8-10-09, 7:00 p.m. China time
Oh. My. Goodness!
I am rarely at a loss for words, but I cannot seem to find them today. We have experienced a piece of heaven on earth today. We knew that Xander was special, but he has far exceeded anything we could have imagined.
We drove to the Civil Affairs Office this morning with 5 other adoptive families. We were all so excited and anxious. Two of the families were becoming parents for the first time! We pulled up and got out of the bus. We were the first ones out, and I looked in the building and saw children already there! Luckily, there were children from two different orphanages, and they arrived 15 minutes apart—so we were able to video for each other. We saw Xander playing in a little play area—and honestly, I recognized him from his feet, not his face! He was smaller than we were expecting, and 1,000 times cuter! I cannot even describe his mega-watt smile!! It lights up a room!!! I walked over to him and he immediately grinned and gave me a big hug—it was a breathtaking moment. Jer and the girls were close behind, and he was equally as happy to see them. He knew who we were from the photo album we sent, and seemed completely at ease with us.
We immediately discovered that whoever filled out his original paperwork was dead wrong on one aspect. They said he was an introvert! He is instead the most extroverted little ball of energy! He immediately went to town opening up his backpack and discovering all of his treasures. Jeremy and I were smitten. Cancel that—we ARE smitten. We couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces, and I think we have said, “He is SO CUTE!” about a hundred times today! Jeremy won him over with all his funny little tricks, and has had him laughing all day. I cannot wait to see him with our boys—he will LOVE them! He is such a boy! Loves to be silly and play. He is also very very smart. He picks up on things very quickly, and is super observant. He has charisma galore, and I think Jeremy summed him up when he declared, “This boy is going to be student body president!”
He is perfect.
I know that the Lord has watched over this process from day one. I am quite sure that had his paperwork not said “introvert” but instead correctly described the this outgoing little sweetheart, I would have been scared off. To be perfectly honest, I was a little relieved to think we were going to have this quiet, timid little guy. After Graci’s adoption, I wasn’t sure we could handle another spitfire. But I was wrong. He is SO SO SO perfect for us! I mean, truly, he is something very special. We cannot get enough of him. I can’t wait for the language to be there so I can really express to him just how much we love him!
Xander’s legs/feet/bottom are probably worse than I expected (we had seen lots of pictures, but I still didn’t realize the severity of it all), but we are THRILLED with how well he gets along. He is like any other little four-year-old—running, skipping, jumping. I cannot believe how well he does—I am in awe.
We have had a great day—going out for lunch, completing paperwork, video-chatting with family, swimming, and ordering pizza to our hotel room. Parker and Taylor LOVED seeing him on the webcam, and he kept trying to give them fives and feeding them licorice through the computer! We can’t wait to get the three of them together!
Xander is currently on a little outing with his “Baba.” The only time he has cried today was when Jeremy tried to leave with just Graci and Jessica to run a little errand. They walked out the door and his chin started to quiver—then he burst into tears. It was so sad/sweet, and I immediately called Jeremy back to the room to get Xander. (: He seems equally attached to us both—which is a huge blessing—and he gets along with the girls great. I kept thinking I should pinch myself, as everything is going so amazingly well.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I know that Xander will likely have some tough times ahead, and can continue to use all of your prayers. We love him so very much! And we are so excited for our other children to have him in their lives!
Once again, Taylor, Parker, and Elli—we miss you so! Can’t wait to come home and have our family complete!!
Happy Gotcha Day, little Xu Chu!
WE ARE BLESSED.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
We have arrived in Zhengzhou!!
August 10, 2009 12:45 AM
If you haven’t done so, read Jeremy’s post below.
I have so much to tell about our time in Hangzhou with Graci’s “China family,” but right now it is past midnight and we are EXHAUSTED! I will hopefully find time to share later, but for now just wanted to say that tomorrow morning, (in nine hours, to be exact) we will have our Xander!!!
It is hard to believe that this day has finally arrived. We are excited, overwhelmed, grateful. I can’t wait to share his “Gotcha Day” with you tomorrow.
Dear Graci and Jessica,
You have been such troopers! We have loved loved loved having this time with you in China. Jessica, you have been such fun, and such a treat for everyone to be around. You captured the hearts of many dear Chinese people. Graci, I am more in love with you than ever. I am so grateful for the privilege of mingling with your sweet China family. I love them, and I can see how much they love and adore you. I know it was so hard to say goodbyes, and I pray we have the opportunity to bring you back someday.
Dear Taylor and Parker,
We MISS you like CRAZY! It isn’t the same being here in China without you. We love hearing updates from Grandma and are so glad you are having such fun. We can’t wait to see you again—we love you.
