We Got This!

I know that I shared a bit of this story during stake conference today, but I wanted to write it down for posterity. So here it is:

We had a historic stake conference this weekend where our stake was split and a new stake was created. For those who are unfamiliar with how our church is organized, here's a little explanation. Each congregation of our church is organized into a ward or a smaller branch. A group of these congregations is collected together into a stake which is presided over by a stake president and two counselors. When they reach a certain size they are split into small units to facilitate growth. That's the basics. So this weekend our stake became two stakes, an event that will make the Church even more responsive and convenient to the members all over the area. A great thing!

Well, yesterday we had two general authorities visiting the area to help reorganize the stake presidencies, Elder Shayne Bowen of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy, and Elder Michael Southward, our Area Authority.

Elder Southward

Elder Bowen

These two men interviewed several leaders within the stake to see who the Lord desired to have as the president. Herman interviewed early in Lebanon and then came back to Waynesville for the rest of the morning. The interview only took about ten to fifteen minutes. No big deal.

The leadership session of conference didn't begin until 4 pm, but Herman and I decided that we would head back to Lebanon early to go out for lunch and then maybe do a bit of shopping in the great metropolis there. As soon as we arrived in town, President Nigliazzo, the current stake president, called Herman and asked him to come meet with the two general authorities. I expected that they would want for him to meet in the Lebanon ward building, but after a few minutes it became apparent that they would prefer to meet us in our home in Waynesville. Herman looked over at me and mouthed, "They want to come to our house."

Well, at that moment I thought of my house not as it could be, but as it truly was. At any one moment it is entirely possible that it would look as if a small tornado might have gone through it. I have one child in particular (who will not be named) who really believes that clothing is optional and it currently in an underwear only phase when at home. The breakfast dishes were probably still on the table. I couldn't remember if I had recently cleaned the main bathroom, and even if I had, there were no guarantees as to what it would look like after a morning of little child bathroom runs. In short ... I panicked!!

While Herman was on the phone with President Nigliazzo I grabbed my phone and quietly called our house. Laney is home for Thanksgiving break, and she answered the phone. I whispered ...

"Laney, some General Authorities are on the way to our house. I need you to clean the bathrooms."

Luckily we live thirty minutes from Lebanon, so we had a bit of time to work with. Still, even with that thirty minute head start I wasn't entirely certain that there would be enough time to get our house in presentable form. But Laney was so sweet. She just heard the dilemma and said ...

"Don't worry, Mom. We got this. Oh ... I'll make cookies too!"

And right away my anxiety melted off. All was well. It turned out that they didn't end up making the drive to Waynesville. Since we were already in Lebanon they just met us at the church building there. All my worries were not needed. And (bonus!!), the house was clean and there were fresh cookies for us when we got home.

I got to thinking about that idea of "we got this" that Laney promoted when meeting my crisis of the moment, and I thought that those words really do capture what we have attempted to do as a family as we serve the Lord. In the course of this service things aren't always easy or convenient, but "we got this" because we know that the work we are doing serves a higher purpose. It matters, and when things matter it is worth a little harship in order to get the job done. I know that we don't always practice this principle to perfection. Sometimes we don't quite "get it." But we try, and when we fail we get up and try again. And isn't that part of the great blessing of this life? We get the opportunity to wake up each day and begin again, trying to do better today than we did the day before.

This is a new adventure for us as a family as Herman gets the opportunity to serve as the new stake president of the St. Robert Stake. We've already gotten pretty used to some of the sacrifices that this calling asks of us ... sitting without him each Sunday as he travels around the stake, lots and lots of broken conversations as Herman takes phone calls from those who are in need, late night meetings, etc. I don't anticipate this being much different. But whatever we are needed for, we'll do it. We'll do it because we truly do love this gospel. It is an essential part of the makeup of our family. It is my anchor in an ever shifting world. So when we are called upon ... no worries. We got this!

