Rain

    I have often heard the saying, “Into everyone's life a little rain must fall”. Rain falls on all of us. We sometimes hate rain when it soaks us in unrelenting sheets of wet and cold. But without rain the flowers wouldn't grow. So rain it will, on all of us. My hope with the rain is that there will always come growth along with it. It was no exception with my oldest son Adam. In fact the rain came even before he was born.
    Winn and I got married as poor college students. I quit school to work and Winn worked and went to school. With the costs of school, apartment rent, food, etc, we decided to wait until after Winn graduated to have children. We had the perfect plan. Until....after two months of marriage, I decided I desperately wanted a baby. I could not stop thinking about it. I told Winn I had faith that everything would be OK if we had a baby while he was still in school. I felt peaceful with that thought. Winn resisted but eventually weakened to my sad eyes and my deep desire to be a Mother. After being married for 5 months I became pregnant. I was very excited.

    Then the rain started. I got morning sickness to the extreme and I threw up at even the smell of food. I threw up all day. I couldn't keep anything down. It was rough. I even found myself cleaning throw-up out of the carpet at the store I worked at, on my hands and knees, with customers looking on in pity. I threw up so often that I was light-headed all the time and I passed out a few times. I was losing weight instead of gaining it like I was supposed to. I prayed in my daily prayers for 2 things, that the times I passed out I would not hurt this baby in my fall and that the baby would get enough nourishment to grow and develop the way that he should. I survived the pregnancy but in the end I only gained 4 pounds instead of the 30 my doctor recommended. I lost a lot of weight but the baby grew well, although he was 2 weeks late. The 9 and a half months was brutal but I knew it would be worth it.

Thanksgiving and I'm overdo, hoping for the baby to come soon.

    My water broke one night and we went to the hospital. I was in labor all day but I was not progressing, even with an IV to help speed things up. They prepped me for a c-section because there is a risk to the baby once the water breaks, if labor does not progress after a long period of time. We prayed surgery would not be necessary because we had no insurance or enough money for a surgery. At the last minute my body went to work and I was able to have him in the traditional way. We welcomed a healthy baby boy and we named him Adam. Winn had to sell his motorcycle to pay the hospital bill. I considered this a big blessing because Winn drove too fast and kept crashing and hurting himself. I got a discount on the delivery at the hospital where my mother and I worked labor and delivery. I also got a discount from the doctor, who knew my mother and I. Winn got government grant money when we needed it most. We were blessed and I knew my prayers had been answered and we were supposed to have this baby boy in our lives at this time. He was a fun baby. He added a lot to our lives and made us want to be better people because we loved him so much.

Adam's Dad deeply loved his little boy

He had a smile that melted our hearts

This is what we got to wake up to every morning

4 generations

Winn graduated and we didn't starve to death

    We moved to Arizona after Winn graduated and lived in Phoenix and then Tucson. Adam was a fun little boy. We had mostly happy days but there was some rain. The tough times Adam went through he handled very well. Because it was so hot, reaching 118 degrees while we lived there, he was forever taking off his clothes. I don't blame him. I wished a few times I could have done it myself. One of the tough times happened when he ran into the neighbor's yard and grabbed a cactus. A lot of people had cactus gardens instead of flower gardens because they grew better in the Arizona heat. The horrible thing about the cholla cactus he grabbed was that it has hooks on the ends so when they go into your skin you can't pull them back out. They hook inside your skin like a fish hook in a fish. If you try to pull them the skin pulls with it and they just can't be pulled out. My husband, who was watching Adam, grabbed him and also got some cactus in him. Adam kept rubbing his sore hands on his stomach embedding more in his stomach. It was a long miserable ordeal. Most of the quills had to be trimmed to the surface of the skin because they could not be pulled out. They got infected and were sore for a long time. We felt really bad for Adam as he tried to recover. Winn had a rough time too.

We added a daughter while we lived in Arizona

Kids and cactus don't mix

    We had a lot of bugs of all kinds In Arizona, another thing to keep Adam safe from. We had taranchulas, beetles with huge pincers, black widows, scorpions, etc. Adam loved being outside and spent a lot of time exploring and playing in the dirt. He got covered in fire-ant bites quite a few times, which left welts all up his legs. Another time while crawling he almost grabbed a huge beetle that could have done some serious damage. The scorpions were the same color as our carpet. He had a lot of close calls with those, which are harder on children. I stepped on one one evening with my bare foot and jumped back just as its stinger stuck forward for my leg. Black widows were everywhere. I got bitten by one and my arm swelled up twice its size with red streaks. It was hard to keep this crawling baby safe from harm in the land of plentiful bugs. The only good thing was that he grew up not afraid of harmless bugs and he would catch cockroaches by the dozens in our house and go throw them outside. We would bug bomb our house but in no time the bugs would all move back in. 

