A True Disciple

Dear Life,



Church was amazing today.

Ah-maze-ing


The topic was "Becoming a True Disciple of Christ".  Elder 

Daniel L. Johnson spoke about this topic in the October 2012 

Conference.  

You can read it HERE.



Talk after talk spoke to me in different ways. 

I thought about Sofi.  

About our reasoning for adopting...and not only adopting but

 adopting a special needs child.

Because we all know that having five boys and one with Spina 

Bifida can be challenging.

I am definitely busy.

We already have a lot of obstacles and trials.


But on the flip side of that, we have witnessed miracles.  

We have been on the receiving end of so many wonderful 

blessings.

We went through the most difficult trial so far last year with 

Kumaka.

After a bilateral hip surgery, two leg breaks, and a repair of 

one side of the hip, Kumaka was in a cast longer than he was 

out of one.

We saw more time in a hospital last year than any other part 

of his life.

And through it all, he smiled.

He endured.

And although I personally thought it was the longest six 

weeks of my life to have him in a body cast,

In retrospect...that time was fleeting.

But the lessons learned are still burning in my heart.

Towards the end of last year, Stuart and I were talking and 

asking ourselves "what can we do to give back...after having 

received so much?"

Many people helped us last year, many people reached out to 

our family...whether it was a meal, a playdate, or a prayer, we 

were enveloped in love.

And we knew that somehow, we needed to give back.

We prayed.

We searched.

We realized the most perfect way we could serve the Lord, 

and be as Christlike as we knew how to be would be to adopt.

Although we are sometimes stretched thin, we know how to

 care for a child with Spina Bifida.  

And once we saw Sofi's sweet face, we knew we could never

 turn our back on her. 

A child with no hope, no family, no love. 

God has never once turned His back on us.

Now is not the time to turn our backs on His children.



"Becoming as the Savior is not an easy task, especially in the

 world in which we live. We face obstacles and adversity 

virtually every day of our lives. There is a reason for this,

 and it is one of the primary purposes ofmortality. As we 

read in Abraham 3:25, “And we will prove them herewith,to

 see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God 

shall command them.”  Elder Daniel L. Johnson



I also thought about my boys.

I thought about the many ways I could be a better 

mother...and a better wife.

I thought about the gift of repentance.  

And as one speaker said so wonderfully "repentance means 

repeating...doing it again but better"

Because of the sacrifice of our Savior, we have the 

opportunity to have a do-over.

What a gift.

Because I don't know about you, but I mess up.

A lot.

Love.

That is what being Christlike means to me.

It's what has always been important to me.

It's what I am always striving for.

I am in no way perfect.

I am continually having to repent...asking God for a do-over.

Boy am I glad to have that opportunity to talk to Him, and to

 turn to Him with a humble heart, and ask for forgiveness, 

and try again.



"I testify that as we obey His commandments, serve others,

 and submit ourwill to His will, we will, indeed, become His

 true disciples." Elder Daniel L. Johnson

What do you see?

Dear Life,

What do you see when you look at this picture?

Photo Credit: Joanna Penny

When you look at this picture, you don't see the other thing these two have in common.

SPINA BIFIDA

Why is that?  First and foremost, these two are little boys.  Boys that love to laugh, play, and be silly.  Boys that love superheroes, dirt, and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Boys that love knock knock jokes and their moms.  

I wish I could share this picture with every mom just finding out their unborn baby is going to be born with Spina Bifida.  I wish I could tell her that her baby will be ok.  That he is beautiful....that she has her mommy's eyes.  That her finger will grab onto yours and melt your heart.  

This is what Spina Bifida looks like.  

I'm proud of these two boys....and blessed to call one of them son.

Learning to "Carve the 'Dis' out of Disability"

Dear Life,

I've been sitting here contemplating the amount of blessing our family has received.  I've been contemplating how very lucky Kumaka is...to live in the United States....to have a family who loves him, supports him, provides opportunities that are not typical....and BELIEVES that HE CAN DO ANYTHING.  Not only that, but wonderful people have come forward and provide amazing and life changing  experiences.  

Last year at this time, Kumaka was in a cast.  A HUGE cast.

A very special young man came to visit Kumaka. 
I'm not really sure what compelled Aaron "Wheelz" to drive over, but that was the beginning of life changing events for Kumaka.

We've been fans of "Wheelz" since Kumaka was a baby.
He has always been an example of doing what you love...and not allowing anything to stand in your way.
I mean...really...check this out:

How could that not be inspiring?
And then yet another inspiring person contacted us.
Christiaan Bailey has become a family friend...and another huge example to Kumaka.
Christiaan lives life his way....has fun doing it...and even more important believes in the "groms" as he calls Kumaka.

This week he brought Kumaka a BoxDesigns WCMX team chair and patiently taught him how to balance. (He has to learn this because this chair has no brakes and no anti tippers....so when he does wheelies he has to balance or he will tip over...and yes it's already happened LOL...hence the helmet!)

Christiaan was on his way to New Zealand,  but he spent almost an hour with our little man.

Providing Kumaka with a new way to look at his chair.

In his words: "I hope this is a turning point for him...looking at his chair as a fun toy instead of a restrictive tank he has to use".

That is more valuable a lesson than anything Kumaka could learn in school.

LIVING LIFE.

Showing Kumaka that HE defines who he is...not his disability...not a surgery...not a broken bone. 

He has healed from last year....the year of casts and surgeries.

And now his spirit is healing.

I can't wait to see what he will do.

