Utah Crisantos

Benson's Birth Story (Part 2)

2012-01-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

The following day, Wednesday January 4th, I woke up so sick! I was actually GLAD the induction had been moved to Friday at that point. Also, I had talked to my mom and she had been thinking of driving to Vegas with my sister in law, but when she found out they wouldn't induce Sierra until Friday she decided to wait and drive with my dad that day. I talked to her on the phone that morning and she said "just watch, now that I decided not to come she will go into labor." Well, at about noon that day Ben came to find me in Kimmie's house where I was taking a hot bath trying to help myself feel better. He was calling for me and I could tell something was up by the tone of his voice. It was...they were on the way to the hospital, Sierra's water was "leaking". Seriously? There was no way I was going anywhere being so sick! Ben got ready and took himself to the hospital. I was SO worried that our little man was going to be born that day and I was not going to be able to meet him. Ugh, talk about frustrating. My mom was pretty upset about the timing too. But, even with all that going on, there was sheer excitement of the fact that this little guy was finally on his way!
The day went on, Ben stayed at the hospital and then ended up in a different location than me. (Long story, details to be shared someday, but not now) That day was probably one of the longest and most stressful of my entire life. I can't really give all the details of what made it stressful (in addition to being deathly ill and our sons birth mother being in labor), but let's just say that I have NEVER felt more anxiety than I did that day. We were about 99.9% positive that Sierra was sure of her decision, so it wasn't that. Our concerns came from other places and comments that were made by people involved. I wish I could give the details and maybe someday I can, but let's just say I felt the whole thing being ripped out from under me and could do nothing about it. It was the worst feeling ever! I am grateful for Byron Williams who gave me the best advice that night and literally saved my sanity that weekend. He pretty much told me to just suck it up. We were SO close to the end, so close to finally having this baby, just suck it all up and smile through it and keep my mouth shut. Anyone who knows me knows that is extremely difficult for me. Talk about a learning experience!
I finally started feeling better (physically) and therefore went to go be with Ben. It was SO nice to be back together and talk through everything that was going on and just be together while our little guy was being born. Sierra's birth plan did not include us being at the hospital while she was in labor, so we spent the night receiving and waiting on texts from the caseworker letting us know what was going on. It was probably the worst night of sleep ever (probably didn't help that Ben and I were sleeping on a couch together, one of us lying down while the other sat upright). I couldn't complain though, because no matter how uncomfortable or anxious we were, this amazing girl was in the most amount of pain she has ever experienced, suffering in order to give us the most amazing gift possible. Obviously, my discomfort was NOTHING compared to what she was experiencing. For journaling purposes I will give you some of the details though. These are the details I received through text messages from the caseworker who was at the hospital with Sierra and her mom.

2 PM Everyone arrives at the hospital and the doctor says they will induce labor today.
8 PM Start pitocin and contractions really start around 8:45
10:25 PM she was dilated to a 6 and we were told she would get the epidural then
11:03 AM water actually broke, experiencing very heavy contractions, dilated to an 8
12:30 AM finally gave her the epidural
3:53 AM dilated to a 10
5:47 AM Sierra has a fever and they have to give her antibiotics. There is concern she may have to have a c-section.
6:48 Start pushing
9:03 AM BENSON IS BORN!!!!

These are the texts I received and the moment that my life changed forever!!

The second picture (first picture exposes too much) that we received of our son! He doesn't look too happy to be here, but we were ecstatic!!

Benson with his amazing birth mom right after his birth.

I know a lot of people are sad for us that we missed out on actually being there for when our son was born. Don't feel sad for us. We had our own amazing, overwhelming and spiritual experience when he entered this world and will remember those moments forever. We immediately began texting our family and friends and sharing the joy!!

More to come.

Benson's Birth Story (Part 1)

2012-01-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

So, I realize that a lot of people would love to hear the story of Benson's birth and it is so very important to have written down for him and for our family history. The problem is, that takes time and time is something I do not have right now. I know newborns sleep most of the time and Benson is no exception to that rule, but somehow the days and nights are flying by and I feel like I am getting nothing done. But I continue to remind myself that spending time with him and taking care of myself are more important than making sure I update my blog regularly or clean up his nursery. I do apologize for the delay in blogging though. I have written down about his birth and placement in an actual journal, so at least it is written somewhere. I am planning to tell the story in parts, because people.....it is long!

Part 1

When Benson hadn't made his arrival by December 27th (due date was December 30th) we made the decision we would make our way down to Las Vegas for Sierras (the birth mom) "final" doctors appointment and just stay in Vegas until the baby was born. It was the holidays so Ben was out of school and I had a few days off of work and it seemed to be a good plan. We had the chance to spend the holidays with all of our family and spend time with those that were visiting out of town before leaving, so it really was great timing. We packed up the car with two weeks worth of stuff for ourselves as well as a newborn. Let me tell you, trying to prepare for a baby when you have never had one is hard enough, but trying to know what you will need for the first two weeks of a babies life and pack that is nearly impossible. We pretty much packed the car with anything we thought we might possibly need. We also had to bring the breast milk that a very thoughtful friend had been freezing for us, so getting that ready and taken care of was an additional task. We were finally ready and on our way first thing in the morning on December 29th. We went straight o Kim and Byron's (probably the BIGGEST blessing in the baby being born in Vegas is that my very best friend lives there and we had a great place to stay for free. HUGE), dropped off all of our stuff and drove right to the doctors appointment. Everyone was excited and Sierra was looking like she was pretty ready. Well, the doctor had a different idea. Sierra wasn't at all dilated and the doctor just said to keep doing what she had been doing and come back the following Tuesday if the baby hadn't arrived yet. We did get to hear his heartbeat again and the doctor confirmed he looked big and healthy, so that was a relief. We were anxious for him to get here, but doing our best to be patient. We spent the next couple of days hanging out with Kimmie and Byron as well as spending more time with Sierra. On Friday, Sierra's due date, we went to lunch with just her and the case worker. It was a lot of fun to just spend more time with her, chatting and getting to know her better. She truly is an amazing girl, wise beyond her years! We also got to go to Chuck E Cheese for the 2nd time that following Monday with she and her family, so that was a lot of fun. We got to spend a fun New Years Eve with Kim and Byron as well as Matt and Krissy (Kimmie's brother and soon to be sister in law). We definitely didn't hurt for fun while we were waiting.

Kimmie and I on New Years Eve. She is such a good hostess!

We went back for Sierra's doctors appointment on Tuesday, SO anxious to have the doctor say she would induce her. It was already 4 days after the due date:). I think I have a hard time being patient....well, Ben was SO impatient. He had the hardest time waiting and just having no idea when it was going to happen. I am sure all first time parents feel some of that, but it's a completely different experience when you are not the one that is pregnant or feeling any of the pains or the signs that come with pregnancy. It is also really hard when you aren't the one who can ask the doctor to induce. I understand why induction isn't the best idea,but it is also hard when someone else is carrying your baby and their mom is saying that no matter how late she is they won't be inducing. That is a crazy feeling because there is nothing you can say or do. That is true about most of the adoption process. We are SO blessed to be in the adoption world and to have this beautiful baby boy, but it is such a hard thing to experience the feeling of being completely out of control in something that is SO important and life-changing for us. Anyway, moving on. The doctor weighed Sierra and checked the baby. Sierra had gained 6 lbs in the previous 4 days. She was also dilated to a 1 (lol, I know that's nothing, but we were SO excited that something was happening. Ben was starting to make jokes about how the baby was just going to stay in there forever). The doctor did say that because of the weight gain and the size of the baby she would like to schedule an induction for the following Day, Wednesday January 4th. We were ecstatic! We went back to the house, cleaned, took a long nap......and then got a text from the caseworker that there were no beds available and therefore the induction had been moved to FRIDAY. Ugh, 3 more days of waiting.

(I will stop there for now but if you need a Benson fix in the meantime, check out the pictures on facebook here or here

Totally Worth the Wait!

2012-01-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Benson Kekoa Crisanto

Born January 5th, 2012 at 9:06 AM

9lbs 19.5 inches

Our First Family Picture

Completely in love

I want to sit down and write a novel about the last couple of days of our lives. It has been the most amazing time for us. Right now though, I will just tell you that our little man has finally arrived. After 5 years, 9 months and 26 days of waiting....he is here! We are in heaven! Thank you for all of your love and support. I will post more pictures and details soon. If you would like to see more pictures of this gorgeous baby I have posted a bunch on facebook.

Baby Showers

2012-01-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

I have amazing family and friends who have been so supportive and extra excited that baby boy is on his way. We wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to join with us in celebrating and we did that through four baby showers. This was another one of those things that I always wondered if I would get a chance to have. Although I don't love being the center of attention, I do love that we finally had the chance to have baby showers for OUR baby! It was awesome and just so much fun.

1. Ben's family and friends in Oregon while we were there for Thanksgiving thrown by Ben's mom and sisters

Ben's "white mom" (Kevin's mom).

One of Ben's best buddies, Jared, and his awesome wife Amy.

Ben and Jared

Carissa (Nelson), baby girl and me.

I made Ben open the gifts, it was awesome~

The Alcorn Family

Gotta love the crazy faces:). Cindy and Nanay (soon to be Lola)

Ben, me and Nanay (Mom)

2. My parents ward (currently our ward) as well as our extended family thrown by my mom and sisters

The invitation (designed by Tiffany)

yummy cupcakes

Everything looked so cute!

3. My co-workers, friends from California, friends from high school, etc thrown by Jennica Thompson and Amy Pulsipher.

Cute Decor and treats

Tia, Carmen and Emily playing a game

Opening gifts, got lots of adorable items from everyone!

Kelly, Amy and me

The Johnson girls that were there, Tiffany, Rachelle, Carmen, Mom and Jessica.

4. Our Lehi ward and neighborhood friends thrown by Jenn Ross, Jenny Lynes and Marisa Seitzinger

More adorable treats and a very yummy cake by Marisa.

So cute! This is where I got the name banner that is now hanging over Benson's crib.

I love shower games, measuring how much water a newborn diaper holds.

More cute gifts

Jenn and her cute carseat cover! I love having talented friends (and I have lots)

Jenn is going to kill me for posting this, but seriously, the best picture ever!

Jenny, Jenn, Marisa and me. Love these girls!

Thank you to everyone who came to one of the showers, bought us gifts and amazing items for the baby and just for all of your love and support. We are SO blessed!

Making the announcement

2011-12-21T12:26:00.002-07:00

For five years I have been looking forward to the day when I would be able to make a pregnancy announcement. Every time the thought of "maybe this month" went through my mind, with it came the thoughts of how we would tell everyone, what their reactions would be, that feeling of anticipation. When we got the call and were told we had been chosen, one of the first things I did was think of how to tell our families. We decided to tell everyone two days after we got the call at Sunday dinner, since we would all be together. We decided to buy Archie, our dog and only child for the past five years, a t-shirt that said "Most Awesome Big Brother ".

We decided to put it on him before Sunday dinner while everyone was home and have him run out with it on and see what happened. We were so nervous and so anxious. Our plan got thrown off a little because we had extra visitors for dinner and we wanted to keep the announcement to just family. I was SO frustrated because I just wanted to make it happen (no offense to Summer and Damon, we love having them around). Because we had to wait until after dinner to tell everyone here at home, the first people to hear the news were my brother, Adam, and his wife, Tonna, out in South Carolina. We skyped with them downstairs in the basement so no one would hear us. We took a picture of Archie in his shirt and texted it to Adams phone. It was hilarious to be on skype with them when they got the text. Adam was extra confused. The first thought was "you are getting another dog?", haha. It was fun to finally say it out loud "we've been picked, we are getting a baby". It definitely made it more real. After that our visitors went home and it was finally time. We were SO anxious to finally tell everyone! Everyone was just hanging out in the living room chatting. I wanted the announcement video taped so Ben was pretending to video tape the girls singing and playing. It's funny because Archie ran into the room with his t-shirt on and everyone noticed, but no one thought anything of it. You will notice my sister in law, Tiffany, glance down at him and then look back up and not say anything. That's when Ben looked at me, both of us kind of unsure how to proceed. Archie was perfect. He just laid there with the shirt out for everyone to see. They figured it out and the moment was everything I had been hoping for. You will want to scroll down and pause the music on my blog before watching the video. If it's too small (which I think it is) go ahead and click here to view it.

We obviously would have loved to have our entire family there, both those from Ben's family and mine, but we were just excited to share the news in whatever way we could. We called and skyped with everyone else in our families by the end of the night. It was so much fun to share our big news and experience their joy!

Tender Mercies

2011-11-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

In the April 2005 General Conference of our church Elder David A. Bednar gave one of my favorite talks ever. This is one of those talks that I think of often and really helped me to understand even more how much the Lord loves each of us. You can read the full talk here (and I would suggest you do). Elder Bednar gives his understanding of what tender mercies are which I have included below.

"the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

Today I want to share a few more things that I truly consider "tender mercies" that have happened during our journey to where we are now. There might be a few of these posts, because life is full of these things if we are just keeping our eyes and heart open to seeing them.

Through our journey with infertility we have had many ups and downs. I think the biggest down for me (and probably Ben if you asked him) was when our IVF cycle failed. You can read about that here. The weekend after IVF failed was Mother's Day. I got a call that day and was asked to give a talk in church a few weeks later about cheerfulness. When I got that call, I literally almost started laughing. It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard in my life. The last thing I was feeling was cheerful. I was feeling more sadness than I had ever experienced. But being asked to give that talk was a tender mercy. Through preparing for that talk I learned about the true meaning of happiness. I received a true testimony of the Savior and the fact that He has given me everything I need through His atonement. I could be happy and cheerful because of my Savior. I cannot even express the difference that talk and what I learned from it has made in my life for the past two plus years. I have had my days and my moments where I have been frustrated and upset by my struggle with infertility (amongst other things), but it is nothing like it could have been. Before that talk, I felt anger when I would hear of another friend or family member getting pregnant. I didn't enjoy Relief Society because I felt like a failure and like I didn't fit in. It really affected everything in my life. After our failed IVF that should have been worse, but it wasn't. It was so much better.. Since then, I can feel true joy and happiness for other peoples good news. I can be around mothers, fathers, babies and not feel like a failure. It's hard to explain, but it changed me. To me, this was a tender mercy.

I mentioned in the last post that we had talked to a birth mom last year before we moved to the Philippines. She contacted us 11 days after our profile was live. We talked with her for a few weeks, emailing back and forth and getting to know each other. We also had a meeting with her at LDS Family Services and went to dinner with them. She wasn't looking at any other families, so that seemed pretty hopeful for us. We enjoyed talking to her and getting to know her, but never felt extra confident about anything. After a few weeks our caseworker let us know that she had contacted another family and was going to be meeting with them and then would be making a decision which family to place her baby girl with. Obviously we were nervous and hopeful. During that time I was invited to participate in our Stake Relief Society Conference where we would be acting as women from the bible and church history. During the practice I had a weird impression. Ben and I have discussed baby names from the beginning of our marriage. We had girl names we liked and boy names we liked. While I was sitting there one of the women got up and was acting as Adah from the Bible. The name just stood out to me as such a great name for this baby. I immediately texted Ben and said "What about the name Ada"?. This was not one of our names. This was nothing we had even thought of before. I have a niece named Addy, Ada is very close to that. It didn't really make sense. But I went with what I felt. We were informed within the next few days that this birth mom had chosen the other family to place her baby with. We were sad. It was another "failure" for us, but we moved forward. A couple of months later I emailed this birth mom just to find out how she was doing. I knew she would have already had the baby and just wanted to check on her. She wrote me back telling me what was going on with her life, how she was doing, etc. Toward the end of the email she said "I just visited Ada and she is so cute and doing great.". I literally had to go back and read that line a few times. I had never mentioned the name to anyone other than Ben. I could not believe it. The adoptive family had named her Ada. At that moment I KNEW that this baby was with the family she was meant to be with, that was the name she was meant to have, and that the Lord was aware of her and me. Talk about a tender mercy.

I know this post is already very long, but I have one more experience that I want to share. I will save the others for a later post. After my last post I realized that I told you S, the birth mom, looked very Filipino but I never mentioned what ethnicity she actually is. She was born in Hawaii and her mom was born and raised in Hawaii. S is part Chinese, Caucasian, Hawaiian and Mexican. You have no idea how excited Ben was when he realized his baby boy was going to be Polynesian. He immediately started looking at Hawaiian names. Well, in that first week he found THE name he wanted. He told me and I laughed and said no way! Haha. I couldn't even say it right. Strangely, Ben was really set on that name. It was the oddest thing because he is normally so laid back. I kind of just figured he would get over it and moved on. One week after being chosen we were meeting S and her mom face to face. It was a nerve wracking experience, but so much fun to get to meet them in person, hug them and just get to know each other better. Her mom totally looks and acts Hawaiian and she and Ben totally hit it off. S was just so sweet and thoughtful and wise for her young age. The meeting was going well when S asked us if we had any ideas of names for the baby. Ben jumped in with how he had been looking at Hawaiian names and how he had found one that means warrior(or something like that). They asked him the name and he said, "Kekoa". Let me tell you, that moment will be etched in my mind for the rest of my life. S (the birth mom) and the caseworker looked at each other in awe and S turned to us and said "That is the name I had written down for his middle name. It was my cousin's name who passed away".....Obviously, I am not Hawaiian. I do not know if this is a common Hawaiian name. What I do know is that we had no reason to pick this name. Ben had no reason to like that name as much as he did other than he felt drawn to it. In that moment we knew why. It was a tender mercy of the Lord for every person at that meeting.

