Laws of Life

Murphy's Law:  Anything that can go wrong, will.

Hanlon's Razor:  Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Green's Theorem:  Random difficulties are infinitely more likely to occur when only one parent is present.

I was on the home stretch.  Get the kids off to school and all is well.  One little appointment for Lexi and then Christi will be home and the universe will once again be in alignment.  So simple.  But of course our life couldn't be quite that easy.  

Our morning scripture study starts at 6:25. I usually get up at 6:20.  At 5:59 I woke up to a shuffling noise in my room.  It's always just a bit eerie to sleep by myself, so knowing someone else was by my bed gave me a bit of an adrenaline rush.  I figured it was one of the kids, but I must say I was relieved when I turned on the light and saw Jesi's face and not some guy in a ski mask.  (Side note:  we LOVE having light switches right by our bed:)  Sophi and Lexi were whispering in their room.  Jesi had determined this fact was important enough to our family's wellbeing that she needed to wake me up and let me know.  Of course, the worst thing that would have happened if Lexi and Sophi continued to talk was they would have woken me up...

I told Jess that it was OK as long as they were being quiet, and that she should go back to sleep.  (Judging from the completely-ready-for-school state she was in upon arriving in my room for scriptures 20 minutes later, I'm guessing she never made it into bed.)  I had an excruciating headache, so I took some ibuprofen and laid back down for 20 minutes.  Just drifted back off when Jesi came in and turned on the lights.  "Time for scriptures."  Head throbs.  I look at the clock.  6:15.  "Um, Jess.  Scriptures start at 6:25."  "Oh.  OK."  Lights go off.  Head throbs.  I just drift off when my alarm rings.  

After scriptures the older kids are sensitive enough to my lack of skills to realize I need extra time to get everyone to school.  They all volunteer to have school lunch instead of home.  Grateful, I tell them my head is killing me and I'm going to sleep until about 7.  You guessed it.  I finally drift off and the alarm rings.  

The older kids are almost entirely self-sufficient in the morning, so we say family prayer and then I help Cali out to the carpool.  It's now 7:28.  By 7:40 I have to have Elli up, Lexi bathed and hair washed and leave for school with Elli, Lexi, Sophi, Jesi and Xander.  I have to be back by 8am because Lexi is having a 3-day EEG and the technician will be arriving between 8 and 10.  I'm hoping it's not right at 8, because Lexi is supposed to have her hair washed and dried before the tech arrives.  Also, Elli's bus arrives at 8:15.  The race is on.  

Ask Jesi to go get Elli from her room and bring her upstairs.  Throw Lexi in the tub.  Wash her hair.  (Because of the EEG she can't use conditioner.  How is that going to work?)  Get her out.  "Jess, can you get Lexi dressed?"  Cut up an apple and spread peanut butter on a plate for Elli.  "Thanks for getting Lexi dressed.  Can you get Sophi out to the van?"  Hand peanut butter and apples to Xander.  "Can you feed Elli while we drive to school?"  Hand Jess the van keys at her request.  Apparently say "yes" when she asks if she can start the van.  Lock up.  Head out to the van and realize Jesi is filling our garage with carbon monoxide.  Give a quick lesson on why not to start a car when the garage door is shut.  Last thing I hear as I shut the side door is Sophi's plaintive cry, "I don't want to die!"

Jess and Xander are at school.  We are headed back. We'll make it home by 8, but if the EEG tech is there before 8:15 I won't have time to dry Lexi's hair.  I drive up to the home and open the garage door.  I pull in.  My phone rings.  EEG tech has the wrong address but is close.  Give her the right address.  She will be here in 20 seconds.  Not good.  I get the girls and walk in the house.  It's very dark.  Several things are beeping.  I'm focused on Elli and Lexi and don't put things together very quickly.  I turn on the light.  Only the light doesn't turn on.  I try it again.  What is going on???  The electricity is out.  You've got to be kidding me.  Sometime between opening the garage door and flipping the light switch we lost power.  

