GiRL MeeTs bOy!

Girl meets boy, February 22, 1985

I tell this story at the risk of really dating myself...but here goes anyway!

24 years ago I returned home from serving an LDS mission in the Philippines, I was suppose to return home on December 14, but ended up coming home the first of February and was able to travel home with my second companion (who I served 9 months with). My home was in Portland Oregon, my companion (pictured with me below) Carilyn is from Ogden Utah.
I had only been home a couple of days when Carilyn called to tell me her father was in the hospital, he had suffered a heart attack. She really wanted me to meet him, so we made arrangements for her to travel to Oregon to meet my family and I would return with her to Ogden to meet her family, especially her father.
Long story short, while I was in Ogden I got a tooth ache (I had lost a filling in the Philippines and opted to wait until I got home to fix it, given the fact that I never ran in to a dentist while I was there). Anyway, it was a Saturday afternoon and Carilyn called her Uncle who was a dentist and asked if there was anything he could do, being the incredible kind man that he was he agreed to meet us at his dental office (on Madison Avenue, this is where our first daughter got her name).
Carilyn's uncle brought with him to the office, his beautiful wife, Sharyl (and yes, we both share the same name now, spelled different, but still the same), and his son Darren, he brought his son to be his dental assistant (and no my husband did not become a dentist, he is an airline pilot, in fact I can't think of another time in which Darren ever helped out at the dental office...hmmm). For me it was love at first sight, for Darren, maybe not love at first sight, you know the whole suction, dental thing....But for the sake of keeping this story short, I will just say that it was only 9 short months later that we were married. Today actually marks our first official date 24 years ago. We went skiing, all day! Darren had recently returned from serving an LDS mission as well, he had served in Bolivia! We both LOVED the time we spent serving missions, and we loved sharing stories...
So 24 years later, 6 kids, a cat (who died), a dog and a huge mortgage we are still going strong. Life has not always been easy and we have faced our share of bumps in the road, but the older I get the more firmly I believe that I found my soul mate in every way.
Darren is a quite reserved kind of guy, he is the youngest of a family of four children, by four years. I am in the middle of 13 children, I don't really have to say more (although I will mention the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, it is similar to our lives). I appreciate how supportive Darren has always been, we have had four of my sisters live with us, spanning about 5 years, we had a niece for another 18 months, a younger brother for a summer and myriads of house guests every year. When one of my sisters graduated from college (here in Utah) we had 20 house guests in our 2100 square foot home, it was crazy, but so much fun!!
Darren is also one of the most honest people I know! He is kind, gentle and trust worthy he is extremely hard working, and most of all he is a family man, he loves his children and when his crazy wife approached him about adopting a little boy from Haiti, even though we already had
five children, he was on board all the way!!
I am so grateful that I served a mission, met Carilyn, came to Utah, met my husband and have the wonderful life I have today! Darren is not a man of many words but his smile says so much about what he feels, and I am grateful after 24 years we are both still smiling!

Chareyl Gentry in the Philippines

(this is where our oldest son Gentry got his name)

Chareyl and Carilyn in Japan on our way home from the Philippines

Darren and Chareyl, met February 22, 1985

Married September 10, 1985

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.
Amy Bloom

FaMiLy

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in a long time so this is long over due!!
Some of you may know that I tend to tease a little about the fact that all six of my children still live at home, and they are costing me an arm and a leg...Truth is, I love having them all home and I appreciate what great kids they are. No they aren't perfect and thankfully neither are their parents, but we love them just the same!
For Christmas this year our kids made Darren and I a video, it was the greatest Christmas gift we could have received. It was set to music and had a little interview from each child and then photos of them from the time they were little, it included family trips and great times together! Robby LOVES to watch it and probably would watch it every day if we let him. He will say "lets all watch our happy family movie".
Then just a couple days ago I returned from a trip to Haiti, I left all my adult children in charge, especially since their dad has a pretty full schedule. When I walked in the door, the house was completely in order! I didn't get home until after midnight so the house was quite and everyone was in bed. I was standing in the clean kitchen looking around and feeling blessed (and very impressed), there were little notes on the counter welcoming me home, one very cute one written by Robby (with a little help from his sister Madi) telling me how much he missed me, and then I looked over at the fridge where one of my girls had written a quote in very nice print, like a poster, it read "Be the change you wish to see in the world" (by Ghandi)I was so touched by this! What wonderful examples my children are to me..We all need to be the change we wish to see in the world.
So I wanted to post some of my favorite photos of my kids that were taken during the holidays. To Gentry, Sterling, Madi, Chloe, Grayson and Robby, Thanks so much for your support and helping when I am out of the country. You are the best kids a mom could ask for! Love you tons!!

"Be the Change you Wish to see in the World"

EXERCISE!!

So I have been living my life lately in a happy blissful state of not caring to much about the whole body image, trying to tell myself that "this is who I am, like it or leave it" until my doctor crashes my whole eat and be merry party! I have high cholesterol, so much so that I have been told to lose weight, EXERCISE, and eat better and told to start on a medication (this does not thrill me) and to top it off, I have also been battling kidney stones (not so fun to say the least) So I decided to join a club and a nutrition program....Now it is the exercise that I am struggling with, I of course am very out of shape and not a big fan anyway, so I started with the Seniors aerobic class and this was going well (for about a month), the senior citizens are the sweetest ladies ever and one day I even had one of them call me at home to cheer me on, most of them look pretty amazing too, they are like my new best friends, and the classes have been manageable. Then my friend talks me into going with her to the new body combat class, it happens to be taught by another friend of ours...Well let me tell you, I don't think I am ready to combat anyone. That class is out of control and those ladies are crazy, some of which I would not want to meet late at night on the streets, they would take me down! And, I am not just saying this so that someone will say "oh that is not true" trust me it is true, I am by far the largest individual in the class. Some of the ladies in the class have real combat gloves on, they are ready for battle! So at one point in the class we are boxing into the air at our pretend hanging down boxing ball and I have got my eye on the instructor concentrating on her every move and trying to keep up without actually having a heart attack and then it happened, I punch myself under the chin, bite my tongue and cause my tongue to bleed... yea, for sure I am ready to take down the intruder, if the intruder happens to be ME. So really is exercise all that it is cracked up to be, I mean seriously I could cause some bodily injuries to myself. So for all you exercise buffs...my hats off to you. I hope I actually survive!!

