Dear Friends,

Hi!  Welcome to our family blog.  We're excited that you are visiting to learn a little more about us.  Adoption had changed our lives and we're proud to say that we are an adoptive family!   Thank you for considering adoption for your baby.  We know that you are making a hard choice, but one that is filled with love and the best wishes for your child.  We think you are pretty amazing and would like to get to know you better.  Hopefully this blog will help you get to know us just a little better.
Thanks for visiting,
Chrissom and Chelsea

HOW CHRISSOM AND I MET

We've been married almost 18 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 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 away 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

In April of 2008 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.
                                                   

            In August of 2009 we were in the process of completing paperwork for our next adoption when an opportunity arose to adopt a three month old through a different agency.  We jumped and finished applications, home study and everything in a week.  That adoption fell through but the next day the caseworker called to ask if we would take a baby girl that would be born that week.  We were overjoyed.  Madelynn's birth mother was flown in on Sunday and delivered on Wednesday.  We got to meet Madelynn and her birth mother that day.  We were so happy to have her join our family.  Everything went so fast but worked out perfectly and now we have a beautiful daughter.                                   

ABOUT US

Chrissom works as a project manager for a company that packages emergency foods and vitamins.  This month he is starting school again to get his graduate's degree in mental health counseling. 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 and Madelynn.

 

Zackary is almost six years old and brings so much happiness to our family.  Madelynn is almost four years old and is the sweet heart of the family.

We love to go camping and be in the outdoors.  Zack and Maddie are always asking to go camping.  We also love to just go up the canyon for a picnic dinner to roast hot dogs and spend time together.

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 and Madelynn. We have so much fun just watching them grow and discover new abilities. We like to go on picnics, bike rides and go swimming as a family.  We have a fire pit in our backyard that we love to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over.  We love to spend time together as a family.

Another thing we love to do is spend time with our extended 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 and Madelynn. Chrissom’s mom always gives them 100 kisses when she leaves.  Zack of course thinks it's gross but we can tell he loves it.  Chrissom’s Dad loves to spoil the kids and take them for wagon rides.

We have fourteen nieces and nephews and are often getting together for birthdays and other events. 

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 Madelynn 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, Madelynn and I are blessed because we have Chelsea.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT CHRISSOM by: Chelsea

Chirssom and Maddie Fishing

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, the kids run to him yelling "Daddy, Daddy!"  They wait all day to play with him.  Zack always has his swords ready for Daddy to sword fight with him.  Madelynn always wants to play dolls with him.  The great thing about him is that he takes the time to play with them.  In the evening, you won't find Chrissom vegging out in front of the tv, you'll usually find him wrestling with Zack and Maddie on the tramp or pretending he is Darth Vader with his arms and legs chopped off.  Chrissom is devoted to his children.
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.
Chrissom's dedication also shows in his studies.  He is in graduate school right now to get a graduate degree in Mental Health Counseling.  He has an awesome grade point average and his teachers compliment him on how well he is doing.
Chrissom 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 MADELYNN

Madelynn is a sweetheart.  She has her dad and grandpa's wrapped around her chubby little finger.  She gives the best hugs and loves to cuddle.  She's a little bit of a tease too.  She loves what ever Zackary loves.  Zack loves Star Wars,  Maddie becomes their biggest fan.  She asks to watch it daily and wants to be Princess Leia when she grows up.  Zackary likes to sword fight, Maddie learns to sword fight even if it is a little bit scary to fight with Zack.  Maddie is a talker and people are always amazed at how much and well she can communicate at her age.  She has a quick smile with two cute dimples.  She's very shy around people and doesn't like to be where there are "too many people."  We love her so much.

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. 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