So, an update is long overdue! I won't go into details on what we've been doing, but for my memory sake, I will say, since the last update, we've been to the Oregon Coast for the Christensen family vacation and to Idaho for our oldest nephew on my side of the family's baptism. We had a fabulous summer playing outside with friends almost every day. We enjoyed our garden a lot this year and got our first peaches from our very own tree. We ate every single one of them fresh! We have celebrated every major holiday and have had so much fun! Here's a quick update on each of us and then hopefully, with the new year, will come some new energy to update a little more frequently. At least, here's to hoping! Just for fair warning, this is a LONG post.
Kenzie
Kenzie started kindergarten this year. While it has been an adjustment from preschool, she likes it and is learning so much. We are constantly amazed at the things she learns. She is getting to be a good reader and writer. Jamen and Linzie love to have her read them stories. Kenzie loves to write and makes cards and books and anything else she can for anyone she knows. She is creative and loves to do 'projects'.
Kenzie is doing dance again this year and had her first recital in December. She did a great job and looked super cute! She loved that her Embley cousins and Grandpa and Grandma Christensen and Aunt Karlee could come.
Kenzie is our nurturing little girl. She is very gentle hearted and works hard to make sure everyone is happy and has what they need. She is always telling me stories of how she is taking care of her friends at school and, at home, our other kids sometimes think they have two moms because she is trying to take care of them too.
Kenzie is very logical and has an amazing sense of reasoning for a 5 year old. She worries about the details.
Linzie
This fall, Linzie started doing what I call, 'Neighborhood Preschool'. There are five kids in the preschool and we rotate which mom teaches each week. She looks forward to it every week! It has been so much fun for both of us. She is starting to write and loves to write her name and write any words--real or pretend--that start with 'L'. Linzie is a little engineer and will create something out of any scrap of garbage (boxes, paper, plastic containers, etc.) she can find.
Vivacious is still the word that I think describes Linzie. She can be calm and gentle one moment and totally rough and tumble the next. We joke about how Kenzie keeps kids in line by trying to get them to follow the rules, but Linzie will keep them in line by wrestling them to the ground or physically showing them who's boss. She gets very excited about things and her eyes get big and light up in the greatest way.
A few weeks ago, Linzie turned 4. She had been counting down the days until she was old enough to go to primary and to ride in a booster seat in the van. Because her birthday is in January, she just got to go to Sunbeams for the first time a few weeks ago. It is such a thrill for her and she comes home each week excited to tell us what she has learned. She is excited to get to go on the stage and sing with the primary kids on their next program, and she volunteered to give a talk her fist week in Primary and did a great job.
This was the first year that Linzie had a friend birthday party. In our family, we start friend parties when they are 4 and then have friend parties only every other year. She was very excited and insisted that it be a girl party only, even though most of her friends around here are boys. We did a snowman theme, but since it was about 5 degrees outside, we did everything inside. She had a great time. One funny note about her birthday---since about June, she has been saying that she wants a bubble blowing mowlawner (lawn mower) for her birthday. She never changed what she wanted, EVER! So, of course, we had to get her a bubble blowing lawn mower, but really, it is not the most ideal gift for a January birthday.
One very blessed thing about Linzie, is that even though she is 4, she still naps most days. And when she doesn't nap, you can tell. She is one kid who NEEDS her sleep.
These two adorable girls are best friends and can't wait each day for school to be out so they can be together again.
Jamen
Jamen has probably changed the most since the last post. He has gone from baby to little boy. He got rid of his Binky, which went much smoother than I thought it would. He was so addicted to it! He also started climbing out of his crib and out of everything, so we had to move him to a toddler bed. This happened way before I was ready for it, but he was ready.
In September, Jamen turned two. This little boy is obsessed with horses, so of course, we had to find a pony to ride. He also wanted a horsey cake. He is quite the little cowboy and loves anything about the farm. He constantly talks about Grandpa's horse, Fred, and riding in Grandpa's truck and about going on the dry farm. He loves to feed the cows and see the horses and if you ask, he is Grandpa's buddy.
Besides the farm, he is also obsessed with basketball, BYU basketball that is. He has been to two games and talks about them constantly. He sings the Cougar fight song multiple times a day and thinks it is a bedtime song as well (yes, his father has brain washed him) :)
Jamen talks a ton and makes us laugh every day with the funny things he says. When he says, "What da heck" in his little voice, we can't help but laugh! He will oblige his sisters and play dolls and house and whatever other 'game' they come up with, but he really likes to 'shoot hoops' and play animals.
