at first, then, the question. "Dean, I would like to ask for your permission to ask your daughter to marry me." "Got it!" he instantly replied. No questions about how I was going to support his daughter. No lectures about how I had better treat her perfectly. He knew me well enough by then to know he would say yes. And instead of making me sweat it out, he made me feel like he was lucky to have me for a son-in-law. (And believe me, I'm sure he had MANY concerns and questions about my capabilities. I really can't express in words how grateful I am for Dean and LaRita. They have been amazing to me. I hope I can be the same for my kids-in-law.) So I answered Christi: "Yes, I asked your dad." She put the ring on that night, but never did say yes. She also told me she was going to the airport with her missionary's family the next day to pick him up. She took the ring off to do that. This was, of course, very fair, given that I had proposed when she had prohibited me from doing so. She spent a rough next couple of days deciding what she was going to do. Then she told a very disheartened young man that she had decided to marry me. After relating this story, our kids were fascinated by the concept that it had been such a hard choice at the time. They kept asking things like "Are you glad you married dad?" "Did you make the right choice?" "Did your missionary marry someone else?" She answered yes to all of them. What a lucky guy I am!!!

3. Christi got asked out on a date after we were married with four kids. She was at Walmart in Tennessee with just Jessica. With still years to go before I would fix her wedding ring, her hand was bare. She noticed that a particular guy always seemed to be near, no matter what part of the store she was in. At one point, Christi asked a Walmart employee where she could find a particular tool that I had asked her to purchase. The employee wasn't sure where or what the tool was. Enter the date-asker. The guy who was always near approached Christi and helped her find what she needed. Then he somewhat awkwardly said: "You may have noticed me nearby today. I've been trying to get up the guts to ask you something. I know it's a bit strange since you don't know me, but I was wondering if you would like to have dinner sometime." Christi was very flattered! She answered "Oh, that's so sweet of you, but I'm married with three more kids at home!" The guy was embarrassed, but it wasn't too bad. When we told the kids this story, they, the boys in particular, were so worried about this guy. They kept asking, "Do you think he found someone to marry?" "Do you think he's married now?" Do you think he's happy?" They asked these questions over and over during the course of the day. Their empathy and concern was so cute:)

Well, this entry turned out much longer than I had anticipated. But the bottom line? I'm married to the most wonderful girl and the best mother in the world and we have the most wonderful kids in the world. (Isn't it great that for me they absolutely are the best, and yet for you, your family is the best? God is good!)

Jeremy

Dance Pictures!

I'm What?

This morning I came upstairs looking for Christi. I walked into our bedroom where she was taking care of Elli. I started talking to Christi and after a few minutes Jesi came in and said, looking intently at me, "Dad, you're bugging me over!" "I'm what?" I asked. "You're bugging me over!" "What does that mean?" "It means, you're making me not concentrate on my TV!"-followed by a big, heartfelt sigh of despair. Apparently I talk too loud...:)

A couple of days ago one of Christi's friends posted a comment to our "Home Alone" post. In the comment she said "Jeremy-nobody does superdad like you do..." Christi was standing next to me as I read it, and I turned to her and said, "Lucky she doesn't know how much I stink as a dad sometimes!" Then, sweet little Jesi, who was also in the room, very seriously said: "Dad, you don't stink! You're so handsome!" Then she gave me a big hug. Made my day. Jesi does that often. Several times a day, she'll see me and excitedly say, "Daaaaddddyyyy!", then rush to me and give me a huge bear hug. It doesn't get any better than that:)

Last week Christi was very creative for our family home evening treat and toasted marshmallows in the oven. With ONE marshmallow, Jesi created this mess:

Gotta love kids!

Jeremy

Spring is in the air!

I thought I would surprise Jeremy by taking some pics of his beautiful spring flowers so I could post them and brag about what a wonderful husband I have! Then as I looked at the pictures, I realized the lawn needed mowing (which he is usually VERY good about keeping up with) and so he might not like the pictures. Nevertheless, I am posting them, because I think they are BEAUTIFUL! Thank you, Jeremy, for taking the time to plant these last fall!!! (: Also, as I was uploading these photos I found another interesting photo that I hadn't seen for awhile. This is from our sweet Taylor, who loves to chew on everything and once in awhile, accidentally swallows random objects-- you know, like screws and such. (:

Home Alone

Well, not exactly alone. I'm home with five ragamuffins but no wife. One can feel rather alone under those circumstances. Christi left last night and will be home tomorrow morning. Her mom is in charge of a spiritual/motivational conference for women in their area, and Christi was asked to give a 50-minute presentation. So I don't envy her the task of preparing for or giving the presentation. But now the conference is over, and Christi is relaxing at her parents home with no kids to take care of. I am a bit envious of that.

The morning started out with a bang. Elli went to the bathroom in the bathtub. (Sidenote: I am so proud of Jessica right now! She is sitting in my lap as I type this. She commented on how quickly I was typing. Then, just after I typed Elli's name, she said, "Why are you putting Elli up there?" WOW! I can't believe she was able to recognize Elli's name so quickly and so well. Cool:) Anyway, I discovered Elli's treat for me when I asked Jesi to look in on Elli in the tub. Jesi called out to me: "Daddy, the water is all brown!" Ah, the joys of parenthood. Everything has been cleaned up now, and the kids are doing pretty well.

For part of Christi's presentation, she put together a slide show of pictures about Elli. Here it is:



Have a great weekend!

Jeremy