Dear Elli,
Your giggles on the phone tonight made our day! We are so glad you have been such a good little girl. We know you are in PERFECT hands. We miss your hugs and smile and cute little voice. Can’t wait to hold you!
And Dearest Xander,
Tomorrow morning your life will be turned upside down! How we wish you wouldn’t have to go through the sadness to find the joy. We can’t wait to get to know everything about you, but we feel we already know your sweet spirit. It has permeated our home since the day we laid eyes on your handsome little face. We are praying mightily that you will be comforted in the upcoming days as you adjust to a new way of life. We are praying that you will have the gift of tongues, and be able to learn English quickly. We hope that you will somehow know that we are yours, and you are ours. We are privileged to have you join our eternal family. In it, you will always find unconditional love and acceptance. We can’t wait to teach you about our Father in Heaven and His perfect love for you. We know He has been watching over you when we could not, and we are so grateful He has placed you in our lives. Sleep well, little one—your last night alone. We love love love love love you!
Mom and Dad
If you haven’t done so, read Jeremy’s post below.
I have so much to tell about our time in Hangzhou with Graci’s “China family,” but right now it is past midnight and we are EXHAUSTED! I will hopefully find time to share later, but for now just wanted to say that tomorrow morning, (in nine hours, to be exact) we will have our Xander!!!
It is hard to believe that this day has finally arrived. We are excited, overwhelmed, grateful. I can’t wait to share his “Gotcha Day” with you tomorrow.
Dear Graci and Jessica,
You have been such troopers! We have loved loved loved having this time with you in China. Jessica, you have been such fun, and such a treat for everyone to be around. You captured the hearts of many dear Chinese people. Graci, I am more in love with you than ever. I am so grateful for the privilege of mingling with your sweet China family. I love them, and I can see how much they love and adore you. I know it was so hard to say goodbyes, and I pray we have the opportunity to bring you back someday.
Dear Taylor and Parker,
We MISS you like CRAZY! It isn’t the same being here in China without you. We love hearing updates from Grandma and are so glad you are having such fun. We can’t wait to see you again—we love you.
Dear Elli,
Your giggles on the phone tonight made our day! We are so glad you have been such a good little girl. We know you are in PERFECT hands. We miss your hugs and smile and cute little voice. Can’t wait to hold you!
And Dearest Xander,
Tomorrow morning your life will be turned upside down! How we wish you wouldn’t have to go through the sadness to find the joy. We can’t wait to get to know everything about you, but we feel we already know your sweet spirit. It has permeated our home since the day we laid eyes on your handsome little face. We are praying mightily that you will be comforted in the upcoming days as you adjust to a new way of life. We are praying that you will have the gift of tongues, and be able to learn English quickly. We hope that you will somehow know that we are yours, and you are ours. We are privileged to have you join our eternal family. In it, you will always find unconditional love and acceptance. We can’t wait to teach you about our Father in Heaven and His perfect love for you. We know He has been watching over you when we could not, and we are so grateful He has placed you in our lives. Sleep well, little one—your last night alone. We love love love love love you!
Mom and Dad
Cultural Immersion
08/09/2009
My sister, Jen, is a self-described Anglophile: one who loves all things British. Well, more accurately, probably all things Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. I could probably be accurately described as a “languaphile”: one who loves languages. I can say hello in about 15 different languages. I’ve worked to become pretty good with my pronunciation and accent. I’m fluent in English and Thai and can get around very roughly in Spanish. A few months before we came to China to get Graci I started working on Mandarin. I was able to speak a very little bit on that trip and then as Graci’s English improved, I quit using much Chinese. Then a couple of months ago I started working on Mandarin again. The last two days have been very helpful in becoming able to actually converse with people.
