Amy is 40!!!

Wow! I thought this day would never come! How can I be 40 already? I certainly don't feel like I'm 40. Where did all the time go? I have been thinking lately about the different decades of my life and how different they have been. During my childhood I was shy, yet sure of myself. I had many friends and enjoyed school. I had an adventurous spirit and couldn't wait to get out on my own!

Check out that wild hair! This is my favorite "ugly" picture of myself!! Kendall told me I looked like a jungle girl!!

Gotta love the fake flower action!

Christmas with my family 1989

In my 20's I had a ton of fun! I went skydiving, learned to scuba dive, did lots of backpacking, camping, and biking. I loved to travel and went to Switzerland, France, the Bahamas, to Hawaii several times and went on several cruises to Mexico. I was gone most weekends!

My BYU roommates

My BYU Hawaii roommates. We lived in a house to the left and the ocean was right down the cliff. It was amazing!!




Amelise Rox (Amy,Melody,Lisa,Roxanne)
I brought two of my Hawaii roommates (Lisa and Mel) back to Sacramento with me!



Roxanne, Lani, and I on our first cruise. There were several more to follow!






Roxanne and Amy at the California State Fair.

I LOVE the state fair, especially the hypnotist!!

Swiss Alps with Melody!


Celebrating New Year's with Janet!!

Dancing on the Delta King in Sacramento. A huge group of us went there at least once a month!

Exploring a mine shaft





Scuba diving in Maui with Mari!





Backpacking Zion's with Tricia, Steve and Mari




Repelling in Emmigrant Gap



Barefooting!! This was my Christmas card pic in 1999!



Barefooting with roomie Jael!

Tricia's wedding

I decided on a whim to move to Utah in February 2000. On March 14 I went out with Derek for the first time. We were engaged by May, married in August, and our daughter Kendall was born the following July, just 5 days before our first anniversary. I was 32 when I got married and have spent the last wonderful 8 years being a wife and a mother to 3 incredible kids! I have traded in my 4-Runner for a minivan!! With young kids and 2 of them being preemies, I have spent most of the last 8 years housebound!! I have loved every minute of it, however I hope to spend the next 10 years of my life having adventures with my family. I want to do with them all of the fun things I have experienced. I want to camp, backpack, travel and scuba dive with them. Now that Lexi is almost home and Landon and Lexi are no longer babies, it's time to open that front door and get out!!! There is a lot left to do out there. Here we come!!!!

Of all of the exciting things I have done and will yet do, nothing will ever surpass this day!! This was the day I started my greatest adventure!!

My greatest treasures!!

Grand Canyon

We went to the Grand Canyon this past weekend. We had a great time considering the boys had a stomach bug and were a little grumpy. We didn't stay at the Grand Canyon long due to the lack of bathrooms for the boys! We will go back soon and do some hiking and camping. And of course we want to do the mule ride down to the bottom like every child of the 70s wants to do because we all thought that Brady Bunch episode was the coolest!! The kid's favorite part was of course swimming in the hotel pool!

Spring 2008 photos

LOA

Woooooo Hoooooooo!! We received THE call from our agency last week. We have Lexi's LOA (letter of approval). This is the big one we've been waiting for. Basically it means that the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) has reviewed our dossier (paperwork) and has given us the stamp of approval. We were a little worried because Derek stated our income in one document and then the letter from his employer verifying his salary was off by $300. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but China is extremely picky and wants everything to match perfectly!! But I guess that didn't bother them and they have said we can be Lexi's parents!!!

After I received the call I immediately tried to call Derek (he didn't answer) so I sent out an email. I was soooo excited and then I just started crying. I have been looking at Lexi's picture for 8 months now and we have finally been given the "permission" to be her parents. It is very overwhelming!!

So now we will sign the LOA. The LOA is also asking us "Do you still want to be her parents?" This is a silly step because after all we have done for our daughter, why would we say no???? We then Fedex the LOA back to our agency who translates it and Fedex's it back to China. The CCAA will then issue our TA (travel approval). We could travel as early as the end of May, but there is a little girl just 3 months older than Lexi who is from the same SWI (social welfare institute or orphanage). I have been in close contact with her new mom Joanne and she is just 2-3 weeks behind me. Since we spend the first 5-7 days in their province (Sha'anxi), I will wait for Joanne. We mom's might both be traveling solo. It will be so worth the wait. The girl's SWI doesn't adopt out a whole lot of their children. So with Joanne and I meeting and becoming friends, we are hoping the girls will be able to develop a relationship, especially since they are from the same little part of big China!!

