Example

It's been a very good trip so far.  The kids are having fun.  They love the breakfasts and the pools.  They are having fun feeling grown up in their own hotel rooms. (We had three rooms in Wuhan!)  They've been great travelers.  Conner is as happy as a clam all the time.  He loves having a family.  There has really only been one thing that has been fairly difficult:  the lack of empathy and services for those with disabilities in China.
 
Cali has grown accustomed to the way she is treated at home.  Care and love and a desire to help from family and friends at school at church.  I have a renewed gratitude for the way in which the Americans with Disabilities Act helps to provide dignity and accessibility to those whose physical bodies have added challenges.  Unfortunately, things are a bit different here.  Cali has had to deal with an almost endless barrage of intent stares.  People do not hesitate to point, discuss, even follow us for blocks and blocks as we walk, curious about our rather unique group.  It’s been an emotionally difficult experience for Cali.  On top of that, the accessibility issues abound.  There are rarely ramps, and when there are they are often ridiculously steep.  Many of the public areas have no elevators.  She has had to be lifted up many flights of stairs, either piggy back on me or by having three people lift the chair with her in it.  This is truly not an attempt to knock on our beloved China.  I’m merely trying to describe some of the difficulties we've had.
 
The only times I've given in to stress or frustration on this trip have had to do with these accessibility issues.  Primarily at the airports.  The fact that Cali’s wheelchair doesn't fold just about kept us off of one of our flights.  At one airport, they required Cali to be wheeled through a completely separate security area without any of us with her.  All alone with one, male airport security person wheeling the airport-supplied chair.  She didn't meet up with us again all the way to the actual gate.  She was terrified.  Poor girl!  They don’t have the wheelchairs that fit down the airplane aisles at most airports in China.  Therefore, they wheel her to the door of the plane, and then I carry her to her seat.  That’s fine, honestly.  I feel it a privilege to serve my little princess.  Last night we were in row 50, so it was a lengthy carry down the tight aisle.  And as I mentioned in an earlier post, my back has been having some significant issues.  Once we landed, I carried her back to the door of the plane.  Here a young man informed me that I would have to continue to carry her up through the jetway and who knows how much farther.  We would meet the airport wheelchair somewhere along the way.  Obviously the language barrier made it harder to get a clear understanding of what was going on.  
 
I protested.  While one can see why you can’t wheel her down the very narrow aisle of a plane, why in the world couldn't we get a wheelchair into the very wide jetway.  While I kept what I actually said in check, my tone of voice and the glare from my eyes communicated an extreme displeasure to the poor young man delivering the message.  He explained that it was because we were at the international terminal.  Again, the language barrier made it more difficult to get the entire message across.  Again, I wondered, “who cares what terminal it is?  This jetway is eight feet wide!  Get us a wheelchair!” And the daggers in my glare did not decrease.  I finally gave up hope and started carrying her down the jetway.  It was a long one, and after a couple of turns, it became evident why the young man said we couldn't get a wheelchair.  Because it was the international terminal, they weren't letting passengers from our domestic flight directly into the terminal.  We were diverted down onto the tarmac via a long flight of steps.  At the bottom of the steps a shuttle would take us to the domestic terminal.  I carried Cali down the steps and the same sweet young man let me know that the wheelchair was being driven out to us on the tarmac.  We would wait at the bottom of the stairs.
 
We ended up waiting there for about 15 minutes.  The young man repeatedly apologized to us for the inconvenience.  By this time, my frustration had passed and I felt genuinely sorry for being a grouch.  I kept a big smile on my face and made a point of thanking the young man for helping us and staying with us.  At one point, Parker came up to Christi and me and said, “That guy who’s helping us just looks like a good guy, doesn't he?  He looks like a missionary.”  My guilt expanded rapidly.  I looked at the young man and reflected on what Parker had said.  Park was right.  This young man had a light about him.  A genuine goodness.  I continued to talk to him and be sweet and kind with both him and the kids.  Finally our shuttle came.  It was a huge shuttle bus, designed to hold over 100 people.  Tonight, it was just for us J.  Christi, Cali and I were up at the front with our young helper.  The other kids went to the few seats in the back and spread out.  We talked to each other.  We laughed.  We had fun.  We made the best of a long evening.  At one point, Conner began singing Doe-a-Deer, which we didn't even know he was familiar with.  I jumped in with him and suddenly all of us (except Cali) sang the entire chorus.  (When we were done, Cali looked up at me and said, “I don’t know you!”)
 
