Schools Out for Summer!

Today was the last official day of school (although they only went for 2 hours - they still consider it a day). Kelsi is now a Junior in high school, Daniel will be going to middle school as a big 6th grader and Maci has graduated from Kindergarten and will be going into 1st grade!

Daniel got together with some of his good friends before school for breakfast at a local restaurant and so I got some great pictures of them together (they'll love it when they're seniors). :-) Of course he and his best buddy Taylor got their annual "mohawks" for the last day of school. This has been a tradition they have done since 1st grade...they don't get their hair cut for at least 2-3 months prior to school getting out to let it grow long and the night before the last day...it's all shaved except the top and "wah-lah"...their struttin' their mowhawks. They only end up keeping them a week or so because then they shave it all off for summer baseball season (All-Stars). I think Maci is really going to miss the routine of school every day this summer - she is such a social butterfly. But with Kevin out with the kids, they'll keep plenty busy and we'll get her into swimming lessons and maybe try dance too.

Kelsi got out of school a couple of days early this week because she was chosen as the one student from her sophomore class to attend the HOBY leadership conference - and I heard from her this morning and she's having a blast! We're so proud of all the kids!




We had a graduation/going away party for Evie last weekend. She leaves on Monday morning to go back to France. We are all very sad because she has become such a part of our family and she will leave us with a big void in our family. We hope that she will come back to visit one day. On another note of exchange students, years ago we hosted our "son" from Thailand (March) and then his sister (Belle) the following year. We always told them when their younger brother was of age and wanted to go on exchange, that we'd be happy to host him....well...it looks like he may be joining our family this summer for the next school year. We're hoping some things work out for him so he'll be here in the next couple months. AND we are hopeful March will be coming with him to visit us too! It's always so hard to say goodbye to these kids, but it's always so nice when you get to look forward to them coming "home" to visit again.




Last weekend Kelsi volunteered to help out with a local mock emergency with a couple hundred National Guards, all local emergency agencies, etc. and she had a blast! She got to run through it twice and given different scenarios....she came home all dressed in a white hooded suit and IV's hanging from her.



I hope each of you have a fantastic summer - and I'll keep updating this site to let everyone know how the kids are doing. :-)

Never a moments peace

Our little boy Daniel turned 11 years old on Saturday! His day began with his own baseball game in the morning (with a win) which was followed by watching the high school baseball game and finally a party at our house of 27 of his closest friends! Yes, that is 27 people - and not all he invited was able to make it! They spent three fun filled hours with playing more baseball, volleyball, ping pong and of course eating! He had such a great time and a few of his closest buddies ended up spending the night after the party. We have so much fun watching our kids with their friends....call it crazy, but we wouldn't have it any other way - that's why it's always a circus around our place. :-)

Tonight I took Daniel to his baseball game. I dropped him off at the front of the fields so he could get out and take his bag out of the trunk and then I would park the car. I ended up making a couple of brief phone calls and decided to use the restroom before going into the ball park. As I thought I was the only one in the restroom, and all of a sudden I heard this familiar voice saying "Mom" - "Mom" - "Mom"?? I said - "Daniel, is that you". He said "hurry up Mom...hurry"! So as I hurried up to pull my pants on thinking it was some sort of emergency, I grabbed my blanket and ran out the door to see him holding out his hand. He said "here mom....I lost my tooth" - and as he dropped it in my hand, he turned to run back to the field to finish warming up for the game. I thought to myself - this is crazy....how did he know I was in the restroom - it's really far from the field he was on. Once again, it just shows there is never truly a moments peace for a mom. I have wondered for all these years of being a mom, that kids must have some sort of tracking device on their parents that we don't know about. Somehow, they always find you when you just need that 30 seconds to be alone. :-) I did put that tooth in my pocket and smiled as I walked into the game because as crazy as our life can be, this is what it's all about.