    It was a miracle he was never bitten by anything besides the ants. Another miracle happened when I was busy doing dishes in the house and Adam had been busy playing with toys in his room. I got a sudden panicky feeling and ran out to our washroom, directed by a Heavenly force that helped me know something was wrong and where to go. I found Adam, who had climbed up on some bricks and was about to drink some Clorox bleach he had knocked off the shelf. It made me thankful I prayed for his safety every day.

Adam and his sister Katie. They both hated wearing
clothes when it was so hot.

Stretching with this Dad

    We moved to Colorado when Adam was 4 years old. He had more bad things that happened to him here. His best friend hit him hard accidentally in the face with a golf club just missing his eye.

     Another time Brett was riding his bike and fell and cut open his chin. It was a big cut and he was bleeding all over. Adam was there to help him in the house. I had a new baby who was asleep at the time and other children who had been throwing up all morning. I knew Brett needed stitches and I couldn't find a babysitter. I knelt and prayed for help. I called up Pauline Jensen and asked her if any of her daughters could watch my children. She told me they couldn't but she would be right over. She was the answer to my prayer. Brett got his chin sewed up and I didn't have to worry over my sick children. Pauline is one of my heroes. I was also thankful Adam was there to help out. Another time I was at a friend's house and our children were playing with each other. All of a sudden we heard screaming and we rushed in to find Adam on the ground with blood spurting out of the back of his head like a drinking fountain. Adam and his friend had been wrestling and Adam fell into the corner of their brick fireplace, breaking the bricks and cutting open the back of his head. My friend wanted to call an ambulance. We lived so close to my doctor's office I felt like I could drive him there faster than an ambulance could get here. My friend watched my children and I took Adam to our doctor's office. He was holding a towel on his head. His blood soaked through the towel. It started to rain outside. I got him out of the car and he was so weak from loss of blood that he couldn't stand up. I picked him up and ran inside with him. We were both covered in blood. My doctor's office was locked when I got there. I prayed and felt I should go to the pharmacy in the same building. I went down there. We were a sight, soaked from the rain, my shirt covered in blood and this weak pale boy bleeding from his head. The pharmacist called for emergency help. It happened to be the office building's annual party so all the offices had shut down for a couple of hours. The doctor came immediately and cleaned pieces of broken brick out of his head and had a hard time sewing him up because he was bleeding so much he could not see to sew him up because the blood kept pooling up. Adam was kept for a while and given a lot of fluids to make sure he didn't need a blood transfusion. He had a bad headache for a few days and slept a lot.

Smiles before they got really sick. I have already written about our family's
ordeal with chicken pox in my first chapter. I felt bad when I was in the
 hospital with Brett and Adam didn't get as much attention when he had
them so bad in his eye lids. 

He is very flexible. Maybe this is why he never broke any bones.

    Like I have said in my previous chapters, our children have been through a lot. I feel like it does make them tough kids, gives them compassion for others going through hard times and it gives us their parents a chance to see the depth of our love for each one of our children. Fear for that child makes us access just how much that child means to us and how horrible life would be without them. I am thankful for Adam. He showed a lot of calm and bravery in the things that happened to him. At the time, when he was still a child I had no idea what other big events would happen in his life that would affect all of us and make us even more grateful for him. I will save that for one of my next chapter.

Adam was very sweet with his grandpa who had Alzheimers 

I am also grateful for the love he showed for his younger
brothers and sisters

Rocking Haley when she is sick

Adam was always the cool brother the other kids wanted to be like

I Am Thankful For Dallin

     I have been asked many times why I would be crazy enough to have six children. People ask,"Why would you do that with all the work and expense that children are? Shouldn't half that many be plenty?" As a strong believer in God I can tell you that even when I was told not to have more children because of medical reasons, I felt strongly I was supposed to have each one of these children. I knew I could be a good mom and give my children 100%. I thought the reason I felt a push to have them all was maybe because each child was supposed to be here to make some great contribution to this world and to other people. That has proven to be true. Each one of my children has had a great impact on people's lives and the world is a better place because they are here. I didn't at the time realize that each one of my children needed to be a part of MY life to teach ME something, that I would be a better person because of things they taught ME. Dallin has taught me a lot in 18 years and I think he is just getting started. 

As you can tell, Dallin is well loved

     I wanted to start out with a few events in Dallin's life that stick out to me. When Dallin was 7 years old he fell at the playground and cut open the back of his head. The cut was deep and he bled all over his shirt. I took him to the doctor and his head was stapled shut with 5 staples. The next Monday at the end of the school day he started talking to one of his friends. Dallin told this boy that he had been shot in the back of the head 5 times. This boy didn't believe him. Dallin said, “Really! A man sneaked up behind me and shot me in the head with 5 staples”. This boy still didn't believe him so Dallin showed him his staples. When this boy saw the staples in Dallin's head he went running up the street yelling at all the other kids and at the parents in cars coming to pick up their children, “Dallin has been shot!”. I came to pick up my children from school and I wondered what all the commotion was about. This boy had caused everyone to panic. Dallin has a way of keeping life interesting. The next day this boy brought a staple remover and offered to help Dallin take out the staples. Dallin knows how to add a spark to things.