For those of you who don’t know, it is recommended that when you come to China to adopt, you arrive at least a couple of days prior to your appointment to receive your child. This allows you to get over the jet lag and be more ready to handle the joys and challenges of a new family member. Most families use these days to tour Beijing. On this trip, we came to Hangzhou first. This has allowed us to spend these two days with Graci’s foster family. She lived with them for almost 4 years, and came to love them very much. They also love her very much. We contacted a local interpreter, chartered a van to take us all around, and had intended to treat the foster family to meals and activities while we were here. Instead, we have been treated like royalty. Instead of having the van meet us at the airport, the family somehow came up with two cars for the weekend and they all came out (an hour drive) to pick us up at the airport. They helped us check in at the hotel and insisted on paying for our stay here! They have treated us to two very nice restaurant meals (more on that in a minute!) and showered us with gifts and food. After the meal last night, I asked our interpreter to let them know we would like to pay. The father said, “We’ll have to fight.” Anyway, it’s been a great experience, and different than any of our previous trips. On most trips, we’ve been with other adoption families who are also English speakers. On this trip, we have been surrounded completely by Chinese speakers. We’ve had the opportunity to experience a deeper immersion in Chinese culture as we have seen this family interact with each other and with extended family. (Grandma and Grandpa and aunts, uncles and cousins have come to visit Graci.) It’s been really great. And it’s been great for my Mandarin capabilities. I’ve had several conversations with friends who speak no English at all. In all, it’s been a great two days. Graci has been just giddy with happiness while we’ve been here. She was particularly excited to see her older foster brother. Now we can see why. He’s 27 years old and just wonderful with her and with their new foster child – a four-year-old boy who has a family from the US waiting to come get him. Jesi has also had a ball. She is very much adored by all who meet her. She has a new BFF-the brother’s fiancé, who has been so cute with her. Graci’s foster mom has also been so cute with Jesi and they give each other hugs all the time. I think Graci’s foster mom and Christi’s mom are kindred spirits. They are both blessed with the gift to love children in an extraordinary way.
The one downside to this cultural immersion has been the meals. Let me just say how proud I am of Christi. She is a somewhat picky eater. No seafood is a big rule of hers. And she doesn’t like exotic stuff at all. Fortunately at each meal, there has been at least one chicken dish. But last night we were also served: duck tongue, turtle soup, pregnant eggs (if you don’t know, you don’t want to!), cow intestine soup (which Christi was specifically asked to try-and did!), and various other things we didn’t dare ask about. We have been able to get by eating quite a bit of the most palatable food and kind of skipping past the most challenging. The one thing that we might have offended in was the pregnant eggs. Graci’s foster mom asked Graci why we wouldn’t eat them, and Graci asked us in English. I don’t even remember what I said, something like “No thanks.” I think they are considered quite a delicacy. Graci ate at least two herself. But there is just a switch in my brain that will not let me eat an embryonic duck or chicken, regardless of the consequences.
Well, we’re doing well. Oh, I forgot to mention the sweaters that foster mom knitted for us. It’s crazy how much time she must have spent on these things. They’re amazing! The most beautiful things we’ve ever seen hand-knitted. They are all so sweet.
Tonight it’s on the Zhengzhou. (We’re hoping our luggage arrives at the Hangzhou airport before we depart!) We’re getting so excited to meet Xander. Wish us luck!
Oh, almost forgot. Thanks for all of the prayers. They worked!!! The typhoon turned toward the south, and should not impact our flight. Yeah!!!
Jeremy
P.S. This is Christi here. The biggest problem with the meals is the way the food keeps getting piled on your plate! If Christi’s mom and Graci’s foster mom are kindred spirits, then so are Christi’s Grandma Larsen and Graci’s aunt—neither will take “no thanks” for an answer when it comes to food. We have both been eating five times the amount of food we normally would from just trying to be polite! Food is put in front of us every three minutes or so. They closely watch what you seem to prefer, then go out and buy more of it and insist upon you eating this. If you mention you love the grapes, then it’s off to the market to buy you a whole bushel. Corn on the cob tasty? Let’s go out to the garden and get more to cook immediately! During the first meal they paid close attention to what we preferred to drink, and at every subsequent meal those drinks were in abundance in front of us. You had to be careful not to drink too much, or your glass would be filled to the brim again. It was so extremely thoughtful! They are the kindest, most giving family in the world! And I hope that it’s understood that we do recognize and appreciate that VERY much, while still saying our stomachs are about ready to pop from all the food and drink!!!
My sister, Jen, is a self-described Anglophile: one who loves all things British. Well, more accurately, probably all things Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. I could probably be accurately described as a “languaphile”: one who loves languages. I can say hello in about 15 different languages. I’ve worked to become pretty good with my pronunciation and accent. I’m fluent in English and Thai and can get around very roughly in Spanish. A few months before we came to China to get Graci I started working on Mandarin. I was able to speak a very little bit on that trip and then as Graci’s English improved, I quit using much Chinese. Then a couple of months ago I started working on Mandarin again. The last two days have been very helpful in becoming able to actually converse with people.