The Lord is so very aware of each of us. This road has been long and hard. We have people in our life that are set on focusing on how hard it has been. What we focus on is that without infertility, without this struggle, we would not be where we are. We would not have had these experiences. We are where we are supposed to be. Thank goodness for tender mercies to help us see that.

The Story

2011-11-01T02:03:00.000-06:00

So, it's been a little over two weeks since our big news and life is moving forward. It has been an amazing couple of weeks and we have felt so much love and support. We have always known that we have a lot of people rooting for us, but it's almost overwhelming to really see and feel the excitement of so many people. One of the things that is hard about infertility is feeling like there are so many other people that are affected by our inability to have children. It is hard to continually feel not only your own disappointment, but to know that you are also causing sadness and disappointment for others. Now we are seeing those same people who have hurt with us and mourned with us share in our excitement and joy. It is an awesome experience!

We have already felt the Lord's hand in this experience. Through this whole process of us deciding to come home from the Philippines, to move forward again with adoption, to contact a private agency, and so on and so forth, we have both felt the spirit guiding us. I know there are people reading this that maybe don't believe in such things, but I do. I know that the Lord wants each of us to be happy. I know that He guides us when we let Him. He lets us go through sorrow that we may feel joy.

Eight months ago I had an experience that solidifies this knowledge for me. We had returned to the Philippines after Christmastime in the States and I was excited to be back in Cebu. I had been visiting with the poor people in the ward, I was given a calling, and I felt like I was good to move forward with our plan to stay for two years. But then I got sad. It was that weird kind of feeling that something was just not exactly right. It had only lasted a few days at this point, but I was really feeling down. I was sitting on my bed feeling this way while Ben was at work one day and then a thought came to me. "I want to go home". It was like a light bulb went on. I felt happy. I thought it was crazy. I had been the one that would not even let such thoughts cross my mind. We had made a commitment to stay for two years and were going to stick with it. I was feeling good there, so why would I want to go home? But, it just felt good. When Ben got home from work that day I told him "I want to go home.....to Utah". I think he thought I was kidding. I wasn't really sure what I was thinking, I just knew how I felt. We talked about it a little bit but he felt like maybe it was just me having a bad day and we didn't need to really entertain the idea. I started thinking about adoption and the fact that we would be able to move forward if we went home and I felt such excitement at the idea. I thought to myself "maybe this is that sense of urgency that you hear adoptive parents talk about". It felt good, but I felt like I should not push the idea with Ben (this is new for me, I ALWAYS push my ideas on Ben). So, I didn't. I waited a few days and then one morning he said to me "I feel like this is our chance to move forward with adoption. I can't get it out of my head." I knew we felt the same thing. We started talking about how we felt that if we went home it could happen pretty fast. We also both had the idea/thought that it would be a boy. I remember telling my sister in law, Tiffany, that we were thinking about coming home. I wrote to her on skype, "I feel like if we come home now we will have a baby by the end of the year". Her response was, "that would be all the confirmation I would need." I still was worried about moving forward with such a big decision and about the disappointment of not having things happen like we were hoping. We fasted, prayed, and went to the Temple with this in our minds. I think we both knew we were leaving, but it wasn't until I was in the Temple that I felt a complete sense of confirmation that this was the right thing. I let my boss know and at the end of May we came home. It was hard to explain to people why we came home early since it really was to move forward with adoption. We had already been on that path, why would we have left if we were just to come home and do the same thing? We had the same questions, but we just felt like it was the right time and that we would have an answer to those questions in time. For now, we just moved forward with what we felt.

When we got home we proceeded quickly. We felt that we would adopt through a private agency so we didn't even look at LDS Family Services at first. We met with two private agencies in the first week we were home. I decided to call LDSFS just to check and the timing of everything was amazing. We were right on time for their once a month orientation to happen the next week and their once a quarter training weekend just two weeks later. It was like everything was just falling into place. Of course, it couldn't go fast enough for me. I just wanted to be done with our paperwork and our home study and get ourselves out there. We worked with an amazing caseworker who helped us make our profile the best it possibly could be. There were moments I almost hated her for not just letting us be done, but her expertise and advice were just what we needed. Finally, on August 31st, our home study was approved and our profile was up online. We were ready! The whole adoption process is a scary one. We had been here before. We had been approved before. We had talked to a birth mother before. She had chosen another family. It is scary to put yourself out there like that and go through the disappointment and discouragement of not being chosen. We had our days when we felt that fear grip us and make us feel like the whole things was hopeless, but we moved forward. I knew what I had felt, we both did. I knew that this was our time. I felt that sense of urgency that I had heard about so many times. Ben and I discussed and decided we would stick with LDSFS until the first week of November and if nothing happened we would work with private agencies and their outreach programs. Our drop dead date was November 4th. Three days after our profile went online we had our first contact from a birth mother. We emailed back and forth and even met her and her family. It was exciting and scary all at once. The situation was a little odd and we didn't feel extra comfortable about some things. Then she stopped contacting us. That familiar feeling of frustration and sadness came over us. We didn't tell most people we had even been talking to her. After that I got inpatient. I called a few private agencies and just felt frustrated with their lack of helpfulness as well as overwhelmed with the costs. I had just finished three months of paperwork and processes. I wasn't sure I could handle anymore, so I never moved forward. I did go online and search for available adoption situations. I emailed a few agencies about these and didn't hear back. Then, at the beginning of October I saw a few situations with an agency in Nevada that looked like they could be good fits for us (and us for them) so I called this agency. The person who helped me was so sweet and helpful. She said she would love to present us to these couples and asked us to send over our profile. They were so easy to work with and we felt excited again. Then, the couple we really were excited about stopped contacting the agency and never saw our profile. We were disappointed but knew this was just the world of adoption. About two weeks after first contacting this agency I emailed them again, just to see if they had ever heard from the first couple. She let me know they had not, so I asked if they had any other situations available. She immediately wrote me back with a situation, pictures of a birth mother and asked us if we would want to be considered for this situation. The girl in the pictures looked completely Filipino. I kind of laughed and showed Ben and asked him what he thought. She was due with a baby boy on December 30th. I thought of that feeling that I had had that we would have a baby by the end of the year. Wouldn't that be cutting it close? Also, that it was a boy. A few of the other situations we had been considered for were for girls and I would think to myself, "maybe the whole boy thing was just me imagining things, it probably wasn't any type of impression". So, we wrote them back and told them we would love to be presented to this mother. They let us know the caseworker would be picking up the profiles the next day. Let's just say I was anxious! Every time my phone would ring I would think it might be them letting us know what she had decided. Every time I saw someone else's name on the caller id I would get upset. haha. I was definitely not patient. So, when the caseworkers name came up on my phone that Friday, October 14th I was ecstatic . I will tell you though, there was that complete doubt that came into my mind that made me think "she is just calling to tell us in person that she chose a different family." I was preparing myself for bad news so when she said "she really liked your family", I was just waiting for her to say "BUT....", but that never came. She proceeded to say how she was going to have the birth mom's caseworker contact us to set up a time for a conference call and maybe even a meeting. I didn't even know what to say. Tears came to my eyes out of pure excitement. We still weren't out of the woods, but this was moving in the right direction. She wanted to talk to us, maybe to meet us! Woohoo! I had just returned to work from my lunch break when I got the call but I didn't care. As soon as I hung up the phone I RAN out of the office to the car and drove straight to Cascade golf course (Ben's work) to share the good news. He was extra busy and I just wanted to yell at him "She LIKED us! She wants to meet us!". But, I had to wait my turn. I quickly shared the good news and Ben was extra excited, but had to get back to work. I drove directly back to work. Ten minutes later my phone rang again and it was the birth mothers caseworker. She was so nice. She asked me "have your feet touched the ground yet"? I let her know we were extra excited and starting getting to know her a little. We found out she is from very near to where I lived growing up in Eastern Canada. We talked about S (the birth mom) and her situation and then I proceeded to ask "what happens next? We have been here before where a birth mom liked us but decided to move forward with another family. Is she still looking at other profiles?.." J, the caseworker, kind of stumbled over her words and said "Oh, my gosh, I thought you knew. No, she is not looking at any other profiles. She PICKED YOU!!!!"......um, not even sure how to explain the emotions I felt in that moment. I was in a conference room at work and all I wanted to do was DANCE or SCREAM or something! I honestly can say I had doubted we would ever hear those words. Someone was telling me I was going to be a mom! It was the most amazing feeling!!! We talked a little bit more and then I got off the phone and tried to call Ben. No answer. I texted...no response. He didn't contact me back for hours.I walked around in a daze. I wanted to tell someone, but it had to be Ben first. I wanted to yell through the office "WE"VE BEEN PICKED"...but I couldn't. I was getting texts from the case worker with pictures of S and her pregnant belly. She was beautiful! It was all completely surreal. It continues to be completely surreal. I could not concentrate one bit the rest of the day at work. I was finally able to tell Ben on our way to dinner that night. I bought him an early birthday present, THOR on Blu-Ray and gave him a card. In it said "She didn't just like us, She PICKED us. You're going to be a daddy". The tears in his eyes said it all. This was the moment we had been waiting for. We are going to be parents!!!!

Throughout this whole experience we have felt the hand of the Lord. As the last two weeks have gone by, we have had more miracles and small moments of reminders that the Lord is very aware of each of us. We have been getting to know the birth mom, S, her mother, C, as well as the caseworker, J. All of them are amazing women that we are so amazed by. We feel a connection with them. We have been talking, exchanging phone calls and texts, pictures and so forth. We are moving forward on our journey to being parents. I was explaining to my mom that I feel very much like I did when Ben and I got engaged. I was waiting for this HUGE thing to happen, like I was expecting my single self and my engaged self to be completely different. I wasn't. It's the same now. I think I was expecting fireworks when we were picked and the situation was right. Instead, it's like it was with Ben. Everything feels the same, but better. Things are falling into place. Instead of fireworks, there is a peaceful contentment and feeling of complete trust that this is the right thing. We have had a few moments of miracles, where each person involved felt that there was something else at play here letting us know this was the right thing, but mostly it has just felt good, calm and peaceful. It has felt right.

We know that there are many of you who are feeling fear for us that things may not work out. S always has the option to change her mind. We understand those fears. At moments, we feel them too. But, we also feel like even through the fear we want to feel the excitement, the anticipation of being parents for the first time! We deserve that. We feel good, we feel like the Lord has been leading us to exactly where we are. We know there is the possibility of loss, but isn't there always? We are choosing to enjoy the experience, the happiness and the joy of this experience. So far it has been better than we could have ever expected!

Isn't he beautiful?

THE BIGGEST, BEST NEWS EVER!!!!

2011-10-22T01:40:00.000-06:00

That's right, we got the call!! On Friday, October 14th at about 1:30 pm, we were informed that we had been chosen by a wonderful, sweet, thoughtful and selfless mother to be the parents of her baby boy (due December 30th, 2011). It is impossible to even express the emotions that we have felt over the past week, but it has been filled with such excitement and joy. Today we had the opportunity to meet this expectant mother as well as her mother and the connection we felt was immediate and strong. I want to be able to write an eloquent post sharing the experience of today as well as this whole week, but I just feel like there is nothing I can say that can really live up to what it has felt like. Thank you for all of your love and support and the prayers said on our behalf. We love you and will continue to share this journey with all of you.

We are approved to adopt!!!

2011-09-06T21:52:00.000-06:00

On August 31st, 2011 we were officially approved for adoption. Our profile is approved and online. Please take a look.

https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/26328888/ourMessage.jsf

We want to make as many people as possible aware that we want to adopt. We returned home from the Philippines because we wanted to start our family and we knew that adoption was the way we would do so. We are both so excited to meet the child that will be a part of our family. If you hear or know of any situation please email us at bencarmenhope@gmail.com or contact our caseworker directly.

Koleen
phone: 801-422-7620
email: popink@ldschurch.org

NO TIME!

2011-08-05T18:18:00.000-06:00

So sorry guys, I have not posted in forever and will not be posting for a while. We are on our way to Hawaii in just three days for my sisters wedding. My camera is FULL of pictures of the past 2 months. We had our trip to Oregon, Ben's High School Reunion, meeting the crazy adoption scammer, the McMurray Family Reunion, Rachelle's bridal shower, my weekend trip to Vegas, and so many other things that have gone on that I need to put on here. The problem is, there is NO TIME! Work has sucked every second of my day for the past month and the last thing I want to do when I get home is get back on the computer. I will do better! We should be approved for adoption in just a few short weeks and life is good...just busy! I will update when we get back and have tonz MORE pictures to post!

Home Sweet Home

2011-06-17T14:58:00.001-06:00

We have been home almost four weeks. I cannot believe it! I have been horrible at posting, but I cannot believe how busy we have been. We have spent tons of time with family and friends. We had to find and buy a new car, get Ben signed up for school, start looking for a place to live, etc. I have been back at work for almost three weeks. Most importantly we have been working on getting our adoption paperwork up and going. That has included many phone calls, meeting with three different agencies, attending orientation at LDS Family Services, getting fingerprinted, filling out many many different forms, meeting with our case worker for our intake interview, meeting with the Bishop to get his reference letter, and this weekend attending 9 hours of training. Those things have taken up all of our time. We are loving being home though! I had forgotten how completely beautiful Utah is. The mountains, trees, green grass, the crisp, dry air. It is so awesome. Also, since being home I notice myself really feeling gratitude for things that I just took for granted before. Some of those things are goofy, like the self-checkout at Wal-Mart or fountain drinks and free refills. Other things are not so goofy. Anyway, we are glad to be home and I will do better at blogging!

We got to stay in LA for 24 hours and visit with Kristen, Nolan, Aiden and Regan

The day after we got home our nephew, Spencer, graduated from high school. We were able to attend with a LOT of other people. He is loved!

We attended our niece, Hailey's, preschool graduation. ADORABLE!

I went to breakfast with my best friends from college (and still) and some of their kids. All in all, 6 adults and 5 kids attended (even though there are actually 8 kids between them).

We got to spend the afternoon at Trafalga Lehi enjoying our recently purchased passes. Everyone had a blast!

Just over a week after we returned, Ben's very best friend (who is also my boss) and his wife had their ADORABLE baby boy. We were so excited to be able to visit them just a few hours after he was born and to be able to go visit any time we want.

We are so excited to be home to spend more time with these cuties!

and this one of course!

The view from right outside my office. Seriously, it is breathtaking!

Goodbye Philippines

2011-05-22T08:12:00.000-06:00

We leave Cebu in 24 hours and I cannot believe the time has arrived. We have cut our expected time here short by more than 1/2 and have only been here for about 10 months. Again, I will explain that at some point in the future when I actually have a chance to sit down and put some coherent thoughts down. Right now, I just want to sit down and write down the thoughts and feelings I have had over our last few days here in the Philippines. I just have to say that no matter how hard certain things have been about living here in Cebu, we know we were here for a reason and we are so very grateful for the many, many lessons we have learned in our short time here. We have met some wonderful people, people it is very hard to say goodbye to. I have worked with people who have been so great to me and have taught me so much. We went out to dinner and bowling with my team last night and saying goodbye to them was so difficult. I hope that I will have the chance to return here in the future and to see these people again, but there is a possiblity that I will never see them in this life again. When I think of that, I am sad. We said goodbye to people in our ward today, and I had the same thought. We have met and gained friendships with these people and thankfully we have the internet, blogs, facebook and will be able to keep in touch. But, life will move forward and this part of our life is ending and that is sad.
This afternoon we spent time with my coworkers, Grant and Branigan, and their families. It was a good time with good food and friends. It was beautfiul outside with the palm trees and the sunshine (although it was VERY hot and humid). When we left Grants house and walked out the gate, the sunset was amazing and there were people playing basketball outside in the field across from his house. There were dogs and goats running around and a small hut in the distance. There were palm trees and the sunset behind them and it was a beautiful scene and I thought "that is like the ultimate Philippines scene" and it made me a little sad. Then, we took Branigan, Julie and Beau Knowlton home and we laughed and talked through the horrible Mactan traffic, but as we got closer to their house the reality of us leaving really started to hit and we all got just a little quieter. We got extra big hugs from Beau and said goodbye to the people who have been with us through this whole experience and I was struggling to hold back the tears. We came out here together with big plans of the things we would do and the adventures we would have together and I cannot help but feel like we are abandoning them a little. They have been so supportive and they understand why we are going, but we are going to miss their little family more than I can even express. As we were driving away and I had tears streaming down my face for the first time through all of these goodbyes, Ben told me that watching their family and especially watching Branigan interract with Beau really helped him to solidify even more how much he wants to be a dad. So, Knowltons, thank you for that! We know we will see them again back in Utah and we will be friends, but the things we shared in the Philippines are over for us and that is a sad realization for me. I have a hard time with endings, even if it means new beginnings. Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts, put them down in writing so I remember.
Living in the Philippines has taught me many things. I have learned more about Ben and his culture and his family. I have seen real, true poverty and had the chance to really get to know people living in these type of situations and learn from their example. We have enjoyed seeing beautiful locations, beaches, waterfalls and places that some people will only ever dream of seeing. We have experienced living in another country with all of it's ups and downs. So, for now, Goodbye Cebu and Goodbye Philippines....until we meet again!

