Dear Friends,

It’s hard to write to someone you don’t know, but we hope that through this blog page you’ll get to know us a little better and that some day; we’ll get to know more about you. We’re glad that you’re considering adoption for your baby. We can’t even imagine how hard this decision is for you. You are truly making a sacrifice of love. This makes you an amazing person. We pray that God will bless and comfort you during this difficult time. We would also like to be a support to you and would like to get to know you better. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about us.

HOW CHRISSOM AND I MET

We’ve been married thirteen years (wow, look how young we are in our engagement picture). When I write that, it seems like so long, but the time has really flown. Chrissom and I met through my aunt who conveniently lives next door to his family. She’d tried to set us up before Chrissom’s went to Missouri for two years to serve our church, but nothing came of it. When he left on this service mission, she and my mother got serious about setting us up. She wanted me to write to him and my mother insisted that I do (I’m sure you know how mothers can be). So I grudgingly wrote him a very sarcastic letter. Lucky for me he wrote back. We wrote back and forth and spent those two years that he was awy getting to know each other. When he got home, he wanted to date me right away. I was in the middle of finals and put him off until after his homecoming (he’ll never let me live that down, claiming school was more important than true love). I was very nervous to actually meet him but when I saw him talking and laughing with someone I thought, “yep, that’s my Chrissom.” We dated and were soon engaged. The rest, as they say, is history.

OUR ADOPTION STORY

This last April we were excited to find out that we'd been selected by a birth mother to adopt her eight-month old son. At first we panicked a little. You’d think after waiting for thirteen years, we’d be ready to be parents at anytime, but we were scared. We took the decision to the Lord and were given a firm answer that this baby was meant to be part of our family. Our fears subsided and we moved on to our next challenge…preparing our home. Knowing that we only had a week before we flew out, we visited Babies R Us and were completely overwhelmed. We decided that we’d have to meet the baby first to even know what he needed. We quickly packed and excitedly flew to Delaware where we met and fell in love with Zackary. We also met Zack’s birth mother and were very impressed with her faith in the Lord and her strength of character.

After ten days of waiting for paper work to go through, we brought him home and introduced him to our families. Everyone fell in love with him especially his grandma's and grandpa's. We keep in touch with his Birthmother through pictures and e-mail.

Zackary officially became a member of our family in October of 2008. As we look back at this process, we see the hand of the Lord in every aspect. Our lives have changed one hundred percent and we feel so blessed to have him in our family.

ABOUT US

Chrissom is a Civil Engineer. He spends his time drafting and creating plans for sewers, parking lots and utilities. I was a teacher and taught fifth grade for 13 years (I guess you could say I know a lot about 10 year olds). Now I get to stay home and be a full time mom to Zackary. Zackary is eighteen months old and the love of our life.
We love to go camping and be in the outdoors. We like to back pack. It’s fun to put everything in our packs and take off for places unknown. Last time we went backpacking, we took our two little dogs. It was fun to see them tromping along and splashing through the river. This last summer we took Zackary camping for the first time and were excited to find out that he loves it as much as we do!

Chrissom and I love to spend time together doing just about anything. We watch movies, read books, garden, go for walks, and make movies on the computer. We often cook together and enjoy creating new dishes or just making the same old dinner together. Most of our time now is spent with Zackary. We have so much fun just watching him grow and discover new abilities. Chrissom calls him the “boy genius” any time he learns something new.

Another thing we love to do is spend time with our families. We have awesome families. Hardly a week goes by that we don’t do something with our extended family. We enjoy spending time with both my parents and Chrissom’s. Our parents are very supportive and are the best grandparents alive. My mom loves to have her grandchildren sleep over on their birthday. They get to do fun things with her and be treated to the things they love.
Chrissom’s parent’s love to spend time with Zackary. Chrissom’s mom will call and say she is having a “Zack Attack” and needs to see him. Chrissom’s Dad loves to spoil him and take him for wagon rides.

