My heart is heavy today because we just found out that our cousin passed away this morning from an arduous battle with cancer. I ache for his wife and children who will miss him tremendously. So many people will miss him. He was a big Samoan teddy bear. His culture was always so fascinating to me and his complete ability to love and welcome people is something that astounds me. Today, as I have thought about his life, I feel very lucky that I got to be related to him. I am lucky to know his children who carry on pieces of his culture and his warm personality.
My heart is also light today. I am so happy that he has been released from the heavy suffering that he has been enduring the past several weeks. The reunion with family and loved ones on the other side today was probably spectacular. I'm sure my mom was there. His spirit will continue to live without the mortal restriction of his imperfect body, he will continue to look over his family and he will wait for them to join him, and one day in the future, his spirit and body will be reunited in a perfect form. Can you imagine that sweet reunion with his wife and children?
I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of our Heavenly Father's plan. We have existed a long time before this life and will continue to exist and progress after this life with our families. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, lived a life that we are to emulate and died so that we will live again.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Things I LOVE...
Fall Nights. Going on dates with my husband. A particular Fall night... while on a date with my husband... attending the temple and basking in two hours of much needed peace. Peace. Strength. Love. Knowledge. Grace. Love. Gratitude. Joy. Love.
Cute bulletin boards created by my sister. Good friends. Writers. (Have I ever mentioned that I love to read?) My students. My students who recognize that I am human and I need them to be good so I don't fall apart, they then sense that and are AMAZINGLY well-behaved.
Terrific. Radiant. Humble.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
It is official...
After a tumultuous day one of unsurety on Thursday, we found answers on a direct Friday. The orthopedic doctor told me that I had completely torn my lcl (lateral cruciate ligament) which is on the outside of my knee, meniscus, and a possible partial tear of my acl. He suggested surgery and we are going to have it done in November. I wanted to get it done sooner, but between his surgical schedule and my teaching/coaching schedule, we decided that Nov. would be the best time. This is my first tear/breakage of any sort. On one hand this is a monumental occasion that I kind of want to celebrate. But on the other hand, this is by far the scariest thing I have done since dressing up as the Red Power Ranger for Halloween. I still get the heebie-Jeebies from that. I know that everything will be okay and that I will be able to regain the use of my knee again. The hardest part about this whole ordeal is that I will not be able to play any sport for 7-8 months. Thank goodness we didn't buy those ski passes. It is weird to think about, but I am glad that this happened. My knee had been bothering me for awhile, but my regular doctor said that I just needed to ice it and take some ibuprofen before engaging in any athletic activity. That advice was taken and put into practice but I was in constant pain. At least with this surgery, I will hopefully have the pain gone. I am so grateful for Sara and how she is helping me so much with even the tiniest, most mundane tasks that I am quickly realizing that I cannot quickly do or even do at all right now.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
What a Day!
I am sitting here blogging while Shawn is playing NCAA football on his playstation. You see, it isn't what we are doing that is interesting but how. I am sitting on the loveseat with both legs dangling casually over the edge and typing on the laptop. Shawn, however, is sprawled out on the sofa with his right knee carefully supported by a pillow. He is on many milligrams of ibuprofen while I am drug-free (Happy Red Ribbon Week!). For the first time all day, his knee is out of a brace and I will shortly be putting ice on it.
We have spent the entire day driving around the Salt Lake Valley going to doctors visits and getting tests done. Shawn may have torn is LCL. Results tomorrow!
We have spent the entire day driving around the Salt Lake Valley going to doctors visits and getting tests done. Shawn may have torn is LCL. Results tomorrow!
Scammed
A few months ago we had the great opportunity to put our profile on www.parentprofiles.com. We were happy to take advantage of the opportunity, but with it came a caution to be aware of adoption scams that are more prevalent if our information is on the internet. You see, some people prey on adoptive couples for money and some prey on them for emotional reasons. We have been warned and have heard stories about other people but we never thought it would be us.
Tuesday morning we woke up to a contact through our PP profile from a gentleman who said that his wife died in childbirth on October 1st and he was looking to place the baby because he wanted to focus on his six other children and his profession. We thought it was kind of strange that he would use flippant language to explain his desire to place his baby but we thought we would respond anyways. The return email was written with a completely different syntax, told us that "the God of the universe has chosen you to be his parents" and insisted on our personal phone numbers. We did not feel peaceful about this at all so we decided to write back without offering our phone number. We knew that pictures can often be traced so we asked for photos. In the meantime we spent a few hours trying to check out the email address, names and adoption scam forums. In the forums-nothing was said that connected to our emails. There was a lot written, however, about adoption offers from Cameroon by an overseas agency and cautions against communicating with them.