For those of you who don’t know, it is recommended that when you come to China to adopt, you arrive at least a couple of days prior to your appointment to receive your child. This allows you to get over the jet lag and be more ready to handle the joys and challenges of a new family member. Most families use these days to tour Beijing. On this trip, we came to Hangzhou first. This has allowed us to spend these two days with Graci’s foster family. She lived with them for almost 4 years, and came to love them very much. They also love her very much. We contacted a local interpreter, chartered a van to take us all around, and had intended to treat the foster family to meals and activities while we were here. Instead, we have been treated like royalty. Instead of having the van meet us at the airport, the family somehow came up with two cars for the weekend and they all came out (an hour drive) to pick us up at the airport. They helped us check in at the hotel and insisted on paying for our stay here! They have treated us to two very nice restaurant meals (more on that in a minute!) and showered us with gifts and food. After the meal last night, I asked our interpreter to let them know we would like to pay. The father said, “We’ll have to fight.” Anyway, it’s been a great experience, and different than any of our previous trips. On most trips, we’ve been with other adoption families who are also English speakers. On this trip, we have been surrounded completely by Chinese speakers. We’ve had the opportunity to experience a deeper immersion in Chinese culture as we have seen this family interact with each other and with extended family. (Grandma and Grandpa and aunts, uncles and cousins have come to visit Graci.) It’s been really great. And it’s been great for my Mandarin capabilities. I’ve had several conversations with friends who speak no English at all. In all, it’s been a great two days. Graci has been just giddy with happiness while we’ve been here. She was particularly excited to see her older foster brother. Now we can see why. He’s 27 years old and just wonderful with her and with their new foster child – a four-year-old boy who has a family from the US waiting to come get him. Jesi has also had a ball. She is very much adored by all who meet her. She has a new BFF-the brother’s fiancé, who has been so cute with her. Graci’s foster mom has also been so cute with Jesi and they give each other hugs all the time. I think Graci’s foster mom and Christi’s mom are kindred spirits. They are both blessed with the gift to love children in an extraordinary way.
The one downside to this cultural immersion has been the meals. Let me just say how proud I am of Christi. She is a somewhat picky eater. No seafood is a big rule of hers. And she doesn’t like exotic stuff at all. Fortunately at each meal, there has been at least one chicken dish. But last night we were also served: duck tongue, turtle soup, pregnant eggs (if you don’t know, you don’t want to!), cow intestine soup (which Christi was specifically asked to try-and did!), and various other things we didn’t dare ask about. We have been able to get by eating quite a bit of the most palatable food and kind of skipping past the most challenging. The one thing that we might have offended in was the pregnant eggs. Graci’s foster mom asked Graci why we wouldn’t eat them, and Graci asked us in English. I don’t even remember what I said, something like “No thanks.” I think they are considered quite a delicacy. Graci ate at least two herself. But there is just a switch in my brain that will not let me eat an embryonic duck or chicken, regardless of the consequences.
Well, we’re doing well. Oh, I forgot to mention the sweaters that foster mom knitted for us. It’s crazy how much time she must have spent on these things. They’re amazing! The most beautiful things we’ve ever seen hand-knitted. They are all so sweet.
Tonight it’s on the Zhengzhou. (We’re hoping our luggage arrives at the Hangzhou airport before we depart!) We’re getting so excited to meet Xander. Wish us luck!
Oh, almost forgot. Thanks for all of the prayers. They worked!!! The typhoon turned toward the south, and should not impact our flight. Yeah!!!
Jeremy
P.S. This is Christi here. The biggest problem with the meals is the way the food keeps getting piled on your plate! If Christi’s mom and Graci’s foster mom are kindred spirits, then so are Christi’s Grandma Larsen and Graci’s aunt—neither will take “no thanks” for an answer when it comes to food. We have both been eating five times the amount of food we normally would from just trying to be polite! Food is put in front of us every three minutes or so. They closely watch what you seem to prefer, then go out and buy more of it and insist upon you eating this. If you mention you love the grapes, then it’s off to the market to buy you a whole bushel. Corn on the cob tasty? Let’s go out to the garden and get more to cook immediately! During the first meal they paid close attention to what we preferred to drink, and at every subsequent meal those drinks were in abundance in front of us. You had to be careful not to drink too much, or your glass would be filled to the brim again. It was so extremely thoughtful! They are the kindest, most giving family in the world! And I hope that it’s understood that we do recognize and appreciate that VERY much, while still saying our stomachs are about ready to pop from all the food and drink!!!
Friday, August 7, 2009
You really can’t make this stuff up…
Ok, so we’re moving through today, thinking things are going pretty well. We left San Francisco on time. With the help of some Ambien, I slept a couple of hours and Christi slept about 4 hours. The girls were terrific. I can’t tell you what a huge blessing that has been. They are little troopers.