Some of his closest friends

Prom - All the Way from France

Last Saturday was Evie's first, last and only Prom in the United States. She went with a friend and had a wonderful time. She looked absolutely stunning to say the least. This was one of the highlights of the year for her - something she's been thinking about since she arrived in the United States. We found out she will leave back to France on June 15th at 6:00 a.m. and since I don't do good-byes (never have, never will...go ahead, call me a wimp) Kevin will be taking her to the airport. All of our other exchange students I've never been able to say good bye either. They become so much a part of your family....they truly are your son/daughter. Evie would love for us to come to France to visit her someday....and I'm sure we'll make it some day. So for now, come June 15th, it will only be "see you later" from her American mom. :-)

Happy Sweet 16 Birthday Kelsi

Evie & Kelsi

Today Kelsi turned 16 years old! She took her drivers test yesterday and passed, but because her actual birthday is today which is on a Sunday, she has to wait until Tuesday to actually go in and get her license...they are also closed on Mondays!

I clearly remember each moment 16 years ago today, as though it has just happened. It was a Monday morning and I had been on bed rest, in and out of the hospital, for over a month, with toxemia. Our baby wasn't due for another 5 weeks. My adventures off of bed rest always led me to the doctor's office. I was going in to the doctors office for my checkup and after a few minutes taking my blood pressure and reading my platelet level results from the day before...the doctor said "go immediately to the hospital...do not go home and get anything....you go directly there...we have to get this baby out as soon as possible". Once we checked into the hospital they quickly whisked us away to get me prepped for my c-section surgery. In the meantime, Kevin was trying to call everyone to let them know they needed to get to the hospital if they wanted to be there when the baby arrived. The doctor eventually came in to tell me that he was going to put me "all the way out" instead of just having a spinal for the c-section....since it was too dangerous to risk me having a stroke. In the middle of having a bunch of nurses frantically running around my room trying to get me ready for surgery, I was watching the Branch Davidian's compound burn in Waco, Texas. Once I was all prepped, they told my husband that he could not come into surgery with me because they were going to put me out and most men can not handle seeing their wives in that condition. Of course Kevin said "absolutely not"! He was going in the room and there was nothing they could do about it. My wonderful OB was known to wear a hat on during his deliveries....one side was blue and the other side pink. We had already known we were having a little girl, but he kept his hat on in the middle until she was born...just in case. :-)

They went to put me under and I remember the last thing the doctor said was "it must be a girl because girls are the ones that tend to cause the most problems to their pregnant mothers". I laughed and the next thing I knew, I was in recovery trying to wake up and my husband said..."we have a beautiful daughter....and she's perfectly healthy"! There she was...5 pounds 2 ounces and 19 inches long. I immediately cried with happiness while trying to stay awake.

You see, we did not know until that moment that we were going to have a healthy baby. I had to be on fertility pills to get pregnant and we had already had one miscarriage (which is another story in itself). I was always getting poked and prodded by needles and so I didn't know months before they were actually doing some routine testing that can detect if you are carrying a baby with downs syndrome.

I received a phone call the day before Thanksgiving from a nurse at the doctors office. She told me that normally a woman of my age has a 1 in a 1,500 chance of carrying a baby with downs and my test results say that I had a 1 in 150 chance...so they would like to offer me a amniocenteses test. She also advised me that I could risk losing the baby too if I did have the test performed. To say the least, I was stunned. First, because I didn't expect a phone call from the doctors office the day before Thanksgiving when we were going to fly to Reno the very next day on a vacation...but with that kind of news? She did tell me that I could call my doctor the next day if I had any questions because he was on call. That evening Kevin and I talked about what to do. We didn't give it a second thought that we could not risk losing the baby by having a amino done, but most of all, we agreed that God gives you only what you can handle and if He felt we would make wonderful parents to a child with a disability....then we would love that child no matter what! The love we would have for our child is unconditional and we never doubted that.