I yell out the front door to EEG lady (Tena.)  Do you need electricity for what you're doing?  'Cuz ours seems to be out.  She does indeed.  She has us scheduled for a two-hour appointment, so she comes in to wait for awhile.  I usher her into the living room, apologize for the wet hair and my lack of ability to be in the room with her and I rush off to get Elli dressed.  There are still at least three loud beeps coming every 10 seconds.  New house-I have no idea where they're coming from.  One starts to be overpoweringly obnoxious.  I track it to our security system and turn that beeper off. I start taking the duct tape off of Elli's clothes.  (It worked last night.  YEAH!!!)  Elli fights me, making it even more challenging.  (Ever left duct tape on clothing overnight and then tried to remove it in the morning?  The warmth of the body stickifies it even more than already ridiculously adhesive duct tape normally is.  It can be a bit challenging.)  Clothes off.  BEEP. Help her use the bathroom.  BEEP.  Pull-up on.  BEEP.  Complete stranger in the living room talking to Lex and Soph.  BEEP.  Clothes on.  BEEP.  Looking for socks.  Can only find socks with the toes cut off (for Soph).  BEEP.  Suddenly realize that one of the beeps is the computer backup battery.  BEEP.  Turn off computer and backup.  BEEP.  (Man that thing's obnoxious!  What is it?  Don't have time to look since bus will be here momentarily.)  BEEP.  Find socks and shoes.  Put them on.  BEEP.  Put on harness.  BEEP.  "I'm taking Elli out to the bus.  Sorry to leave you alone in here.  Be back in a minute!"  BEEP.  Get Elli on the bus.

Take a deep breath.

Back inside.  Notice that Tena is now doing Lexi's hair.  Maybe it was a good thing I didn't get very far with that.  She'll do a much better job than I could have.  BEEP.  Start looking for the beep.  BEEP.  Track it down to the elevator.  BEEP.  Realize it's likely a backup battery like I have for the computer.  BEEP.  Flip a couple of big power switches in the control room.  Wait.  Wait.  SILENCE.  Glory be!

I finally have a minute to talk to Tena.  She explains that there is a fair amount of prep before she needs the electricity, so she'll get that done and see how things are.  By the time she's got Lexi's hair braided and marker all over her head for the spots where the EEG goes, the electricity still isn't on.  She can come back later, but perhaps we have a relative locally and could go there instead.  Hmmm.  Where could we possibly go that has electricity?  Hmmm.  How about our other house that hasn't sold yet?  So we pack a couple of camp chairs and head out.

Tena fixes Lexi up good.  I believe she has 23 wires attached to her!  Pretty cute.  Tena is enamored with Lex and Soph.  We finish up with not a second to spare.  Got to rush back home and get Sophi ready for her bus.  Pull up to the house and the granite repair guy is sitting and waiting in his car for us.  Electricity is back.  YEAH!  Show Raul the crack in the granite.  Tell him I can talk in several minutes once Sophi is on the bus.  Take her to the bathroom.  Change her clothes.  Feed her a frozen GuGurt.  Rush out to the bus.  Apologize for the hair and the lack of a coat.  Explain that mom isn't here and dad is an imbecile.  Driver agrees.

Take a deep breath.

-Jer

All Alone

Solitude.  Don't get too much of it around here.  Christi needed some this weekend so she headed down to Ferron to stay with her parents for the weekend.  This is her third night away.  That means I'll be getting the kids off to school in the morning.  We'll have to see how that goes:)  This was also a chance for Christi to see her Grandpa.  His health is deteriorating, and she wanted to spend some time with him.  So the title of this post could apply to her.

I was thinking more of me.  As in "All alone with nine kids for 66 straight hours and trying to maintain my sanity."  Or something like that.  First priority...everyone is alive.  Second...everyone has been fed.  In addition to that, we've actually kept the house fairly clean.  My hopes to finish building the shelves in our cold storage room took a hit when Christi decided to leave.  To overcome the lack of time I had during the day on Saturday, I made the rather stupid decision to stay up Saturday night until the shelves were done.  Let's just say it was deep into the am hours when I finally went to bed last night.  But the shelves are in!  We can move a ton of boxes out of the playroom and into the food storage area. Of course my lack of sleep made it rather challenging to make it through today.  We got to church (albeit 20 minutes late).  Parker did Sophi's hair (and it looked great).  Jesi did Lexi's hair.  'nuff said.  Thanks to both of them for their help!  

The kids were really wonderful all weekend.  They pitched in and helped.  Parker volunteered to make dinner Friday night.  The older kids all helped with the younger kids.  I took some time to play with kids and talk to kids one on one.  The most challenging part was Elli.  She definitely missed her mommy and wanted to let us all know it!  She also got past the duct tape last night and I was greeted with a nasty, diaper-eating mess when I got her up this morning.

We were able to survive this weekend, and even do some fun and productive things.  But we are clearly not complete without sweet Christianne.  We all miss her and look forward to seeing her tomorrow!

