A Big Sister's Prayer

"Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this day.  Please bless that Maelee will never be mean to me again.  Thank you for telling Rebecca that we're the right family for our Baby Brother.  We love you. 

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen."

Just one of those moments that makes you cry and hug your kids a little tighter than normal.  Hope everyone else is as blissful as I am right now.  :O)

30 is NOT that old... right? :O)

Ha ha, just kidding babe!!  That's right, my darling husband turned the big three-0 over Labor Day Weekend.  He hasn't milked "being old" too much, but it's been fun to tease him {lovingly of course!} LOL!

While I REALLY want to just blog on and on about our upcoming adoption and how excited we are and how I'm already driving Clint crazy with all my plans for Baby Brother's room and this, that and the other...  I guess I need to play catch up and post about our SUPER FUN Labor Day Weekend.  I will quickly say though that things are going WONDERFULLY and we are SO excited to get to know both his birth mom and her family AND his birth father and his family!!  SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now, on to camping!  :O)

That weekend was SO NICE!!  It has been SO RIDICULOUSLY HOT here this summer, and with all the fires and the lack of rainfall, our mountain has been closed.  You can imagine how ready we were to ditch the heat and go camping!!

We drove up Friday morning and met our friends at their family cabin.  It was crazy to watch the thermometer in our Sequoia drop over 40 degrees as we climbed the mountain!  I'm tellin' ya, it was heavenly to spend 3 days in pants and jackets!  :O)  We spent the day playing, and ended up loading up all the kids and taking a drive to this HUGE rock that we first climbed up {kids in tow... yeah, we're pretty insane!}, then spent the next 20 minutes trying to keep all the curious ones from the edges...  Not the brightest idea, but hey!  At least we got some fun pictures of the chaos, right?!?  LOL

Saturday morning we went for a hike to a tree.

Before you say we're nuts for hiking to a TREE {for crying out loud, we're not THAT starved for ideas of fun things to do!}, let me point out something about this certain tree: look at what's carved into it's trunk...



When President Spencer W. Kimball was a boy, he went for a hike.  Along the way he took a break and while he was resting, put his pocket knife to good use and carved his name into a tree trunk.  I'm sure it took him a long time and I'm also sure he was quite proud of himself {cuz even all these years later it's still legible which speaks for what a good job he did!}.  At that point, he had no idea that he would someday become a prophet, he was simply a little boy leaving his mark on the mountain he loved.  Make sense now why we hiked to a tree?  :O)



The rest of Saturday was filled with picking raspberries, naps and the traditional potluck dinner {we live in a small valley that's home to 3 even smaller towns.  Twice a year, people from our valley {and everywhere else!} camp on the mountain and enjoy a huge potluck Saturday night and an LDS church service on Sunday.  SO cool to take the sacrament and enjoy testimony meeting in a meadow... in your jeans and a camp chair!  Ha ha}.

I love Maelee's face in this next pic, SO BEAUTIFUL!







Sunday after church, we picked more raspberries {which my friend Courtney made into yummy jam} and had Clint's birthday hoopla.  The girls and I got him Braveheart {one of his faves}, Halo ODST {his first copy is MIA} and a new XBOX 360 controller.  Michele baked him a cake and we stayed up playing cards after all the kids were asleep.





This last pic is Maelee "sneaking" a drink of Clint's soda.  Little stinker!!!

Monday we were home by noon and after cleaning up spent the rest of the day in our jammies watching movies.  Usually when we come off the mountain we're greeted with 100*+ weather, but were pleasantly surprised to an 89 on the Sequoia's temperature thinggy - and it's been rainy and cool ever since!  LOVIN' IT!!!



 Life is good, actually pretty great!!  We're happy, excited for the next few months and REALLY excited for Christmas!!  ;O)

Baby Brother!!

You know, I'm learning that a phone call really can change your life.  2 years ago a phone call changed our lives and a week later we had a chunky, beautiful baby sister to lavish our affections on.  We watched Madison transform flawlessly from a stinker-pot into an amazingly sensitive and loving big sister.  We witnessed miracle after miracle over the next year as we finalized our first adoption, had Maelee sealed to our family for eternity in the Temple and felt the peace that only the Spirit can bring.