Once again the person responded and seemed a little more loving towards the baby and the situation but claimed that he didn't have any experience with babies, so it was so hard to take care of his baby. That seemed weird if he had six previous children. Something in us made us very skeptical but something else was in the back of our mind telling us to be careful about throwing away a potential opportunity.
In our research, we found that the baby name was a famous french person's name. We noticed that the sentence structure of the emails was off-as if the author wasn't an English speaker. (The birthdate was backwards like would be done in French) I prayed that we would be able to find something to help us know for sure that this was a scam or that it wasn't a scam.
We received photos of a beautiful black baby. I wasn't sure how to trace the photos other than doing a basic google image search and we found nothing. I came back to the email later and once again prayed that I would be able to find something that would be a clue to the scam or reality of the situation. I clicked on one of the pictures and my macbook at school made the image very large. Enlarged, I saw that the hazardous waste (is that what they are?) container was written in French. The person standing over the baby was holding a wooden measuring tool to measure the baby's height (I don't think they use those anymore), the thermometer was old-school, the diaper was taped-not like an american diaper, and the baby's head was elongated like it had come through the birth canal and probably not c-section like I would assume would happen if the mother's life was in danger. I enlarged the next picture and could see the name on the baby's wristband. It was not Jean Gael, but something like Miko. The baby was wearing a sweater, not a normal hospital issue onesie. Hmmmm.
We contacted our caseworker who directed us to contact Parent Profiles and found that these emails were coming from overseas and the information used in the emails had been tried on other couples in March 2007.
Phew! We were lucky. We were lucky that we felt uneasy from the start about this and that people, like our caseworker, knew where to send us to get help. We were lucky that we were guided to find things that would help us question the validity of the emails and pictures. I am grateful for the things that I learned on my mission that helped us to question the make-up of the emails. Mostly, I am grateful that we were protected from what could've been a very emotional and hurtful experience.
Tuesday morning we woke up to a contact through our PP profile from a gentleman who said that his wife died in childbirth on October 1st and he was looking to place the baby because he wanted to focus on his six other children and his profession. We thought it was kind of strange that he would use flippant language to explain his desire to place his baby but we thought we would respond anyways. The return email was written with a completely different syntax, told us that "the God of the universe has chosen you to be his parents" and insisted on our personal phone numbers. We did not feel peaceful about this at all so we decided to write back without offering our phone number. We knew that pictures can often be traced so we asked for photos. In the meantime we spent a few hours trying to check out the email address, names and adoption scam forums. In the forums-nothing was said that connected to our emails. There was a lot written, however, about adoption offers from Cameroon by an overseas agency and cautions against communicating with them.
Once again the person responded and seemed a little more loving towards the baby and the situation but claimed that he didn't have any experience with babies, so it was so hard to take care of his baby. That seemed weird if he had six previous children. Something in us made us very skeptical but something else was in the back of our mind telling us to be careful about throwing away a potential opportunity.
In our research, we found that the baby name was a famous french person's name. We noticed that the sentence structure of the emails was off-as if the author wasn't an English speaker. (The birthdate was backwards like would be done in French) I prayed that we would be able to find something to help us know for sure that this was a scam or that it wasn't a scam.
We received photos of a beautiful black baby. I wasn't sure how to trace the photos other than doing a basic google image search and we found nothing. I came back to the email later and once again prayed that I would be able to find something that would be a clue to the scam or reality of the situation. I clicked on one of the pictures and my macbook at school made the image very large. Enlarged, I saw that the hazardous waste (is that what they are?) container was written in French. The person standing over the baby was holding a wooden measuring tool to measure the baby's height (I don't think they use those anymore), the thermometer was old-school, the diaper was taped-not like an american diaper, and the baby's head was elongated like it had come through the birth canal and probably not c-section like I would assume would happen if the mother's life was in danger. I enlarged the next picture and could see the name on the baby's wristband. It was not Jean Gael, but something like Miko. The baby was wearing a sweater, not a normal hospital issue onesie. Hmmmm.
We contacted our caseworker who directed us to contact Parent Profiles and found that these emails were coming from overseas and the information used in the emails had been tried on other couples in March 2007.
