Love it!

We love the "I'm a Mormon" series found here, and this one in particular made us happy. (:

Mormon Times

My mom just pointed out to me that our video clip from Sunday is now online. I liked this version the best because it included a spiritual perspective. You can view it by going to mormontimes.com and clicking on the "tv" tab, or by clicking directly on this link. Megan, did you notice you're in the video bringing in dinner for us? (: It was delicious!

Also, we had a beautiful Christmas, which I'll post more about later. But just in case our "friends" are reading, I wanted to take a minute now to thank them for the anonymous bag of gifts that was left on our porch on Christmas Eve. We felt so loved! Thank you, and what was brought supplemented what we had PERFECTLY.

--Christianne

It's done!

At about 1:00 this afternoon, I was really wondering if we would pull it off. Sophi had a fever, the house was a mess, I hadn't showered, and my brain was beginning to turn to fog again. I had three hours 'til the cameras would begin rolling.

Luckily, Allen was here.

He watched the girlies while I cleaned, cleaned my kitchen while I showered, then picked up the remainder of the kiddos from school before heading to the airport-- thank you, Allen! We'll miss you around here!

The kids and Jeremy all came home at the same time and we worked like crazy to make it appear that we have it all together (which, obviously, we don't!) Bedrooms got cleaned, bathrooms got scrubbed, junk got hidden.

After all of that, the cameras only entered the living room/kitchen-- but I'm so glad that I hadn't known that would be the case, because now (besides our room, where we stuffed all the unpacked suitcases and anything else we didn't have time to put away) the house is again clean. We even managed to get a few baths in and give X-man a much needed haircut.

Besides SEVERAL outbursts from Elli, one from Lexi, an unusually subdued Sophi, a very wild Xander, a messy diaper that warranted new clothes, and a mom who doesn't enjoy being on camera, I think it all went relatively ok. :)

After a couple of hours it was time to eat. My friend, Megan, brought dinner in (thanks!), and we ate it on the paper plates that another friend had brought. There were no placemats or tablecloths, fancy dishes or centerpieces and the cameras were rolling. But hey-- they did say they wanted to see what our dinner with our family is really like! Pure chaos. Simpleness. Happiness. And lots and lots of noise.

At one point, they said they needed video of me playing with the kids-- as many kids as possible. My mind went blank until someone suggested "London Bridge." This happens to be our family's favorite opening song for Family Home Evening (LOL) so it sounded good at the time. After the cameras were gone, Taylor said, "Um, Mom. I felt kind of silly doing 'London Bridge' for TV."

Now that you say that, Taylor, I see what you mean. (: A bit cheesy, perhaps.


So... because many of you are asking and because I haven't seen the final product yet (chances are, once I have, I will feel too embarrassed to share) I'll let you in on the details:

Tomorrow, Deseret News newspaper. (We are pretty sure it's tomorrow, but they said you never know until you see it in print.)
Tomorrow evening on 10:00 pm news, KSL channel 5.
Sunday morning at 10:00 am, KSL channel 5, longer version.

Pray that I didn't sound lame during the interview portion. Pray that they didn't ever catch Elli pulling the front of my shirt down. Pray that the 35 minutes I had to shower, find a clean outfit, and get myself ready without being able to find my curling iron (it's still packed away) looked like I had spent a bit longer.

All kidding aside, pray that someone out there will hear our story and open their heart to adoption. That would make the effort and humility to let four strangers into your home to see what your life is about, worth it in EVERY WAY.

--Christianne (:

PS I have been asked how I find time to blog right now. Well, I'll tell you. After the kids get settled into bed, I tend to go back on China time and feel wide awake. The last time I took an Ambien, it proved catastrophic, as Sophi woke up an hour later. So I have to find other ways to wind down. Besides that, I think I mentioned that writing is therapeutic for me. Somehow sharing my feelings (the good and the bad) help me work through them. So thanks, our loyal readers, for being our sounding board at this crazy, wonderful time! (;

Hi Everyone, This is Christi's mom. We just had a phone call from China. The kids here were so excited. They have been so anxious to actually talk to them. Christi wanted to post a link her friend sent her for all to watch. Click here for link. Then click here2 for a really neat interview with the actor in the first video. THANK YOU EVERYONE for all your support!!!!!!

Love this clip...

I was watching this little video and really identifying with Rochelle. Adoption, special needs, religion, etc. Then when she got to the part about hitting teachers, I just wanted to hug her! Just a little comment, but it made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. She said it in a way that reminded me that "it's all good!" It's ok that Elli basically spit all day in school today. Life goes on.

So grateful for people who understand, even if I don't know them! So grateful to know the beauty of having special needs kids in my home. So grateful for the teachers who give so much to my kids and who sincerely love them. So grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.