-Jer

More camping

The weekend after I went with the boys, Jesi, Graci, Cali, Lexi and I went on our annual daddy daughter campout.  This is the third year we've done this, and it seems like there another girl each time?!?  Go figure.

In the past we've gone to Clover Springs Campground.  To me, this is just about a perfect campground.  Beautifully nestled in a canyon, there are few campsites, few people and few intrusions on the serenity of the great outdoors.  Very little light pollution lends itself to fantastic night skies.  I love it!  Unfortunately, this year we were running a bit late, so instead of making the 70 minute drive to Clover Springs, we went to a campground that's about 15 minutes from our home.  Willow park was probably fairly remote at one time, but suburban sprawl has completely surrounded it at this point.  It has fairly busy roads all around it, a gazillion people camping in it and tons of light pollution obscuring all but the brightest of stars.  I was a bit disappointed, but kept my feelings to myself so the girls could form their own opinions.

At first, Jessici was a bit put off by the number of people we saw as we drove around to find an individual site.  Fortunately we were able to find one on the edge of the campground with few people right by us.  Once we got to setting up camp, Jesi seemed ok.  But once she took a trip to the restroom, she thought we'd stumbled upon the Garden of Eden.  She came rushing back from the loo and breathlessly exclaimed, "There are REAL toilets in there!  They flush and everything!!!  And sinks, too!!!  I love it here!!!!!"  I now know the first question we should ask when evaluating recreational venues for our girls:)  I wonder what Jess would say if she knew that Taylor, Parker and I will soon be embarking on a camping trip where we'll use these...;)

Willow Park was probably the better campground for Cali.  Flatter areas for her wheelchair and better bathroom facilities.  The picnic table was sitting on a raised concrete platform about three inches above ground level.  Cali repeatedly went up and down the ledge on her own.  Only once did she do a nose dive, but she got right up with a smile on her (slightly dirty) face.

Camping with the girls is a bit different than going with the boys.  Instead of talking about sports and hiking, we talk about make believe kingdoms and the royal inhabitants thereof.  Instead of, "we can set up the tent for you," it's "Daddy, how do you pound in one of these pointy things?"  But it's just as fun, and a wonderful, tender memory.  Thanks, my sweet dollies, for still wanting to spend the weekend with dad.  I better treasure it while it lasts!

Love,

Jer

The Great Outdoors

Three consecutive Fridays in September I slept in a sleeping bag!  (Two of those were in a tent, one was under the stars.)  The first weekend was the annual father and sons campout with other dads and sons from our congregation.  We went to a beautiful site up Provo canyon.  When we arrived we were disappointed to find out that this particular campground did not allow campfires.  Fortunately we were able to overcome this substantial obstacle and have fun anyway:)

We had heard in advance that there would be crafts for the kids.  Taylor, Parker and I were all a bit skeptical of "crafts" at a father and son camp.  I think we envisioned quilting frames and knitting needles.  But it turned out to be a lot of fun.  First of all we made those survival bracelets that are all the rage right now.  Kind of cool.  The best part of the night, though, was the clay.  Someone had a leftover block of really nice modeling clay.  We worked with the stuff for over an hour and got more and more creative as time went by.  Here are a few examples of our work:

Loaded pick-up truck (Parker):

Toilet (Xander):

Cool dude (Parker):

Y from BYU (guess who...Taylor!):

Foot (Jeremy):

Shoe (Taylor):

Foot in Shoe (Taylor and Jeremy):

Yoda (some random kid, but it was too cool not to post it):

Despite the lack of a campfire we were determined to cook our s'mores!  Fortunately someone had brought along a lighter...

I'm exhausted, I'll write more about the other trips tomorrow!

Jeremy

Field Trips

I had an epiphany today.

I have often wondered how much value family trips are when kids are very young.  Back in 2002, for example, I questioned how much Taylor and Parker would get out of our first trip to Disneyland.  They were 2 and 1 at the time.  I knew they were enjoying themselves, but I asked myself, "Will they even remember the tiniest bit of this?"  I concluded that while they might not remember the trip itself, experiences like these would help build a long-lasting relationship that in the future would allow them to love, trust and turn to us as their parents.  I'm sure this has been the case and it is a fantastic reason to spend time with our children.

But today I was hit with a reason just as important.  The trips with our kids are for US!  The memories being created are OUR memories.  Not the kids.