And I feel so blessed to have these opportunities for him.

This summer Kumaka has been invited by OceanHealing Group to go to Costa Rica.

This will be an amazing week....of learning to surf, zip lining, fishing, quad riding, snorkeling, horseback riding, among others.

It will show him that he does not have limits.

He will leave his chair behind him....and see the world in a new way.

HUGE.

Blessing.

HUGE.     

A lesson in shoes

Dear Life,

I've been quiet.  I've been trying to process all that has happened in the last few months.  It's a little overwhelming.  When you watch miracles happen in your own life...obvious miracles...it can take your words away.  Thank you for letting me have some time to process.  There are a few things I wanted to share.  Our testimony of God in adoption is pure and true.  We have seen small and large miracles.  Things that we cannot deny.  TRUTH is truth.

GOD lives.

GOD exists.

GOD loves us.

GOD knows our needs.

GOD LOVES THE LOST CHILDREN.

GOD loves our little Sofi. 

GOD has blessed our adoption journey.

GOD has sent us on this journey...and GOD will see us through.

We found Sofi....

We KNEW we needed to bring her here...to be her family.

We prayed.

Step by step.

We realized that we needed our Homestudy money..$2250. 

It was becoming time sensitive.

We prayed more.

It was becoming stressful.

Without a homestudy we couldn't move forward.

Within three days...THREE DAYS of a pleading tearful prayer...an anonymous donor sent us first $250 and then an hour later another anonymous donor sent $1000.  

The next day I sent the money in for the full amount.

We prayed again...how do we raise more money?

Fundraising is challenging at it's best and impossible at it's worst.

One night, as I searched various things, I came across Angel Bins.

I contacted them...and the “Shoes for Sofi” shoe drive was born.

In December we started the drive...we got 1000 pairs pretty easy.

We went on Kumaka's trip, and then Christmas happened.

Shoes did NOT happen.

We knew January would have to be a big push for shoes.  

We needed a little under 4000 pairs in one month.

I knew....I had a strange knowledge that we could get 5000 pairs.

Never...never...never...in a million years did we think we would see our shoe drive go almost viral.

Never did we even imagine that we could get double of what our goal was...much less over 12,500 pairs.  

Never did we imagine we would earn $9422.

And yet we did.

That covers ALL of our agency fees.

And part of our in country agency fees.

HUGE miracle.  

HUGE.

How many people were touched by “Shoes forSofi” by sharing our story and collecting shoes or donating shoes?

We'll never know.

There is another aspect of the Shoes for Sofi story.

My dear friend Cristina Barber is an English teacher for MacArthur Middle School.

She had been collecting shoes and even counting them and storing them in her own garage.

She and  Lisa Morgan, the CLAS teacher for their district, decided to make the shoe drive a lesson for her 130 students.  

First, she printed off this post from my blog entitled "Their Story" 

Cristina explained that the blog was a type of poem.

The students then had the weekend to interpret the "poem" (my blog post) and do a circle map where they defined words...and of course they all wanted to know WHAT IS SPINA BIFIDA?

When the students came back to school on Monday, she then had a story about a girl named Andrea who has Spina Bifida along with some information about what Spina Bifida is from Kids Health.

That same day the classes discussed Angel Bins, and how they could be a solution.

The students did circle maps for both the Spina Bifida article and the Angel Bins information.

The paired off and discussed what they learned.

They went home and had to discuss what they learned with their parents.

That night, the students had to create a rough draft of a tri fold brochure explaining the whole project:

Who were the Jensen's and what are they doing?

What is Spina Bifida?

How does Angel Bins give a solution?

On the back they had to share a personal quote about the project.

They were also given one day to collect shoes if they wanted to.

Boy did they want to.

These kids were so touched by our story, by Kumaka, by Sofi.

They wanted to help.

And they wanted to know the outcome.

We were invited to school the week after the drive ended.

All five classes were invited to"meet the Jensen's" (Me, Kalani, and Kumaka) at lunchtime for a question and answer session.

We were treated like celebrities.

The kids wanted to hug Kumaka and give him high fives. 

They took turns asking questions, some directed at me and some directed at Kumaka.

These kids melted my heart.

I wanted to share some of the quotes that were given on their final projects:

"We are capable of helping others in need, such as the Jensens.  Even one donation can make a difference."    Maggie 

"Heart-warming, emotional, and more words that are far beyond."  James 

"Find out what's possible, if you never give up."  Jaymy 

"It is our job to protect the children of our generation."  Moses

" I didn't know how involved, determined, and courageous some families are, until now."                                                                                                              Luisa

"So we think a problem is going to get in the way.  No, we can achieve anything we dream of."    Sami 

"We are all different, and that's what makes up beautiful."  Arianna 

"We are capable of so much.  We start nations, we've gone to the moon, we've been to the bottom of the sea … the least we can do is bring Sofi home."  Logan 

"Money is made every day, but the bond of love the Jensens have for Sofi is once in a lifetime."   Rogelio 

"You don't have to be big or rich to make differences, all you have to do is care."  Tyler

"If we are capable of buying shoes, then we are capable of giving shoes."  Esmeralda 

Me, Kalani, Nico, Kumaka and Cristina

This teacher taught 130 children about Spina Bifida, about adoption, about supporting others in the community, about service, about children in other countries....the list goes on.  If I had my way, she would get teacher of the century award.  She is a true teacher...she loves her students as much as she loves her friends.  All of that from a shoe drive.

Amazing right?

God is good.

Miracles happen.

We have witnessed them.