(you can double click on the video to make it bigger)


PS Not so grateful for shingles. I have an appointment in the morning. Thanks for all your sweet comments and advice. I wouldn't have made an appointment if it weren't for reading them..

Let It Shine

OK. Christi and I have spent several hours trying to get this to work, and I guess it's just not meant to be. But this video is so hilarious, I just had to keep it on here. We used photobooth (on our mac) to video Elli singing This Little Light of Mine. It turned out perfectly! But then when we tried to upload it to youtube or our blog, it didn't work right. The audio plays at the correct speed, but the video plays too quickly. We got different results with different ways of doing things, but the funniest is what you see below. The 2:04 video plays in 25 seconds:) Elli can get pretty animated in real time, but when you speed it up...well, you'll see! Enjoy:)

Jer



UPDATE: I think we finally found a way to make it work! Click on the link below...

http://christi405.fileave.com/Movie%20on%202010-08-07%20at%2017.25.mov

Happy Birthday, Graci!

Gracelin Kate Green
Wang Chun Ling
Graci
Ling Ling
Tiger
Blackbird
Grace
Graci Kate
Rainbow Sunshine Girl #1 (can you guess who’s #2?)
The Gracester

All fitting names for our darling TWELVE YEAR OLD! Graci is spending her 12th birthday at Young Women’s Camp—how fun is that? You have to be 12 to attend, so she barely made it. We sent her off early yesterday morning and she was bouncing-off-the-walls-excited! I will be heading to camp later today, and I absolutely cannot wait to give her birthday present…

Graci has come SUCH A LONG WAY in the last 2 ½ years. I am reposting the video of her "coming home” for anyone that has 20 minutes of free time (sorry it’s so long!)



Our Graci has been an example of courage and grace as she has endured adjusting to a new family, friends, culture, and language all while undergoing two major open heart surgeries and several smaller surgeries. She is a pillar of strength. We love and admire her. I am particularly grateful for the attention she showers upon her sisters. Jesi totally fell apart when Grace left for camp—they are two peas in a pod.


Graci had an early birthday present on Monday evening, when Make-a-Wish gave her a “sendoff party” for her Disney Cruise. We had her wish granters and lots of friends over at our house for a barbeque. Graci LOVED all the attention and was so excited when the doorbell rang and she found “Belle’s best friends” standing there! We didn’t know that was going to happen, so we were surprised as well!






The best part of the evening came when Make-a-Wish made a special presentation. First, they gave our family a very LARGE check for expenses we might incur on the cruise. This includes everything from money to park at the airport to spending money for fun excursions. We are overwhelmed by their generosity. I wish I could thank everyone personally who has ever donated to MaW and let you see the joy it has brought our daughter.

Kent then talked to Graci about the day that she made her wish. He asked her if she remembered some of the wishes that her family members had for her. Xander’s wish for her was a “poofy dress.” This was Graci’s very first wish when she heard that she was granted a wish—but we had told her that she could think even bigger. Graci ADORES poofy dresses—in fact, during the first year in our home she would dress up in one of my old (and not so pretty) dresses almost every day. So imagine how thrilled she was when Kent told her that he had searched for the perfect poofy dress for Graci to wear on the cruise! She had no idea it was coming. Her smile says it all… She told everyone that she had wished on a star for a poofy dress. (:





As we walked inside to try the dress on, Graci confided in me that she had been praying every day for a poofy dress for the cruise. She was in tears. (Of joy!) We are so overcome with the way Make-a-Wish has made Graci feel like a real princess. We can’t wait to get her all fixed up and have some professional photos taken… It was also so cute that Jesi, on her own, also went inside and came out with her own "princess dress" on. (:




We had birthday cake for both Graci and Jessica (their b-days are two days apart). We’ll have their party later, but thought it was fun to at least do their cake that night.




Graci, you are one very special girl. We know our Heavenly Father loves you beyond our comprehension, and He has evidenced that today by sending you a very special birthday gift. We can’t wait to tell you about it!

And, as soon as we tell Graci, we’ll let you all in on it…

Teri, you had better take your blood pressure medication today. (:

--Christianne

Perplexus Review

If you haven't purchased a Perplexus yet, look at the clip below. We don't know this kid, but he's pretty cute:)

Jeremy

Lexi Live!!

We've had these videos for awhile, but I was overwhelmed at figuring out how to post them. Today I decided to bite the bullet and figure it out! Enjoy our little Alexis. Doesn't her smile light up the screen?!!!

Lazy Post

We rarely make political statements here, but this excellent video was deserving. Combine my conservative views and love of cleverly crafted songs and you have a real winner here! Enjoy:) Courtesy of one of our favorite commentors-Terynn. (I recommend double clicking and viewing it on youtube. Otherwise about 25% of it is cut off.)

Happy Father's Day!

