It's A Wonderful Life

This week has brought a lot of changes to our family. When I say a lot, I mean a whole lot. There has to be at least 10 posts to cover it all. I'll start with the first and easiest. Sereen and Jared graduated from BYU!! It didn't really hit me what a great accomplishment graduating from college was and how rare it is because so many go on to higher education around us. As we were sitting waiting for the graduates to walk in I was a little surprised that there weren't more people. We were in the Marriott Center so I had to give myself a small dose of perspective. I realized that this was a bigger deal to me than I thought. I got a little choked up as Jared, Sereen and their cousin Natalie walked in and I realized that Sereen was my parents second grandchild to get a college degree. Somehow this graduation affected me deeply. In one of the talks the Dean of the college told us that each student at BYU effectively receives an $80,000 scholarship over a 4 year period but had to...

I came across this thought by Michael Wilcox. I hope that I can remember what he taught and teach my children. We all deserve to be seen as God sees us. Several years ago while conducting a tour to the Holy Lands; I had an opportunity of visiting Taba, Egypt for the first time. Taba is located just across the border from Israel at the farthest tip of the Red Sea. Many areas in the Middle East are dry, desolate places, but even I was not prepared for the scene that greeted me as we crossed the border. It seemed that even the words desolate, dry, and barren would not do the place justice. I could not see anything green for miles, nor were there any signs of life except where man had planted a few trees or shrubs to break the harshness of the landscape. We boarded our bus and drove across the desert toward our hotel. I remember looking around, seeing nothing but rock and sky. I searched for a few birds to indicate some form of life but could find none. Nothing seemed to live here. I thoug...

A month and a half ago Pierce came home and told me that the whole class had to participate in a debate competition. I thought that was interesting because I don't remember having any of the other children do this and they all went to the same school. They were taught the basics of debate and paired with another person in the class. They prepared their arguments and practiced at school against each other. One morning Pierce tells me that he has to bring his church clothes to school. Of course I questioned him on it and found out that later that day he would compete at the high school. He wasn't very thrilled about it but was a good sport. After school he reported that they had come in 5th and just barley missed having to go to the regional tournament. He was so glad. Unfortunately they were notified in a few days that one of the other teams couldn't make it to the regional tournament so they were going. One day last week (no, I don't remember which day because they tend...

We received our United States Government approval today to adopt from China! We have waited for over 8 weeks for this letter. We even went in two weeks early for our fingerprints hoping it would speed things up. No such luck. But we did finally get it and I will be on my way to the Secretary of State first thing in the morning to have all of our documents authenticated. The next step will be to send everything to a courier in Washington DC to have the documents authenticated at the State Department then they will take them to the Chinese Embassy. When these two steps are done, which takes less than a week, the documents will be mailed to our agency. We should have all our docs to China in two to three weeks. I can't believe that we are so close to being DTC (dossier to China). It feels like it's been a very long time. Pray that all will go smoothly and quickly. We would really like Ressa to go to China with us but we would have to be back by August 29 so she can start school. O...

I thought it would be fun to just post some pictures of the family. I just spent 2 hours learning how to move pictures from one computer to another then posting to the blog. I then had to figure out how to put a caption in between each picture. I am so proud of myself. If I don't know how to do something I am going to figure it out. If I have time that is. Enjoy! Part of the family after seeing the production Savior of the World. From left to Right:Casey, Ressa, Creed and Tyler Emma, Malia, Marshall, Clayson and Niya Daddy Daughter dance at a cousins wedding reception Our Princess Niya wearing her favorite headband. Handsome Marshall Casey playing ball. That boy can jump! Cute Clayson and yes he is a red head! Emma and Ressa being silly taking pictures. Malia holding her littlest cousin. Our girls love babies. We had a Tangled party and these are our cakes. Can you figure out which one we made? Malia and Casey on Malia's birthday. This is one of the favorite desserts f...