Last week, another phone call changed our lives again.  Our adoption caseworker called last Tuesday to let us know that a 17 year-old birth mom was interested in us and wanted to meet.  Her baby boy is due in December, and she kept coming back to our profile.  Hannah {our caseworker} told us to bring the girls to the face to face visit so that the birth mom could see us as a family {at first I kept thinking "Oh, heavens!" but the girls were AMAZING!}.  That night we explained to the girls that they might be getting a baby brother for Christmas and Madi started screaming in excitement, running around the room and shouting, "A baby brother!  A baby brother!  I FINALLY get a baby brother, just like ALL my friends have a baby brother!  YAY!!  I'm just so excited!  Maelee, I'm getting a baby brother, and YOU'RE getting a baby brother too!" here, she gasped in shocked realization, "We'll BOTH have the SAME baby brother!  You'll finally get to be a big sister like ME!!  Aren't you so excited?!?"  Maelee was beyond startled at Madi's random burst of giddiness, and it took us about 4 more times of explaining it to her before it finally 'clicked' for her...  "Maelee, do you like babies?"  "Uh-huh!"  "Do you want a baby to live here with you?"  "Uh-huh!"  "Do you want the baby to be YOUR baby?  YOUR baby brother?"  {BING!  That's where the light went on!}  "Beebee brudder?"  "Yeah!  A baby brother!"  Aaaaand cue random burst of giddiness, take 2: "Beebee brudder!  Beebee brudder!  Beebee brudder!  Manny! {Madi}  A beebee brudder!  Yay!!!" as she runs around clapping her hands and dancing with glee.  :O)  Gotta love my drama queens!

That night, as I was tucking the girls in bed, Maelee starts whimpering.  "No, Mom!"  "Baby, it's bed time - what's wrong?"  "Beebee brudder, hug?"  {BING!  Light on!}  "Sweetheart!  Your baby brother isn't here yet!  He won't be here for a few months, ok?"  She's straining to see around me, positive that her baby brother is just outside the door and that she, indeed, needed to give him loves before going to bed.  At this point she starts crying, "Beebee brudder!  Hug!  Kiss beebee brudder, Mom!"  I held back my giggles as I comforted my young daughter and explained gently that he's not here yet.  I tucked her in and left the room with a smile on my face.  For the next 20-30 minutes, those giggly girls talked and sang all about their new baby brother they were hopefully getting for Christmas.  :O)

We agreed to meet them Friday for lunch and decided to head down Thursday night to crash at my sister's to make the trip easier on the girls {in the hopes that they would then be more pleasant at the restaurant!  LOL}.  We drove out to the shopping center where the Olive Garden was {YUM!}, and thank heavens there was a Ross there because Maelee somehow ended up in the car without her shoes on!  {Clever way to get new shoes, why didn't I think of that?!?  :O)  Haha}  They had ONE pair in her size in the color we needed to match her outfit, whew!  {I SWEAR I saw her put her shoes on at Yvette's... oh well!}

With that crisis averted, we headed over to Olive Garden to wait with Hannah.  Every time someone walked in my nerves went crazy!  We were SO nervous to meet her!  When she and her mom and step-dad came inside, I could swear that I knew them from somewhere.  They looked SO familiar - Clint said the same thing later.  And let me just say that she is beautiful!  You can BARELY tell she's prego!  They were all {this will sound SO cheesy} really lovely {told ya, total cheese but it's really the best word to describe them!}.  We sat down and immediately started exchanging questions.  Clint and I didn't want to ask TOO personal of questions, because we didn't know how sure they were about us and we didn't feel that it would be appropriate to bombard them with questions that if they didn't choose us, we didn't need to know... ya know?  Clear as mud?  :O)  The girls were awesome and provided some entertainment at {most of} the right times, and were sweet and adorable the rest.  The more we talked with them, the more we really liked them and the more we hoped beyond hoping that we were the right family and would have more opportunities to get to know them better.

We found out that the baby is due just after Christmas, but her doctor is going to induce her a week early if all is going well.  It was fun seeing how much we have in common with them.  There were a few lulls in conversation, but Hannah came prepared with a few questions for us - which, if I'm being honest {always!  LOL}, caught us off guard a little.  I wish we had had a heads up so we could have better prepared our answers - put a little more thought into how we would say what's in our hearts instead of feeling so tongue-tangled.  Although, we came away feeling good about what we DID ask and how we answered their questions.  There were a few things we wish we had thought to ask, but all in good time, eh?

Two hours later, we took a few pictures and said goodbye.  As we drove away, we had a million feelings and thoughts racing in our minds.  Re-playing conversations, 2nd guessing ourselves, feeling calm, worrying, feeling peaceful, happy with the visit, wishing we could have visited longer and suddenly... exhausted!  We had planned on driving straight home {a 3+ hour drive from lunch} to try and make it home for Madi's soccer practice, but decided to spend the afternoon at Yvette's house instead.  The girls were ready to run wild for a little bit and going for a swim sounded pretty nice {one of the perks of visiting family! LOL}.  About an hour and a half later, we were watching LINGO... when Clint's phone rang.  He didn't recognize the number and it stopped before he could answer it.  Then my phone rang with the same number.  Clint's eyes got wide and he told me to "answer it quick!" 