Kendall is losing her teeth!!

Kendall is about to lose her front teeth and the ones coming in are BIG (like her mama's) the dentist says! I took some quick pictures of her in case they come out soon!! You can see more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/amelise68/.

Happy Birthday Carson

Today is Carson's 5th birthday!! This time of year is a time of reflection and thankfulness for me. Our little Carson was born at 27 weeks weighing just 1lb 14 oz. Today he is a happy, healthy 5-year-old. Though he is still very small for his age weighing right at 30 pounds, he is very healthy and only has speech delays and some lack of muscle tone for which he sees a occupational and physical therapist. He is a smart little guy and VERY excited for kindergarten next year!! Happy Birthday Carson!! I love you!!!




CARSON THEN





CARSON NOW!!

NEW PICTURES!!!

We received new pictures today of Lexi and a small update!! She is so adorable!!! Her lip still isn't fixed, but even though I would love to see her lip fixed, it is probably best that it be done here. I have heard some say that the pain control in China isn't quite as good as in the US. I couldn't imagine our sweet little girl in so much pain while she recovered. She still doesn't have much hair, but more hair than Landon!! These pictures were taken on Valentine's Day and she looks to be growing pretty well. She looks to be about Landon's size if you can look past all of those puffy layers she has on!! They say she is introverted, which probably before translation means shy. That is good since Landon is quite the adventurer and tantrum thrower. They should balance each other out nicely!! Also, she is still in foster care which is wonderful news!!! Only a few more months until we can hold her in our arms!!

Cleft lip/palate CAN be life-threatening!!

This sweet little boy is Zhang Qi. He was only 6 1/2 weeks old in the picture above and the picture below is Zhang Qi after receiving proper nutrition. This is what happens to cleft babies when they do not have the proper medical attention. I'm sure Zhang Qi's birth family did everything they could to feed and care for him. I cannot imagine having to make the decision to give up your child so that they can live and knowing you will never see your child again. I am so thankful to Lexi's birth family for deciding to give her up and give her a chance at life. You can just look at her fat little cheeks to see that she is very well cared for. Cleft babies are best fed with a special cleft bottle. Love Without Boundaries is an incredible charity and that distributes cleft bottles and formula. Each bottle only costs $2 and that $2 saves lives!! Please consider donating to this charity at http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/. You can view the video below to see what a difference this charity makes. Lexi is alive today because she obtained proper medical care. Please help give another child a chance at life and a chance for a family.

LWB Cleft Nutrition Video

Geneva FINALLY has a name!!

Well, it only took 5 months, but we finally settled on a name for Geneva. We have decided to name her Alexandra and call her Lexi. We both loved the name Lexi, but Alexis was just too popular for us. If she doesn't like Lexi as she gets older, she can go by Allie, Alexa, Alex or Alexandra. Lexi goes really well with her virtual twin Landon. We are coming to get you soon our little Lexi!!

DTC and LID!

I didn't even have a chance to post that we were DTC (dossier to China). We were DTC on 1/15 and our dossier arrived in China on 1/18. We just found out that our LID (log-in date) is 1/25!! Woo Hoo!! We are on our way!! We are still hoping to travel in May, though it might be June.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is on February 7 this year. We sent Geneva a Chinese New Year Package. It included a traditional set of Chinese clothing, stuffed animal, disposable camera, a small book, translated letter, pictures of us and we included some candies and peanuts for the foster family. I think this little outfit with the butterfly is absolutely adorable!! We used http://www.redthreadchina.com/. They are so wonderful to work with and have such incredible prices!!

DTC!!

Our dossier was sent to China on Tuesday, January 15. It arrived in China on Friday, January 18, received by the receptionist at the front desk of the CCAA at 3:03 pm. Now we will wait for an LID (log-in date). Next we will receive an LOA (letter of acceptance). We will sign that and fedex it to our agency and they will fedex it to China. Then a couple of weeks later we will receive our TA (travel approval). We will then make our CA (consulate appointment). Once we have our CA confirmed we can make travel arrangements. We are so excited to be getting so much closer to our little girl!

Christmas 2007

Geneva's Gingerbread Man

We made gingerbread men a couple of days before Christmas. Carson made one that happened to have Geneva's beautiful eyes!