This epiphany came as I was fortunate enough to accompany Jessica and Taylor on a field trip.  The school had the 8th graders and 4th graders go together.  A group of four or five 8th graders would be in charge of helping a group of three or four 4th graders meet the objectives of the field trip (with adult chaperone supervision of course!)  We went to a beautiful spot in American Fork canyon called Tibble Fork reservoir.  We enjoyed the gorgeous fall colors and were surrounded by amazing mountain scenery.  The kids had to find, make observations about and sketch several plants, trees, etc.

After that, we went to Cabella's.  (Grandpa Nelson, you'll get a kick out of Jessica's exclamation when we got out of the bus and she saw the log-cabin feel of the store:  "This place looks like Gilly's!)  What a fun experience to see all of the taxidermied wildlife.  Jessica was VERY impressed.


The moment of my epiphany came when we started walking through the aquarium portion of the establishment.  Immediately I was transported seven years back in time.  Jessica was three.  I had decided to take her on the best Daddy Date ever.  The two of us drove an hour and a half from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga, TN.  We started that date by going to the fabulous aquarium they have there.  I will never forget the two of us sprawled on our bellies staring into the floor to ceiling aquarium walls.  I will never forget how close I felt to my little girl on that trip.  The aquarium, dinner at TGI Friday's, wading in a small, man-made stream that runs through a nearby park, staying in a hotel, attending a small amusement park the next day.  One of my all-time great memories.  To have a trip to another aquarium spark such a vivid recollection was a true tender mercy.  Reliving that in my mind was better than a cup of hot cocoa while sitting in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve.  And then it hit me.  I could now see the great value of taking our kids on trips that they will never remember.  They will someday have families of their own and make their own memories.  The memories we make now are the ones that will help sustain Christi and me as the kids grow up and leave us all alone.

Thanks Taylor and Jesi for a wonderful field trip!  Thanks for reminding me once again of how grateful I am to have kids!

Love,

Dad

60 in 60

OK.  This is awful.  Taylor just came in and said "Do you realize it's been 20 days since you blogged?"  Yes, I guess I realized that.  It's been nagging at me here and there, off and on for days.  But I'm too busy, right?  No.  I just haven't prioritized it.

So why is it important that I blog regularly?  Partly because of you faithful readers who love to hear stories of our off-the-wall bunch.  Partly to keep our extended family in the loop regarding our kids.  Partly because of the therapeutic value of putting thoughts on (virtual) paper.  But mostly because of the history that is lost if we don't record things on a regular basis.  Funnyisms, tender mercies, sibling love, sibling rivalry, so many wonderful things to remember that are quickly forgotten if not journaled.  Our kids love to read the blog.  They love to read recent posts and they love to read long ago posts.  Hopefully someday, their kids will love to read about the exploits of their parents here on these virtual pages.

So to get me jump started again, I am committing to 60 posts in 60 days, starting today.  Feel free to hold me to it.  (And Christi, you feel free to take part.  I could use some help!)

We are loving our new home and feeling so grateful to be here.  Thanks again to all who have helped!!!

Jeremy

Emily

I know I said that my next post would be about Conner.  There are reasons I haven't done it yet-- but in the meantime I haven't posted anything else because I had promised a Conner post.  Well, posting this video is going to have to trump my promise.  It's just too important.  (:

Last December as we were adopting Cali, a film crew traveled with us to document the adoption for their upcoming film, "Find Me."  I shared the trailer in a past post.  While in Xi'an, the film crew (Dave and Michael) visited a local orphanage and took a video of who they named, "Little Miss So Sad."  This video was later posted on facebook in hopes that they could find her a family, and they did!!!  The Zimmerman family is now in China and Little Miss So Sad is now officially their daughter, Lucy.  Once again, Dave traveled to China to document her adoption.  This will all be shown in the film "Find Me" coming out next Spring, which will also feature Cali's and Graci's stories.

If you remember, I stated numerous times that I don't like cameras.  I really don't.  Don't get me wrong-- the producers of this film are the kindest, most wonderful people and became dear friends.  They were wonderful throughout the process.  I just don't like being on camera.  But I knew in my heart that being part of this documentary could be a huge blessing to our girls.  Having their stories documented could be so, so good for them.  Even more,  I knew that it could lead to other children finding families.  I said over and over that if even one child found a home because of the film, then it was worth it.  It happened!!  My heart is so happy for Lucy-- but honestly it has made me even more anxious to continue to find homes for these children.

On this most recent trip to China, the orphanage director asked about filming some more children in hopes that Dave could also find families for them.  This video is about one of those girls, a girl they are calling Emily.