Do you think there is any kind of Plastic surgery that will remove high cholesterol and kidney stones? If so maybe I should start saving my money....I am thinking that I may have to stick to the poor man's plastic surgery!

sEaSoNs

Season's in Utah can sometimes be confusing especially to a 5 year old, snow falling in the morning and sun shinning bright in the afternoon....this is Rob on his way to pre-school the other day...All the seasons are represented here, rain jacket, snow boots and mittens (you can never be too sure when a rain burst or snow storm might break out) and to top off his ensemble.....swimming goggles!


As you can see, I have learned over the past 22 years as a parent to choose my battles (okay, so maybe it actually took me 22 years to figure this out), so Rob goes to pre-school pretty happy with some of his outerwear choices!! And truly is there anything cuter! I think not! So as we are headed out the door I grab the camera to take this picture and Rob just looks up at me and says "I'm cute, huh mom!" No doubt about it!

HaLLOwEEn hOtShOtS

So I am a little late with my Halloween post...But here we go anyway...As you can see that as children get older it might be a little difficult to tell what they are actually dressed up as.. Here we have a rocker...two cruella devil's (one a friend) and an M&M rocker......

...Next we have a couple of Bonneville football players with a little bling bling on their hands..(one is mine and one is a friend)....

..... Next we have a hippie!!

And saving the cutest for last is batman!!! At a halloween party he won the costume contest as the child with the costume that most fit the child. Darren wanted to know what they meant by that until we saw our son flying off the stage at the party.
This costume actually gets plenty of use...he wears it everyday and has it on as I type....sweet little batman!! (PS, no we have not let him see the grown up versions of batman, but he does love the commercials and has wanted to be batman ever since they started playing)

AdOpTiOn

I came across these photos today of my niece Dari's fourth birthday party at McDonald's. While we were there that day a couple of my friends came in to celebrate one of their daughters birthday. As we all sat there watching the children play it occurred to us that right there in that little McDonald's there were 6 little children (with us) that had been adopted (by 5 families) from different parts of the world. One child from Micronesia, one from Bulgaria, two adopted from the foster care system and two from Haiti. It was very touching to all of us. Who would imagine that in a a McDonald's in South Ogden Utah, there would be children from all around the world touching the lives of so many families...What a blessing...What a joy...We decided to take their picture...(this was harder than we had anticipated and one little boy chose not to be in the photographs)

"Adoption is like a scavenger hunt, you have to travel so far sometimes to find the little treasures God has left for us but it is worth it in the end!" Maureen Kerik

"My Harvest I did not plant you, true. But when the season is done, When the alternative prayers for sun and for rain are counted, When the pain of weeding And the pride of watching are through, Then I will hold you high, A shining sheaf above the thousand seeds grown wild. Not my planting, But, by heaven, My harvest -My child."

Carol Lynn Pearson

For those of you my friends who are on this adoption journey, let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, It is worth it in the end, and no matter what part of the world they are coming from they will be YOUR child!

hAiTi

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. - Helen Keller

I just spent an amazing week in Haiti and wanted to share a few things that I felt with my heart...
To start off; I have A huge amount of love for adoptive parents who love unconditionally, they take their little Haitian children that they meet for the first time without reservation, most sick with some sort of parasite inflicted upon them by the conditions of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere! I leave the country in love with the adoptive parents and their children and feel it a privilege to share in their adoptive journey's. I have Gratitude! gratitude for more things than I can name, but here are just a few; A sweet man named Harry Mardy, who worked tirelessly to arrange our trip, provide us with vehicles and drivers and be our translator; Nannies at orphanages that work hard to love and care for the children in trusted in their care, with little compensation and sometimes going without food themselves so that the children can be fed; Orphanage directors who take children off the streets, sometimes when they absolutely do not have the room, money or goods to care for them, but they cannot bear to hear of another child dying on the streets; Volunteers who go to places like Haiti, using their own funds, dedicating their own time, leaving families behind, sitting in hot orphanages, (or on the ground in the parking lot of an LDS church) feeding and playing with children without any regard for the conditions in which they find themselves! Gratitude for people willing to raise money for food for the orphanages and/or so that children in a program called Haitian Roots can go to school; I feel grateful for the opportunity to be part of such organizations and to have gone to Haiti to be with all of the these children, parents and volunteers. I felt overwhelmed at the feeling of the Spirit when attending church in Petionville Haiti, walking into the chapel having it so full there was hardly room for us to sit! There are no words to describe the feeling in my heart at hearing the hymns sung so loud, a literal praise to the Lord, in French! (and no accompaniment) Knowing and feeling that we are ALL God's children where ever we may live in this world!
I left the country of Haiti a better person, with so much love in my heart, with so much gratitude for those that touched my life, and for the eternal friendships made along the way. And for the miracles that I was privileged to witness!