I am so thankful we found ourselves SO tired after the face to face.  If we had decided to drive straight through, we would have been in a no-service area and would have missed another call that changed our lives, forever.  My nervous "hello?" was greeted with absolutely wonderful news; when they got home, her mom encouraged her to pray about us.  Heavenly Father answered her prayer with the assurance that we are the family for her son.  Holy waterworks!  I burst into tears and wanted to reach through my phone and give her the biggest hug I could manage!  Clint could tell what was going on and got the biggest grin on his face and started dancing with excitement!!  {Super cute, let me tell ya!}  We are beyond thankful to our Father in Heaven for this amazing opportunity.  We have waited so long for a baby brother, and to have this miraculous gift only 3 months away is... indescribable.  We are on a major happiness high right about now and just hope that we can be the best adoptive family for this awesome birth mom and her family.  We haven't had any contact with the birth father or his family yet, but we also hope to be able to meet their needs as well.  We are SO excited to welcome this precious boy into our family.

We know without a doubt that Heavenly Father is a God of miracles.

Madison was our first miracle. 

Maelee was our second miracle.

Baby Brother is our third.

Where were you 10 years ago...?

I was 16 and a Junior in High School.  I turned on the radio expecting music, and all I could get was AP Network News on EVERY station.  At first I was a little annoyed, but then I paid attention to what was being said...

It all seemed surreal, at first I didn't realize how awful things actually were because I didn't have access to a TV and the radio reports were so jumbled in the chaos of the events.  I remember walking into school and seeing the fear on everyone's faces and realizing for the first time that it was more than a plane crashing into a building in New York City.  I started catching more pieces of the puzzle and by afternoon every class had the TVs tuned into CNN and the entire school had an eerie silence as we watched the devastation and wondered how many of our friends and family would be called to fight.  Some were mad and ready to jump into action, others were sick at the thought of what they would be losing in their lives by answering THAT call instead of the call they had always anticipated.

Our imaginations ran wild and we were sure that life as we knew it was over.  How could we possibly pick up the pieces and move on after that kind of destruction?  One of my brothers worked in Newark at the time and could see the smoke across the water.  My uncle worked at the Pentagon and that day had forgotten his security clearance and didn't remember until he was halfway to work.  By the time he had returned home to retrieve it and was on his way again, he turned on the radio to hear that the plane had just crashed into the building he would have been in had he not forgotten.

We had gotten our yearbooks from the previous school year a few days before and I was still trying to hunt down the last few people I wanted signatures from.  One was my friend Jackson who, on September 11th, 2001 wrote, "Life is good."  At the time I appreciated his effort to cheer me up, but later I realized that in those 3 words he had given me hope.  That night I went home and penned the lyrics to a song and the next morning had the opportunity to sit down with my guitar and put it to music.  I titled it "We Won't Forget You", and was amazed to see that become the nation's promise to those who died that day.  I'm not taking credit, I just think it's cool that others were inspired with the same words.

I had the opportunity to travel to NYC and DC the following summer, 9 months after the attacks.  Ground Zero was still a nightmare.  That area of Manhattan was a ghost town.  I cried in silence when I saw the doors to the firehouse covered in memoirs to it's fallen members.  I peeked through a tiny hole in the tarps blocking Ground Zero from the public eye and saw the steel beam cross.

It's been 10 years since then, and my one regret is that our nation seems to have forgotten the unity we felt in the months following 9/11.  My one hope is that my children never have a day when they worry about the future of their country, and whether the call to arms will tear their family and friends from their sides.  I am SO thankful for those who have answered that call and have fought for our freedom and the freedom of others.  I hope we all take a moment this Sunday to remember where we were 10 years ago and to say a prayer for those who lived.

- Tiffany

*****
I can't believe it's been ten years! The morning of the attacks I was serving my mission in Chicago. We had just finished a meeting with our district when I we got a call telling us to stay home until the mission president contacted us. We were told we could watch the coverage at a members home as long as we stayed put. We lived above a member who allowed us to watch with them. I can't explain to you the feelings I had as I watched the 2nd plane crash into the tower over and over. I did not see it when it hit for the first time, I saw the replays of it as they continued to cover the story. My heart ached for those with loved ones inside. I can still see the people who were forced to jump from so high, there was no chance of survival. As the towers fell I was watching it live. The room was quiet. We had tears running down our cheeks. I did not personally know anyone that died that day. I feel for those families who did not know if their loved ones were alive. The fire fighters and police who rushed in to help left families of their own behind. So many American lives were lost! Yet out of the ashes and tragedy, numerous heroic stories also emerged. This attack is my only taste of the emotion that comes from war. I have read plenty of books that tell stories from World War 2. Books do not keep you up at night aching for the strangers you read about, or lead you to your knees for hours at a time. After the dust settled from 911. We saw a different America! One that was united and strong! People caring for others, and caring more for their loved ones. I felt an outpouring of pride to be an American over the next few months. Doors were opened and people allowed us to enter their homes and share with them the peace that the gospel brings. I love America! I love the blessings I enjoy! I want everyone to know how grateful I am for those who fight to protect me and my family. Thank you to the families who have loved ones serving.  I only enjoy the blessing I do because of you! I wish I said thank you more but I'm not always sure how too. So thanks again!
-Clint