Watching this video will perhaps help make real what I try so hard to convey to people-- these children WANT A FAMILY.  They are real.  They are precious.  This video was JUST taken.  Her plea is current and it will tug at your heart.  Please consider sharing the video in any way you can in hopes of getting Emily the parents she so desperately wants.  And if you feel your heart start to open to her but you have questions or concerns about older child adoption, please ask me.  (:

--Christianne

Moving On...

The last two times we have moved it has been a very sudden transition.  Both moves were for work and my employer provided a moving service to come in, box everything up and drive it across the country.  (One move was from Utah to Tennessee, the other was when we came back to Utah.)  In those situations, we watched everything get packed up, got on an airplane and arrived at our new home.

This move has been much different.  We have moved everything ourselves (with the help of some kind friends and neighbors!).  There was no rush to get everything to the new home.  We are only 1.5 miles from our old house, so it's pretty easy to go grab something if we need it.  This long transition period has made the move more challenging for me in a very real way.  Each time I go back to our old house, I become very homesick for this place we lived in for six years.  Don't get me wrong...I LOVE our new home.  When I am here, it feels like home.  It is a wonderful, wonderful place for us.  But when I walk in our old house, I am flooded with memories.  Right now it is just an empty shell, and it feels so lonely.  We are praying that a wonderful family can move in and fill it with love:)

Here's a simple example of the poignant experiences I have had there:  Our sweet Jessica went through a phase where she would color pictures and tape them to our bedroom wall.  They were the sweetest expressions of love, if not world-class artwork, and we treasured them.  One of things we loved about them was the way she taped them up.  We loved these so much, that a couple of them have remained on our wall for years.  It broke a little piece of my heart to take them down the other day.

Thanks, Jesi, for bringing such a sweet innocence to our lives.  You are a treasure!

-Dad

Grace

Almost six years ago we brought home a nine-year-old spitfire.  A little fireball that changed my life.  She sent me into one of the most challenging years I've lived through.  And I sent her into one of the most challenging years she's lived through (and that's saying something!)

I watched her as she came into our room for morning scripture study today.  Grace is a perfect name for her.  She almost floats as she walks in, neck erect, regal smile on her face.  Today is dress down day, so she doesn't have to wear her school uniform.  She chooses to wear a beautiful orange flowered dress.  She can pull it off.  A couple of nights ago I took the four older kids to a youth meeting on a weeknight.  (I won't even go into how proud I am of them for choosing to spend 90 minutes on a school night to listen to spritual messages from ecclesiastical leaders:).  On the way home, Parker commented that he thought Graci was the most popular kid in school.

This summer Grace and Taylor participated in "Trek".  Hundreds of youth and adults from our area gained a greater understanding of what some of the mormon pioneers experienced by pushing handcarts for 20 miles along a portion of the original mormon trail.  Because of her medical condition, Grace couldn't do the walking and pushing, so during the day she traveled with the food crew, who drove on a road that paralleled the trail.  During the evenings and morning she was with the rest of the kids.  At a post-trek meeting, pictures of the journey were shown, and out of hundreds of images, Graci got perhaps the most cheers when her smiling face came up on the screen.

My little girl has come so far.  As she sat next to me during scriptures this morning, I remembered back to those first difficult days.  At that time I wasn't sure I was up to the challenge.  Now I cannot imagine life without our Graci.  God knows.  He knows when our branches need to be pruned.  He knows what is down the road next week and next decade.  And when we trust Him, we end up with flowers in our life like Gracelin Kate.  How grateful I am for this little angel in our home!

-Dad

Jeremy's principle

A person's size is inversely proportional to their ability to disrupt the lives of the people around them.

Example #1:  Sophia!

Just because...

I stumbled across this picture of Elli and thought it was too darn cute not to post:)

Parental Prowess

Why is it that when I'm sick and completely out of commission, everything keeps going smoothly and the house is fine and dinner is prepared and life is great, but when Christi's sick and completely out of commission the house looks like this after just one morning:

I'm thinking there's a lesson here about our relative importance to the family...
-Jer

Whodunnit?

I left the house yesterday to go over and move more stuff from the old house.  My office was a disaster.  Boxes everywhere.  Bills and memos in multiple piles as I tried to catch up on weeks of paperwork.  I even had an external hard drive hooked up to the computer on my desk with a cord hanging between the desk and the wall outlet.