Our Shangri La Weekend

2011-05-10T23:55:00.000-06:00

So,I am not even sure how or where to start this post. First of all, it's been a month since I have posted and that's just way too long. This month has seriously been chuck full of a million things. My boss came into town and we had our Managers Summit which included an assignment for me to present for a full hour. Um.....unlike my husband and my dad, talking in front of a bunch of people is not my thing. It went well, but I spent more time preparing for that thing than I thought possible. Ben knows, he had to listen to me whine for like a month about it. We did some other fun stuff this month, like celebrated my birthday with another trip to Bohol. I am sure there were a million other things but right now I can't remember.

Another thing that happened was Ben had a little accident last week at the gym at the Shangri-La. We are members at the resort and workout there on a regular basis. They have these nice big showers with huge glass doors on them. Well, as Ben was getting out of the shower after working out, the door shattered into a billion little pieces around him. He was left standing there, buck naked, with little pieces of glass all over him. He had tiny cuts all over his body, just a few of them were more than tiny scratches. Well, lucky for us, as a way of making it up to us, the management let us stay at the resort for the weekend. We figured it would be a good room, but it was AMAZING! It was totally a suite and huge with a beautiful ocean view and huge balcony. They also gave us free breakfast buffet for the two days as well as a free dinner buffet. OH....and they invited us to their Ocean Club Lounge where we were able to get free drinks, snacks, etc. It was seriously amazing. We agreed that it was the BEST weekend we have had in the Philippines so far. It was so nice and relaxing and beautiful.

The other thing that made the weekend so fun was hanging out with friends. The Knowltons came over and enjoyed the dinner buffet with us on Saturday night. It was so fun to hang out. Although we moved to the Philippines at the same time and Branigan and I work together, we just do not see them enough. Our sleeping schedules are different, plus we live in the city and they live on the island. We LOVE spending time with this little family. They are the thing we will honestly miss the most in the Philippines. Beau is so much fun and just a joy to have around. On Sunday, the Knowltons as well as our frind Jake Sohn and our new friend TJ came over to watch the Pacquiao v. Mosley fight. I will tell you, Manny Pacquiao makes me proud to be a pseudo-Filipino. He is amazing! Anyway, we all watched the fight, ate a great lunch, drank free sodas from the lounge, hung out, talked and just really enjoyed the day together. It really was so much fun. Oh, and since it was Mother's Day, it was a GREAT way to celebrate. (Mother's Day isn't really my favorite and this totally made up for that)

Monday morning we skyped with our families from the hotel and then went to the breakfast buffet. I ate way too much, but I honestly don't know if I have ever had better french toast than they have at the Shangri La. It really was a completely fun and relaxing weekend and we are SO glad we got to do it even if it meant Ben standing naked covered in glass in front of a bunch of people to make it happen. It was completely worth it.

The front room of the hotel suite

The amazing bedroom with the ocean view

Huge bathroom with a shower AND a bath. This was the first bath I have taken in the Phils

I even had to show you the huge closet

The balcony and the gorgeous, breathtaking view

The view....oh how I will miss the beach!

Isn't she the cutest mom ever!

We love you Knowltons. We will miss you when we are gone!

How can you not love that face? He was in heaven jumping on the bed.

And this is the reason we are coming home.......we want one of our own just like him:)

So, I realize that this is the first I have even mentioned the fact that we are coming back to the States already. It's a long story and a whole post all on it's own, but just know that we are excited to come home. We have had so many amazing experiences here and are so grateful for all of the adventures.

Palawan

2011-04-15T23:44:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Ben and I were able to go on a really short, but great trip to a place called Palawan. The Philippines has so many beautiful beaches and natural places to visit it's hard to choose. I actually have to thank my sister Rachelle and her fiance Bret for suggesting this place to us. I think they read about it online or something and told us we should go. The draw is the natural underground river, but it ended up being a lot more than that. So, we booked the trip. It was only 48 hours and if we were going to do it again we would make sure it was longer, but it was a lot of fun and we are glad we got it in.

Look behind me....it's so clean. Palawan has an anti-littering law that is obviously VERY effective. In my opinion, the reason it works is the citizen that catches you littering gets 50% of the fine paid to them! Smart!

The other reason it was SO nice, clean, calm.....NO TAXIS and NO JEEPNIES allowed!!! SO AMAZING!

We went to this Wild Life conservation place that was mostly crocodiles, but had some other animals as well. Ben quite enjoyed posing with the baby croc.

I did not love it so much

I look a little more confident in this

ya, they are pretty dang scary

This place was pretty awesome. It was this great park, playground, just beautiful place.

The beach in Sabang. We got to hang out here for a few hours, it was gorgeous.

At the entrance to the underground river there were monkeys just hanging out, right next to people, it was pretty amazing.

Oh and these huge like 3ft long lizards

Us starting our little trip to the Underground River

The entrance. It really was gorgeous and such a cool place. It really is a huge cave with a river through it.

bats and bat droppings (the guide thought it was pretty funny to make bat poo jokes but didn't use the word poo....ya, the tour wasn't really for kids

My goofy husband inside the cave

Another gorgeous beach right by the entrance of the underground river.

We are very grateful for the chance to visit these types of places, seriously...such a blessing.

The Philippines isn't always just sunshine and beaches and I will do my best to share some of both with you in my upcoming posts.

My Late Philippines Friday Post: Cebu-Taoist Temple and Tops

2011-04-04T23:35:00.002-06:00

We have our own little "To Do in Cebu" list that we have put together. We want to take advantage of this city that we live in while we have the chance. I think in every town or city in the world there are those "must do" things that all the tourists do, but the some times us "locals" miss out on because life gets in the way. We don't want to miss those things while we are here in Cebu. So, Monday morning, after spending the entire weekend home sick, we wanted to get out of the house and decided this was the perfect chance to knock two things off of our to-do list.
Our first stop was the Taoist Temple. This was built in 1972 in the very posh neighborhood of Beverly Hills of Cebu (not the 90210 one). There was not a lot to do there, but it was fun to hike up the stairs to see the Chinese architecture and decor. I got a lot of fun pictures too. (click on image to view larger)

Next on our list was Tops. This is a "park" located literally at the highest spot you can reach in Cebu. I felt like we were driving uphill FOREVER. Anyone who knows me knows I HATE driving up high mountains and on small roads where the sides just drop off. It makes me so sick to my stomach. With our awesome 1999 Toyota Corolla I was seriously worried for our safety. But, we made it ok. We originally stopped at the place that I thought was Tops, but it ended up being a cemetary. Oops. The view was pretty cool, but when we actually made it to Tops the view was ridiculous. We were so high above the city it was almost hard to see it. We got some great pictures and got to overhear quite an entertaining conversation between some old white married guy and his Filipina girlfriend (blog post to come). It was worth the little trip and we are glad we are out seeing what Cebu has to offer.

Click here to see more pictures of our fun day.

It's FRIDAY

2011-03-19T01:46:00.000-06:00

Today, my Philippines Friday isn't really about the Philippines, but I thought it was appropriate because Ben has probably watched this video a MILLION times and laughed the entire way through. Come on guys, it's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!

Five Years and Counting

2011-03-15T13:58:00.000-06:00

I remember sitting down with Ben when we were first married and talking about our goals and where we would like to be in five years. I wish I knew where that list was so that I could compare it with reality. I remember that we wanted to own at least a condo, so we went above and beyond on that one. I am sure we said something about how many kids we would have, still waiting on that one. I also am sure we thought Ben would be done with or close to done with his education, also still waiting. One thing I am 99.9% sure was not on that list was that we would have already lived in 2 states and a foreign country by this time. No matter how much Ben and I have always discussed the fact that we would some day live in Asia (most likely the Philippines), I know that neither of us thought it would happen this quickly. What an exciting place to be to celebrate five years of marriage!

I do wish we had those kids and that Ben was done with school, but I would not give up where we are or any of the experiences we have had to get here. People tell us all the time to take advantage of this time, this time with no kids where it is just the two of us. Well, we are definitely doing just that! This weekend we took a ferry out to the island of Bohol. I know some of you are asking why we need to go to another tropical island when we already live on one. Well, Bohol is like the quaint, quiet, old fashioned, restful, calm, clean, no traffic, no people, no stray dogs, no garbage, better version of Cebu. We needed a break from this place and Bohol was the perfect place to do it. We spent time relaxing in a hammock by the ocean, eating great burgers and home made pizzas, climbing the chocolate hills, having lunch on the Loboc River, seeing tiny monkeys and huge pythons, crossing a hanging bridge and just enjoying the history of this place. We loved every second of it (maybe not the power outage from 7am to 7pm on Sunday). We were also mindful of how very blessed we are to be safe and healthy and alive after the horrible disasters in Japan.

I cannot wait to see where we are five years from now! Happy Anniversary Babe. I LOVE YOU!

The relaxing view

The oldest Christian church in the Philippines (supposedly)

Python....ick!

Tarsiers....tiny, awesome little monkeys native to Bohol

I don't like heights and a "hanging bridge" didn't seem really safe, but it was fun anyway

On our floating restaurant

We went to a butterfly sanctuary, I loved it

The Chocolate Hills (this doesn't even do them justice, they were amazing)

Sunset on the beach

Our resort at night (with no electricity which made it even prettier)

For the rest of the fun pictures go to my album on facebook

Philippines Friday-The Cost of Living

2011-03-10T13:23:00.002-07:00

I decided I am going to start a new weekly post called "Philippines Friday". In these posts, I will share with you something about the Philippines. I want to record and share our Filipino experience and this will make sure I at least post weekly.

This week I do not have pictures to share, but I wanted to share something else with you. Recently I have felt a little frustrated with a misconception about living in the Philippines. People think it's cheap to live here. I mean...the average income in this country as of 2006 was 172,000 pesos, which with today's exchange rate is about $4000.00 a year. So, how could it not be "cheap" to live here, right? How else could people do it? I have been asking myself this question ever day since I arrived. HOW DO PEOPLE AFFORD TO LIVE HERE? I guess the first answer is, People live in VERY different conditions here. (scroll back 2 entries to see how different the conditions are). No, not everyone lives with no running water and no electricity. But, it is not uncommon to find large families living in very small dwellings and in conditions you can barely imagine. Also, most people do not own or drive cars. They use the public transportation system, which includes riding trikes (motorcycles with little buggies on the side) or jeepnies. If you want to live in a home that we would consider "normal", drive a car, eat at very basic restaurants, go to movies once in a while, wash your laundry in a machine instead of by hand, go to a gym, pay for things like the internet, air conditioning in your home and eat "regular" groceries.....it's NOT CHEAP! I will give you a little breakdown of some of the things we pay for here:

1. Rent for a "decent" apartment about 700sq ft is $700.00 a month in the city, out on Mactan it is a bit cheaper. (Yes, this is cheaper than the rent we paid in California, but you could DEFINITELY find a comparable apartment in Utah County for this much or less)
2. Electricity each month for that same size house with air conditioning is about $230.00
3.TV is $20.00 a month and only works about 50% of the time
4. The Internet is about $35.00 a month
5. Gas for our car is currently costing us about $5.00 a gallon (and our car gets 14 miles to the gallon, yikes)
6. A bag of Tyson Frozen Chicken (like the one you buy at Costco) is $21.00
7. A 1/2 gallon of the ice cream brands you can get here are about $4.00. The GOOD stuff (Tillamook) is $9.00 for a 1/2 gallon.
8. Used cars are very expensive here. They are actually between 1 and 3x as much as they are at home. This will be nice when we sell our car, but not nice when you have to buy one.
9. Groceries in general. ANYTHING organic or imported is at least double the cost of what it would be at home. Vitamins are about double what they would be at home. Going to the grocery store is not cheap.

Yes, there are things here that are "cheap", but they are more of the "extras" not the necessities.
1. Eating out. We have found great restaurants with good food for between $3.00 and $20.00 a person.
2. Movies. A "normal" theater is about $2.75. If you want 3-D its about $4.00. IMAX is about $9.00. The treats at the movies are cheap. A soda is between $.75 and $2.00. The popcorn is like a dollar.
3. Massages. You can get a one hour massage for $5.00
4. House Help. You can get a house helper that lives with you. cleans for you, cooks for you, etc for between $50-$100.00 a month. Obviously, they get free room and board, but still!
5. Manicure/Pedicure: $4.00
6. Haircut for Ben including a head massage $1.25

One thing that really hit me and helped me realize HOW people live here with such little income was when I read in the newspaper the other day that the average Filipino household spends 50% of their income on food! Now, again, this was in a newspaper and not something I have been able to confirm, but when I read that it made more sense but it shocked me. How much of your monthly budget goes to food? Is it 50%? I know for us it is not, that is just one portion of our budget, not 50% of it.

Anyway, I guess I had to just vent a little today. Don't get me wrong, we are grateful for the incomes that we do have and the lifestyle that we are able to live but looking around me I realize that the idea that it is "cheap" to live here is a perception, one that hinders the motivation or ability to help the situation get better. We are surrounded by suffering and poverty and I think this perception only hurts the situation, it does not help it.

PS. I know some people would see this post as just being negative. That really is not my purpose. We are enjoying the opportunity and experiences we are having here. I think I post a lot about the positives of living here too. But, I am also not the type of person to pretend. I say it how it is. I don't sugar coat things and make them sound better than they are. It's just not my way. I hope this isn't seen as being negative, just honest and forth-coming. Plus, if anyone is moving to the Philippines I want them to be a little more well-prepared than we were:).

Love Your Enemies

2011-03-01T22:58:00.001-07:00

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44 )

My mom always says, "You can't claim a virtue that has never been put under fire". Well, I am being given the opportunity to claim a virtue, the virtue of "loving your enemy". I am sure I always thought that I was living this principle. But...I didn't have any enemies (at least that I knew of:)). I didn't have to do good to those that hate me or pray for those that persecuted me. I do now. It makes me sad to think of this person as my "enemy". That is a harsh word. But, they do seem to hate me. They do persecute me. They do seem to have no love in their heart for me. I guess maybe it's more appropriate to say that they see me as their enemy. I have to find a way to not respond when this person says hurtful things about me or to me. I have to find a way to pray for them and I don't mean just to mention their name in my prayers, but to honestly and with true intent pray for them. I have to love them, even though they hate me. I have to forgive them, even if they never change. How do I do that? How do I live this principle? Any of you have practice in this area? Advice? I would appreciate all the help that I can get, cause this is hard!

It's Not All Beaches and Sunshine

2011-02-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

In the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to go out on visits with the Relief Society President of our ward to some of the most poor and destitute of our sisters. It is shocking to see the situations that many people are living in. Many children in a one room shantie with no water, no electricity, very little food to eat and no resources to make the situation better. The first time we visited I had this overwhelming feeling, wanting so badly to help them, but also realizing how many people are in these types of situations not only in our ward boundaries, but all over Cebu, all over the Philippines. How could I help them all? But this last time I realized that even just a visit, a couple of hard boiled eggs, some bananans, a smile and we have started to lighten and raise them up. It is amazing to feel the joy of service and the love of people I hardly know.

The bridge leading over to the village where the Escarpe Family lives. The actual bridge was washe away in flood waters, so this is the makeshift bridge for now.

Part of the area where they live, in the hills.

Filipinos truly are a humble and happy people!

This is a typical basketball court, ones like this are seen all over the Philippines. You thought playing on carpet in the cultural hall was hard, try playing on a dirt court in flip flops!

Climbing down to visit the sisters that live "under the bridge"

Member family in their home. It was literally one room made from wood pieces. This is the home of the daughter, husband, one year old son and one week old baby girl. They live under the bridge to be close to the trees so they can take twigs and widdle them into bbq sticks. They then sell them to local bbq "restaurants". They are paid 600 pesos a month to do this. That is the equivelent of about $15 US.

Grandma's house with some of the grandkids.

And you thought walking down the street to visit teach your neighbor was a pain?

This is the home of the Israel family. They have 12 children, 11 boys and 1 girl and all live in this one room home. They sell vegetables at the market to sustain themselves.

This family actually has seven kids. You should have seen the excitement on the kids faces when we brought them hard boiled eggs and sweet bread.

Their house (which was built by the father)

This older sister and her daughter wash clothes in the river for a living. Their home was made of bricks, but had a dirt floor and no electricity or running water.