Jamen loves animals and, most nights, he sleeps with as many as he can fit in his bed. The kid loves a good hot dog and pizza, and if he is ever asked what he wants to eat, for any meal, he will say "hot dog or pizza". He is the most cuddly of all the kids and while he is a daddy's boy, he still wants his mama to hold him. And, yes, recently he has started calling me 'mama'. "Hold me mama".
Baby Boy
That's right...Baby Boy is planning to join our family sometime around March 2nd. We are so excited for him to come and be a part of our family. The kids ask almost everyday how much longer it will be. They are excited for him to be here, but also to have my lap back, I think.
At our 20 week ultrasound, when we found out we are having a boy, we also found out some other interesting news. We learned that there might be something wrong with his right hand. We had to make an appointment with a specialist and the next week, it was confirmed that our little guy will be born without a right hand. Everything else looks good and perfectly normal. For some reason, when his hand was developing (between 5 and 7 weeks), blood flow was interrupted and the hand never developed. His right arm ends at the wrist. It appears that there is some cartilage at the end of his wrist, but most likely, nothing that has bone or will be functioning. We won't know for sure until he is born. We have had growth ultrasounds to make sure that everything else is okay and as far as they can tell, his arms are the same length and everything else looks good. They have told us that it is nothing genetic (won't happen in future children) and nothing that we did or didn't do that caused it. This was such a relief to me. As a mother, you feel such incredible responsibility for the well being of your developing baby.
It is hard to put into words our thoughts and feelings and hard to put them out there for others to read, but I'm going to try...
It is an interesting experience to find out that your child will be born with an impairment. Initially, there was shock and grief--not grief for us, but grief and a sense of mourning for the loss of a limb that he never had. It was a sadness that came from knowing that, from the beginning, life would be a little more challenging for him than for most kids. There is also a sense of being overwhelmed...are we prepared to raise a child with an impairment, how do we help him reach his potential and, how do we, through our actions, not inhibit him. Then there are questions about how he will be able to do certain things in this two handed world. There are fears--how will others treat him? will he be able to handle this challenge with a positive attitude and make the the most of it throughout his life? how do we help our other kids understand? and on and on and on. As Jared and I sat in the car in the hospital parking lot right after we found out, we had a good cry together and then said a prayer. It was in that moment that I felt great peace about the situation. I know that our Heavenly Father is sending this special boy to us for a reason. I know that he will come with the attitude and personality to make the most of this challenge. We are so thankful that he gets to come to our family and know that our Heavenly Father will make us enough to be his parents. We also know that our children have the right personalities and the perfect love to accept him exactly as he is. One of our worries is that our kids will be too helpful and too protective and our little guy won't be able to learn to do things for himself because his siblings will do it all for him. :) We know there will be things that will be hard for our little guy, but we also know that he truly can do whatever he wants to in this life, with or without a hand.
We are thankful to know in advance that he won't have a hand. We appreciate the time that we have had to prepare ourselves and our family. We are also glad that on the day he is born, we can just celebrate his birth and not have to be shocked with the news of a missing limb.
Recently, through pretty incredible circumstances, we were put in touch with a family in West Jordan who has a 9 month old little girl who was also born without a hand. We got to meet her and her amazing mom a few weeks ago. It was so great to talk to them and to see this sweet girl crawling all over the place and playing with toys. Her mom answered a lot of our questions and gave us a lot of insights. We are so grateful to get to know them and look forward to a life long friendship. It will be so great to have our son have a friend who can truly relate to struggles he will have. We can be empathetic, but only someone who experiences the same type of struggle can truly understand.
We know there will be hard days for him and hard days for us, as his parents and family, but we know that with the help of our Heavenly Father, all will be well.
The day after we found out that there might be a problem with his hand, I went to Time out for Women. There were a few things shared there that I know were meant just for me. Here are links if you want to check them out.
http://mormon.org/jarem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz5cHq46j_0
Also, we have a family in our Stake that had a son with some very sever challenges. We have known the grandparents of this little boy for about 6 years and Jared has known his dad for a few years because they both work at BYU as controllers. Shortly after little Caleb passed away, his dad gave the weekly devotional at BYU. For anyone with any kind of challenge in life (so all of us :)), this is a powerful message that has lifted and inspired us.
http://byutv.org/watch/8127d2ea-99bb-4096-99c9-a44ca326c3e5/byu-devotional-address-dallan-moody-3612
We are counting down the days until our little boy gets here!
