Babysitting the Biggs

From May 20th to 29th, Jon and I became the adoptive parents to three kids. A family in our ward (the Biggs family) was moving back to the U.S. and the parents needed to go there first for work and to find a house. We had three kids: Josh (16), Nikki (14) and Joe (9). We lived with them at their house. It was a lot of fun and a good wake up call to us for what reality will be like one day. It made us appreciate the simplicity of life with just two of us. This was our usual schedule:

4:45 AM Wake up Josh for Seminary

5:25 AM One “parent” takes Josh to Seminary at the church

6:10 AM Wake up Nikki and Joe for school

6:30 AM Drive Josh from Seminary to school

6:45 AM Put Nikki and Joe on the bus for school

WORK

2:00 PM One “parent” pick up Josh from school

3:15 PM Nikki and Joe get home from school

5:00ish Make dinner—after dinner make sure homework is done and bags are packed for the next day.

8:15 PM Joe goes to bed

9:00 PM Nikki and Josh go to bed

9:05 Jon and Emily pass out

We also had to schedule in swimming lessons, music lessons, school concerts, Primary activities, and a project on Ellis Island. The kids were good and easy to take care of, but Jon and I realized that we are not quite ready to be the parents of older kids. It will be good to start with babies and learn as we go.

The pictures are of Jon and the boys making an apple pie and Nikki dressed up for her Ellis Island report.

Young Women’s Broadcast

For mutual tonight we watched the Young Women’s broadcast that was recorded at the end of March. Since we can’t get a live broadcast in our church building (and even if we did it would be the middle of the night), we get the tapes later and watch them at the church villa. We invited the young women and their moms.

Scuba Classes

On May 9th I had my first scuba class. Jon and I joined a club here that is part of the British Sub Aquatic Club (BSAC). They do certification, hold weekly meetings and organize dive trips. Jon took a class in college, so he was already certified. He has been trying to convince me to become certified as long as I have known him—but it just didn’t seem worth it in Utah. Now that we live surrounded by water I have run out of excuses.

So far it has been fun—but a challenge for me. I am really not a water person. I am not a great swimmer and I hate getting water in my nose, eyes and mouth (salt water.) I figure that every few years you should do something that really stretches you and makes you step outside your comfort zone.

The classes were a challenge for me at first—but it got better every time. Scuba diving is good for managing stress and learning to handle anxiety because you have to focus completely on the present. You can block out work, to do lists, and everything else. The biggest adjustment for my body has been figuring out that I can breathe underwater. I have to remind myself to breathe in and that my lungs won’t fill with water.

The classes started in the pool and then moved to the ocean. The class I took is the first certification level—Ocean Diver. You learn safety, what to do in an emergency, how to rescue someone else, how to clear your mask underwater, how to set up and take care of all the equipment, and basic diving skills. After I complete all the requirements, I will only be able to dive to 20 meters—approximately 65 feet.

P.S. This picture is not of me. It is just one of the photos of a pool session from the BSAC website.

Stake Leadership Meeting—Bahrain

Today I went with the Young Women’s president and other ward leaders to our Stake Leadership Training in Bahrain. Bahrain is a small island country just to the north of Qatar. (Some of you may know it as where Michael Jackson has made his new home.) It is a little less than an hour flight from Doha. (There were 8 of us—we flew there in the morning and back to Doha in the evening.) The picture above is of the ward building in Bahrain. It is unique in this region because it can put "LDS" on the gate.

About 90 people attended the training session. Some statistics about the Arabian Peninsula Stake (as of 4 May 2006): 1157 members (plus 50 military groups in Iraq and surrounding area that our stake is ecclesiastically responsible for), 7 countries (United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Iraq), and 8 buildings.

I had been feeling like we were failing in our Young Women’s program just because it didn’t feel as organized or successful as the ward I grew up in. However, I realized at this meeting that we were actually doing really well. I had to remember that the YW program (and the whole church) was really new in the area and still was figuring out how to function in the Middle East. I also discovered that we have the largest youth group in the stake (10 young women and about 20 young men) and that we were the only ward holding mutual every week. I also learned a lot about how the program should be run. I have a whole new respect for the amazing Young Women leaders I had growing up. To those of you reading this—THANK YOU! I had no idea what a sacrifice you made for us.

This is a picture I took of a beautiful mosque in Bahrain.