On our way up "the mountain" to visit another sister and her family. (I slipped and fell on the way down haha)

Last time we visited this family they had no food to even eat that night. They had spent their money on medicine for the baby and had nothing left for food. We left a small amount of cash to help.

This is their home. It's one room for the four of them and then the "kitchen" on the side. They make rice cakes for a living that they go and sell on a daily basis at the market. Their profit is about 100 pesos a day, equal to about $2 US, enough to buy food to feed the family until the next day.

Sister Matthews, the RS President had the brother get us some coconuts. We watched him climb up 2 trees to get 3 coconuts. It was pretty amazing! Coconuts are usually sold for 7pesos each, but she paid him 100 for the 3. She wanted to give them the money, but wanted to give him the opportunity to earn it.

Us enjoying the spoils of his labor. We drank the juice straight out of the coconut and then he cut them open for us and we ate the "meat". It was great.

After the first time I visited, I was really wanting to know and better understand how I and my family and friends who have so much could help these people who have so little. I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants and realized that the Lord has already provided us the answer on how to take care of the poor and the needy around us....we just have to be willing to do it. Click here I especially liked this verse: 14 Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld.

Whatever you do, I hope that you will look at the situations these people are living in and just be more grateful for what you have. Be grateful that you have food to eat every day, clothes and shoes for you and your children, access to an education, money to buy things like phones, computers, cars, even bikes. It is a great reminder to each of us to really notice those things that we take for granted every day of our lives.

I hope we can all find ways to serve those less fortunate than us. If you decide you want to help these people here in the Talamban Ward in Cebu, Philippines please contact me.

Other People's Children

2011-02-11T16:41:00.002-07:00

Ben and I are coming up on our five year anniversary. It's hard for some people to even comprehend being married five years and not having children yet. Believe me, we get questions ALL the time, and some awesome and inappropriate suggestions (but that will be a whole separate post).

As I look back over the last five years I do realize that through the struggle of infertility we are still surrounded by children. It hit me that many of the funnest, happiest moments for us are about other people's children. We have had many opportunities to serve in primary, be nursery leaders, work at a crisis nursery and just to be an aunt and uncle to the best kids in the world. We have been involved in the lives of our friends children, our families children and we have loved each and every one of those opportunities and look forward to more in the future. I know that each of you appreciate and love your children more than anyone can even imagine but I hope you know that WE love them too and we are grateful to you for letting us be a part of their lives. It means more to us than you know.

Home for the Holdays (Post #8)

2011-02-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

The best part of being in Utah was spending time with family and friends, probably 90% family and 10% friends, but my family are my friends so it worked out perfect. We spent tonz of time playing games and making fools of ourselves playing "Celebrity". We also spent tonz of time eating. I got to shop with the girls and Ben got to play video games with the guys. We did everything we wanted to do while we were home and seriously came back to the Philippines completely satisfied with our trip. It was awesome!

video games with Aiden and Regan, I actually LOVED Super Mario Brothers on the WII. Ben caught me playing it all by myself a few times, that NEVER happens.

Cute Jordan and Melissa, sitting at the table ready to play "White, Mormon games" as Ben calls them.

Ben and Hailey "sharing" a Dippidee brownie. YUM! We LOVE Dippidee.

Grandma and adobable Addy with her cute thumb sucking

Nice Face Jess:)

Nate

One on the left=my precious daily 44 oz Diet Mt Dew One on the right: Large size here in the Philippines

Ben LOVING mom's chocolate roll.

GREAT friends, so glad we got to hang out! We miss our friends, a lot!

Cafe Rio, 2x in 5 days, YUM!

Kevin and Tia Frazier, more great friends we are missing. Next time we see them there will be another Frazier to love. Cannot wait!

I had a few other pictures I wanted to post, Adam and Tonna, Rachelle, Kristen....but blogger hates me and would not let me add them for some reason.

Christmas at Mom's

2011-01-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

I love being home for the holidays. I love my in laws and spending time with them, I love seeing and experiencing new places and traditions and next year we may even stay in the Philippines to experience the holidays here. But there really is no place like home. My mom puts a lot of time and effort into her docorations at Christmas time and it is well worth it. Her house is filled with the Christmas spirit. It is decorated in such a way that it isn't overwhelming but there are reminders of the season everywhere. The front room is full of nativities that the grandkids love to play with, the family room and tree decorated with Santa Clauses everywhere. There are signs and pictures on the wall reminding us of the reason for the season, our Savior Jesus Christ. Her Christmas tree is massive and beautiful and fills the room with that faint, warm light that you only get from lights on a tree. It feels warm and cozy and full of love. I love being home for the holidays.

Home for the Holidays (Post #7)

2011-01-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

I feel bad that I have waited this long to post about the holidays cause some of the details are starting to fade. I am only 33 but sometimes I think I have the memory of a 70 year old.

The week in Utah was so much fun, but one thing that was not fun was dealing with my dog that seemed to have lost his mind in the time that we had been away. My parents were kind enough to take Archie in and take care of him. I am not sure if I can even manage to express how much this meant to me. One of the hardest things about moving to the Philippines was deciding whether or not we should bring Archie with us. Once we visited in May and saw the conditions he would be living in as well as the resources like Vets and such, we just felt that bringing him with us was not even an option. Then came the decision of whether or not we would have to give him away permanently. I definitely did not want to do that, but we asked everyone we knew to take him and it just didn't seem to be something anyone could do (completely understandably). Well, my mom stepped in and said that of course they would take Archie ( much to my dad's dismay). He has done well there. They take amazing care of him. He gets way more exercise living there and he gets tonz of attention. My dad totally spoils him! Well, in repayment for their kindness he actually bit my mom. This happened just days before we arrived home and it was not a nip. He broke the skin. The second day we were there we got to see a sample of how horrible he was being when he actually lunged at Ben, baring his teeth and growling like Old Yeller (at the end of the movie). It seriously scared me! I have never been afraid of my dog. That was a scary/sad feeling. I honestly thought we might have to put him to sleep. I stayed up that night worrying and crying.

So, day 2 of our trip home was spent taking Archie into the vet. The Doctor did some tests and really felt that it was just Archie's way of "testing boundaries". He had decided he was an equal to my dad and that my mom was some little pion that he didn't have to listen to or respect. So, in the next week while we were there we got everyone in the house onto the training bandwagon, teaching Archie that he was the lowest guy on the totem pole (keeping him off the couch, not jumping up on people, lots of making him sit, etc). And ya know what, he was SO MUCH better! I guess some dogs just need more structure and I left my poor parents with that kind of dog. Sorry mom and dad! We are SO GRATEFUL to have left our "baby" with such amazing and patient people like you!

Below are some GREAT pictures of my mom "training" Archie and my adorable niece, Avery. She LOVES to play puppy and she wanted to be "trained" too. They both even got treats (Archie got Pupperoni while Avery got chocolate chips and marshmallows)

Sit

Lay Down

Dance (gotta love that my mom was dancing too)


Shake (notice Avery's tongue, she totally gets into character)

How can you not love this guy?

I know some people honestly cannot understand the feelings I have for my dog. Ya know what....I don't care:)! I love this guy and miss him every single day!

Temporary House Guest

2011-01-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

This was what we came home to (except scurrying free through our house). I have to "thank" Disney for making me not hate these things. When we bought the trap I was walking around the store singing "Cinderelly, Cinderelly" and thinking of Gus Gus:)

Home For The Holidays (Post #6)

2011-01-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

Since we were not all together for Christmas, my mom decided to have us celebrate Christmas when we were all together. All of us from out of town had arrived back in Utah by Monday, December 27 so all of the Johnsons got together and had a second Christmas morning. Everyone was there, all my siblings, their spouses (or soon to be spouse) and the kids. There were a total of 23 of us. We did the traditional reading of the Christmas story from the bible and then proceeded to open presents. It honestly felt like Christmas day. It was crazy, loud, and amazing! We had so much fun just being together. Oh, and it wouldn't be Christmas without my moms traditional waffles with ice cream and strawberries. YUM!

Some of the beautiful Johnson girls. Whether born in or married in, we have a pretty good looking family:)

The nieces loved being together and just being crazy

All we wanted when we got home....FOOD. We got it in the form of gift certificates to some of our favorite places!

Only Nate could manage to get a camcorder for under the $40-50 limit. Lucky Jordan and Melissa.

Mom and Dad with her new Kindle. Honestly I think the best gift for them was having all of their family around them.

Eating waffles with ice cream and strawberries. I LOVE the adoring way Addy is looking at her daddy.

Even Archie got a present, a nice coat for his cold morning walks. He HATED it! haha

We got the nieces and nephews personalized Cebu shirts. They LOVED them!

Just an indication of the mess that was left

The WHOLE clan looking "normal"


And more REAL normal for us!

The amazing thing is, the morning was just PART of the Johnson holiday. That night we got together with the EXTENDED Johnson family and celebrated more. We missed Grandma, this was our first Christmas without her, but I bet she was pretty pleased that we all got together.

Some of the group....not a great picture, I know!

I don't know if there is really any way to express how much I love my family. Some of the in-laws (Ben included) tell us that the Johnsons are a tiny bit "arrogant" because we think we are so awesome, haha! But honestly, just looking at these pictures I feel there is complete truth to the statement "Happiness is being a Johnson".

Self Portraits by Hailey

2011-01-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

My adorable niece got ahold of my camera, This girl is ALL personality.

We sure love you Hailey Rain!

Home for the Holidays (Post #5)

2011-01-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Chirstmas Day was extra laid back this year. Since we had stayed up so late opening present on Christmas Eve we all slept in until like noon. Ben and I got a hotel room while staying in Salem and it made for some VERY late mornings. I felt like I didn't really deal with jet lag on this trip, but maybe that's because we stayed up til like 3 AM and slept til like noon every day while in Oregon. It was a nice break. We spent more time with family on Christmas. We also went and visited some friends. The first stop was to the cemetary to visit Isaac. Isaac Bergevin was one of Ben's best friends through high school. He was there the night we met and the night of our first date. He was killed in a car accident that summer. That's a story for another post, but we wanted to stop and leave a little Cebu souvinier. We were also able to go visit Jared and Amy Nelson and the whole Nelson clan. Jared is another one of Ben's best friends from high school and was in an accident the September after we met, also a story for another post. We try to see them as much as we can so visiting them while in Oregon was a must. It was fun to catch up.

The day after Christmas was our last day in Oregon. We attended church at Ben's home ward. That's always a treat because he literally grew up in that ward and people love the Crisanto boys. After church we just hung out at the house and played the new Mario Brothers on the WII with everyone. We said a quick family prayer and were on our way. It was an amazing week and such a treat to spend so much time with the family. I don't admit this enough, but Oregon is beautiful. Ben is always trying to convince me that we will end up there. While I disagree, I can completely appreciate the amazing beauty that state has to offer. While driving up the 1-5 to the airport I was looking out the window at the sprawling emptiness, the green fields, trees, hills and thinking "this is SO different than Cebu". Instead of feeling sad that I don't live in a place like that right now though, all I thought was "We are SO lucky to be able to experience THIS and THAT. Who else has the chance to experience so many different types of beauty". We really are so lucky.

Our flight to Utah was uneventful and my dad was there at the airport, ready with thick winter coats to shield us from the cold. We were very unprepared for what we met. It was FREEZING! The drive back to the house was full of just chatting, catching up, driving by new construction, the new Pioneer Crossing and so on. When we drove up to the house it really felt like we really hadn't been gone that long. But, when I was greeted at the door by my Sister in Law, Melissa, with the biggest hug ever and by Archie (our dog who is currently living with my parents) jumping all over me and acting like he was going to have a heart attack I could not help feeling like we had been missed just as much as we had missed home. I gave my mom a big hug and we were home.

Even though we arrived at the house close to 10 PM it was still lively. My sister, Kristen, her husband and two kids were there from California, my brother Jordan and his wife Melissa from St George, my mom and dad, and my brother Adam and his wife, Tonna, there from Maine. We got right back into the norm of the holidays. We sat down to play games and Ben went to watch the big screen tv that he had missed so much. It was a wonderful night and we were just so happy to be home. Plus, my moms house at Christmas is amazing and really really made me feel like we were home for the holidays.

Home for the Holidays (Post #4)

2011-01-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

The next few days in Oregon included much eating, hanging out, shopping and just enjoying the company of family. One of my favorite things about being with Ben's family this year was that I can now really talk and chat with his parents and aunts about the Philippines. I talked with Ben's aunt Naomi and Rebecca extensively about little experiences we have had, the food, the weather, the culture and it was just fun to really be able to connect with them on a new level. That is one very great thing that is happening because of living in this country. I am able to better understand my in-laws and their culture and I think it is really a great thing for our relationship.

On Thursday of that week we went out to the Woodburn outlets and shopped to our hearts content. I got some cute clothes, including a skirt and a dress which will be great for the new year and my new resolution to try and dress a little nicer for work. We also went to Costco.........................................LOVE COSTCO! I might have told you all previously about a store in Cebu called S&R that is owned and run by the same company as Costco. It has a lot of the same brands of products and a lot of things we just can't find over here. When we first went to S&R we thought, "wow, this is JUST like Costco. It feeels like we are in American Fork". Well, let me just tell you, when we walked into Costco in Salem I almost burst out laughing. I turned to Ben and said, "S&R is NOTHING like this. This place is HUGE and beautiful." Haha! It was funny to realize how quickly our perceptions can change. It was so much fun to just walk the isles of Costco. Loved it.

On Christmas Eve during the day we went out shopping with Ben's siblings, DJ, Elisha and Archie. We bought tonz of stuff and just had a good time. We ran into Brother Rank and his family (one of Ben's young men leaders from his home ward) at the Lancaster Mall, which we do EVERY time we are there for Christmas. It's almost become a Christmas tradition. Ben and I went and got me dinner at Chipotle. Yum!

Later that evening we just hung out at the house, watched tv and relaxed until midnight when we opened all our presents. This is much different than my house. Christmas Eve is the night where we have tonz of family over, play games and we open one gift (always pajamas). After being married five years I have gotten used to the way my in laws do it and actually really enjoy it now. Ben's mom was telling us that the tradition of opening presents at midnight comes from her childhood. Growing up in the Philippins they did not get much in the way of presents, but every Christmas Eve the children would be woken up at midnight and have a huge meal. That was it. It helps us appreciate all the many blessings and gifts we receive.

I was spoiled by Ben's parents who got me a Kindle. I LOVE IT!

We got the girls these Hello Kitty bags in the Phils. They can totally pull them off:)

Ben finally got his Five Finger Vivrams for the beach, he's quite happy.

We got the guys shoes (with the Philippines on them).

I HATE this picture, but the point is I got Ben and I these CHEESY shirts made for our PJs this year.

Typical activities in the Crisanto house on Christmas Eve

Adorable, right?

We got Ben's mom a water bottle that said something about Filipino on it, she liked it but next year wants us to bring her some dried fish.....to each her own!

Ben's Science Project

2011-01-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you leave sweaty clothes in a plastic bag in a humid climate for 2 weeks. Yes people, that's mold!

Home for the Holidays (Post #3)

2011-01-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Pretty much every time I have visited Ben's family in Oregon his mom has asked that we all drive up together and visit her sister and family in Washington. EVERY time we don't go because none of the kids want to make the trek. I will admit that I am not innocent. The first time we went up there, when Ben and I were engaged, she wanted to drive up the day after we had arrived. We had just driven like 15 hours overnight from Los Angeles and the last thing I wanted to do was to climb back into a car and drive another 3-4 hours, so I said no. It was actually quite a funny experience because that was the first time Ben actually had to choose between agreeing with his future wife or agreeing with his mother. I remember him saying to me, "but my MOM is saying we have to go." He made the right choice. Haha. This time, everyone agreed to make the drive up there and I am so glad we did. We spent a few hours in the car driving up to Puyallup Washington. The drive was beautiful and we had time to spend to catch up with Ben's brother, Archie who came in our car. Once we arrived we got to see Elizabeth, her two sons Jonny and Noah, and Jonny's kids. It's been a few years since we had seen these guys so it was fun to just hang out and catch up. The drive back kind of felt like forever, but I was happy when we stopped at Taco Bell and got me a burrito. I didn't eat much of the Filipino food at Elizabeth's, only because I was "saving" my appetite for the many American places I had on my list. A Taco Bell burrito tastes pretty good after 5 months of no Mexican food. This was a really fun day and I am so glad the whole family made the trip!

The family enjoying a good meal

Oh, did I mention Teddy came along for the trip. He LOVED cuddling with me. It was adorable.

Anyone want a snack?