The shuttle finally pulled up to the terminal.  As we stepped off and headed inside, this sweet young man turned to me and said, “I think you are a good father.  Your family makes me feel warm.”  I was humbled.  So humbled.  This young man had seen and felt the light of Christ through our sweet and wonderful children.  In spite of their flawed and fumbling father, through their actions and interactions the rest of my family had shared their testimony of the Savior and what He can do for each individual.  How grateful I was that I had also seen their example (particularly the example of my sweet wife) and decided to quit being a curmudgeon and start being the man I ought to be.  We will likely never see that young man again, but I hope he remembers our family.  I hope he remembers that warmth he felt and recognizes it again sometime in the future.  I hope someday he’s in a situation where that warmth will be identified for him as the love of the Savior and that he will be able to act on that information and accept Him.  I hope that in the future I will more consistently remember the importance of my own example and not let my weaknesses interfere with subtle opportunities to share the gospel.  
 
I am grateful for what I have.  I am grateful for my family.  I am grateful for my wife.  I am grateful for my Savior.
 
-Jeremy

Children’s Welfare Institute

What a beautiful day we experienced with Conner yesterday. We had the opportunity to visit his orphanage in Wuhan.  Through the years we have visited most of the orphanages that our children have lived in.  They have all been well-kept facilities with providers who seemed to genuinely care about the children they were helping.  But there was something different about the facility in Wuhan.  There is a special spirit there.  We could feel of the great concern and love and hope that the staff had for the children.

 We started out our visit by pulling into the drop-off area.  As we got out of our van, we noticed something we had never seen before:  a massive TV screen showing a loop of a 5-minute video about the Wuhan Children’s Welfare Institute.  It was a well-done presentation that talked about the needs of the special children being cared for in this facility.  It shared stories of kids who have been adopted by in-country and foreign families.  Several of these kids had returned to the orphanage to visit, and one is even the current art teacher there.  This particular man immediately became near and dear to our hearts because of his lack of hands and his ability to do his artwork with his feet.  They gave us a copy of the video and we’ll try to post it when we get back home.  Conner has a short bit in it.

We were greeted by many of the orphanage staff as well as a local TV crew.  Apparently Conner is a bit famous in Wuhan. The day before we arrived, his story was in the local newspaper.  The cultivation of his tremendous musical talent despite his blindness combined with his being adopted by an American family has been of interest to the local government and news media.  They will be running a TV news story on him throughout the entire province in the next day or two.  By the way, when you say “local media” in China, for many cities, including Wuhan (population around 10 million), that would be one of the largest markets in the US.

The first room we went into was filled with some of Conner’s closest friends.  They were all very excited to see him.  He was immediately led to the piano and the kids crowded around him.  He started to play a song and they all joined in singing.  We’re not sure what the song was, but it was so sweet to see how the kids loved performing with him.

After the song was over, we were introduced to Conner’s foster family.  This group of 4 kids stays with the same foster parents every weekend, then comes back to the Welfare Institute during the week.  Conner and another 12-year-old girl have been foster siblings for the last seven years!  This poor, sweet girl was inconsolable.  She was clearly devastated to lose her foster brother and friend.  Her tears flowed freely and both Christi’s and my hearts ached for her as we watched.  Conner’s foster mother was also there with a huge bag full of some of Conner’s favorite foods.  She clearly had a tender heart and loved these five kids she was fostering.  We had some gifts for them as well.  One was a baseball cap with the BYU “Y” on it.  She put it on the head of the youngest foster sibling, a boy around nine or ten years old.  This little boy had a pout on his face and said, “No!  Jiaxia (Conner’s Chinese name) is not my best friend now!  He is not nice anymore!  He is leaving!”  Clearly, Conner is loved by his peers, and for good reason.  Fortunately, we found out that at least a couple of his foster siblings have their paperwork ready at this point and have their files with adoption agencies.  Our prayers will be with them to find their forever families!