I have the most amazing husband, dad, and father-in-law! In honor of them, I am sharing a few videos of wonderful father stories. The first one reminds me so much of what I would catch Jeremy doing with our kids!! The second reminds me of the teachings and example of my Dad. The third reminded me of what a hard worker my father-in-law is, his desire to provide for his family, and the way he has dealt with challenges.

I am so blessed!!!!!!!

(Don't forget to scroll down and push pause on the music playlist)

Turn up your speakers and enjoy!

(Side Note: I've played on stage with Jon Schmidt before:)

Jeremy

No Stopping Ellie

No, I didn't misspell our daughter's name. I just had to post this poignant and heart-warming video from CNN. There is so much good that can be done in the world. So many opportunities to serve and help. I am determined to spend less time focused on myself and more time focused on helping others.

Jeremy

Faces, Followers and Flash Mobs

Some of you know that I'm a songwriter at heart. (Unfortunately, no one in Nashville who could do anything about it seemed to share that opinion. But I digress...) Anyway, as a songwriter, I adore alliteration. I'm particularly pleased when I can craft a clever catch-phrase as the preface to a post. But I must admit, I stretched it a bit today. All of the titular tie-ins work, but they're not as natural as the ones I usually use, if you get where I'm going:) By the way, a few of you have said you enjoy my posts on this blog. I really must throw a shout out to my little sister, Jen, who is an inspiration to me in many ways, not the least of which is her tremendous talent for turning a phrase!

Faces: (Well, I guess it's really just "face".)

The other day I was practicing baseball with Taylor. That kid is very determined when he puts his mind to something. He's played first base for several years, but his coaches this year haven't had the chance to see how well he can play that position. So he's playing in the outfield for the first time ever. The younger you are, the more boring the outfield positions are. In his 9-10 year-old league, there is beginning to be some action out there, but it's still a bit of a disappointment for him. Anyway, he wanted to practice playing outfield. I stood at home plate and he ran out to center field. I then began to hit grounders, line-drives, and fly balls to him. On the very first hit, the ball came at Taylor hard, and took a crazy bounce just as it reached him. It jumped up and hit him full on the chin. Taylor dropped to the ground in tears. I ran out to him and held him for a few minutes. I asked if we should just quit for the day, but that determined little man stayed out there for another 45 minutes. And he worked HARD! I'm extremely proud of him. He is going to accomplish great things in life:)

As a testament to the pain he suffered, I present the following photo:

See that half circle of little red dots to the right of his lips and chin? Those are the marks the stitches on the baseball left when it hit him!

Followers:

So this one was the stretch. I looked at a thesaurus to try and find a word that meant "imitate" and started with an "f." Follower was the only one. So Jesi is really more of an "imitator" than a "follower," but then we'd be absent the alliteration, now, wouldn't we:) Jesi LOVES Graci. ADORES her. Wants to be just like her. So tonight, they decided that Jesi would BE Graci. They dressed in jammies that were alike. Both wore bathrobes. Both wore glasses. They were both "Graci." Jesi demanded that we call her "Graci." Here are the cute pictures:






What, you may ask, is that black thing on Jesi's head? That is a pair of tights with a pony-tail in it. That was their way of making Jesi have black hair, just like Graci! Pretty clever-- especially to have come up with it all by themselves!

Flash Mobs:

For those of you who are not familiar with flash mobs, here is the wikipedia defenition:

A flash mob (or flashmob[1]) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via social media or viral emails, rather than those organized by public relations firms or for a publicity stunt.

This is a hilarious, recent phenomenon. If you waste much time browsing the internet anyway, you-tube videos of various flash mobs are as good a waste of time as any:) Here is one of the best I've seen. Remember, the people who aren't part of the group have no idea what's going on. (I recommend double clicking on the video clip, so it opens in its own window. Then blow the you-tube video up to full-screen.)



Well, I hope you've enjoyed my awful attempts at alliteration. I hope you've found the photos to your fancy. And if you ever find yourself forming a flash mob, feel free to phone me!

Jeremy

Just for fun:)

I forgot to put the following video with yesterday's post. I told you I was able to get a job pretty quickly. Well, this is how:



I also came across a rather hilarious ad starring 4 future hall of fame basketball coaches. Enjoy:)

Parker's Award-Winning Rap

Last school year, the PTA had a contest called "Reflections." Kids could enter artwork, songs, poems, etc. which were their original works. The theme was "I can make a difference by...." The night before it was due, Parker decided he wanted to enter, so he went into his room and wrote this rap entirely by himself. Watch out LL Cool J! He won an award for it, too:)

Joy to Everyone

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas week! We wanted to share a beautiful song and video which has touched our hearts this season. As our family continues to grow in a multi-cultural way, the pictures here were particularly beautiful to us. Click here to view it.

Jeremy

What's Missing?