There were so many "strange" things that happened leading up to her delivery...for example, there was a house that burned down right across from the hospital that my room was overlooking when I was on bed rest; there was a bomb threat in the hospital; once she was born they had to move me to a room that was for quarantined patients that had two doors you had to pass through. But all through that...we were so blessed with the most amazing nurses and Dr. Kesling was absolutely the best! The nurses kept telling us we had the most beautiful baby...in fact a couple of the nurses took their own pictures of Kelsi and put them up in their locker! There was one nurse that had made only one hat in her life and was waiting for that "perfect" little girl to give it to....well.....she gave it to Kelsi! After she was born, my hospital room was pink from one end to the other with bouquets of flowers, balloons, clothes, gifts, etc. We had so many visitors too!

Due to my blood pressure not going down, they kept me in the hospital for five days. Kelsi was ready to go home way before I was - but we stayed there until the following Saturday and on that morning when we left the hospital she weighed in at a whopping 4 pounds 12 ounces. Just a little peanut...a beautiful little girl that we were blessed to chosen by God to be her parents.

Kelsi May...happy birthday sweetheart. We are so proud of you! You are an amazing young woman and so beautiful - no just on the outside, but the inside too. We love you with all our hearts!!! No matter what...you'll always be our little girl.

VEGAS or bust!

We're flying out at 6 am Monday morning to take the entire family to Las Vegas for Spring Break. Everyone is really excited and we've got a few surprises for the kids that we've arranged without them knowing about it yet. I'll post some pictures when we get back. Kevin & I may need a "vacation from our vacation" when we get back with all the kids...but we'll see! All I know is there's warm weather right now and we're in need of some sunshine to help re-energize us after this long winter weather. :-)

Can you say "BUSY"?!?!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted on this blog. So many things have been going on - it's crazy.....well, actually it's been our "normal" family circus.



Daniel just finished up with his AAU basketball season. They went undefeated and were in the top bracket from teams around the entire valley! In the same weekend they won the AAU Championship game, they also took part in the "Spring Fling" tournament and were also undefeated taking home another trophy. They boys were tired by Sunday night, but were also really excited. What a bunch of proud parents and boys after almost 6 months playing basketball. They did awesome! So, now that basketball finished this past weekend, tomorrow baseball begins with tryouts for the majors league. Hopefully find out what team he'll be on for the next couple of years.



This month, Maci went in for her annual heart checkup at Seattle Children's Hospital (and by the way, it is an amazing facility as most people know). The doctor she had originally when we brought her home retired this past year so she had a new one for this visit and he was fantastic! They performed an echo and ekg on her along with other little tests and she is once again declared having a 100% healthy heart....in fact - too healthy for what she should be. To explain it simply, once someone has heart surgery, you can never take that away and they will always have their "own normal". For Maci she had ASD/VSD surgery in China and she has what they consider "normal" test results. Neither one of her doctors have seen something like this before and can not explain it(of course we've always believed she is our little miracle anyways). To say the least, they are very curious and are looking forward to seeing her again next year to see if it remains the same. Maci is always coming up with something to make us laugh. For example, this morning I was taking a shower before work and she came in and asked "why do mom's shave their legs"? And, I was not shaving my legs at this time so I couldn't understand where she was coming up with this from, but I tried to think of a quick answer and said "well....I guess they don't want their legs to be pokey". She looked at me and said "well...I think it's because moms don't want to look like dads" and then she walked away. I just totally cracked up - it really made my morning.

And now on to what Kelsi's been up to. A couple of weeks ago, she received a letter from the high school booster club notifying her she was awarded "Athlete of the Quarter" which is a really big honor. This past Monday night, she was also inducted into the National Honor Society which is a huge honor and it's for those sophomore students who obtain a 3.5 GPA or higher (cumulative) for three semesters. It's also determined on citizenship, leadership, community service, etc. Kelsi also finished her bowling season and received "All League Honorable Mention", most turkey's in a season and scholar athlete. Now, she's already 2 weeks into her fastpitch season and next week is her first game. This is her favorite sport and the team looks great - they should do very well this year.