You can’t really explain just how outgoing our newest little man is.  He is the huggingest, lovingest,  “I-love-my-family”est, “My-family-is-so-friendly”est kid you've ever seen.  He is SO soaking up having parents.  Dozens of times a day he will tell each of one of us how much he loves and and give us a huge hug. He is a social butterfly.  Every time someone says something in English he asks what was said.  He loves to be part of things.  He has the sweetest disposition and always wears his world-class smile.  Seriously, he’s been with us for five full days now, going through what is normally a challenging transition, and I haven’t once seen him look sad.  He just keeps saying, “I very love my family!”  He has looked serious occasionally, when asking questions about school and the logistics of living in America.  He wants to know what he’s facing when he gets to his new home.  But he is truly just the most joyful, loveable kid you've ever met!  We are SO grateful and so sure that he was just meant to be part of our family.

After a little while, Christi did what the women in my life (e.g. my mom) have been doing since I was about eight years old.  “Jeremy can play the piano, too! Would you like to hear him?”   Of course everyone wanted to.  So I sat down and played Great Balls of Fire with all my heart.  I don’t think the kids were used to such vim and vigor.  Some were scared.  Lots laughted and smiled.  Afterwards, Conner said, “Daddy scared me.  He is so good.  Will I be good enough?”  CuteJ.  And yes, Conner, you’ll be great.  I’m not that good, I’m just loud.

After meeting with all of his friends we moved on to a tour of the orphanage.  We walked past rooms with kids of all ages, from infants to teens.  Christi couldn’t help herself from picking up one particularly cute infant girl.  She is already looking forward to being a grandma.  (No pressure, kids!)  It is always heartbreaking to see these sweet children of God.  They are in a good place with good people, but is doesn't make up for not having a mom and dad.  It is hard not to cry.  We ended up in the room where he practices piano.  His orphanage piano teacher was also there.  At first we didn't realize the significance of where we were.  But then his teacher told us that Conner had a song he wanted to play for his mom.  She asked Christi to stand by the piano.  He began to play “Near, Far, Wherever You Are” (theme song from “Titanic”) as she sang with him.  Christi and I immediately realized we were hearing the same song played in the same place where we had first been introduced to our little boy on video, and we both burst into tears.  (Of course this was documented by the TV crew.  Nice!)  It was so beautiful to see that scene recreated.  The teacher was leaning over him and singing, just like in the original video that allowed us to fall in love with him.  It was an unbelievably beautiful moment we felt so privileged to experience.

Afterwards, his piano teacher spoke to us for a long time.  She told us several stories about our Conner, including how shy and introverted he once was.  Our favorite story was how when she first began to teach him, he told her he wanted to be a professional pianist.  She told him he would have to practice very hard at least three hours a day.  She then left the room but kept checking on him without letting him know, wanting to see how long he would really practice on his own.  SIX hours later, he finally stood up and began to leave the room.  He needed to go to the bathroom so badly that he didn't quite make it—but he had been too afraid to ask to stop practicing.  (:  She also told us that he had asked her “thousands of times if a real mom and dad would ever accept him because he was blind.”  Ahhh.  Tore at our heart strings.  She said that she kept telling him that if he wished it and felt it in his heart that it could come true. The whole conversation was very touching and humbling and made us realize even more what a special young man he is.

Once we were done at the orphanage, we went to the music college in Wuhan.  A couple of years ago a high-ranking official in the Wuhan government met Conner and was extremely impressed.  He arranged for Conner to receive free weekly lessons at the college from an accomplished professor there.  (In fact, this professor will be performing in Pennsylvania in July and we’re hoping to get Conner out there for the concert.)  We had the chance to meet this professor and watch as he gave Conner a short lesson.  It was here that we began to understand just what an incredible musical ability he has.  The teacher would play a series of notes from a new song and Conner would quickly be able to imitate them on a second piano.  Within minutes he was able to imitate a complex musical phrase, including dynamics and touch.  It was really quite incredible.  We are so excited to see where he can go with his music.  It is clearly very important to him.

We are now in Guangzhou.  Can’t believe we’re halfway through!  We really loved Wuhan.  It’s a beautiful city on the banks of the Yangtze river.  We spent a day exploring a beachfront park and the Yellow Crane Tower.  We also had tons of fun in the hotel swimming pool.  At least some of us went swimming every day we were there.  (And of course we were required to purchase the lovely swim caps many Chinese pools require!)  We had Burger King and McDonald’s and a knock-off pizza hut and room service and a couple of nights of ramen cooked in our hotel room.  In spite of the names of those restaurants I mentioned, the ramen was probably the most American food we had.  We will miss this beautiful city and hope to be able to bring Conner back someday.