Eight Things

There has been this neat little thing on facebook lately where people post a number of facts about themselves, and then when people like their status they pass out a number, and we are supposed to post something about ourselves. I ended up getting the number eight, and I decided to post the things I wrote on the blog as well, just for posterity, I guess. Here you go:

1. My senior year of high school I wrote a paper about where I thought I would be when I was thirty years old. My response? I would be riding my bike across Europe, fighting political oppression. I'm not sure exactly how one little American girl on a bike was going to fight the forces of evil in Europe, but I was a great idealist at the time. Needless to say, I didn't end up doing that. When I was thirty I was a Mormon mom of four living the dream in Waynesville, MO. (I still have that paper. My family thinks it is hilarious).

2. I did really love to ride my bicycle cross country when I was younger. My family rode a lot, and when I graduated from high school I did RAGBRAI, the huge bike race across Iowa. It was great fun, and I only cried once on the journey!

3. I hate macaroni and cheese. The squishy feeling of air whenever you chew it grosses me out.

4. My great dream in life is to write novels. I actually have one book that is completely plotted out, chapter by chapter, but I am super nervous to put it all on paper. Too many fears to mention here ... but I will conquer them. I WILL!

5. Sometimes when I am unfortunate enough to be in a medical waiting room, stuck there for an extended amount of time, and forced to watch CNN for hours at a time, I really, REALLY think that I could go in an fix that once great network. Seriously, I think that I, Melissa Blau, know exactly how to make that a respected news outlet once again. So ... call me, CNN. I'll take care of you. 

6. I spend too much time worrying about the space/time continuum and the effect of time travel on historical events. Don't ask me why. I don't even know. What time would I travel to, and what would I do once I got there? Victorian England, in the English countryside, not Dickensian London ... and I would spend my entire time observing, but hiding the background, trying not to be noticed, so that I didn't accidentally do something to destroy the history of the modern world. I know. I'm weird. And a little boring.

7. Once in college I watched West Side Story every single day for like a year. But I only watched up to the "wedding" scene. I didn't like the sad ending.

8. I am a huge fan of Les Miserables. I have seen the stage production six times. I once dreamed a dream of playing my trumpet for the pit orchestra in a professional production, but, let's be honest, I wasn't even close to being that good. Still, I did my honors thesis on the book in college. One of my professors asked me to submit my thesis to a scholarly journal for publication, but I never did. Still that paper and all the work that went into it is one of my favorite college achievements.

Maybe You've Heard of This Movie ...

I don't know if anyone knows this or not, but Herman has a bit of a hobby. He likes to buy rental properties. A lot. He isn't into high market rentals. Instead, he looks for super great buys that we can either pay cash for or get five year loans so that we can pay the property off quickly. Somehow last summer he ended up befriending a sweet little old lady whose husband had passed away. She wanted to leave this area which she has known her entire life in order to move to New Mexico to live with her daughter. Before she could leave, however, she needed to sell this property she owned. No one was interested ... until she met Herman. It was exactly what he was looking for, so we made up a contract, bought her place, and she moved to her daughter's. All was well.

Until this week. Miss Clara likes to send out her Christmas cards early, so she went to her boxes looking for her stash of cards and couldn't find them anywhere. This box also had some important personal items as well, so Clara was a bit worried, thinking that she had left them behind. She called me several times during the week, but I don't mess with our properties at all. That is Herman's gig or something we turn over to our property manager, Ray. Herman has never been around when Clara called, so we could never let her know if she had left this box behind. I felt so bad for her because she was obviously distressed.

Well, tonight Miss Clara called again. This time I had done my homework and knew that her box had not been left behind. I had to break that bad news to her, which made me a bit sad, but as I talked with her we came up with a plan for where she could look next and hopefully find her missing box.

And here is where things got interesting ...

Miss Clara likes to talk. A lot. I am a terrible conversationalist. Terrible. And as bad as I am in real life, I am even worse on the phone. I just don't know what to say. Ever. But it was okay because Miss Clara talked enough for both of us. She talked with me a lot about her family and the wonderful time she has had living in New Mexico. She talked about her husband and how much she missed him. Then she started to explain to me why her daughter was not in New Mexico with her. Here's how the conversation went:

Miss Clara: Well, my daughter isn't here to help me look for this box because she's in England right now

Me: Wow! England. That sounds fun!

Miss Clara: Yeah. Well, my granddaughter actually needed to be there because she was in a movie. Maybe you've heard of it. It's that Catching Fire movie. You know it?