Home for the Holidays (Post #2)

2011-01-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in the USA we were on our way to Oregon. I was WAY too excited and also paranoid we would sleep in so I really didn't sleep at all but we made it onto our flight no problem. I got myself some pink berry yogurt at the LA airport and a nice magazine to read. We had a short layover in Reno and found ourselves even more cold than the night before. We had left all of our winter clothes in Utah in our storage unit so we just had to make due with the very few long sleeve shirts and hoodies we had with us. Once we arrived in Portland we were really starting to feel the excitement of being home and seeing family. We picked up our rental car, only realizing while in line that we were going to have to purchase the CRAZY expensive insurance from the rental company because we no longer have valid car insurance in the United States. That put a tiny damper on my excitement because it was a ridiculous amount of money, but I didn't let it get me down for long. Once we got onto the freeway and on our way, I could barely contain myself. Oregon is a beautful state and driving on the wide open road was almost shocking to my system. We hadn't driven above 35 miles per hour in Cebu and therefore 60 felt like we were flying.

Before even going to our hotel we went straight to Ben's parent's house. We were looking forward to seeing all the family. Archie and Cowdery had both made the trip home from Hawaii and Utah so the family was all there. We also got to meet the newest member of the Crisanto family, Teddy. He is this tiny little dog that nuzzles up and falls asleep on your neck. How could I not love him? We greeted everyone, hugs all around and then went off to our hotel to check in and for Ben to get a much needed nap. While he slept, I made the stupid decision that I would go and get our rental car issue taken care of. We had been informed that if we rented with American Express they have their own rental car insurance and we could remove some of what we were paying for from the rental. I made it to the rental car place with no incidents, but got lost on my way back. It was actually kind of scary because the car was much bigger than the one we drive in Cebu, I didn't know my way around and it was dark. I was not happy about that experience. But, I made it to Ben's parents house and they led me back to the hotel.

That night was a ton of fun. Ben's dad was singing in a church choir at a Christmas festival so the whole family went (minus DJ who was going to be an extra in some movie). I was very excited that everyone was there to enjoy this night together because in the past I have kind of felt like a nag trying to get them all to participate in the same things together. (and they will tell you, I can be quite a nag). It ended up being more of a sing along than the choir singing for us, but it definitely got us all in the Christmas spirit. It felt awesome to be surrounded by family singing the songs of Christmas. We were home! Afterwards we went to Ben's favorite restaurant for dinner, Red Robin. We always go to Red Robin when we are in Salem, but this time it tasted better than I remembered. I ordered the BLT Crossaint and a peach diet coke and could not have been happier. This started our two weeks of non-stop eating. We had missed so many different places that we had to fit them all in. It was fun to spend the evening with family and get the holiday started right.

Home for the Holidays (Post #1)

2011-01-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to be able to come "home" from the Philippines for the holidays. As I am sure you have gathered from some of my posts our first few months here in Cebu were hard. I have never really experienced culture shock like that and although we had started to really feel settled and more at home, one of the things that got me through was the fact that I knew we would be in the USA for Christmas. As the days got closer I actually started to worry that I had been so excited about this trip that maybe there was no way it could be as great as I was hoping. Well, lucky for me, it lived up to and exceeded every expectation I had. We were home for two weeks and had tonz of fun so I am sure this will be the first of a few posts to share the experience.

We flew out of Cebu on Monday, December 20th at about 7:00 PM and arrived in Los Angeles on Monday, December 20th at about 8 PM. It's such an odd feeling to live the same day twice. We had a very brief layover in Hong Kong, just long enough to walk through the airport and remind me how much I LOVE everything Chinese. I told Ben...."remind me again why we live in the Philippines and not China". Obviously, there is a reason, we just haven't figured out exactly what that is yet:). Even in the HK airport we noticed tiny things that we had kind of forgotten, drinking fountains, clean bathrooms, toilet paper provided in the bathrooms, and so on and so forth. It made us just that much more excited to be on our way to the US of A.

My first Hong Kong Christmas experience (hopefully not my last)

Arriving in Los Angeles

We arrived in LA late enough that we just went straight to our hotel. When we stepped outside into the rainy Los Angeles weather we realized we were in for a "treat". We were FREEZING! We had left 90 degree weather. When we realized we were cold in LA we knew we were in trouble. What were we going to do in Utah? We got to our hotel and the first thing I did was draw myself a hot bath. Bathtubs are pretty rare in Cebu. The beach house actually did have one, but when you run the water and it comes out rust colored and smelling of sulphur you kind of lose the desire to sit in it. While I took a bath Ben ordered Papa Johns pizza along with a 2 liter diet coke. Uh.....YUMM! We have Pizza Hut and some other pizza places here but nothing that even comes close to Papa Johns. Also, the soda in Cebu tastes different. Some people like it more, but I like it a lot less. One sip of that diet coke and I realized why I was addicted to the stuff for so long. It was a great welcome back.

Blogging....sigh!

2011-01-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

So, I REALLY want to tell you all about the amazing month we have had. We have done so much, seen so many people and fun things that I want to share.....but I feel like it just takes up so much time and energy. Blogging is like writing in my journal. If I go too long without doing it, then I start to feel that there is just too much to write about and I can't get myself to start. Right now, that's how I feel about blogging. Also, I go to other people's blogs and their posts seem so well thought out, so impactful. I feel this pressure to live up to those types of standards. But, today I am here to tell myself and you that I can't do it so I am not going to. I want to blog, will blog, and if the pictures are dumb or the things that I say seem random and not well thought out...so be it! Also I might be posting 10 posts in the next couple of days because it has been a full month. I don't normally like to do that because I want to give people some time to see that something new has been posted and comment on it (wink wink) but I gotta stop thinking about it like that and just do it! Enjoy, haha.

Christmas-Shangri La Style

2011-01-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Knowltons, Rock Star Style at the "Members Only" party at the Shangri La

We were required to wear "flowing white"....not sure what that means. Ben looks pretty hot in his Barong though, right?

If any of you think this picture is a little inappropriate...I agree:). His excuse was that this firedancer is also an agent at his call center. Gotta make a living!

So glad we get to share these fun times with friends. It was a great night of fire dancers, drumming, good food, Brazilian martial arts and awesome awards (I got a free foot massage at the spa).

"flowing white". I guess we did pretty good. Who ever thought we would be in a tropical paradise for a Christmas Party?

Ben LOVES this little boy! While we were home in the US he even said to me, "I miss Beau".

The little Christmas village was up in the Shangri La lobby the whole month of December.

The Christmas decor made us feel right at home

Back in the U.S.A

2010-12-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

We have officially been in the United States for 48 hours and have loved every minute of it. Some of the little things that we have enjoyed so far:

Public drinking fountains

Toilet seat covers, toilet paper provided and even the fact that there is a toilet seat

Being able to drink water from the tap without the worry of getting sick (and in Oregon it tastes great)

Good food that we have missed. So far we have had Papa John's pizza, Red Robin and Taco Bell and we have a whole list of places we will be visiting.

Dogs as pets. Some people in Cebu do have dogs, but it is more common to see sad, injured, sick strays. I love seeing people love their dogs.

Wide open roads with no traffic....and driving above 30mph.

Although I have sworn off aspertame for the past 3 months...while on vacation I have to take advantage of my favorite drink ever! Do the DEW!

We have also loved spending time with family, but I can't find my chord to download pictures so I will post about that later. We are so grateful for the opportunity to live in the Philippines, but being home is fun and we are going to take advantage of every second.

Kawasan Falls

2010-12-03T09:19:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago I was lucky enough to take some people from work to a place called Kawasan Falls. The drive was 3.5 hours and we were staying less than 24 hours. I wasn't sure it was going to be worth it. Boy was I wrong. The house we stayed in was gorgeous, with a huge pool and it's own beachfront. Then, we went to the falls and all I could think the entire time was "I am so lucky! How do I get so lucky to see and experience places like this?"

My team enjoying the water and the view.

The Philippines is very Catholic and their religion is very important to them. I thought this little alter was gorgeous and in such a beautiful setting. There is nothing like the seeing amazing natural beauty that reminds me more of my Heavenly Father. While walking next to the river on the way down from the falls the words to "How Great Thou Art" kept running through my mind.

PM4 enjoying the "massage" of the 3rd level of falls. This is a GREAT group. We all have a blast together. It was a nice change to be in cold, refreshing water too.

Ben (our team mascot) got to come on the excursion as well. We are so lucky to be sharing these experiences.

The huge, gorgeous house that we stayed in (right on the beach too)

For more pictures go here

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Cebu. We were lucky enough to be invited over to John and Stephanie Lowry's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great day with good food, coversation, fun and football. John had a great little program where we discussed the first Thanksgiving and the history of this holiday. We then all went around the table and talked about what we were thankful for. Each of us had a long list. We proceeded to eat the yummy turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls and pies of course. It really was just like a Thanksgiving dinner at home. After dinner there was a football game and running around and then back to the house for more dessert and just hanging out. It was a great day and we are so glad we could spend our first Thanksgiving here with good friends like the Lowry's and the Knowltons.

The day after Thanksgiving just made this year even better because we had the chance to get on the computer and skype with my entire family. All of the kids were together at my parents house and they brought us up on the big screen tv. We got to be there to pick names for Christmas as well as do a little program with the Johnson family. My dad had us come up with something we are thankful for that we never thought we would be thankful for. That was an interesting list and we had some good laughs (I was thankful to not live on the beach anymore). It was amazing to be there with them even while being so far away. It was so fun to see all the neices and nephews, the dog and of course all of the adults. We love our families and missing out on the holidays is hard, but skype makes it a LOT better than it could be.

This little boy came out to watch the football game with us and brought with him his American flag. It was fitting considering the day.

The whole group after eating

Ciara Lowry brought her dog over from the States....it made me miss Archie so I took a lot of pictures of her.

Our own little Filipino Turkey Bowl

Skype with my whole family on their Thanksgiving day. Gotta love technology.

This year we have so much to be thankful for. We are so very blessed and we are reminded of that daily. Thanksgiving definitely made us SO excited to be coming home in just three weeks for the holidays!

"Funny" Things We Have Seen While Driving

2010-11-17T14:36:00.007-07:00

I put funny in quotes in case people think I am making fun of the Philippines, cause that is not what I am doing and I wouldn't want to offend anyone.

Yes, this guy is sitting on the back of a bike, facing backwards, holding a box. At least he's wearing a helmet, cause I don't think that's extra safe.

Gotta get the balloons to the party somehow. I have driven with balloons in a car and I know they can get in the way, I can only imagine how it works on a bike.

I was pretty impressed with this dog sitting on top of the truck. I can't imagine there is a lot to grab onto, but he seems fine.

Just taking a break on the way home from work.

Now this is what you call eating on the go.

I have an awesome video I wanted to post here as well! This guy had a dog on the back of his bike, holding on all by himself and then one sitting on the front as well. I am not sure if I should be more impressed with the dogs or the guy for training them. Either way, it was amazing. I cant figure out how to post it, but when I do I will:).

To My Best Friend (other than Ben)

2010-11-03T01:31:00.004-06:00

Happy 30th birthday yesterday to my best friend, Kimberly Harrison Williams (or as I like to call her, Kimmie). As I was laying in bed last night I felt very strongly that I needed to blog about her. I am sure she is going to hate me for doing this, but that's ok. She will get over it. I think we all, myself included, can take more time and really express to the people in our lives how much they really mean to us. I lost my Grandma two months ago, wonderful things were said and written about her after she passed away and I don't doubt that she knew she was loved, but why don't we say all the wonderful things while we are all still here? I talk to Kimmie, we chat and laugh and hang out (well we did before I moved across the world), but I don't know that I have ever had the chance to really tell her what she means to me. For some reason, I felt the need to blog about it, so here goes.

Kimmie and I met in 2000 while both of us were going to BYU. We lived together at the Jolley House where I was even lucky enough to be her actual "room roommate" and get to see all the "interesting" ways she liked to sleep, haha. We had great roomates that we are still best friends today. For our first few years as friends I don't know that we would have considered each other "BEST friends", but through time and experience that was what developed. In 2003 both of us moved to Los Angeles, where she always liked to remind me that she lived on the "cool" side of the hill while I lived in the "valley". I know at first she actually was not that happy that I was moving to L.A at the same time as her. She had been accepted to UCLA to do her MSW (did I mention she is like genius smart...no joke) and was planning to move out there long before me and start a new life. But my nephew got sick and I was in a position where I could go out there and help, so I did. Soon after she arrived I think we both realized how very lucky we were to have each other out there. It was the perfect situation. We lived close enough that we could see eachother and spend time together and have someone that really knew us already there, but far enough away that we had separate lives and separate friends. It actually created a much more exciting social life for both of us (definitely for me).

She has seen me through the hardest things of my life, as well as the greatest things in my life. She has been there for me through the death of loved ones, dating, breaking up, heartaches. She was with me when I got the call telling me I had got my "dream job" and she was with me through the ups and downs of that job. She was there through Ben and I dating, getting engaged, me postponing the wedding, getting married, surgeries, infertility, and so on and so forth. She is the person I turn to when I just need to talk or laugh or cry or just need someone to make me feel better.

When Ben and I first got married there was an evening where he and I were hanging out together just watching Arrested Development and eating junkfood (Kimmie and I LOVE eating junk food together and watching great TV shows until ALL hours of the night) and I said to him, "I am having as much fun with you as I do with Kimmie". It was then that I realized how VERY happy I was to be married to him, haha. That may sound crazy to most of you, but he had a very HIGH standard to live up to. Before him, I would have preferred to hang out with no one more than her.

Ben makes fun of me because I literally have something we call "Kimmie withdrawels". When she and I were both living in L.A. I would see her about once a week. If it was longer than that I would start to feel just off, something didn't feel right. I am not sure when I realized that was what was happenening, but at some point I realized that I literally NEEDED Kimmie time for things to feel right and good in my world. After Ben and I moved back to Utah, we talked on the phone a lot and saw each other every few months. If not, the withdrawels would set in. Maybe that is why I felt the need to write this post...maybe they are setting in and this is the only "fix" I have.

I have a perfect example of Kimmie truly being my BEST friend. The week before we were leaving for the Philippines Ben and I were driving down to Provo to get some of our immunizations. On the way down there I was telling him how I was just feeling overly stressed and frustrated and I couldn't figure out why. As we were talking I said to him, "I think I am going to drive to Vegas to see Kimmie tonight"(she had just moved there). I had to work the next day, but I was totally serious. I realized I was having "withdrawels" and I just needed my best friend. We went into the office to get our shots and as we were walking out my phone started to ring. Kimmie was calling. I answered the phone, and before I had the chance to tell her my plan she said "Guess where I am?"......"I am on the road to Utah, coming to see you". I am not sure how to even explain to you the emotions that I felt when I heard that, even now I get teary eyed about it. She said she had just felt like she should come, she talked to Byron (her awesome husband) and he agreed. The Lord knew and let her know that I needed her. I spent the next two days hanging out with her and getting my Kimmie time, since who knows when will be the next chance we get. (I do live in the Philippines plus she is having a baby any day now and won't be in Utah for Christmas).

I hope that all of you are lucky enough to have a Kimmie in your life, because I don't know what I would do without her. Kimmie, since I know you will read this at some point, don't be mad or embarrassed. I had to do it! I love you, you are the very best friend a girl could have. I cannot wait to see you....whenever that may be!

She's gorgeous too, did I already mention that?

Just Living Life

2010-10-22T14:13:00.016-06:00

I have been trying to think of something to blog about and I just haven't been able to think of anything. I think that means we are actually feeling at home here because I don't feel like everything we see and experience we have is totally blog-worthy. The funny thing is, they probably are but I am just getting used to my surroundings so I don't see things as so different anymore. I am going to do a post soon of just the crazy things that we see in Cebu. I have lots of pictures for that. Today, I just wanted to say how happy I am to really be feeling like we are at home here. It has been a long 10 weeks to get to this point.

I know some people just talk about the good stuff on their blog and I am not really like that. Moving here has been very hard, much harder than I ever expected. Living in Asia has been on my list of things I have to do before I die since I was 16 years old. When we got the opportunity to do so, and we were in a position where we could easily (no kids) we jumped at the chance. But no matter how much I wanted this, it has been very very hard. I sometimes think China wouldn't be AS hard for me because I have a weird obsessive love of China, the Chinese people, the Chinese culture and the Chinese language. I have not yet developed the same love for the Philippines. But, that being said, I am learning to love it. Ben asked me the other day at lunch what I like about the Philippiness so far, and here is part of my list:

1. The beach

2. Movies are very cheap (Ben and I can go to a new movie in a nice theater for like $5 total)

3. I found this wheatgrass drink that is yummy (it's sweetened with honey). I can buy it anywhere and it makes me feel like I am being healthy! The picture is of my healthy Sunday morning breakfast: egg, rice (no comments about it being white, we usually have brown), mango and wheatgrass.

4. My team at work. I am pretty lucky to have these people to work with. They make my life easy. (2 of them are missing from this picture)

5. The chance to work at the Cebu Temple and just the fact that we have a Temple so close.

6. The simple faith and obedience of the members of the church here. The Stake President told us on Sunday that when President Monson was here in Cebu to dedicate the Temple, he reminded the saints to remember those Filipino soldiers who fought and died in WWII. When he mentioned this I thought, "hmm, that's a long time ago, I wonder why he talked about that". The Stake President proceeded to tell us that a member of the stake has now collected over 3000 names of deceased soldiers whose names can now be added to family search and whose Temple work can be done for them. 3000 names! Now that is taking the words of the prophet and running with it.