     Another event in his life that stands out was when Dallin was scheduled to go with the scouts on a weekend camping trip. He had packed up all of his camping gear and he was all set to go as soon as school let out on Friday. After school, he suddenly got very sick to his stomach and had diarrhea. He felt so bad that we had to tell his leaders he couldn't go. I felt bad for him being stuck at home feeling bad while his friends had fun being together. An hour after they left, Dallin felt fine again. He was healthy and happy and had a good weekend with his brothers and sisters. We felt bad about the timing of him feeling bad just for that hour he was supposed to leave on this trip. I even debated about whether to drive him up to where they were camping but I got a bad feeling about doing it, so I didn't. After the scouts and their leaders came back from their camping trip, they said that while they were out in the wilderness they all of a sudden had someone firing shots at them. Bullets zoomed past their heads and they couldn't tell where it was coming from but it seemed deliberate. The leaders said it was very scary and they felt very fortunate that none of the boys or them were hit. From what I remember I don't think the police ever found the person who shot at them. I have reflected on this many times and I have been thankful Dallin missed this trip. I believe in miracles because I have had so many miracles happen in my life and some that saved my life at critical times. I think there was a reason Dallin didn't make that trip. I think he was being watched over and protected. He could have easily been hit being big for his age.

Dallin on one of his other scout trips

     The things that have touched me about Dallin has been how he has reached out to befriend kids who didn't have friends. He has also stuck up for friends even when it has caused him misery. This past summer he tried to get permission for a friend of his to go on a big fun-filled church trip. This boy had had a very hard life and a bad home life and Dallin wanted to help make his life better. The answer came back no because it was too late to add him. Dallin felt so strongly about his friend needing him that he gave up this trip with all of its fun plans and stayed home and did things with his friend instead. I was very moved by how much passion he had to want his friend to have a better life. He also sticks strongly to his beliefs. One day coming home from middle school a boy told him he would give him 20 dollars if he would say a bad word. Dallin refused and the kids made fun of him, teased him and wouldn't be friends with him. He was very lonely for a while at school because he would not give in. If any of his friends used bad language in our house he would tell them they had to use good language or they would have to leave. I'm glad that he stood for what was right even if it risked him losing friends. He wanted to keep our home the happy peaceful place that it always had been. I hope to follow his example and be a better friend and not be afraid to stick up for my beliefs even when it is hard. 

Dallin has always been a good friend and our home has
been a place his friends liked to come to. 

     I also love the way Dallin can always make me laugh. There have been times when I have been in pain or having a bad day and he can always say and do the most random things that get me laughing pretty hard. He is incredibly fun to be with. He loves to grab and hug me too tight all the time and flash his heart warming smile. Being around him always lifts my spirits. 

These pictures he made on the computer show his sense of
humor and also how gifted he is on the computer.

Even as a child he wanted to take an active part in what every
one did. Here he is a detective investigating a murder.

Some claws he made out of paper.

My children make me laugh every day.

Instead of a snowman he made a snow toilet.

We had to really watch out every April Fool's Day.
We never knew what he was going to do to us. 

     I am also thankful for Dallin's compassion. I have had three surgeries in the last 10 years, one on my hand after I crushed a bone in my finger and two surgeries to reconstruct and add plates and screws to my neck. Sometimes I would be in so much pain I would just lie on the couch and cry. Dallin would sit by me and hold my hand or spend a long time rubbing my back where the pinched nerves would knot up my muscles. It would have been so much easier and more fun for him to be outside playing with his brothers and sisters or friends but he chose to sit by me and talk to me and rub my back and try to make me feel better. His love and compassion always helped me get through another day. I will always be thankful for what he did for me. This is one of my fondest memories. I am so thankful he has the gift of love and compassion.

Dallin and Haley made me some duct-tape roses that
took them a long time to make

Dallin was so loving and good to me through all this. It still
makes me cry to think about it. 

      Dallin came last, so while all the other kids were in school it was only him and I. Dallin wanted to go everywhere with me and do everything I did. We got really close and had some fun times together. I cried when he went off to kindergarten. I missed how much he made me laugh and having a fun buddy with me everywhere I went. I cried when he left for college. I miss his hugs, smile and him making me laugh every day. I am thankful for you Dallin. Thank you for all the things you taught me and those times you comforted me when life was hard. 

Being Indians in the backyard

After field day at school

I also loved being his scout leader for quite a few years

Dallin drew himself as Robin Hood. He is one of my heroes.