Me: Do I know it? Yeah! Am I going to the midnight premier? Yeah!!!

Miss Clara: Great! Well, when you go you need to look for my granddaughter.

(At this point I'm thinking that she is an extra in the movie, so I'm thinking, "How in the world am I going to notice your granddaughter in a huge crowd?" Well, Miss Clara is going to help me out here).

Miss Clara: She's that girl with blond hair. It'll be pulled back into two braids. Well, that is it will be unless they changed it from the last movie. She's thirteen, but she looks a lot older. My granddaughter is Willow Shields. She plays that girl ... Primrose Everdeen.

What?????? Primrose Everdeen??? Wow! That is amazingly cool. She's in the UK this week to go to the world premier. So sweet!

I had no idea that our sweet Miss Clara was so connected to that movie. I would have never in a million years guessed that. Then Miss Clara tells me that she really, really wanted to get her Christmas cards sent out this week because next week she is headed to LA to go to the US premier with Primrose herself. Well, I really, really wish that I could have helped her find her cards so that she will be ready for that premier.

Well, I'm a total fan girl about The Hunger Games ... well, at least the first two books. I didn't care for the last one (sorry to all you mega fans out there). But I was cool. I didn't gush ... too much. I just thought it was hilarious how Miss Clara just dropped that little tidbit calmly into the conversation. I don't think she really knows much about The Hunger Games and what sort of following the books and movies have at all. She just loves her granddaughter and is happy that she is finding success in her life. I just love Miss Clara so much. Who knew that buying a property would introduce us to such a sweet person?

So, it was an exciting phone conversation for a book nerd like me tonight. I'll bet lots of people out there have great stories like that just waiting to be revealed, if I would only take the time to talk a little more on the phone. Someday I'll get over my phone phobia. Someday. Until then Miss Clara asked me today if she can call and talk more off and on. She may be the only person on earth who has ever purposely wanted to talk to me a lot on the phone. Like I say, I'm terrible. But I felt good tonight talking with Miss Clara. I could tell that she was feeling a bit lonely all by herself in New Mexico. She was feeling a bit nostalgic for Missouri, and I was able to be a connection to her home. What a rewarding conversation!

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary!

Today marks two years since the first day that we met our sweet Eliza. I can't believe it has been so long. It seems like it was just yesterday. For a look back at that amazingly wonderful day, check out our blog post HERE. 

A lot has happened in two years. A lot. She was four when we got her, and thanks to American legal magic, she is four now. Minsy's language skills are way better than they were even a year ago, and yet she really, really lags behind where she should be. The school district is giving her some pretty intensive therapy, but she still seems to talk like your average one and a half year old. We are seriously concerned about this, worried that she is going to have significant intellectual delays or at least lots of communication difficulties. Lately I have been wondering if there is some sort of block in her mind, preventing her from strong verbal communication. Her receptive language is great. In other words, she can understand almost everything that is said to her. It is when she tries to say things back that things get wonky. I have wondered if maybe we could bypass whatever block might be there by using sign language instead of relying on verbal communication. That is just something that popped in my head this week, so I'm still doing some research, but it seems as if that might be a direction we will be headed as a family. That seems daunting to me, but I think we can figure it out. It's just like learning another language, right? And that's what we do. We are reasonably good at learning new languages as a family, I think.

Even by changing her age to four she is extremely small for her age. She is on a high calorie diet to try and make up some height, but so far it hasn't really shown much of a difference. She may be that girl who graduates high school less than four feet tall. It'll be fine, no matter what, but I sure hope that I can do whatever is necessary to give her as much help with her growth as I can. It sure would help if she liked milk products at all. All the high calorie diets love to use milk products, and she hates most of them. Shopping for this diet is a nightmare. Have you ever gone grocery shopping looking for high calorie items? Sure, they are out there, but today's push is for lower calorie items. It feels weird to look on boxes, hoping to find the product that is the least heart healthy for us. 

When we first got Minsy she was very compliant ... almost too compliant. She never really expressed her opinions about anything, and she would wait until we gave her permission for her to do anything. That has changed a lot, thank goodness. She has no problem letting us know what she wants. Her favorite thing to do these days is to let out an exaggerated sigh or say, "Oh, man!" whenever things don't go her way. It is super cute now. I'm sure it won't be when she becomes a teenager, though. 