7. The Shangri La click here to see my whole album dedicated to this place. We work out there, we lay out there, we swim there, we eat there, it is just beautiful! This place keeps me sane.

8. Time to spend with Ben. Right now, we really only have each other. Most married people never have a chance like this and I am grateful.

There are more things I could add, but the point is that I am finding things I like about this experience. When we first got here, I thought I was going to hate it forever. I have never experienced culture shock, not when I lived in China teaching English, not when I served my mission, but I experienced it here and I am finally getting out of it and learning to love where I am.

A New Home

2010-10-08T14:32:00.017-06:00

So, it's been 8 weeks that we have been here in Cebu and right about now we are starting to actually feel settled. I think the biggest contributor to that fact is that we have moved into our new apartment. We love being able to sleep, watch t.v., get online at home, skype with family and friends, not having to drive into the office to call people, etc etc etc. It has been great and we are really loving every minute of it. Having somewhere we feel comfortable really has made all the difference. The landlord is very responsive and has already fixed the A/C in the master bedroom and installed a new A/C in the living room. When there are "brownouts", the electricity goes out for an hour or two, the apartment complex has a generator and we get our power back on in just a few minutes. So great! We are having to get used to living in an apartment complex again, with the noises of neighbors close by, but we would take that vs. karaoke any day! Below are some pictures of the house, just so you have a reference for where and how we live. It's a little different than home.

This is our master bedroom at the beach house, the ONLY place we spent any time.

This is the living room/dining room of our new place. We JUST moved, it's messy! And look, we still have a GREAT view!

The new master bedroom. It's empty and quite big, but comfy.

Master Bathroom

The spare bedroom/computer room. Remember, we just moved, it's messy!

The kitchen (notice the number of cupboards...yikes)

A little friend in the kitchen. We get these guys all over the house, but I like them cause they eat bugs:). (I know, I need to clean out my sink)

The spare bathroom and yes, we did pick out the rubber ducky shower curtain:)

We are happy to be settling in and feeling at home. Maybe some of you can visit us soon!

Laguna

2010-10-01T13:50:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, Ben's Lolo passed away on September 19th. We are lucky that we live here, close enough to be able to attend his funeral. We were able to represent Ben's dad and his family since they are so far away and unable to attend themselves. It was a great chance for me to meet Ben's cousins and aunts and uncles on both the Crisanto and the Bugar side. I was greeted with welcome arms by everyone and treated so well! I don't know if I ever believed I would really meet his Filipino family, never guessing we would be living in the Philippines, but here we are. We will definitely be visiting them again.

Laguna, the area of the Philippines where his family is from, is up in the Northern part of the Philippines. We flew into Manila on Wednesday morning and were greeted by his Uncle Max, who is Tatay's (dad's) oldest brother. Honestly, the similarities between the two of them was almost startling. He walks, talks, stands, acts just like Ben's dad. It was kind of comforting in a way, made us feel closer to home. Ben's other uncle, Carlo, also flew in just a few hours after us along with 4 of his 6 sons. We then drove the 3.5 hours to Laguna to meet the rest of the family. Ben's Lolo and Lola had 11 children and therefore there were a lot of people to meet. The time we were there was also the viewing at Max's house where people come and pay their respects in the days leading up to the funeral, therefore I met more people that I can even remember. Ben met siblings of his Lolo and his Lola. He met aunts, cousins, friends of the family, etc. It was crazy in a good way. I do have to say though, being there reminded me of my trips to China, driving through the countryside, looking at these homes and wondering "I wonder who lives there, what is their life like?". I never, in a million years, thought I would be part of a family that lived just like that, in a place just like that. What a strange, but amazing sensation. The world is a small place.

Laguna is beautiful. We went between the two towns of Pakil (sp?) where Max lives and the funeral "activities" were taking place and Pangil which is where Ben's mom's family lives. The towns are just a few minutes from each other via trike or jeepney so we got to spend plenty of time with both sides of the family. It is very beautiful there with rice fields, a lake, hills and mountains and just a lot of breezy, fresh air. It was a nice change from the city and truly reminded me a lot of parts of my mission. We spent time with the family, but also got to spend time just walking through the town, taking pictures of the landscape and just relaxing. We spent the nights at the home where Ben was actually born (forgot to take a picture of the room where his mom gave birth to him). They have a great room upstairs with air conditioning and I was so grateful for that. The toilet didn't have running water, so we would have to take a bucket and dump water into the toilet to "flush" it. That was fun:). There was also no hot water, so cold showers it was. The funny thing was, with all the sweating I did over those few days, a cold shower felt great. We did see a few critters inside and outside of the house, but for the most part is was very comfortable and we very much enjoyed our stay.

The funeral took place on Friday morning. It was an interesting experience for me since it was all in Tagalog. I have learned a few words here and there, but 2 hours of straining to hear a word here and there that I understood was difficult. Ben's dad actually "attended" the funeral and even shared a few words through skype. What a long way we have come to have someone in Oregon literally watch live a funeral going on in a small provincial town in the Philippines. I did find out that Ben's grandpa had been a huge part of the growth of the church in that area. The church building where the funeral took place was beautiful, up to date, air conditioned and proof of the strength of the church there. After the funeral we left the church and followed the hearse to the cemetary. The "best" part was that the hearse was blaring top 40 music as it drove up to the church. Filipinos like their loud music. Luckily, Ben's uncles were able to convince them that it wasn't really appropriate for the occasion and they turned it off for the walk to the cemetary. It was very hot and the cemetary is on the top of a huge hill, so by the time we got up to his "plot" I thought I was going to pass out. This poor little white girl is just not used to that. The best part was there were old women there (like in the 80's) practically running up the hill ahead of me. There are definitely perks to the hard lifestyle they live here, they are tough and in great shape! Ben was honored to be able to dedicate the grave, a service that both his dad and his brother Cowdery were able to witness via skype. He did a wonderful job. Part of what we know as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is that because of our Savior we will each be resurrected and our spirits will be reunited with our bodies at the resurrection. Because of this, a special part of the funeral and burial process is the dedication of the grave. The purpose of this is to dedicate and consecrate the burial plot as the resting place for the body of the deceased and also to pray that the place may be hallowed and protected until the resurrection. Ben was nervous about this part because in the Philippines you don't necessarily "own" your burial plot, but in a lot of cases you "rent" it so he wasn't sure he really could ask that the place be hallowed and protected. But, when he said his prayer he included everything and afterwards he came over to me and said "He will be protected and his body will be fine". I could tell he felt very strongly when he said those words, that the place would be hollowed and protected that it really would be. If I could explain to you the state of the graves and the cemetary and how they were just not well take care of, stones and rocks overturned, grass growing over everything, people eating their lunch on top of peoples graves, etc I think it was a great comfort to everyone there to feel that comfort that came from his prayer.

On Saturday we left Laguna and drove into Manila. It was a beautiful mountain drive, but the road was way too twisty and turny for me. I am not one to get motion sickness, but I really was so close to being sick by the time we arrived. There was a lot of traffic in Manila and we didn't get to see a lot of the city. But our hotel was close to Manila Bay and most importantly we spent time at the Mall of Asia (haha). It is the BIGGEST mall ever. We even got a lost a couple of times. It was a fun night because we got Wendy's, Dairy Queen, Krispy Kreme and Red Mango and went to see an IMAX movie. We also thoroughly enjoyed the hot shower and flushing toilet in our hotel. We were happy to come home on Sunday but so glad for the experience we had in Laguna and looking forward to our next visit.

I posted all of my pictures on facebook, go check them out here. I really don't want to post more pictures, this post is already VERY long!

Just an update

2010-09-21T13:31:00.011-06:00

I realized I have only been blogging about once a week. While that is a huge improvement on how often I used to blog, when we are all the way across the world I am thinking once a week is not enough. I will try to do better.

I am trying to keep updated pictures posted to facebook. If you are not my friend, become my friend and you can check them out. It's just easier to post a bunch of pictures on their than on here.

So, what has been going on with us?

We have been doing a lot of apartment hunting. We have decided, after MUCH consideration, that we will be moving into the city. We currently live on Mactan island, which is where my work is, where the Shangri La is, and where the Knowltons are which makes it hard to leave. But, along with the great things on the island comes some not so great things that we won't be sad to leave:

1. There seem to be many more stray dogs running the streets on the island. Anyone who knows me, knows that these little guys break my heart.
2. The city does not allow trikes (pedicabs). These guys cause a lot of traffic and I am ready to be rid of them for a while.
3. KARAOKE right next door at all hours of the day and night

4. Nothing to do (other than the Shangri La). I guess I didn't realize Ben and I like to be out so much, but we drive into the city almost daily to go to the Temple, go to the malls, go to the movies, etc. There is none of that out here.

5. Pretty much no restaurants, I have eaten at McDonalds more than I ever cared to in my life because its the only American restaurant close.

We are excited to move into the city because:

1. We will be within a few minute drive of 3 shoppings malls, movies and the Temple

2. Less dogs, meaning less anxiety for me

3. air-conditioning in the church!

4. No trikes causing extra traffic

5. No karaoke!!!!!

We really are going to be so sad to leave our house and the view. The house we live in is nice, and big, and comfortable (minus the termites). But, the noise that comes along with living on the beach just does not work with our lifestyle. We did have Branigan, Julie and Beau come visit us on Sunday and having them there made our house feel homey! We need to have visitors more often. Plus, chit chatting with them took my mind off of the amazing amount of noise going on.

Branigan, Julie and Beau. This is the view off our back porch.

Looking at our house from the back

Sunday night we also received a call that Ben's Lolo (Grandpa) passed away. We have now lost 2 Grandparents in just 2 weeks and we are just so grateful for the knowledge that we will see them again. We were especially sad to hear about Lolo because we were planning to go up to Laguna (near Manila) to visit him in the next few weeks. Now, we are going in order to attend his funeral. We are sad to have missed seeing him, but so grateful that he was able to come and live with the U.S. Crisantos in Oregon for a few years. I was lucky enough to have the chance to meet and spend some time with this great man. He was truly the patriarch of his family, leading them by his faith and example. I am looking forward to attending his funeral and meeting my Crisanto cousins, aunts and uncles.

Christmas 2008 Crisanto kids with Grandpa (don't mind the quality of the picture. It was a picture taken of a photographer taking a picture)

That's what is going on with us over here in the Phils!

Fun in the Philippines

2010-09-15T09:17:00.005-06:00

I think once in a while I am going to make a post and show some of the really great things about living in the Philippines. Today, I am going to show you pictures of our "island hopping" adventure. Because the Philippines is made up of thousands of small islands, island hopping is pretty easy to do. We rented a boat for the day that would that took us to 3 of the smaller islands surrounding Cebu. Normally, you go to each island, spend time on the beach, swim, eat, etc. For our adventure, we took off late so by the time we got to the islands it was already low tide and we couldn't pull up to the beach. So, our day was without the beach portion, but we did everything else. We ate, listened to music, layed in the sun, snorkeled, swam and just had a good time. We went with the team that I manage, so it was great to get to know them better and just have fun together. So, fun in the Philippines activity #1 is Island Hopping.

GRANDMA

2010-09-07T08:45:00.007-06:00

My Grandmother, Mary Cecil Barrus Johnson, passed away Sunday September 5, 2010. People keep asking me, "was it expected?" and the crazy thing is that I keep answering "kind of" and then I catch myself. My grandma was very healthy, had no severe health problems, no severe pain, nothing that would make you think "she's ready to go any time". She was walking on her own, totally had all of her faculties and there was no indication that she would be leaving us so soon. But, SHE knew. When Ben and I decided to move to the Philippines, Grandma Johnson was NOT pleased. She really didn't want us to go. During that time I was on the phone with her and she said to me "Well, I won't be here when you get back". The way she said it, and then the way she kept saying it over the next few months made me really believe it. So in spite of her health, for me it was sort of expected. When we stopped by her place on the way to the airport, I still don't think I would know that this would be the last time I would see this amazing woman in this life. But I hope that either way I did what I would have done. I talked to her, hugged her, let her know I loved her. She was her normal spunky self asking me if I was SURE this was a good idea? I did get to talk to her on the phone from here, let her know that all was well over here and hear tell her I love her one more time. I remember the seriousness in her voice when she said "I love you Carmen". She had started saying it in a way that you just knew, and if she never talked to you again, she would know she had told you she loved you.

She spent her last days spending time with her family. She went out to eat with one of her sons on Friday night. She spent time with my mom, sister and her daughter, Avery, as well as listening to my sister in law Melissa play the piano on Saturday. She had visitors and people who loved her surrounding her all the way until the end.

If I could use one word to describe my Grandma it would be "spunky". She had attitude, and follow through, and she didn't take any crap. She was loving and as my mom says "fiercely protective of and loyal to her family". When people tell me I am like my Grandma, I take it as a huge compliment. I know I get a lot of who I am from her. There is a streak in the Johnson girls, you can see it with a lot of us, going down to even her great grand daughters and we know we got it from her. We are stubborn and proud to be who we are. Thank you for that Grandma!

I got to spend a lot of time with her over the past three years while we were living in Utah. We always went to my mom and dad's place for Sunday dinners and she was there. She was always so willing to listen to and participate in the family conversations. She always had her keys on a little wrist band that she would wear around and Addy loved to play with. She always let the girls wear her jewelry and was always just happy and content to be there. I am so glad I got to spend that time with her. Ben also had a chance to really get to know and love her and she LOVED him!

She was always so interested in everything we did. When I was single she was the first one to tell me not to worry about it. She had married a little later and my Grandpa was younger than her as well. She loved the house we bought. She was so excited for us when we decided to adopt. She asked lots of questions and kept involved in our lives. If she didn't agree with or understand a decision you were making, she would tell you. She loved my Grandpa and I am sure the past 11 years without him have been difficult. But we are so grateful we had that time to spend with her.

There are so many more memories and things I could share about her, but I am just so grateful to her and to my Grandpa and for the heritage that I have. I know I am a Crisanto now, but I will always be a Johnson, Granddaughter to Mary Cecil and Wally Johnson. Happiness is being a Johnson!

My Grandpa passed away 11 years ago, while I was on my mission. She missed him every day. I can only imagine how happy they are to be together again. She is with family and loved ones that she has been separated from for so long, her brother who she lost in WWII, her parents, her siblings, so many friends that had gone before her. So, although I will miss my Grandma more than I can even express, it would be selfish for me to want to keep her to myself. For now I just will be patient knowing that I will see her again.

EMAIL FAIL!

2010-08-31T16:24:00.003-06:00

So, as part of Ben's new job he has been provided a Blackberry with 24 hour access to his email. This is new to him and he is just getting used to having to be ready to send a coherent and professional email at any time, day or night. The below email was sent at 2 AM after his second full night at work.....let's just say he is going to need some practice and we are hoping he doesn't get fired for sexual harrassment...

From: ben@>>>>>>>>>>.com
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:09:49
Subject: SUSIE*

Thanks ANNA*. I will keep her in pool of people to mentor and train. So far it is her, Che, and Sean. SUSIE* definitely has a strong upside I look forward into tapping that and turning her into an asset instead of a headache.

Ben
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

*names have been changed

I could NOT stop laughing when I read this. It is a good thing he is working with Filipinos who may speak English, but do not speak American slang and are not familiar with what it means to "tap that"...

CLASSIC!

DRIVING AND SLEEPING....NOT AT THE SAME TIME!

2010-08-27T12:18:00.003-06:00

My title to this post might be a little obvious, but anyone who knows me know that sleeping and driving AT THE SAME TIME have been an issue for me in the past, haha

So, what do I mean? Well, let's just say that yesterday/today (all sorts of confusing when I am in a totally different day than most of you reading this and also confusing when I am working in the middle of the night and can't keep my days straight) was my first time really driving and really sleeping since we have been here.

Traffic and the way people drive here in the Philippines is DRASTICALLY different than at home. There are rules and people have to take a test when they get their license, but I am pretty sure that all goes out the window as soon as you get behind the wheel. I was actually just told by one of my co-workers that his wife BOUGHT her license and doesnt actually know how to drive, haha, ya! There aren't really any traffic lights and even when there are, they aren't really paid attention to. People pass each other in the same lane and then into on coming traffic. There are dogs EVERYWHERE on the road and on the sides of the roads. There are even goats and cows on the sides of the roads or in the middle of the road sometimes. People cross in the middle of oncoming traffic. Little children play on the sides of the road (no sidewalk, just inches away from passing vehicles). It is just different. Therefore, I didn't want to drive. I really had no desire to get behind the wheel of a car and try to figure out how to NOT hit another car, or more importantly not hit a dog or a CHILD. Yikes! So, Ben has been driving everywhere and I have been at the mercy of his schedule, etc. So yesterday when I realized that unless I drove him to work, I was going to be stuck at the house with no way to get anywhere I decided I just had to bite the bullet and get behind the wheel. So, I did! Let me tell you....I forgot the freedom that driving provides. I dropped Ben off and realized I could go wherever I wanted. I am starting to know my way around and I could get anywhere I needed to go now. What a crazy feeling! Also more than feeling freedom, driving made me feel like I actually live here, this is home. It was a GREAT feeling. I may sound like such a dork, but it just made everything better.