We get to Beijing, check at the baggage claim just in case (no luck-and no baggage). Then we go and wait for our flight to Hangzhou. Graci seems to fascinate the local travelers there. She’s obviously with us, and obviously wasn’t born to us. She speaks some Chinese, but doesn’t sound like a native. Who is this little girl? Eventually she was surrounded by about 10 people, all fascinated by the idea that we were her parents and that she was originally from Hangzhou. They also got a kick out of her cute efforts to speak Chinese. (It really is sad how much she’s lost. But it is getting better as she goes along.)
Anyway, we’re sitting there and having some discussions with the couple of people who speak some English. We mention that we’re flying out of Hangzhou on Sunday night to meet up with the little boy we’re adopting, and one of the people there says (rather nonchalantly, I might add): “Oh, they may cancel that flight because of the typhoon.” WHAT?!? Hold on there partner, did you just say typhoon? (In case you’re not aware, a typhoon is what they call a hurricane if it’s in the Pacific ocean. Don’t know why they aren’t all just called hurricanes, or all typhoons for that matter. It seems silly to me, but hey, I’m just a guy who learned to speak Chinese from a CD entitled “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speaking Mandarin,” which presumably makes me…a complete idiotJ) So there. You really can’t make this stuff up. If I was trying to pull your leg, would I say, “Uh, yeah, like…uh…a hurricane’s gonna stop us from getting to Zhengzhou…yeah, that’s it…”
With that little bit of information, we board the plane for Hangzhou and arrive minutes late. Graci’s sweet foster family is there at the airport to pick us up. It took them about an hour to drive there. Since we don’t have our luggage, I obviously have to talk to someone about getting it back. We have learned that, at least at this point, Graci is useless as an interpreter. So I send Graci, Christi, and Jesi out of the secure area to meet up with Graci’s foster family. (From what I heard, it was a sweet reunion. They are very pleased with the improvements in Graci’s appearance and health.) I, myself, stay in the secure area and initiate a lost baggage claim. Oh, how I wish I had the next two hours on video. I must say I’m rather pleased with myself. My Chinese was better than any of their English. (This is NOT a good thing!) But you know what? It took quite awhile, and several people listening to me with creative ears, but I explained our situation to the point that I’m 90% sure they know what’s going on. If all goes as planned, which it obviously doesn’tJ, then we’ll have our luggage on Sunday just in time to catch our potentially-typhoon-cancelled flight to Zhengzhou.
I think I may have said this before, but we would sure appreciate your prayers :).
Well, everyone has crashed except me. I had to call our travel insurance and our adoption agency (and Parker and Taylor, just cuz I missed them). It’s now 2:36 AM. I’ve had about 10 hours of sleep in the last 78 hours. Good night, and good luck.
Jeremy
PS. Once again, a huge THANK YOU to Boyd and Shelly and the Ausdenmoore's. Aus and the gang showed me how to use Skype, Boyd and Shelly had it on the computer, and now I can call home for 2 cents a minute :) :) :)!
We get to Beijing, check at the baggage claim just in case (no luck-and no baggage). Then we go and wait for our flight to Hangzhou. Graci seems to fascinate the local travelers there. She’s obviously with us, and obviously wasn’t born to us. She speaks some Chinese, but doesn’t sound like a native. Who is this little girl? Eventually she was surrounded by about 10 people, all fascinated by the idea that we were her parents and that she was originally from Hangzhou. They also got a kick out of her cute efforts to speak Chinese. (It really is sad how much she’s lost. But it is getting better as she goes along.)
Anyway, we’re sitting there and having some discussions with the couple of people who speak some English. We mention that we’re flying out of Hangzhou on Sunday night to meet up with the little boy we’re adopting, and one of the people there says (rather nonchalantly, I might add): “Oh, they may cancel that flight because of the typhoon.” WHAT?!? Hold on there partner, did you just say typhoon? (In case you’re not aware, a typhoon is what they call a hurricane if it’s in the Pacific ocean. Don’t know why they aren’t all just called hurricanes, or all typhoons for that matter. It seems silly to me, but hey, I’m just a guy who learned to speak Chinese from a CD entitled “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speaking Mandarin,” which presumably makes me…a complete idiotJ) So there. You really can’t make this stuff up. If I was trying to pull your leg, would I say, “Uh, yeah, like…uh…a hurricane’s gonna stop us from getting to Zhengzhou…yeah, that’s it…”
With that little bit of information, we board the plane for Hangzhou and arrive minutes late. Graci’s sweet foster family is there at the airport to pick us up. It took them about an hour to drive there. Since we don’t have our luggage, I obviously have to talk to someone about getting it back. We have learned that, at least at this point, Graci is useless as an interpreter. So I send Graci, Christi, and Jesi out of the secure area to meet up with Graci’s foster family. (From what I heard, it was a sweet reunion. They are very pleased with the improvements in Graci’s appearance and health.) I, myself, stay in the secure area and initiate a lost baggage claim. Oh, how I wish I had the next two hours on video. I must say I’m rather pleased with myself. My Chinese was better than any of their English. (This is NOT a good thing!) But you know what? It took quite awhile, and several people listening to me with creative ears, but I explained our situation to the point that I’m 90% sure they know what’s going on. If all goes as planned, which it obviously doesn’tJ, then we’ll have our luggage on Sunday just in time to catch our potentially-typhoon-cancelled flight to Zhengzhou.