Thanks for all of the prayers and service and support and love.  We feel their effects and appreciate all of you so much!

-Jeremy

Conner plays for his friends

Conner comforts his unhappy foster brother

Taylor wants some attention :)

Conner with his first piano teacher

Conner with his sad foster sister

Conner's foster mom

Conner plays the Titanic theme song

Conner with his new piano professor

Xi'an

I can’t overstate how helpful it has been to have two sweet girls here who speak Mandarin!   Graci and Cali have made Conner’s transition into our family so much easier on all of us.  This afternoon, after an incredibly emotional, beautiful, heart-wrenching day spent at Conner’s orphanage and music institute (this will be a blog post of its own), we came back to the hotel and told the kids we needed to all spend some downtime in our rooms.  Conner asked to go in the girls’ room.  The boys did homework and rested, we watched shows, blogged, and packed, and Graci, Cali and Conner watched TV and qq’d with Conner’s friends from school.  When I went to check on them, the girls started giggling uncontrollably and told us how funny Conner was.  He was qq-ing with a friend and his friend asked what he was doing.  He said, “I am watching chick-flicks with two babes!   They are very beautiful.  Are you jealous?”  The girls thought that was pretty great!  (;  We have been told that he is very witty and has quite the sense of humor and that is definitely proving true.  (:

I’m going to backtrack a few days and blog about our time in Xi’an.  We started our trip in Xi’an so that Cali would have the chance to see some of her loved ones.  Cali has a biological grandmother and auntie that we were able to meet when we adopted her and she wanted a chance to reconnect.  The only day they could meet us was on Sunday, leaving us a free day on Saturday.  As you know, Jeremy and I have been advocating for a sweet, 13 year-old-boy referred to as Cameron.  A week or so before our trip I put two and two together and realized that Cameron’s orphanage was in Xi’an.  Thinking that I would for sure be told “no” but feeling the need to try anyway, I contacted Mike from findMe International and asked if he would talk to the director of his orphanage and see if they would consider letting Cameron spend a day with us.  I made it very clear that Cameron was to know that we were there to adopt another boy but that we would love to spend some time with him while we were there.  To my amazement, the director agreed.  Our goal in doing this was to find out a little bit more about Cameron for those who might be interested in adopting him, to generate some more interest in him, and to give him a day out of the orphanage. 

I really felt the Lord’s hand in this “day with Cameron.”  First of all, the fact that we were even traveling to his city was pretty amazing.  Secondly, we found out that Dave Peters, director of the documentary “Find Me” (the film that our family is in) just “happened” to be arriving in Xi’an the exact day that we arrived.  He was there to film a segment on the LeSeur family (one of the other two families in the film) who “happened” to be adopting their second child the same weekend as us.  Because of Dave being in the city that day, he was able to come to our hotel, which just “happened” to be right next to his (this without any planning in a city of 12 million people) and give us a camcorder to film our time with Cameron.  He then met up with us that night to film a little segment about our day.  We were also able to meet the LeSeurs, who are the sweetest, most genuine couple and together have a good discussion about adoption.  Dave took the footage we had and put together a short little film to be shared on social media.  Please take a moment to watch it and consider sharing it in any way you can.  We are DESPERATE to find a family for this sweet young man.  He is a GEM.   Sometimes just sharing these videos can completely change the life of an orphan.  I shared “Emily’s” video on facebook and to my complete delight, a beautiful friend of mine from Tennessee saw it and asked for more information.  To make a long story short, that friend, Sarah, is now officially matched with Emily.  It amazes me to see how the Lord can use small and simple things to bring to pass His eternal purposes.  I love it!  And believe it or not, while we were there to pick up Cameron, we asked about Emily and were able to actually meet her!  She is so precious and so happy to have a family.  I asked her if she had any questions and she said, “How soon can they come?!”  I explained that they would be there that very day if it were possible, but that completing all of the adoption paperwork would take many months.  She understood, but was disappointed—just so excited to have a family! 