Phew! We were lucky. We were lucky that we felt uneasy from the start about this and that people, like our caseworker, knew where to send us to get help. We were lucky that we were guided to find things that would help us question the validity of the emails and pictures. I am grateful for the things that I learned on my mission that helped us to question the make-up of the emails. Mostly, I am grateful that we were protected from what could've been a very emotional and hurtful experience.
Verification
So... I just left a comment on someone's blog and was reminded about my feelings concerning the secret code test we are required to pass before leaving a comment. That test gives me anxiety. For some reason, I fail that test about 50% of the time. Perhaps you aren't receiving comments from me because I struggle to get through! Oh Buddy :)
Sunday, October 12, 2008
My Life's Dream...
So, the other day my sister-in-law told me that I needed to blog more. I have thought about it but I haven't felt like I had anything to say. Well, the past few days have changed all of that. On Friday, my ninth graders were taking a college survey. As they were pulling their hair out about all of the different options available to them, one of them piped up and said, "My life's dream is to live in a dorm". I couldn't help but go "What?" He said, "No really... my life's dream is to live in a dorm with a mini-fridge, and I want to fill it with string cheese!" I downright guffawed. Too bad he was serious and felt that he needed to defend himself.
We moved on and the next period provided another enlightening experience. Two of my senior girls were talking about a former boyfriend that the one had given up. The other thought that he was ugly and should have never been considered. They vehemently debated the importance of looks vs. personality for a few moments until someone made a comment about the internet as a tool for dating. One of the girls stopped her side of the debate and said, "The internet is for psychos... and freaks who want to get kidnapped!" Well, I guffawed again, and let's just say, that debate ended for the period.
In Shawn's classes, he has had some equally stimulating conversations concerning Sparta and Rome. After explaining how Sparta was a military society and how the military ruled every bit of life, he noticed that there was a volleyball inside a four-legged stool. He asked his volleyball player, whom the ball belonged to, how the ball got there. She matter-of-factly stated, "The ball was overtaken by Sparta." A week later, in fact the same day as my funny anectdotes occured, Shawn was explaining the precarious situation that Brutus, counselor of Julius Caesar, was in in regards to protecting his friend or protecting his country. He asked the class if there was someone that was a "Brutus" in today's society. One of his students raised his hand and answered,"Hillary Clinton." The class erupted in laughter as well as Shawn.
Besides the tidbits of humor that have been going on in our classes, we have been busy with intense volleyball games, car smashes, taco soup days, and Red Ribbon Week. (If you would like to experience fear, try handing sledghammers to adolescents whose brains are not fully developed and to teachers who have been holding in the anger for a little too long, and let them go wild on a car. It's a rush.)(Oh...I don't mean to be naive... but when did my little eighth and ninth graders start smoking? They are too young to be killing themselves-I actually pulled them aside and told them that- I probably stepped over my bounds. Happy Red Ribbon Week!)
There you go Gina. You asked for it!
We moved on and the next period provided another enlightening experience. Two of my senior girls were talking about a former boyfriend that the one had given up. The other thought that he was ugly and should have never been considered. They vehemently debated the importance of looks vs. personality for a few moments until someone made a comment about the internet as a tool for dating. One of the girls stopped her side of the debate and said, "The internet is for psychos... and freaks who want to get kidnapped!" Well, I guffawed again, and let's just say, that debate ended for the period.
In Shawn's classes, he has had some equally stimulating conversations concerning Sparta and Rome. After explaining how Sparta was a military society and how the military ruled every bit of life, he noticed that there was a volleyball inside a four-legged stool. He asked his volleyball player, whom the ball belonged to, how the ball got there. She matter-of-factly stated, "The ball was overtaken by Sparta." A week later, in fact the same day as my funny anectdotes occured, Shawn was explaining the precarious situation that Brutus, counselor of Julius Caesar, was in in regards to protecting his friend or protecting his country. He asked the class if there was someone that was a "Brutus" in today's society. One of his students raised his hand and answered,"Hillary Clinton." The class erupted in laughter as well as Shawn.
Besides the tidbits of humor that have been going on in our classes, we have been busy with intense volleyball games, car smashes, taco soup days, and Red Ribbon Week. (If you would like to experience fear, try handing sledghammers to adolescents whose brains are not fully developed and to teachers who have been holding in the anger for a little too long, and let them go wild on a car. It's a rush.)(Oh...I don't mean to be naive... but when did my little eighth and ninth graders start smoking? They are too young to be killing themselves-I actually pulled them aside and told them that- I probably stepped over my bounds. Happy Red Ribbon Week!)
There you go Gina. You asked for it!
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