I think I may have said this before, but we would sure appreciate your prayers :).
Well, everyone has crashed except me. I had to call our travel insurance and our adoption agency (and Parker and Taylor, just cuz I missed them). It’s now 2:36 AM. I’ve had about 10 hours of sleep in the last 78 hours. Good night, and good luck.
Jeremy
PS. Once again, a huge THANK YOU to Boyd and Shelly and the Ausdenmoore's. Aus and the gang showed me how to use Skype, Boyd and Shelly had it on the computer, and now I can call home for 2 cents a minute :) :) :)!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Patience is a virtue...
A big THANKS to Boyd and Shelly for letting travel with this computer:):):):)
12:21 AM - Christi bursts into tears. We explain again that if we don't get on an earlier flight than the on China Southern is offering, Graci will not be able to see her family in Hangzhou. And who knows when that opportunity might present itself again.
11:15-1:30 AM - We're all praying fervently in our hearts. Graci counts at least 16 prayers she has said herself.
12:23 AM - Agent number 1 (Aaron) enlists the help of agent number 2 (Tunisia). Tunisia has been observing Christi's hysterics (OK, hysterics is a bit of a stretch, but there is definitely some seriously smeared mascara at this point). Tunisia gets back on the phone with China Southern. The key is China Southern has to stamp our paper tickets and endorse them over to United. If this happens, United can book us on anything they want to. Apparently, this is against China Southern policy. But HOORAY for Tunisia. She pushes and pushes and pushes...and pushes until the China Southern agent finally agrees to do this endorsement. But it's late. And the China Southern agent is technically off work. And she has to physically stamp the paper ticket. And it took 15 minutes on a shuttle to get from where she is to where we are. And Jer is wearing floppy sandals. See Jer run. See Jer forget to take off his backpack. See Jer forget to take of his jacket. See Jer realize that LA is much more humid than SLC. See Jer thinking "Man I'm grateful I lost that 13 pounds before we travelled." See Jer thinking "Man I wish I'd lost 13 more." See Jer's back start to ache. See Jer running out of breath. See Jer try to use a luggage cart as a skateboard. See said skateboard start spinning out of control.
12:55 AM - Jer finds the China Southern agent and she endorses the ticket. At this point she also informs me that our luggage has been locked up for the night. It will go out on China Southern's next flight. The one that leaves 48 hours later:( This means we will not get our luggage until 2 days after we arrive in Hangzhou. (I'm developing more empathy for Boyd and Shelly on their trip to Ethiopia at this point. (Check them out here.)
1:15 AM - I make it back to the United ticket counter and they start working on re-routing us.
2:00 AM - Re-routing complete. We are scheduled to leave LA at 7:36 AM. We will go to San Francisco, then to Beijing, then to Hangzhou. We are now scheduled to arrive a mere 8 hours later than originally planned. We are very, VERY happy with this outcome at this point.
2:15 AM - Catch shuttle to airline-provided hotel.
2:30 AM - Lights out.
4:50 AM - Christi gets up and showers.
5:03 AM - Jeremy gets up.
5:20 AM - Jesi never got up. Jer carries her as we leave for the airport.
6:00 AM - The humidity has completely negated Christi's shower at this point. She stops at a shop and gets a new shirt with some of Dean's "airport money."
7:36 AM - We are on our way again!!!
So now we're waiting in San Francisco. We're feeling grateful to be going so soon. We're also feeling extremely tired. The girls have been amazingly wonderful through all this. I couldn't believe Graci last night. I've seriously never seen her run before. If I ask her to go quickly, she shuffles along a little faster. If I ask her to run, she will do a half-hearted jog for a few steps and then start walking again. But last night, when we explained that we were trying to catch a 1:50 AM flight and if we didn't catch it, we might not see her China family, she ran. Really, REALLY ran. And this was with a broken toe! I was very impressed.