We have twelve nieces and nephews and are often getting together for birthdays and other events. We have three nephews that live next door and they love to spend time at our house playing, making cookies, and washing the dishes.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT CHELSEA by: Chrissom

Chelsea is my best friend. I love to see Chelsea laugh. I know that if she is laughing everything is going to be OK. Chelsea has always had a big heart and has a loving mothering nature about her. She is a wonderful mother to Zackary. Chelsea is always thinking up something fun for Zackary and his cousins to do. She can turn the dullest of chores in to a good time. Our nephews come over to play and they end up washing the dishes and still have a good time. One of our nephews has said that he wishes that Chelsea had chosen him to be in our family like Zack. Chelsea is very creative and can make just about anything. Her sister volunteered her to create a flower display even though she had never really done it before. And of course it turned out beautiful. Chelsea sews, draws, and I think that she can create anything. Chelsea is a great cook, although sometimes she gets a little creative with her recipes when we are out of certain ingredients. One time Chelsea made meat loaf and she was out of regular oatmeal so she used banana oatmeal instead. We didn’t eat more than a few bites because no one likes banana flavored meat. We still laugh about it. Chelsea and I have a lot of great memories together and have a lot of funny stories to tell. Chelsea has always been a good example to me because she has a strong belief in God and a desire to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that our children will see that in her and their belief in God will be strengthened by her example. Chelsea has always been there to give me encouragement when I need a boost, her help when I couldn’t do it by myself, her understanding when I need it most, and her time when I need to talk. Chelsea has given more to me than I can ever repay and Zackary and I are blessed because we have Chelsea.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT CHRISSOM by: Chelsea

Chrissom is my best friend! Chrissom has the best laugh ever and is pretty darn funny. My favorite is when he laughs so hard that he can’t stop. Sometimes he even passes out. He loves to make me laugh by making up funny lyrics to songs we are listening to on the radio (and sometimes hymns in church). Chrissom is a wonderful dad. Each night when he gets home, Zack giggles the moment he sees him and wants to spend every moment with Chrissom. Chrissom loves to spend that time with Zack. He is very devoted to Zack and spends as much time as he can with him.
People are naturally drawn to Chrissom and love to be around him. He makes them feel good and makes them laugh. Chrissom is the oldest son in his family and takes his responsibility as a big brother very seriously. His brother’s and sisters all look up to him and he works hard at being a good example for them and a support to them.
Chrissom is a hard worker. He loves to grow things and work in the garden. He gets really excited about things and that excitement is catching to those around him. Chrissom likes projects and gets really involved in what he’s doing. One of his favorite hobbies is video games. He also dabbles a little in woodworking, and loves to golf. Chrissom is willing to try most things (for example my cooking), he even fixes his own car and changes his own oil. He is very respectful of me and learned from his father to treat his wife like a queen. Even though he laughs at me when I make him kill a spider, I’m very lucky to have a man like him.

THINGS WE LOVE ABOUT ZACKARY

Zack is a tease. He teases Mommy, he teases Daddy, he teases the dogs. He loves to be tickled and his laughter is contagious. He loves people. One of Zack’s first words was “hello.” When he'd say hello to someone and they didn’t acknowledge him, Zack would put his face right in front of theirs until they notice him. Zackary loves to see what anyone is doing and is always eager to try it out himself. He wants to help. Whether it is helping Mommy with the cooking, laundry or vacuuming, or helping Grandpa fix the wagon, Zack is right there. He loves to play with other children, and is sad when his cousins have to go home. Zackary gets really excited about everything and reminds us to look at the world through the eyes of a child. We love to watch Zackary as he tries something new. He is very determined and will practice something over and over until he gets it. A few of Zack’s favorite things to do are: Sweep with a broom, push his lawn mower around, ride on Daddy’s back in the backpack, play with friends, show off for visitors, point out airplanes, go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, play with the dogs, go rock a bye, jump on the tramp, play in the sandbox, and try new things. We are lucky to be the parents of a boy genius like Zackary.

OUR FUTURE FAMILY PLANS AND GOALS

Family is the most important part of our life. We’ve always wanted to have a large family, and hope to adopt more children. We want to raise our children with a testimony of the Gospel and a knowledge of who they are. We also feel that it is important to teach them about their birth families and their heritage. We think that the best way to teach children is by example. We’d like to see our children grow up, go on missions, and marry in the temple. We both want our children to have the support of a mom that can stay home with them. That is why Chelsea quit her job after we adopted Zackary. I have a secure career that allows Chelsea to do this. Along with teaching them values, we think it’s important to teach them to work hard and to develop their talents. We also hope to instill in them a love for learning.
Thank you for reading our blog. We hope you’ve learned a little about us and we hope to meet you soon!
Love,
Chrissom and Chelsea