Ben's first time driving (the first day here, he's a little braver than me). I tried to post a video, but it didn't work. I am not that skilled.

The other part of this post is the other thing that is making me happy today. I actually got some sleep. I am working nights, about 11pm-8am every day. Since we are support for the US office, we work during US work hours. It has been a hard adjustment. The biggest part of the issue has been not having a home to go to during the day and sleep. There is literally karaoke going all hours of the day and night. Also, we have had workers in our house all day almost every day. We have just gotten sleep here and there when we can. Two days ago, when I last blogged, I was going on about 5 hours of sleep in 48 hours and I was dying. My team was nice enough to allow me to leave work at 2am last night to go home and sleep. I slept from 6am-8am which was nice. Then, yesterday evening after dropping Ben off for work, I went home and slept from 5pm-11pm and there was VERY LITTLE karaoke! I woke up feeling rested and ready for the day. What a difference sleep makes!

So, I feel good. I hope it lasts! We are still looking for another place to live, but if we can get some hours of uninterrupted sleep each day we might even be able to stay in our house. It is big and has that gorgeous view so it might be worth it. We will see!

JET LAG AND TERMITES..OH MY!

2010-08-24T18:54:00.006-06:00

We arrived in Cebu on Saturday, August 14th at about noon. We were greeted by my co-workers with signs that said "CARMEN" with our company name right below. We felt special. They had brought a van to take all of our stuff as well as the company car that we would be using until we buy our own. All was going well. We drove straight to our house, the one on the beach, with the amazing view. Ya, pretty awesome! Well, once we arrived at the house, things kind of weren't as awesome. There were things that the owner had confirmed that had been done...such as getting rid of the termite infestation, fixing the locks on the doors so we were safe, and a few other important things, had not been done. Also, I think we forgot to realize that moving into our house we would need a few things that we just didn't have.....bedding, towels, water to drink, etc etc. We were also completed warn out from the flight and traveling so we decided to go to a hotel which was a great idea and exactly what we needed to at least get our bearings and get some rest. We checked into the Marriott and stayed there for 2 nights. We were able to get a good night's sleep and attend church in the new chapel behind the new Cebu Temple. Church is always a great experience in a foreign country because it feels so familiar. It's a little piece of home away from home.
So, things started to get taken care of with the house, but slowly. I am not sure the termites will ever really be taken care of. What I had not accounted for was the fact that everything just seems to take longer in the Philippines. And when I say longer, I mean that it has now been almost 2 weeks and we still have fix it guys in our house almost daily trying to get everything ready. Seeing as my schedule is to work at night and sleep during the day, you can imagine my frustration with having people in my house all day. Ya...it isn't working very well. The other thing that is preventing us from sleeping......we are surrounded by Karaoke bars. It is kind of a funny thing to realize that we have this beautiful house with a beautiful view and no way to really enjoy it. We literally have been woken up at times from 6am-midnight-2am to people singing karaoke. It is going non-stop all day and all night long. So, getting over jet lag and getting in to a good sleeping schedule has just not happened. Today I actually went to the Shangri La resort (that place is going to SAVE me) and slept on a beach chair for as long as I could so that I would have some sleep before coming to work. I feel like a homeless person.
TheMy co-worker and his wife, we will call them Juligan, and their little boy arrived which is so great! We were so happy to see them and really so grateful to have them here with us. We see them on almost a daily basis and it's just so nice to have people here to relate to what we are dealing with, plus they have let Ben crash in the spare bedroom since they dont have to deal with Karaoke in their neighborhood. We know it has not even been two weeks, and we are trying to be patient, but things have definitely been harder than we expected. We are actually doing our best to get out of the lease from our house. It's really frustrating to know that we have paid the landlord 3 months worth of rent and have not even been able to live there. We are looking for a new place, praying that we will find something in Juligan's neighborhood. It would be nice to carpool to work and just to be closer to each other. We need somewhere quiet, closer to work and not filled with problems. That house is kind of like the money pit and even the view just isn't worth it (and the view is amazing!).
For the good stuff, Ben got a great job just a few days after we arrived here, which is HUGE! He actually just started today. We are excited for that and I am proud of him for getting out there and making it happen. We are going to be on the same schedule at some point which is a huge blessing, but for the next 30 days he is working from 4pm-1am. My schedule is 11pm-8am so I am not sure how we are going to get around it. But, we will! We went to the Temple on Tuesday and are hopefully going to get the chance to be Temple workers. We are excited for that. We have a great ward. The bishop served in Ben's mission with him and seems to be really on top of things. We have friends here and plenty of things to keep us entertained.
Some things that keep the Philippines exciting:
1. Jeepnies everywhere
2. Trikes everywhere
3. Dogs EVERYWHERE!
4. Goats everywhere
5. Garbage everywhere
6. Malls....big malls everywhere
7. Bugs everywhere
8. Men that dress like women....everywhere

Actually, on that note I will tell you one funny story and then let you go. Last week on Thursday I was have a VERY bad day. Up until that point I felt I had been pretty patient with the house and the lack of sleep and such but I kind of just lost it that day. I just felt like nothing was getting done and I had a little breakdown. I told Ben we needed to leave and go to a movie or something. As we are driving down the main street I am crying and complained and expressing my frustration and all the sudden I look out the window and bust up laughing. What did I see you ask? Well, I saw a "woman" wearing a kind of frumpy sundress a headband in her hair and what do you know but "she" has a 5 o'clock shadow! I could not help but laugh and laugh and laugh. You would think that if you want to look feminine the shaving of the beard would come first before the dressing and doing your hair like a woman. Anyway, it was pretty amusing.

I really don't mean to be negative and I will spend the next 2 years blogging about both good and bad things about this experience, but I didn't want to fluff it up either. It's been a hard few weeks but we know it will only get better.

We miss home and most especially we miss our family and friends. We miss seeing the kids. We miss Sunday dinner. We miss our house. Ben REALLY misses his TV and his PS3.

We are trying to keep in touch with everyone through calling and facebook. Please keep in touch with us as well, loved ones make a big difference.

Our last picture taken in the U.S.A:)

The malls here are huge. SM in Cebu has a bowling alley and movie theater on the top floor

Ben drinking a "LARGE" soda....ya, not really my 44oz Diet Mt. Dew (which I also really miss!)

A Jeepny! Jess...take a look at the sign the guy is making....look familiar? I guess Ben wasn't lying!

Ben looking hot getting ready to go out into the rain. It is "rainy season" and let me just say that when it rains it POURS. The first night we slept at our house we woke up because the rain was so loud.

Some of the EXTREMELY odd offerings at Pizza Hut...yes people, the crust is stuffed with a "3 foot long juicy and delicious sausage"....um..what?

Another example of a "large drink"

Ben ate this hot dog...I couldn't bring myself to do it...it's bright red on the outside.

Ah, just taking a nap while riding on the back of a motorcycle with mom.

The newly built and opened Cebu Temple. So happy to have this building here!

NEW YORK CITY DAY 4

2010-08-23T13:36:00.002-06:00

Our last day in New York City was the only day there was even a smidge of rain. The best part was, it only started raining when we were leaving so it didn't ruin any of our plans. On Friday morning we got up and went to see the Manhatten Temple. We didn't do a session because Ben forgot to bring church clothes, haha. Nice. It is a gorgeous building.

Ben HAD to go to Madison Square Garden but we missed the tour, too bad:(.

The Shake Shack was another food place that we were told, by my good friend Becca, to go to. Um, ya....SO yummy! Glad we didn't decide to skip the line. We did have to run home through the rain but it was worth it!

Off we went to the airport. Our 3 City trip was over and we were on our way home knowing we would be leaving for Cebu in less than 3 weeks. Wow! Well, this trip was the perfect send off! We love the U.S.A!

NEW YORK CITY DAY 3

2010-08-20T13:51:00.004-06:00

My little brother Adam and his wife Tonna always know the good places to eat and they did not fail us here. On our third day in Manhatten we took the subway and found Doughnut Plant which came highly recommended. Let me tell you, they were not wrong. These donuts were amazing! If you go to NYC, do not miss out on this place.

As you can see from my face, I quite enjoyed it. The one that I like the best was actually a jelly filled square donut called Peanut Butter and Jelly. Um, I hate peanut butter, but this was nothing like anything I have ever tasted before. So yummy!

I promise our whole day was not about food, but we had just heard of some places that you can't miss. The next of these was Carnegie Deli. I actually didn't order anything cause I wasn't that hungry (see picture above) and because it was pretty dang expensive for a sandwich. Well, there is a reason for that (see picture below). I have NEVER seen more meat on a sandwich in my life. Crazy! But, Ben loved it! I did end up losing a $20.00 bill at the deli too, which was a little disappointing since I could have just bought a sandwich and at least got something for my money.

After lunch we walked through Central Park. I wish we could have seen more, but that is one big park:)

Then we walked to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I would have liked to spend more time there, but for anyone who is thinking about going to NYC go to the museums first. By this time in our trip my feet were killing me, I could barely stand, let alone walk around a huge museum. But, we did walk around some and enjoyed it.

That night we went to Mary Poppins on Broadway. I was really wanting to go see WICKED but you can't get discount tickets so we bought these instead. Um, can I say AMAZING! It was such a fun show to watch. WE both loved it.

Another busy day on our vacation, but just so much fun!

NEW YORK CITY DAY 2

2010-08-18T14:03:00.011-06:00

This was a crazy busy day. We got up REALLY late by accident. I guess the hotel did a good job of keeping it dark in the room because we didn't get up until 11 AM. So, we had to hurry and get going.

The first thing on our list to do was to go see the Statue of Liberty. On the way to get there we stopped at Grand Central Station, so cool!

The heat and humidity were not our friend this day. The line for lady liberty was longer than ANY line I have ever seen in my life. But, it actually went pretty quickly, only one hour. The ferry holds a lot of people and there are quite a few going back and forth, so that helped.

She was totally worth the wait.

On the way back, the ferry stops at Ellis Island. I know a lot of people skip this part because the Statue of Liberty is the real draw. But, I had been told by people (thanks Jess) that if they were to go again, they would definitely do Ellis Island. So we did, and definitely did not regret it. What an amazing place. The idea of all those immigrants coming to this country, walking through those doors and registering in the room we were standing in is amazing. They have a lot of exhibits and areas you can walk through to show you exactly what the process was for those people. They even had a room where they had removed the paint and layers of plaster/cement and it had exposed writing from people who went through Ellis Island. That was crazy to me. There was the handwriting of these people from 100 years ago, people who had just landed from a long and strenuous trip to arrive in this country. Really awe-inspiring! It sounds strange, but there was truly a special spirit to that building. It was almost as if all those people were there with you. You can't really depict it in pictures, but I wanted to put one on here anyway.

This is the registration room, where every person coming through this harbor during that time had to stand and wait to find out whether they would be allowed to stay or have to go home.

After we got off the ferry, we had actually been on the subway on our way to Brooklyn for some yummy pizza and we were sidelined when there was a fire in the subway tunnel. We had to get off and when we came up we started walking the wrong direction. We had already been at the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Ilsand endeavor for about five hours at this time, all out in the swealtering heat, so having to walk and then going the wrong way was pretty upsetting (you might be able to tell how happy we were in the below picture). But, as a result we ran into Wall Street and were able to go to Ground Zero as well.

When we finally started walking back the right direction, we were able to get on the subway and get over to Brooklyn where we ate at Grimaldi's Pizza. Ben's little brother, Archie, served his mission in New York and told us about this place. When we got there and saw the line, we weren't sure it could possibly be worth it.

But then we saw this:) The pizza was thin crust (which I usually hate) with huge fresh mozzerella slices, diced tomatoes and the toppings of your choice. It was SO ymmy. I do wonder if any of that is because by the time you have waited in line an hour you're so starving that anything would taste good. Either way, we definitely enjoyed it. We also made some friends while standing in line.

Grimaldi's Pizza is literally right under the Brooklyn Bridge. Before we had found it and before we had eaten, we were definitely thinking we would have to just look at the bridge from afar because there was no way we were up for walking it. But, then we ate....and had some good company in a cute Texan couple we met, so we made the beautiful trek across the Brooklyn Bridge. I am so glad we changed our minds. It was a beautiful night.

It was a long, tiring, hot and humid day. But, let me tell you...if we were looking for a vacation before going to the Philippines that would really make us feel patriotic...this was it! It was so much fun to see these historic places that are so important and vital in our country's history.

NEW YORK CITY DAY 1

2010-08-15T03:42:00.010-06:00

When we finally arrived in New York City we went straight to our hotel. It was in an aweseome location. We dropped our stuff and went out to see the city. Honestly, my blackberry was our best buddy on this trip. I just went to my trusty google maps and put in where I wanted to go and it gave us walking or subway directions. It was awesome! I actually used my blackberry the last time I was in NYC and felt the same way, which would probably explain how I had a dream a few weeks back that I was walking through NYC by myself and my blackberry died....and I was panicked, haha! What did we do before these new trinkets?

The first place we endeavored to see was the Empire State Building. The problem was that we ran into a homeless man, sprawled on the sidewalk, not moving. He had a sign and cup looking as though it had been dropped right next to him. I wish I had my camera, but I didn't. There were people just walking by, hanging out right around there and paying no attention to him. Mind you, this guy was not off to the side, he was in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk. Well, Ben, being the nice guy that he is, stopped and tried to wake the guy up. He clapped, yelled a little and when he got no response he shook him...with no response. He checked his pulse...still alive! So, he kept shaking him. Finally, someone called the NYPD and they came to check on him. Ya...kind of crazy. Maybe it was the heat!

So, thanks to our little distraction, we literally walked right by the Empire State Building. The funny thing is the guy at the information desk said it happens all the time, haha. I guess if you don't look up, it just looks like another building. But, because we missed it, we ran right into the Macy's Department Store on 34th St. We then walked up to Times Square and looked around, ate at the McDonalds in Times Square and just had fun being in such a famous place.

I know you think it's weird that we were in NYC and went to McDonald's, but this one is different.

Later that night we went back to the Empire State Building to actually go up to the observation deck and take some pictures since my camera was finally charged. Here are a few pictures.

This is one of my favorites because we were in line in front of a group of Japanese young adults. I was dying because they were standing RIGHT behind me, like when I would one inch, they would move one inch. It was like they had to be touching me at all times. So, I made Ben move over there so I could take a picture of how close they really were:)

BREATHTAKING!

We then had to take the subway over to something else famous...so we went and ate Gray's Papaya hot dogs. I had seen them on movies and such so I though they must be good....I wasn't that impressed. People might think I am crazy, but I would take a Costco hotdog over this any day!

A not so pretty picture of me waiting for the subway. Can you tell I am hot?