So the start of our trip has been a bit rocky. But trials are, after all, one great way the Lord instructs us. As we were boarding the flight to San Francisco this morning, I said to Christi, "I've come a long way." She knew exactly what I was referring to. She complimented me on how patient I had been with the girls and how friendly and kind I was the with the customer service people along the way. (Obviously, since I've come a long way, this was not always my modus operandi in stressful situations.) Anyway, we're doing well at this point. Next time we talk, we'll be in China. I hope...
BTW-Terynn, we're already feeling that "supernatural refreshment." Thanks SO MUCH for the prayers.
12:21 AM - Christi bursts into tears. We explain again that if we don't get on an earlier flight than the on China Southern is offering, Graci will not be able to see her family in Hangzhou. And who knows when that opportunity might present itself again.
11:15-1:30 AM - We're all praying fervently in our hearts. Graci counts at least 16 prayers she has said herself.
12:23 AM - Agent number 1 (Aaron) enlists the help of agent number 2 (Tunisia). Tunisia has been observing Christi's hysterics (OK, hysterics is a bit of a stretch, but there is definitely some seriously smeared mascara at this point). Tunisia gets back on the phone with China Southern. The key is China Southern has to stamp our paper tickets and endorse them over to United. If this happens, United can book us on anything they want to. Apparently, this is against China Southern policy. But HOORAY for Tunisia. She pushes and pushes and pushes...and pushes until the China Southern agent finally agrees to do this endorsement. But it's late. And the China Southern agent is technically off work. And she has to physically stamp the paper ticket. And it took 15 minutes on a shuttle to get from where she is to where we are. And Jer is wearing floppy sandals. See Jer run. See Jer forget to take off his backpack. See Jer forget to take of his jacket. See Jer realize that LA is much more humid than SLC. See Jer thinking "Man I'm grateful I lost that 13 pounds before we travelled." See Jer thinking "Man I wish I'd lost 13 more." See Jer's back start to ache. See Jer running out of breath. See Jer try to use a luggage cart as a skateboard. See said skateboard start spinning out of control.
12:55 AM - Jer finds the China Southern agent and she endorses the ticket. At this point she also informs me that our luggage has been locked up for the night. It will go out on China Southern's next flight. The one that leaves 48 hours later:( This means we will not get our luggage until 2 days after we arrive in Hangzhou. (I'm developing more empathy for Boyd and Shelly on their trip to Ethiopia at this point. (Check them out here.)
1:15 AM - I make it back to the United ticket counter and they start working on re-routing us.
2:00 AM - Re-routing complete. We are scheduled to leave LA at 7:36 AM. We will go to San Francisco, then to Beijing, then to Hangzhou. We are now scheduled to arrive a mere 8 hours later than originally planned. We are very, VERY happy with this outcome at this point.
2:15 AM - Catch shuttle to airline-provided hotel.
2:30 AM - Lights out.
4:50 AM - Christi gets up and showers.
5:03 AM - Jeremy gets up.
5:20 AM - Jesi never got up. Jer carries her as we leave for the airport.
6:00 AM - The humidity has completely negated Christi's shower at this point. She stops at a shop and gets a new shirt with some of Dean's "airport money."
7:36 AM - We are on our way again!!!
So now we're waiting in San Francisco. We're feeling grateful to be going so soon. We're also feeling extremely tired. The girls have been amazingly wonderful through all this. I couldn't believe Graci last night. I've seriously never seen her run before. If I ask her to go quickly, she shuffles along a little faster. If I ask her to run, she will do a half-hearted jog for a few steps and then start walking again. But last night, when we explained that we were trying to catch a 1:50 AM flight and if we didn't catch it, we might not see her China family, she ran. Really, REALLY ran. And this was with a broken toe! I was very impressed.
So the start of our trip has been a bit rocky. But trials are, after all, one great way the Lord instructs us. As we were boarding the flight to San Francisco this morning, I said to Christi, "I've come a long way." She knew exactly what I was referring to. She complimented me on how patient I had been with the girls and how friendly and kind I was the with the customer service people along the way. (Obviously, since I've come a long way, this was not always my modus operandi in stressful situations.) Anyway, we're doing well at this point. Next time we talk, we'll be in China. I hope...
BTW-Terynn, we're already feeling that "supernatural refreshment." Thanks SO MUCH for the prayers.
Grin and bear it...;)
5:45 pm - Planned on leaving our home for the airport. (This gave us plenty of leeway)
6:10 pm - Actually left the house. No pressure at this point.
7:00 pm - Arrive at airport. (Thanks to Dean for "airport money" he slipped us as he dropped us off!)
7:45 pm - Find out the flight from SLC to LA is delayed one hour. Start to sweat the connection a little. We will have to leave security, go to China Southern ticket desk and clear security again in LA.