The kids were SO excited to make and share their "movie!" (: Be sure to pause the music at the bottom of the blog before you push play. Merry Christmas!!!

--Christianne

PS-- We fixed the pausing problem, so it should be smoother viewing now:)

Birthdays, Humor, Awards and Great Kids

Saturday was Parker's Birthday. As is the tradition, Christi served him breakfast in bed. Of course he loved that:) We threw quite the party for him. Most of you who read this blog are not steeped in the tradition of the Utah-BYU rivalry. It's not quite Michigan-Ohio State, but it has to be one of the longer-standing rivalries in the country, and people around here are quite passionate about their favorite team. For the birthday party we had a "football party" and kids were supposed to come dressed in the colors of the team they cheer for. (For those of my family who are "football challenged," the music playing is the theme song for Monday Night Football.) We had about 25 kids show up and it was split about 60-40 in favor of BYU. Although our family is a die-hard BYU stronghold, we decorated in both red and blue to make everyone happy. We had the kids play several games, and the winner of each would score either a touchdown or a field goal for their college. At the end of the party, BYU won by a field goal in overtime. This of course is a foreshadowing of how the game this coming weekend will end up! Anyway, the kids loved it. This was the first time we've ever purchased a birthday cake, but, as you can see in the pictures, it was worth it!

After the party, Christi and I went on a much needed date. We took in the movie "Fireproof." WOW, what a great show. I think every married or engaged couple should watch this movie. Completely clean (although the themes were too mature for kids), it was a wonderfully uplifting experience. It is a Christian movie, made by the same people who made "Facing the Giants" (another must-watch). Anyway, we really enjoyed being out by ourselves. After the movie, we went to Sonic to share a dessert. We ordered a strawberry-banana smoothie, but it wasn't very good. Well, I thought it wasn't very good. Christi had a hard time expressing just how disgusting she thought it was. Mostly, it was the texture. It felt like they had added some kind of powder to it and it hadn't been blended in. Anyway, Christi practically gagged when she took a sip. We ordered a carmel banana shake and headed off for home. We were sharing the shake, and would pass it back an forth to each other. It was quite delicious and very thick, so we had to suck on the straw extremely hard just to get a little bit out. In between one of my turns with the shake, I had the great idea to pull a switcheroo. The strawberry-banana fiasco was still in the cup holder right by my hand. So the next time I got the carmel shake, I handed back the strawberry smoothie instead. Christi, thinking she would have to inhale strongly to get anything at all, instead got a huge mouthful of the strawberry stuff which she couldn't stand. Needless to say, she complimented me on my charming sense of humor (or something like that!:)


Thanks to Dave and Marie Ausdenmore (visit them at ausfamily.blogspot.com) for nominating us for an "I love your blog" award. We met Marie and "Aus" (as Dave prefers to be called) on our trip to China to get Graci. They were also adopting a beautiful little girl and we got to know them pretty well. By the time we met them, Christi had already returned home, so it was just Graci, Taylor, Parker and me! Aus and family were a HUGE help to me, taking the kids off of my hands several times over the week we were together and just being good friends. I might not have survived without them! Apparently, one of the requirements when you receive this award is to nominate four more blogs for the award, so here are four blogs (in no particular order) we think are just great. (There are tons of others which would be equally deserving, but these are just a few we have particularly loved.)

1. Michael and Heather Matheny at: heathermathenyfamily.blogspot.com This great family is one of the many that we came to love in Tennessee. They have been in our thoughts and prayers lately as they just returned from China on a trip to adopt little Max.

2. The Martine family at: martinemadness.blogspot.com We followed their journey to Maliah while were in the process of adopting Elli. We share their passion for adoption and their love of our great nation and our Creator.

3. The Smith family at: audreycaroline.blogspot.com We share with them a love of Tennessee and the pain of losing a baby. We love Angie's humorous and uplifting slices of life.

4. The Stewart family at: stewartfam-shelly.blogspot.com They, too, share our passion for adoption. Plus they have the coolest Star Wars Halloween costumes I've ever seen!

One final note. I just can't express how grateful I am for the amazing children the Lord has blessed us with. Not a day goes by that somebody doesn't comment on how wonderful Taylor is, or how reverent Parker is in church, or how Graci is the favorite kid in her class at school, or how charmed someone is by Jesi, or how touched someone is by the special spirit that Elli carries with her. A couple of nights ago I re-watched the video I made of our journey to Graci and her return journey home. I was overcome with a small understanding of the love her Savior has for her, and an increased appreciation of what she has gone through in her life. She is a special little girl. I am excited to see what the future has in store for her! (The two youtube videos below are the first and second half of the videos we made for Graci. Each half is about 10 minutes. If you want to watch them, be sure to first scroll down to the bottom of the blog and pause the blog background music so you can hear Graci's video.)

Jeremy