And we had to return to Times Square with the camera and at night! Sorry for all the pictures, but they are really for me:)

WELCOME TO NEW YORK

2010-08-14T22:39:00.003-06:00

We have arrived in the Philippines and I want to tell you all about it, but first I REALLY need to finish blogging/journaling about our East Coast trip. This is especially important now that I left my journal on the Cathay Pacific flight from LA to HK, meaning I will most likely never see it again:(

Our arrival to New York City was quite eventful. Our flight from Maine was delayed by hours, so we didn't end up arriving at JFK until about 1 AM on Tuesday morning. We were both just ready to lay down and sleep. But, we had to go to our awesome hotel first. Let's just say that Jamaica New York is not the nicest place in the world (sorry to anyone who is from there). We knew this when booking our hotel, but we figured it was only one night so how bad could it be? Well, let's just say that I ended up leaving a not so nice review of the hotel on hotwire. It was pretty ridiculous.
-First thing was the driver for the "complimentary" shuttle picked us up and kept calling me "mommy" and "wifey"....uh, anyone who knows me pretty much knows that does not go over well especially at 1 AM. The next best thing about our driver was that he thought we would love it if he got us to the hotel fast...not safely. He literally blew through like 3 red lights, flew around corners causing me to hit my head on the window and never braking for anyone. It was quite the ride. The last thing that I loved about our "complimentary" shuttle to the hotel from the airport was that our driver was holding a wad of big bills in his hand. To me, he was saying "make sure you tip me"....and all I wanted to do was punch him. So, when we got out of the car I walked in to the hotel to check in while allowing Ben to get the bags. Part of my reasoning for this was that I didn't want to tip the guy and I knew that Ben didn't have any cash. Well, that didn't deter our little buddy. He FOLLOWED Ben into the lobby to get his tip. I about died. Last time I checked, it is my option to tip or not to tip. But, I was tired so I asked if I could get change for a 20 from the desk. They didn't have it...guess who did?....our wonderful driver. So, Ben gave him the $20 bill and waited for change. He handed him $15 back. It is also my choice on how much I am going to tip someone so Ben said, "uh, I need the full $20 back". The guy huffed and gave it to him, and Ben gave him $2. He said outloud, "wow, thanks"! Ya, I was NOT impressed. So, then we checked into our hotel. We got onto the elevator and we were already concerned for the quality of the place. We got to our room and there were so many stains and such on the floor that I didn't even feel comfortable taking off my shoes. People, I really am not usually a snob. Uh...I am living in the Philippines, I am ok with dirtiness, but this was just gross. Let's just say we were glad this was just a one night thing.
-To finish off our awesome hotel experience, in the morning we got up pretty late. We knew that there was a hotel shuttle every 1/2 hour from a sign they had in the room. It was almost 11 and we weren't quite ready, so I called down to the front desk to make sure they would have a shuttle at 11:30. She informed me that the next shuttle would not be until noon. Well, lets just say I had no desire to stay at that place for another hour. We were taking the shuttle back to the airport in order to get on the airtrain and then the subway into Manhatten. Anyway, I decided I would run downstairs and let Ben finish up. That way they would know I wanted to take the shuttle. Anyway, I got downstairs and walked out to the shuttle. The driver was helping people on so I just walked over and asked "this shuttle leaves at 11:00 AM, right?" His answer, "I leave when I am full" said quite curtly. So, I then asked "oh, so then when will you be back for the next one"...again, a curt reply of "I won't be back, I am off and I will be going home"....uh, ok, not really the meaning of my question. I just wanted to know when the next shuttle would be. He just said he didn't know. Then, even though the bus wasn't full and it wasn't 11 AM yet, he started to shut the doors. I said "are you full" and he said "we are leaving".. Ya, I was pissed. So, I then said not so nicely "well, thanks for all of your help.." and started to walk away. So, guess what the friendly bus driver did? Did he get in his drivers seat and drive away with his guests waiting for him? Nope. He proceeded to follow me into the hotel yelling profanities at me and telling me I couldn't treat him that way. I tried to ignore him, but as he was yelling through the lobby I turned to him and said "My experience at this hotel and with your shuttles has been horrible. Your job is customer service..." and then he totally exploded. He was within inches of my face yelling at me "Don't you tell me what my *#$%ing job is" over and over again. Uh, ya...so awesome. Finally, the hotel manager had to come over and break it up. She asked what had happened so I explained both the awesome driver from the night before and my wonderful experience with that driver. She proceeded to arrange a separate bus for us to get to the airport immediately. Boy was I glad to get out of that place.

So, that was our "welcome to New York". I will blog about the rest of day 1 later tonight.

MAINE DAY 3

2010-08-08T21:34:00.005-06:00

Sorry that it has taken me so long to post the rest of our trip. It has been crazy busy. We will blog about that later though. Let me tell you more about our trip for now. BTW, thanks for all the comments, I feel the love:)

On our last day in Maine, Tonna had to go back to work so it was just Adam, Ben and myself. We went to eat lunch at a great little sandwich place where Adam and Ben got the biggest Pastrami and Corned Beef sandwiches I have ever seen (this was before New York, so that did change). After that, we headed out to the beach. It was great, but the really ironic thing was that this was the only day of our trip that was overcast and a little cool. Every other day was so very hot and humid. Funny how that works!

It really was the perfect weather for a nap on the beach...oh, and reading my kindle (well, my mom's). It was a great end to our perfect Maine trip.

After the beach we were back to pack and to the airport. Our flight was very delayed to NYC, but we weren't even upset about that. We talked that night about the fact that we had already had such a great time and if that was the end of the trip we would be perfectly happy.

New York City was quite the adventure! I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

MAINE DAY 2

2010-08-06T11:06:00.010-06:00

I am worried that no one reads my blog anymore. Although I did say that this is mostly for journaling purposes, which it is, it makes me a little sad that no one comments or lets me know they care:). Haha!

The second day we were in Maine was a Sunday so the first thing we did was attend church with Adam and Tonna. We actually went to all three meetings, Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. I went to Young Women with Tonna, which was fun. It's been a while. We really enjoyed their ward and the people in it. Sunday School was especially fun:) One thing about Maine is that the people are very proud of where they are from. True Mainers...

After church we went to see the Portland Head light. This light house is one of those places you see in pictures all over the place. It is gorgeous.

I also thought this was so awesome, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow walked where we were walking and sat right here. It was inspiration for one of his poems...so cool!

After seeing the Portland Head light we went to Two Lights, where you can supposedly see two more Light houses. We only saw one, but loved it any way. We were able to go down and put our feet in the water and although it was SO cold, it felt great since it was so hot. We were in the East during some of the hottest months ever, so the cold water was just what we needed (oh, and all the home made ice cream, yum!)

One thing Portland, Maine is known for is it's food. They have practically no chain restaurants, which opens the doors for many small, local restaurants. We had some great food while we were there. Sunday night we went for sushi and it was Yummy!

Maine Day 1

2010-08-05T15:04:00.009-06:00

Maine was definitely the most relaxing part of our vacation. It was full of seeing beautiful places, eating great food and spending time with family! Adam and Tonna have been living in Portland, Maine for the past year and have learned the great places to go.

This was the first place we ate in Maine and it was everything you would expect. Red's Eats with their 1lb lobster rolls, amazing onion rings, haddock sandwiches and crab cakes. It was definitely worth the 1 hour wait.

Later that same afternoon we drove up to Camden Maine to an overlook. It was so beautiful! Adam and Tonna were great tour guides.

Looking over the beautiful shoreline.

It was so much fun to hang out and spend time with Adam and Tonna. Aren't they cute?

Adam, Ben and myself waiting to see Inception. If you haven't seen it, you should. Literally boggled my mind...in a good way.

Maine is a beautiful place and we are so glad we got the chance to go. We figured we wouldn't be going back there any time soon and this was the perfect opportunity. We are glad we followed our instincts.

BOSTON DAY 2

2010-08-01T22:10:00.010-06:00

The 2nd day we were in Boston we knew we wanted to see as much of the history of Boston as we could. So, we got a free tour of the Freedom Trail and really enjoyed it. It was very hot again, but hearing about the "Boston Massacre" and the "Boston Tea Party" and the start of the Revolutionary War made it all worth it. I am not a big history buff, but it was so amazing to be there.

This is the where the tour began at the State House.

I thought this picture was quite amusing cause you can see Ben wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was ok when we were in the shade, but in the sun....SO HOT!

Part of the Freedom Trail is to see Paul Revere's House....again, not a history buff, but seeing it and being there was such a different experience than reading about it in a book.

This building isn't historical, but it just epitomizes the beauty of the old brick buildings in Boston. I loved the way everything looked. Oh...and the restaurant in this building was called "Carmen" so I am sure that had something to do with why I liked it so much.

Ben standing by The Paul Revere statue in the North End (which was also where we had our dinner that night and it was THE BEST Italian food I have ever eaten)

This was in one of the places on the Freedom Trail. It is a memorial to all of the soldiers lost in the War in Afghanistan. Each of those silver things is a set of blank dog tags representing one soldier lost. It was very moving.

I do not like this picture of myself, but who cares, I need to record our trip and if that means posting pictures of me I don't like, then so be it. This was us before we got on our "duck tour" of Boston. They use these WW II style amphibeous vehicle to take you on a tour of Boston on land and on the river. It was pretty cool, but I was TIRED and HOT and kept practically passing out during the trip. Plus, it was too long for any of us.

Adam and Tonna on our duck with us. We were so glad they could come down and spend the day in Boston with us on Friday. It was more fun with them.

After the duck tour we went to the Boston Public Library, which is the first public library in the country. The building was gorgeous inside and out, but it was closing as we arrived. We just had to make sure we got pictures of Ben being "gallant" or maybe just a little nerdy.

Sadly enough I left my camera in the car when we walked down to the North End and went to dinner. It was such a yummy dinner. Then we went to Mike's Pastry and got like a billion different kinds of Canoli's and an eclair that was to die for. It was very yummy and the perfect end to a great day in Boston. It did start to pour on our walk back to the car, but we welcomed the rain after how hot it had been.

The Boston part of our trip was over and we left and drove back to Portland Maine and to Adam and Tonna's cute house that night. Boston was awesome and we could not have asked for a more fun start to our trip (although Ben didn't get his Celtics hat or to get into the Garden..)

BOSTON DAY 1

2010-07-30T21:00:00.006-06:00

We flew out of SLC late. It was about 11:50 PM on Wednesday, July 14th. That was also my last official day in my current position so I had been very busy and pretty stressed up until this point. But, hey..who isn't, right? Anyway, we got on the flight and I pretty much slept that full flight. Poor Ben didn't sleep at all. We flew into JFK and had a 3 hour layover until we flew into Boston. Needless to say, Ben was extra tired when we got into Boston. We couldn't check into our hotel until 4pm, so it didn't matter how tired we were. We had to keep ourselves busy amd keep Ben awake. That didn't end up being an issue.

Boston is a beautiful city. Just stepping out of the subway station and looking down the street was inspiring. We dropped our luggage off at our hotel and then walked over and got lunch at the Prudential Center, which was attached to our hotel and close to pretty much everything we wanted to see. We then walked outside and got to see the beautiful city of Boston.

This was a large fountain with tonz of kids running through it. It was SO hot and humid and I really would have loved to run through it too!

We went and took a tour of the first Christian Science church building. It was very beautiful, inside and out. We enjoyed learning more about this religion that we knew nothing about.

After leaving the church and deciding we would walk to Fenway park...my shoe broke. So, I improvised and pulled out a hairband and tied it around my foot and shoe...and then proceeded to walk a few miles. It worked.

We walked to Fenway Park where the Boston Red Sox play. Ben was happy.

This was even cooler though. This is the Bleacher Pub (I think that was the name). We were walking by Fenway Park and saw a sign by a door that said "come in and see the Sox play" so we did. As you can see behind me, there was an opening in the wall and there we were, right at field level. There was a game that night, so the teams were actually on the field practicing. It was awesome!

It was a better view that you could ever get with tickets. We ended up getting gravy fries and a sandwich to take some time to really take advantage of the view. You don't get that opportunity every day.

On the walk back we saw this firehouse. I thought this was so neat. It looks so old, like something you would see in a movie. That was my favorite part of Boston, the old historic buildings and the feel they give the whole city.

We took the subway to TD Garden, where the Celtics play. Both nights we tried to get in, but it was already closed. Ben was pretty disappointed, but we tried.

That first night we went to the Omni Parker House Hotel. Talk about a historical spot. We ordered the Boston Cream Pie, which was actually invented at this hotel. Other historical events took place here like John F Kennedy announcing his candidacy for Congress as well as proposing to Jackie Kennedy there. Plus, Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh both worked there. I am not someone who is really into history, but standing in places that you have heard about and read about your whole life is a thrilling feeling.

This was just the first day. As you can tell, it was a packed day, but a great one.

The Big Trip

2010-07-27T22:06:00.011-06:00

I would love to write about every detail of our amazing East Coast trip, but I do not have the time and I am pretty sure none of you have the interest :). I am going to write enough though because I really need my blog to start acting as more of a journal. So bare with me...or don't, either way I will continue writing. It will probably be 3 or 4 blog entries, this one being the first.

It was a long trip, 9 days in all.

We spent Thursday and Friday in Boston

...then drove up to Portland, Maine for Saturday, Sunday and Monday to hang out with Adam and Tonna.

..then off to New York City until Friday.

It truly was a whirlwind, wonderful, crazy trip. It felt like the ultimate 'bon voyage' USA trip. It was kind of strange leaving for vacation when we have such a short time left here with family and friends, but we have always wanted to go to New York City and this was just our chance. Adam and Tonna have been living in Portland, Maine for the past year while Tonna is her Physicians Assistant program. She will be done in less than a year, which means that when we get back from our two year stint in the Philippines they will be somewhere else. We don't really think we will ever have another reason to go out to Maine, and since we were going to be there anyway, why not go see some other great East Coast places, right? So, off we went for our adventure.

I forgot to mention.....

2010-04-18T23:02:00.003-06:00

They are just finishing the LDS Temple in Cebu! How lucky are we to be moving to a foreign country and still be within 30 minutes of a temple! This makes me happy.

Not Baby News, But Still Big News!

2010-04-13T23:58:00.003-06:00

This is where we are going to be living in 4 months. The Philippines! I am sure I probably picked out the most beautiful pictures I could find of Cebu and Mactan, but hey I give you what I have got. Hello.......gorgeous right?

I know this comes as quite the surprise to all of you. It came as quite the surprise to us as well. Making the decision to go was a hard one, but for as long as I can remember I have dreamed of living overseas. The fact that I work for a company that has it's main offices in Orem, Utah and Cebu, Philippines can't be a coincidence, right? We are so excited about this opportunity. There will be more details coming up. I promise I will write more than once a month now...

We need your help!

2010-02-21T21:46:00.007-07:00

You may wonder what I have been doing and why I haven't been posted for so long, but since the beginning of December Ben and I have been working on something extremely important and time consuming, our adoption paperwork, but now it is done. We are approved to adopt. We have sent out emails and I am sure most of you have already heard, but I thought posting on our blog was pretty important. This is what I sent out in the emails, so if I don't have your email address or if you hadn't heard through facebook...this is for you:)! I will be posting more soon.

As you may already know, we have been married for almost four years and have been unable to have children. We are looking forward to the day we can bring children in our home, and are especially grateful to so many of you for your love and support through this process. We are excited to let you know that we have decided to seek a child through adoption. We are writing to ask you for any help you can give us in building our family through adoption.

If you become aware of a birth mother who is looking to place her child in a loving home, we would appreciate help in recommending us to the birth mother. If she is willing to consider us as adoptive parents, please contact us at (801)850-7578 or email us at bencarmenhope@gmail.com or you may contact our case worker, Stefanie Sparks at LDS Family Services (801) 216-8000.

Also, please check out our online profile https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24184006/ourMessage.jsf . This is a place where we have provided photos as well as information concerning our background, family, careers, hobbies and interests. It is a great tool for birth parents.

We truly appreciate any help you can give us in helping to build our family through adoption.

December..(WARNING...lots of pictures)

2010-01-07T20:32:00.011-07:00

Well, at least this time I have only gone one month between posts instead of 2 or 3:)

December was a wonderful month. We had a great Christmas holiday spent with family and friends. All of my family was in town except Jordan and Melissa who were in Wisconsin. It was so great to have everyone here and it was especially exciting to see Adam and Tonna who are living in Maine and have not been here since June.

I have included pictures below, some with explanations and some without. ( I got a new camera (love ya hon) so pictures are going to be much more frequent and much better from here on out)

My brother Nate, nice face huh? He is eating our traditional Christmas breakfast, waffles with ice cream and strawberries. yum!

My nieces, cutest girls ever, cheesin it on Christmas morning at Grandmas!

Ben with his presents from Santa...a new golf bag and Tiger Woods golf on the WII. He was quite pleased!

Ben and "Human Archie". Archie got to spend Christmas with the Utah Crisantos this year.

Ben's hilarious reaction when he opened his Taylor Swift CD's. He tries to hide the fact that he loves her music, but I knew he would love this gift!

My sis in law Tiff with one of her many awesome gifts!

Brother in law Justin....dressing Ben, haha. Ben didn't know how to tie the scarf so Justin is giving him some tips.

Me with my wonderful snuggie....don't HATE people!

Brooklyn T-Shirt, remembering the days from the mission.

Flashing the best smile ever for another horse...she is obsessed!

My mom in her cute apron (my gift)

My sister Jessica and her new purple ipod

Another of my adorable nieces. I love this girl!

My sis in law, Tonna, and her wedding photo album from Adam

My lucky parents got a trip to New York City...can't beat that!

My brother Adam, looking good in his new scarf. That should come in handy!

Archie the dog and his Christmas present. He loves stuffed animals!

Keeping up with a Crisanto tradition (at least one we did last year) and going out for Chinese for Christmas
Christmas is another special day in our family, it's Archie's birthday. So, Happy Birthday Chi!

I warned you there was a lot of pictures! There will be more to come soon.

October and November...

2009-12-04T22:29:00.009-07:00

I was just going through my camera, and I realized that a lot has been going on and I need to blog about it. I need to do better and not go 2-3 months between entries. I will just use pictures to tell you what we have been up to.

First things first, we got our Archie back!

We celebrated Ben's 27th birthday with good friends

Took him to Sushi...his fave!

We spent Halloween with my adorable nieces

We did our first DIY experiment, painting the office

We got to spend Thanksgiving in Oregon with our Crisanto family

This is Ben's Lolo (Grandpa) and his Auntie Becca. He has a great family!

Ah, the little sisters...DJ and EJ!

While in Oregon, we had some great adventures...visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory

And bowling...Ben's mom said she thinks this was the 3rd time she has EVER been bowling...imagine that.

We had a great time with the fam and are glad to be home. I will try to do better at posting and keeping everyone updated on the life and times of the Crisantos in Utah:)

He's Home

2009-10-22T22:39:00.002-06:00

Archie came back to us. It's good to have him home.