Instead of blogging about the day with Cameron I will just give you a link to the short film that was done.  Just click HERE.

On Sunday we were able to meet up with Cali’s grandmother, auntie and uncle, nephew and a great aunt and her son.  They treated us to a lovely Chinese lunch and showered Cali and Graci with gifts.  It was an emotional day for Cali.  I think she felt all kinds of feelings when she said goodbye to them—all the way from sorrow to relief.  After they left we were blessed with a visit from Duna.  Duna was like a mother to Cali in many ways.  She worked at the orphanage for much of the time that Cali was there and Cali loved her very much.  We had a great visit with Duna—she is a very special person who does so much good.

Again, we are so grateful for the many opportunities we were given in Xi’an—from spending time with Cameron to meeting Emily to reuniting with Cali’s loved ones to meeting the LeSeurs….  It was a beautiful two days (despite extreme jet lag) that will always remain in our hearts.

--Christianne

Parker and Taylor are exhausted!

Arriving at Xi'an at 3 a.m.  The kids were SO happy to finally be at the hotel!

Meeting Emily

Our family with Emily and Cameron

Cameron

Beautiful Emily

Having fun at the Terra Cotta Warriors

Parker at the Terra Cotta Warriors

Lunch with Cali's China family

Spending time with Cali's China family

Lunch with Cali's China Family

Visiting with Duna

Duna and Cali

While They Are Away...

Hello blogging world!

This is Leslie, Christianne's sister, and I get to do a guest post!!!

This is a few of the happenings while the rest of the family has been away.

And I thought pictures speak louder than words.  Let's just say the kids have been happy happy happy!

*disclaimer: I haven't blogged in years and years, and the format might be off, but I'm not going to take the time to change it.  Also, sorry in advance for spelling/grammatical errors!

EASTER WEEKEND:

Cousins lined up to rope with uncle Jeremy.  Xander spent hours practicing his lasso!

Lexi and Sophi became best friends with Tasey and Todd.

 They absolutely adored their 2 dogs.

Jessica & Tatum (2nd cousins) became besties!!!

Lexi and Sophi cuddling during a testimony meeting.

 Getting ready for the big egg hunt put together by Great Grandma Larsen!

A picture of some of the camp.  This year there were over 200 relatives camping!

 Xander loved s'mores!

Lexi singing a Hillary Weeks' song around the campfire.

WE MADE IT BACK HOME!!!

I was able to bring back the 4 kids and meet Elli here at Jeremy and Christianne's house.  The kids have been so so good and happy and easy!

Happy Elli!

One of the girls' biggest concerns was if I knew how to do girl hair, since I only have 3 boys.  I reassured them I was a hair expert.  Jessica skeptically asked, "ya but do you know how to do flower buns?"  I told her I did, and successfully completed one on her hair one school morning.  She said, "don't spray it yet.  I need to go check it out in the mirror first to see if I like it."  She came back in with big eyes and a big smile saying, "Wow!  You really DO know what you're doing!"

Lexi & Sophi kept asking for "Elsa hair" and "Anna hair" from Frozen.  They were so happy I knew how to braid!!!

Sophi amazed me eating noodles with chopsticks!

I got stuck left with the task of purchasing soccer cleats and shin guards for Xander's soccer league he is just starting.  It was tricky but we found the perfect fit!  Xander has been coming home from school every day, completing his homework, and then changing into his soccer gear to practice outside in the yard.  He is so excited!

 Xander can't wait until the rest of the family is home!

…and couldn't stop laughing at the poopoo smoothies!!!

 Jesi working on a Taylor Swift puppet for a book report

 Xander & Jesi being crazy!

Sophi & Lexi like to have matching hairdos every day. :-)

And when Sophi saw herself this morning, she said, "Wow.  I look just like a young woman huh."

 When I looked over the schedule at the beginning I was wondering if I could make it through the first morning!!!  Without the older kids to help I didn't know if I could pull it off! 

However, it has been so much fun helping out!  The kids have been wonderful and easy!   They've been happy and I've had so much fun reading blog posts and emails to them and showing them pictures of Conner and the rest of the family.  It has been so sweet to hear their prayers, and I know they will bless Conner's life, as he will bless theirs!

That's all for now!