Evie has been such a blessing to have in our home. She is such an amazing young woman and we are so lucky to have her live with us. She finished her bowling season and ended up doing very well to have never bowled before. She made a lot of new friends and had a great time. She is also on the honor roll and just started playing tennis for the high school. Maci is glued to her 24/7 and I'm not sure how she is going to handle Evie going back home to France in June (actually....I'm not sure how any of us will handle it).

Well, I'm going to try harder to keep this blog updated because I feel it is a record of our family and we will all enjoy looking back at these times and wondering how we ever survived this "family circus". :-)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Yesterday we had a wonderful dinner with friends and family at a local Chinese restaurant that we have celebrated each Chinese New Year together since bringing Maci home. Lilly, the owner has been so generous making sure our every need is always met. She brings out candy for everyone and little red envelopes with money inside for the children too. She really loves Maci and constantly remarks on how beautiful she is. We were joined by a room full of family and friends who came out to celebrate Maci's heritage with us. We are so blessed. As usual, Maci gave out little red envelopes with money inside for each child, and a hand made bookmark for each adult. Each year I make something for everyone - it's a tradition that I really enjoy. Each bookmark had a separate quote from Confucius. Of course Maci was the star of the show and enjoyed each and every moment of it. She wore a beautiful new dress which was sent to her by her special friend and doctor in China. She had been counting down the days to the celebration and the first thing she said when she woke up was "Happy Chinese New Year everyone"! It was really sweet.

Kelsi goes to Districts tomorrow so I am taking the day off to go and join her and her bowling team (Go Bulldogs)! Daniel was gone most of the weekend between friends houses, birthday parties and basketball games. They won their first game of the winter season on Saturday. Their team is in the highest bracket and I believe ranked first. It should be a challenging season for them, which will be good.

Evie continues to fit in so well with our family - it's as though she has always been with us. She is so happy here and said she really enjoys the constant "circus" we have going on at our place. Maci is glued to her hip all of the time...I'm dreading the heartbreak from the kids when it's time for Evie to go home. :-(

Introducing a New Member of Our Circus

Maci following surgery in China

No, we're not adopting again and NO, we're not pregnant. However we do have a new member of our Circus to introduce to you. Evie is an exchange student from France. She has been with another family since last September and due to some unforeseen circumstances in their family, the needed to find a new home for her. Since I am a coordinator for several exchange students (Evie being one of them) I am responsible for helping finding a new home for those who may not work out with their original family. Well, her previous host family is friends of ours and they were going out of town last weekend so we offered to have her stay with us . Well......the weekend has now turned into 6 months. She will be staying with us because after discussing this with our own kids and then Evie - it was unanimous that she belong with our family! We warned her that we're a crazy family who are on the go 24/7 and it's always a Circus around our home. I don't think I have ever seen a smile so big than the one she gave when we told her she was welcome in our home for the remainder of her exchange. She is an amazing young woman and very sweet. She was introduced to our group of friends Friday night with an evening of poker games. With my brother Jordan living in our upstairs until he graduates from college, our house is beginning to be a "little" cramped in here - but we wouldn't have it any other way.

This Sunday will be our annual Chinese New Year celebration with friends and family. We received an amazing gift in the mail last week from CHINA! One of Maci's doctors in China sent us a box filled with red envelopes to celebrate the Chinese New Year tradition and two beautiful dresses! She also included a very sweet card and photo which we put with are other family photos. We feel this woman is the one link we will always have to Maci's past - she was with her during her heart surgery and cared for her following. She always went to the orphange to check on her. She has also provided us with many photos of Maci at such a young age and to our family and especially for Maci one day....they are truly priceless.

Kelsi's bowling season is coming to a close next week at Districts and Daniel is still playing basketball. Kevin is now coaching 7th grade girls basketball. It's hard to believe that Friday marks the half-way point to the end of the school year!! Where does the time go?

Memories......