9:30 pm - Find out the flight from SLC to LA is now delayed 1.5 hours. Starting to get quite nervous.
10:40 pm (PST) - Arrive in LA. Ask several personnel how to get to the international terminal. Directions are not clear. Man, is LAX a beast!!!
10:55 PM - Find shuttle to international terminal. (Flight leaves at 11:50 PM)
11:10 PM - Arrive at China Southern ticket counter. Our flight is listed on their display, but there is no one there at all!
11:17 PM - China Southern agent arrives and lets us know the flight is closed. We beg and plead and play the adoption card, but she will not budge. She tells us we can catch the next flight to Guangzhou - 48 HOURS LATER!!! We know there's an Air China flight leaving for Beijing at 1:50 AM. Can she re-route us on that flight. Of course not. We will have to BACK to the United terminal and talk to them because it was their flight that was late. Ticket counter for Air China flight will close at 12:50 PM. RUN!!!
11:40 PM - Arrive back at United terminal. Wait several valuable minutes as three agents help one group of people and another agent cooly stares us down and decides whatever she's doing is more important than helping us.
11:52 PM - Christi goes way outside of her comfort zone and approaches an agent with a plea for help.
11:53 PM - Agent informs us that there is nothing he can do since these are China Southern's tickets. If they were United tickets, he would gladly re-route us on the next available flight.
11:54-12:20 PM We plead, agent tries very hard. Agent calls China Southern who refuse to let United change the tickets. United agent continues to try. We realize we are not going to make the 1:50 AM flight.
to be continued...
6:10 pm - Actually left the house. No pressure at this point.
7:00 pm - Arrive at airport. (Thanks to Dean for "airport money" he slipped us as he dropped us off!)
7:45 pm - Find out the flight from SLC to LA is delayed one hour. Start to sweat the connection a little. We will have to leave security, go to China Southern ticket desk and clear security again in LA.
9:30 pm - Find out the flight from SLC to LA is now delayed 1.5 hours. Starting to get quite nervous.
10:40 pm (PST) - Arrive in LA. Ask several personnel how to get to the international terminal. Directions are not clear. Man, is LAX a beast!!!
10:55 PM - Find shuttle to international terminal. (Flight leaves at 11:50 PM)
11:10 PM - Arrive at China Southern ticket counter. Our flight is listed on their display, but there is no one there at all!
11:17 PM - China Southern agent arrives and lets us know the flight is closed. We beg and plead and play the adoption card, but she will not budge. She tells us we can catch the next flight to Guangzhou - 48 HOURS LATER!!! We know there's an Air China flight leaving for Beijing at 1:50 AM. Can she re-route us on that flight. Of course not. We will have to BACK to the United terminal and talk to them because it was their flight that was late. Ticket counter for Air China flight will close at 12:50 PM. RUN!!!
11:40 PM - Arrive back at United terminal. Wait several valuable minutes as three agents help one group of people and another agent cooly stares us down and decides whatever she's doing is more important than helping us.
11:52 PM - Christi goes way outside of her comfort zone and approaches an agent with a plea for help.
11:53 PM - Agent informs us that there is nothing he can do since these are China Southern's tickets. If they were United tickets, he would gladly re-route us on the next available flight.
11:54-12:20 PM We plead, agent tries very hard. Agent calls China Southern who refuse to let United change the tickets. United agent continues to try. We realize we are not going to make the 1:50 AM flight.
to be continued...
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Jeremy didn't mention...
Graci's broken toe-- as in really, truly broken
The van's broken door
Our broken camcorder (just stopped working!)
My injured knee
The blue Chinese dress that got mixed up with some very cute, formerly white clothes
Seems about right for this week, as we just recovered from:
the bathroom flooding
our rental house leaking
the refrigerator breaking down completely
After the storm comes the rainbow, right?! I think ours is coming Monday morning, bright and early!! (:
The van's broken door
Our broken camcorder (just stopped working!)
My injured knee
The blue Chinese dress that got mixed up with some very cute, formerly white clothes
Seems about right for this week, as we just recovered from:
the bathroom flooding
our rental house leaking
the refrigerator breaking down completely
After the storm comes the rainbow, right?! I think ours is coming Monday morning, bright and early!! (:
Monday, August 3, 2009
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
Jeremy
Sunday, August 2, 2009
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
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
Saturday, August 1, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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
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
Friday, July 24, 2009
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!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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
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
Monday, July 6, 2009
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
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
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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
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
Sunday, June 21, 2009
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)
I am so blessed!!!!!!!
(Don't forget to scroll down and push pause on the music playlist)
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