It's A Wonderful Life

Our little Emma is Down Syndrome. And boy do we love her. We have always expected her to reach her potential and be the best that she can be. That is a hard place to be with a child that naturally has lazy tendencies as most Downs children do. Mom was the bad guy for a long time. We have had many struggles in the family regarding what Emma needed and how far to push but thankfully we are all on the same page now, except for Malia who is old enough to do things for Emma but not old enough to understand the consequences. For a long time Emma was stubborn and strong headed with us at home but loving and sweet with everyone else. The manipulation was unbelievable. We knew she was very smart through this. A couple of years ago a change started in her. She began to settle in and respect her parents and older siblings. We saw the sweet side come out in her at home. The transformation has been amazing. She has turned into a little girl that desires to obey and please. It is so fun to watch he

We were looking for a story about the miraculous 4 month old baby girl that survived the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. She was found alive buried under rubble days after the tsunami. What an amazing story. While reading the story there was this video on the side bar. We had to watch it. This gives me such hope. Our newest daughter from China has missing fingers. We have had a discussion about how to encourage her talents thinking that she would not be able to play piano like so many of our other children. Ressa and I decided that she could focus on singing if music was the direction she wanted to go. After seeing this video I realized I need to open up my mind to all her possibilities . There is no reason she could not play piano. If this girl can play with no fingers our daughter can play with missing fingers. I sure have a lot to learn about helping children see their possibilities. What a great video.

Deanne and I found the video we included in the preivous post and many points in it really touched us. It was definitely a strong message delivered in a way that many of us in the LDS religion are not used to - very forceful and bold. But the idea of serving the Lord through caring for orphans is obviously an ancient biblical message delivered by Christ Himself. There was no hidden agenda in the timing of the announcement of our blog and that last post. In fact, we thought about not sending the announcement for another week or so after other posts just to avoid that assumption, but we did it anyway. We certainly didn't want everyone to think we think everyone needs to adopt. We know the circumstances have to be right for anyone to make that decision. We just wanted to give you some insight as to why we are so crazy and have decided to add 2 more to our family. And if our blog and this post in particular makes it in front of someone who needs just a little more encouragement

So many times I have wanted to write a new post. But many different thoughts have stopped me. The two biggest negatives are, one, there isn't even anyone that reads this, except Sereen and Jared, but they have to because I am their mother. Two, the things I think about aren't exactly light thoughts. I have always had trouble with lightening up. Doug says I never have a frivolous thought. That's almost true. I envy those that can just have fun. I have fun but that serious part of me is right there waiting for the smallest opportunity to take over. Because of these serious thoughts the things I want to write seem too important to put in the back of a blog where no one will ever go. Well, I think it's time to just start writing those thoughts. The subject that most often comes to mind, ok always, is adoption. Yesterday I was reading "The Family, A Proclamation To The World". There is a line in it that I have felt very strongly about. It is "Children are en