Our little China doll - June 2005

I happen to run across an old email that we had sent out to family and friends back on June 20, 2005 and it brought a huge smile to my face, so I put it down below. One of the reasons for this blog is to advocate for adoptions whether they are domestic or international...the place you find your child does not matter.

What matters, is that no child should ever have to go to bed without having someone tuck them in at night with a hug and kiss. What matters, is that no child should ever have to go without having someone tell them how special they are and no dreams are too big. And what matters most, is that no child should ever have to go without someone telling them how much they are loved each and every day.

Email dated June 20, 2005

Hi everyone!

So much has happened in the past two weeks - it seems like we’ve been living in a dream.

It was two weeks ago tonight that we went online and saw the new group of special needs children that our agency received from China. They had JUST posted the pictures as we were walking out the door to Kelsi’s baseball game. There were ten pictures of absolutely beautiful children...but there was one that literally jumped out at us.

We had to leave for Kelsi’s game and this little girls face would not leave my mind. It was a cloudy evening (but no rain) when Kelsi took off her catchers gear and came running up to us in the stands and said, "Mom, Dad, look above you"! We looked above us and there was a rainbow....not just a regular rainbow that goes from the ground to the ground - but a rainbow that looked as though someone had painted against the sky right above us!! We thought it was really strange because we’d never seen anything like it before, but we also thought it was really cool! The game went on and we went home to read a little paragraph about this little girl that we couldn’t stop thinking about. She was born on 10-10-03 and she was abandoned at the age of 4 months old in a children’s hospital with a little note tucked inside her shirt that said she had a heart condition. After examination they determined she had VSD (ventricular septum defect aka - a hole in her heart). While most children who have this defect never need surgery, the hole closes on it’s own over time, they decided to perform surgery on her on May 18^th 2004. After a sleepless night - I phoned our agency two times and left messages for them to call me as soon as they get into the office - we wanted her file asap! The wonderful agency that they are had her file emailed to me with other pictures immediately. While I was reading her file - little did I know that there were close to 30 other families that same day inquiring about her!!

This little one’s Chinese name is "Kong Shanshan". Kong was her given family name at the orphanage and Shanshan means "coral, tinkling of jade pieces". She lives in the Nanjing Children’s Social Welfare Institute in Jiangsu Province. She is described as a pretty and lovely girl and all the visitors love to play with her. She has beautiful skin, is outgoing and loves to laugh. And the best thing....she’s HEALTHY! As I read on in her report what stood out to me is she is being raised in the Bei Bei department in the "RAINBOW" building! Could this be a sign after the rainbow we saw above us the night before?

We forwarded her file and photos that evening to our pediatrician for her review. She has been so incredibly supportive of our adoption process and is just as excited as we are for our new daughter. The very next morning Kevin called me five times before noon to see if I had heard from the doctor yet and the results of her review! I told him that I would call him immediately once she did. Just after noon that day the doctor called me with fantastic news - she was VERY impressed with her medical report and said she cried the evening before looking at her pictures - she said she was healthy and perfect! This is exactly what we were praying for! She told us that according to the Chinese growth chart for children her age, she was in the 60% for weight, 50% for head circum. and not yet on the charts for height (so...she'll fit right into our vertically challenged family) :-) That evening we went home to discuss our options (there really was nothing to discuss - she is our daughter and we knew it right from the start).....since we were currently waiting for our referral to come sometime in October and go in December possibly to pick up our child....but low and behold...this little girl tugged at our hearts and she was not going to let go! That evening I went to find a picture that Daniel had drawn for his sister Maci over TWO months before. At that time I told him I would hold onto the picture until his sister comes home and we would frame it for her bedroom. You’ll never imagine what the picture he drew was of......yes - a HUGE RAINBOW with a tree, clouds and grass! Yet another sign?!?!