Before I left, I gave all of the kids explicit instructions not to go in my office under any circumstances.  Upon my return, I sat at my desk.  Something seemed off.  The mouse was on the left side of the keyboard.  Strange, since I'm right-handed.  I figured I must have done it myself somehow.  Surely none of the kids would have entered after my dire warning.  I looked at the papers in their piles.  Nothing seemed amiss.  The poorly-placed hard drive was still in place.  Hmmm.

I moved my mouse and the computer came alive.  AHA!!!  The desktop had clearly been tampered with!  There were three new unnamed folders!  And I was looking back at myself with crazy googly-eyes as the photo booth app was in use!  Who could have done this dastardly deed!?!  I felt the fuse light within me.  I kept my voice soft but intense, so all would know of this great wrong that had been dealt me.  "Does anyone know who played with my computer?"  Parker: "Is there a problem with it."  Me (slightly sheepish):  "Well, no, (now feeling more self-assured) but I told everyone not to come in my office!"  Parker: "How do you know someone messed with the computer?"  Me: "Well, there were some new folders created and photo booth was open."

Parker:  "Did someone take a picture of themself?"

Me (now feeling not just sheepish, but pretty dumb):  "Uhhhhh.  I don't know.  Let's see."

And here we have our rather unsubtle culprit:

 A cute little "I'm sorry dad!" and all is forgiven.  My computer and I live to fight another day!

-Jer

Moving

No matter how wonderful the home you're moving into, you still have to move!  We first slept in the new house last Tuesday, so we've been here just over a week.  Saturday we moved the majority of our stuff over here, but we still have a lot to go.  We're trying to unpack here, continue to pack up there, clean and do repairs at the old house to get it ready to put on the market.  All of this while trying to keep up with the rigors of daily life.  But what a privilege to do all of this in the such an amazing place.  We really do keep pinching ourselves to make sure it's not a dream.

The kids are absolutely loving it.  Sophi uses her sink a hundred times a day, just because it's there.  She loves to get up on her bathroom counter and brush her teeth.  Cali is so happy about the independence her elevator brings her.

A few days ago, three of the kids had friends over at the same time...and each of them was able to find space to play without being overrun by everybody else.  This house is unbelievably life changing for us.  Thank you all SO, SO much!  We truly love it here:)

Jeremy

Lyrical Lessons

Elli loves music.  She knows the lyrics to dozens of songs.  Church songs, pop songs, even original songs I've written and recorded. Once she's listened a few times, she knows all of the words.  One thing she enjoys doing is substituting her name for random lyrics.  For example, she might change, "Give, said the little stream..." to "Give, said the little Elli...."  She sometimes finds herself absolutely hilarious when she does this, and belly laughs after each substitution.  Christi and I often play along with her and throw her name in at different spots in a song we sing to her.  Usually it's just fun for Elli.  Today, it had a profound impact on me.

One of Elli's favorite songs right now is "The Bus Stop," a song I wrote before we moved to Nashville.  It tells the story of a man who comes across a homeless family at a bus stop in Denver in the winter.  He is touched by the experience and the words of the Bible come to his mind.  This is the chorus:

At the bus stop downtown my peaceful world stopped

And I thought of a lesson mama had taught

Right from the good book, time couldn't dim

When you're helping His children, you're just helping Him

And you won't have to look far, to find Him around

He could be at the bus stop downtown.

The scriptural reference is Matthew 25:40  "...Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

I've sung this song probably hundreds of times.  Today, I was bathing Elli before church.  She sang her version of the last line, "He could be at the bus stop downtowm."

"Do you want me to sing The Bus Stop, Elli?"

"Yeah, OK."

So I started to sing to her.  During the first chorus, I threw her name in randomly.  Except the meaning was anything but random:

 

At the bus stop downtown my peaceful world stopped

And I thought of a lesson mama had taught

Right from the good book, time couldn't dim

When you're helping His Elli, you're just helping Him...

 I was struck by the truth in these lines.  First of all is the significance of the words, "His Elli."  Truly she is His.  Truly He must look down on her with special, tender affection.  And truly He must rejoice when I care for her with love and tenderness and His heart must break when I am less patient than I should be.  She is indeed His Elli.  I have a stewardship over her for the brief period of mortality, but she is His Elli.  I hope she will find my efforts acceptable someday in the eternities when she is with Him again.  When she is whole again.  For the splendor of His Elli at that time will surely be something I will want to be a part of.