When she came to our house two years ago she had the world's worst balance. She couldn't stay upright at all. I think she spent the first two months of her time here with giant bruises and scrapes all over her head because she was constantly doing head plants all over the place. To make things worse, she never tried to catch herself when she fell, so she would just ram her head right into the ground. It was so sad. Thanks to great physical therapy she has gotten much stronger with good balance skills, keeping her pretty little face unmarred. 

One of my favorite changes in these two years is seeing Minsy smile in pictures. I didn't notice a lot of Chinese people smiling for pictures when we were in China. We got to go to a lot of popular tourist places in China and see tons of people posing for pictures. Hardly any would smile. The common pose was a straight face with fingers held up in the victory sign. I'm not sure why this was, but Minsy seemed to be used to that custom. All of her pictures were very serious for awhile. In fact, last year for her preschool pictures the company actually sent us two packets because they couldn't get her to look happy for any of the shots. I actually like those pictures a lot, especially when I have them to compare to her pictures this year. Now she is a super smiling girl in all her pictures, and it is super cute.

I feel like I have grown a bit in the last two years as well. Minsy has added new dynamics to our family, causing me to have to adapt a bit. I still have so much more to learn. I can tell that we will be dedicating a lot of time in our lives to helping her overcome the delays she has. There are times when I feel like I am the worst person in the world for this responsibility. Other times I feel as if I have unique qualifications that make this exactly the job for me. I guess it depends on the day. All I know is that this was exactly what our family was supposed to do. It has been such a blessing for all of us. These past two years have been a wild ride at times, but they have been so worth it. I love my little Minsy Moo!

Just for kicks ... here is a cute video from Minsy's Gotcha Day in China (but beware, the camera work is super shaky)  ...

And here is one of her today ...

Choices

As a parent I have always hoped that my children would develop their own personal testimonies about Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the restored gospel. It is super that I believe, but ultimately they will have to make their own choices. We are a church that values free choice. We are free to choose our own paths in life. The bummer is that we can't always choose the consequences for those actions, but, nevertheless, we still have the right to choose to do whatever we wish in life. That is a hard thing as a parent sometimes, because I really, REALLY would like to just make the choices for my children sometimes, you know? But because I recognize that my children will have to choose for themselves sooner or later I try to guide them along the path as best I can and hope that they will have experiences that will help them to believe as strongly as I do about this gospel. Watching and waiting for this to happen can be a bit nerve-wracking at times, but it has been rewarding to see this process play out.

I just had to share one of those "Yea!" moments that I got to see as a parent this week. Savannah is growing into such a strong and amazing young woman. She has spent several years in Laney's shadow, I think. It wasn't that Laney was overshadowing her or anything like that. I think that it was just that the two of them were a team in so many ways, and while Laney was the girl who was always carrying her journal or her scriptures around as she listened to LDS music and posted her spiritual feelings online, Savannah was quieter about her religious feelings. Her feelings are just as strong, just not as noticeable when Laney is around. Well, since Laney headed to college this fall Savannah has had a chance to show her true colors, and it has been fun to watch. 

Last Saturday our ward youth had a trip to the St. Louis temple. Herman went with Savannah and Spencer, and as he drove Savannah told him that she was missing a big scholar bowl tournament that day. Savannah is the captain of her scholar bowl team. She loves participating, and she is their best player. When she is there they do really well, and when she is gone they do pretty badly. She always looks forward to those competitions, but we had no idea that there was one that weekend. Why? Well, Savannah decided that she was going to the temple trip. She didn't even have to debate it in her mind. She was always going to go. As much as she loves participating in the scholar bowls, she decided that her church activity was more important. I really appreciated that choice. We didn't force her to make it. It was one that she made on her own. Seeing her make those sorts of choices gives me great hope in the choices she will make as she heads out on her own eventually.

I am grateful for those moments like that which give me a glimpse into the inner feelings of my children. I think that my favorite thing about this is that Savannah didn't make a big deal about it at all. She just made her choice. She didn't need to advertise the dilemma. She didn't need to point out her faithfulness. She just chose to act, and then she acted. Awesome! Another tender mercy for me as a parent. Hooray!