The next morning after having butterflies in our stomachs and not sleeping well - I called our agency and asked if they could send us a Letter of Intent for us to fill out for our little Miss Maci! They were thrilled - but not as much as we were! That evening Kelsi had her end of the season baseball pizza party and when Kevin and I sat down he asked me if she was ours? I told him it looked like it and he said "Thank God" and pulled out his wallet......I looked down and there were Maci’s pictures in his wallet!! It was absolutely adorable! Next we overnighted our Letter of Intent to our agency and they were going to send it over to China, have it translated and walked over to CCAA to get Pre-Approval and then Travel Approval. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long that will take - but I’ve heard that it should be fairly quick since we were already "paper ready". A woman at our agency adopted her daughter from the same orphanage and said that the facility is wonderful - incredibly clean, airy and a happy. She said their nannies just love those kids! She also told me that the girls from that province are suppose to be the most beautiful in all of China.....aka the "Venus of China". I’ve actually heard that many times now from others as well. :-)

The following Monday I received an email from a woman in Florida that saw my posting on one of my Yahoo groups and she said our daughter is on a report she received when they picked up her daughter in China last November. They both had the same heart condition and they both had surgery performed by an organization called "Hopeful Hearts". They fundraise for surgeries such as our two daughters and pay for all of the medical expenses etc.! She emailed me the photo and sure enough - it was her with her name and everything! I got online and saw their website and guess what? There was another picture of Maci when she was younger with a huge grin on her face - just like she has in all of her pictures! She said when she brought her daughter home in November - she went to a cardiac doctor and they were so impressed with her surgery - the wanted to know the Chinese doctors name and had other doctors look at her too! They did the surgery under her arm and they had never seen it done that way before.....needless to say - her daughter doesn’t have to go back to him anymore - she’s 100% healthy and with the way the surgery went in China - it looks as though she never had any problems in the past! This wonderful woman in Florida also gave me an email address to a woman named Helene who is one of the head volunteers of Hopeful Hearts. She had me contact her and ask if she could send me some information on Maci. The next day - there were three pictures she took of her - just for us!!!! She said that she is extremely healthy, happy and such a wonderful child. She is also very excited for us to become a family. Within two days, there were two other families that had emailed me stating they were going to China to pick up their daughters in the same orphanage and they both offered to take pictures of Maci and send them to me when they get home! So, we’re extremely excited to see them!

There’s still so much to tell - but I will be updating more often now that things will start moving, hopefully quickly. We never imagined that you could love someone so much, right from the start, with only pictures - but we do!! It’s a feeling I can not explain. Our family is truly on cloud nine. We are thinking about taking Kelsi & Daniel with us to China to give them this experience and hope that the transition with Maci would be a little easier on her having children around.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support through this journey - we’ll keep you posted! Enjoy the pictures!

Happy New Year & Back to School

We started 2009 by ringing in the New Year at our place with some of our good friends and family. The evening began with a poker tournament (Texas Hold'em style) followed by lots of eating and hanging out while people took turns playing Rock Band. Most of our friends had never played it before and they had a blast!

This past weekend we went over to the west side to finally celebrate Christmas with my dad and step-mom. The pass looked good so we took advantage of the weather and headed over the mountains. We had a great time and of course the kids got spoiled! Some of Daniel's loot included a Madden 09 Wii game, a hunting Wii game, a digital camera, a special type of basketball he's been wanting for quite some time (and I thought all basketball's were all the same), and Wii Fit for him and Kelsi. Maci was so excited when she opened her pink DS and Barbie game that she could have not opened another gift and been perfectly happy. She yelled out "This is exactly what I have wanted for so long...I love it". :-) Kelsi loved her Guitar Hero for DS, a digital camera, movies, etc. It's sure fun to watch all the kids (and quite chaotic) when we're together.

School starts back tomorrow....let the craziness begin! Daniel basketball practice and a three day basketball tournament this weekend beginning Friday. Kelsi has bowling practice and two matches (one home and one away) this week and Kevin starts coaching girls basketball tomorrow every day after school. It's not too bad of a schedule this week so I'm pretty excited. :-)