Secondly, the significance of the words, "When you're helping His Elli, you're just helping Him...."  I have known the words in Matthew 25:40 as long as I can remember.  I have known that serving any and all of my children is a good thing that makes our Savior happy.  But in one of those moments of clarity where truth distills upon our spirits, I was touched this morning as I struggled with a little girl who did not want her hair washed.  When I'm helping His Elli, I'm just helping Him.  When I'm serving His Elli, I'm serving Him.  When I'm ignoring His Elli, I'm ignoring Him.  It instilled in me a greater desire to help, serve, love, look after, hold, care for and in every way be the best father I can be to Elli and to each of my wonderful, amazing, special children.  No father is more blessed than I am.  My children are incredible.  

Later today I had another lesson from Elli's love of music.  We were in sacrament meeting and Elli, as has been the case for the past several weeks, was yelling/grunting/screaming quite loudly.  I took her out into the foyer and fed her honeycomb.  She started to sing the Hillary Weeks song that Lexi and Jessica sang at Lexi's baptism.  One of the lines from this song is "When you stand with me, and I stand with you.  Elli once again modified the words.  In fact, these are the only two lines she sang: "I'll stand with mom.  I'll stand with dad."  I asked her, "Will you stand with mom and dad?"  "Yes," she replied.  Once again I was touched by this little angel.  It is extremely rare that she answers "Yes" to a question.  So it was particularly special that she answered "Yes" to this one.  One day she will stand with mom and dad.  Side by side.  No longer needing our assistance for her every need.  She will instead be a leader in His eternal kingdom.

It would be an amazing thing to see each other as God sees us.  To see the eternal potential of each of our spirits.  I would guess that most of us have had the experience of meeting someone who emanated something special and strong.  Someone that we could tell was good.  Even great.  We leave those interactions uplifted.  Edified.  More determined to do good ourselves.  It is sometimes overwhelming to be surrounded by the greatness of our children.  We have nine of these people in our home with us.  They are each truly special individuals.  Spiritual giants.  And the greatness of their spirits is somehow intensified by frailty of their physical bodies. 

I learn new lessons every day.  I feel as though I am in the circumstance described in Malachi 3:10 "...and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."  My quiver is full.  I am a blessed man.

Jeremy

We Are In!

It still seems like a dream, but here we are.  Last night was our first night sleeping in our new home.  (Sleeping is a relative term.  Christi and I were trying to put stuff together until almost 2 am and got up for the first day of school at 6:30). Given how exhausted I am, I'm going to make this a very short post.  Suffice it to say we feel like we are in some sort of magical dream come true.  Which I guess we are!

Jer

Two items of business

I know I said my next post would be about Conner-- but I have two time-sensitive hings that I wanted to blog about first.
1.  Many people expressed a desire to come and see our new home after the parade because they didn't want to buy tickets for all of their kids or they couldn't make it before for whatever reason.  We decided to have have an open house tomorrow from 4:00-7:00 to give anyone who wished a chance to walk through.  Kids can go up in the tower playroom (we didn't allow it during the Parade because of liability issues) as long as they have parent permission (the rails are still not up on the bunk beds) and can play on the playgrounds outside.   We'll have cookies outside.  We will start to move in the following day, so this is the last chance to see it staged with all of the cute things we borrowed from our darling friends and neighbors, and it's likely the last time you will ever see every room clean at the same time again!  (: 

2.  I have a friend who was planning on hosting a Chinese exchange student this year.  They have met the student through Skype and she will be arriving on Tuesday.  Last week, this family found out that a job transfer would be sending them to Rexburg, ID.  Unfortunately, the high school there will not accept their exchange student.   They have no other choice than to find a new family for this cute girl, who has already been accepted by Jordan School District and is registered at Herriman High School.  Is this something that you might be interested in????  Again, she arrives on TUESDAY.  As in, two days from now.  (:  Here is some more info from my friend:

Our exchange student is a girl from Tianjin, China.

She is arriving on Tuesday, the 20th of August in SLC. She is currently visiting family in Seattle.

She'll be a Junior in high school.

A family would need to provide her a bed of her own, but she can share a room with one other female.

The family also provides her food.

She is bringing money for all other school expenses, etc.

The company that she is coming through would need to do a criminal back ground check on the family. (Super easy.)

They will also want to come and see the house and meet the family.

The family is asked to treat her like a member of the family and include her in their activities, etc.

We are not allowed to publish photos on the internet, but she is adorable.

She speaks really good English. She had to score high enough to get into school without taking ESL.

She LOVES little kids and doesn't mind a big family.

She will eat anything, and is willing to do chores.

She has no allergies.

We've spoken to her twice on skype and she is just excited to be in America. She is also excited to go buy Apple products! (Pretty typical.)

