It's A Wonderful Life

We have some quotes in a prominent place in our home. Two of them really apply to yesterday. One says, "We don't remember the days, we remember the moments" The other says "Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." One of those moments happened yesterday. late in the afternoon Olivia, Malia and Emma came walking in with arm loads of weeds. These are no ordinary weeds, but they really are some of the prettier weeds that grow around here. Every spring we are surrounded by volunteer flowers that grow 2-3' tall and profusely bloom in white. The girls wanted to know what to do with their treasures. I told them to go get vases. I walked into the kitchen a little while later and they had pulled out 3 very large vases and were diligently arranging flowers. These weeds were filling vases that I am sure were meant for beautiful roses but instead held weeds. The girls were so proud of what they had done. As I looked at...

For those of you that don't know what LID stands for I will fill you in. In the world of China adoption there are steps in the process that we mark as milestones. One of those steps is the day the dossier (paperwork) is logged in or put in the Que for review and approval. This is called the Log In Date. We got ours on May 17. The hope from here is that we will get final approval in 4 weeks. We will have to send paperwork for the children to the US government for approval, get US visas for the children and China Visas for us. Send that to the US consulate in China, get papers from the consulate and send them to the Chinese government. We will then get Travel approval and be off to China a couple of weeks later. There is a little more to it than that but that is the overview. It's a long process but some countries are worse. I just don't like that children are in an orphanage 9-12 months longer than needed so we can get through the red tape. I understand why the red tape is n...

In the past few days I have seen some behaviors that are not very Christ like. Some of the girls needed a little reminder on how to treat each other with kindness and what a family is for. I sat down with 4 of the girls in front of me. The girls listed things a family does and why families were created. They had fantastic answers including Olivia saying "they are there to love". They really demonstrated that they understood why we are a family. The conversation progressed into the option of giving ourselves time outs. I wanted the girls to recognize that sometimes we need to remove ourselves from situations and that it is perfectly OK. They all had to give me some ways that they could take a time out and do something that makes them happy. Sometimes we think that if we are grumpy we should suffer through then we cause others to become grumpy too. Well I don't like that method even though I tend to do it. I wanted to teach my girls better coping mechanisms that I am just l...

I get this question very often. I have two answers depending on how I am doing. When I am in the mode and handling things well the answer is "One day at a time". But in times like the last couple of months the answer has become "I don't know". When I say this what I am really saying is "I have no idea how to do everything and I feel all control slipping through my fingers". Wow do I feel that way today. I have been exercising faith diligently lately. I don't mean just trying. This is the real meaning of EXERCISE, sweat, sore muscles, sheer exhaustion and all that goes with it. I have held on well and every night have been proud of myself for doing so well that day. I have also said sincere prayers of gratitude that the Lord has increased my patience, faith and abilities to do. There is no way this flawed human, with so much weakness, can do everything that is required of me. How grateful I have been. Then this morning hit. I have some close family ...

Tuesday I needed to make a quick trip to the grocery store. I had to pick up Hannah from a friends house and ended up going to a store that I don't get to very often. I love the produce at this store because it is the cheapest around and tends to be fresher than other stores. I decided to see if Strawberries were on sale and found that sure enough they were $4.99 a flat. WOO HOO!! Strawberry Jam here we come. I spent all day Wednesday making jam from 17, get that 17 flats of strawberries. The children home pitched in and helped. I had Olivia, Malia, Emma, and Creed as helpers. We washed, cut, blended and stirred our way to 101 quarts of low sugar freezer jam. It is so exciting to see all the jam. Last year I missed the sales on strawberries so we only had a few jars left for an entire year. The family really likes this jam and won't eat any other jam I have made or bought. We dug through the freezer a couple weeks ago and found some jars that had gotten burried. I then had to m...

I was just sent this great quote. It really does apply here. There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child - and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own. ~Robert Brault

I'm sure many are wondering how things are going with Olivia and what she is like. She is doing very well and has opened up quickly to accepting love. She has said she feels safe here and that means a lot. When we are in a new situation or new people come over she looks to mom for security and comfort. She is more open with initiating hugs and even kisses. She has only called us by Mom and Dad to our faces a couple of times but never hesitates to call us that with the other children. She loves to be read to at night and tucked in. One kiss is never enough and needs many to feel satisfied for the night. She now likes to sleep on Mom and Dad's floor at night. We'll see what she does tonight after being woken up by Dad's snoring.:) Olivia is a fun loving girl. She has a grace and dignity about her. She knows many of the principles of the gospel and understands to a large degree what they mean. We need to help her believe some things that she has been taught through words a...

Pierce went to State Debate tournament on Friday. I dropped him off and was going planning to go back to watch the last debate. He called and the other team didn't show up so they won by forfeit. Pierce said they had gotten a perfect score on the second debate so he felt like we would want to be there for the awards ceremony. We were already on our way. We got there and waited almost an hour for the ceremony to start. In the mean time had a great talk with Pierce's partner's mother. Award time came and they called up the winners and Pierce and Jake didn't place. It was disappointing for him but he handled it well. We decided to make this our date night and took him out to dinner. He got ribs and didn't know you were supposed to eat them with your fingers. I guess our kids don't get out enough. This has been a great experience for him. He has learned a lot. I think the biggest thing that came of this experience is realizing there are things out there that we may ...

Church can be entertaining at times, especially for those that sit next to us. With children there is always something just around the corner. I was sitting in Sacrament meeting with Clayson next to me and Niya beside Clayson. About half way into the meeting Clayson starts to quietly cry and was very insistent on getting my attention. I look down at him and he has big tears rolling down his face. I'm thinking "what is there to cry about you're sitting in church with nothing to do". He loudly whispers "Mom Niya got boogers on me". "What?!" I immediately think "OK what would posses Niya to wipe boogers on Clayson?" Clayson was so distraught that I didn't think he had done anything to provoke it. Not always the case but this time seemed different. Niya looks at me ready to cry and I have to ask "Why did you get boogers on Clayson?" Clayson pipes in with "She sneezed on me!" Being the good mother that I am I turn away ...

To most people, a new addition means a home remodeling project, and believe me, we've had plenty of those, but at this point in our lives, it could only mean one thing....an addition to the family. We were given the opportunity to adopt another child. Olivia is 9 years old and was originally adopted about 6 years ago from India. Her first parents had some particular challenges, so they decided the best thing for their circumstances was to place Olivia for adoption. They signed the legal papers last Monday and Olivia has slipped into our family between Casey and Niya very naturally. The final adoption won't take place for months. Having her in our home has been a great blessing to her and us - the changes in just the first week have been very positive. She was starved for love and Deanne has been incredibly inspired with specific actions we need to be taking to overcome the lack of proper parenting and healthy family relaitonships in her life. Olivia has a very resilient spirit....