She plays volleyball and likes singing and dancing. Her favorite color is blue.

She also plays piano.

Her favorite music is Kpop (korean pop) and she wants to learn to speak Korean.

Her family wants her host family to visit China one day so that they can show them around.

She really wants a family with a mom and dad in the home.

She is a leader at her school.

Cali

Our lives are filled with joyous moments, aggravating moments, love, joy, pain, laughter, fatigue, and so on.  In other words, we are just like every other family.  One way that we are perhaps a bit different is in the number of poignant moments we experience.  For example, yesterday.  Lexi was in the room while I was loading the dishwasher.  She said, "Dad, have we had enough special needs?  Cuz I'm tired of blind."  What do you say to that?

I was thinking the other day.  We have gone through a lot off stress in our lives lately.  I've heard people say that moving is one of the more stressful things that can happen to a person.  I googled a list of the most stressful life events.  It had 43 items on it.  Marriage, death of a loved one, marital issues, adding a family member, getting laid off.  Lots of things that are most definitely challenging.  But as I perused that list, "leaving everything and everyone you've ever known to travel across the globe with people who look, smell and talk funny and trying to acclimate to a completely different culture with food that is awful and in a place where almost nobody understands you and fit into a family you had no say in choosing" isn't even mentioned.  So I hereby request that future lists of this type include, "being adopted into a foreign country" as one of the top stressors a person can experience.

I am so proud of Cali.  Despite the massive amount of change she has dealt with in her life, she remains strong, upbeat and resilient.  For the most part she is a ray of sunshine in our home.  But from time to time she gets down.  It may be a misunderstanding with a sibling.  It may be one too many times she looks down at an American meal she can't stand the taste of.  The language barrier used to really be difficult on her, but that is improving dramatically.  

A couple of months ago I heard her crying softly to herself.  I helped her into my room and sat her on my lap.  I cradled her in my arms and tried to see if I could help with anything.  I think there were a variety of issues she was dealing with, but I couldn't get her to open up about anything.  I kept asking, "What do you want, Cali?"  Finally she answered.  In her soft, broken English, she said, 

"I want to stand up."

I look forward to the day that I better understand why some people must deal with such outsized hardships.  Why do some of the purest among us suffer so much pain?  Or perhaps, does dealing with these special needs actually help to purify a person?  There are certainly few people more sweet or innocent than Cali, Lexi and Sophi.  I don't know the answers, but I do have faith in a loving Father who does know.  I have faith that when the time is right, I will understand.  And when the time is right, all will be healed and whole.  In the meantime, I will endeavor to be more patient and willing to deal with my own struggles, which pale in comparison to the struggles of so many in this world.

Thank you Cali, Lexi, Sophi, Xander, Elli, Graci, Jessica, Taylor and Parker for your tremendous examples to me.

-Dad

A Little Crush?

It's hard to believe the Parade of Homes is over.  We are SO excited to move in!  But there is a part of us that is truly going to miss the whole Puzzle Them Home adventure.  There have been so many angels surrounding and supporting us for so long that it's hard to imagine a more normal life.  But it will be good to get settled in and back to the regular chaos rather than the almost unbelievable insanity of the past many months.

I will miss my regular conversations with Bret.  We will miss Chrissy, Julianne and Lauren calling to check up on us.  We will miss the saws and hammers, nail guns and paint sprayers and all of the other tools and noises of the construction.  We will miss all of the Parade-goers milling around our home and their sweet comments and touched spirits. 

On multiple occasions Bret and others have commented on the protective bubble that has surrounded this house and this project from the beginning.  There is simply no way that a homemaker with absolutely no experience with running a business or raising funds or building houses should have been able to start a project that would raise a quarter of a million dollars and construct a dream home.  There is no way Bret should have been able to finish a 7,511 square foot home in 104 days.  God has been in the details of this entire endeavor.  Thank you to all of the angels here on earth who have served us in so many ways!

Tonight we decided to take several of the kids up for the last hour of the Parade.  As we were getting ready to leave, Sophi came up to me and whispered in my ear, "I have somefing to tell you."

"What?" I replied.

In a whispered voice she said, "The house is fantastic.  And I love Bret!"

We all love Bret!

-Jeremy

Teamwork!

Picture this...

Sophi wanders through the living room looking for flies and talking to Lexi.  Lexi follows her around.

Sophi yells out, "There's a fly!!!"  

Lexi smacks her open palm against the nearest surface.

"Dad, we're catching flies for you!"

Thanks, girls:)