Joie de Vivre

I finally figured out why it's so difficult to blog in the summer (besides the steady stream of adventures, trying to soak in every bit of sunshine, nature, friends, family, and fun)...  Have you noticed quiet time is scarce during the summer?  It's the blessing and curse of summer, but mostly I think I'd trade the lack of quiet for a few more weeks of adventures with my kiddos.  I miss the freedom of summer...and some days the house is too quiet.

"Joie de Vivre."


French for:  "Joy of living."


Wikipedia describes joie de vivre as: "A comprehensive joy...that involves one's whole being."


In a word:  Joie, the girl who wakes up every morning with excitement for whatever she has planned for the day, and often literally runs through the day in a whirlwind of excited ideas and adventures that leaves the rest of us exhausted.

In fact, she chose her name several years ago and I've always been amazed at how she knew exactly the name that would match her zest for life, a love of life not even tragedy could take away.

But we still worry when the joie de vivre goes out of this little girl, which it seems to do around this time every year.  Earlier this year I thought for a while we'd somehow dodged the yearly struggle, but a few days later her world once again seemed to be falling apart.

This year, as luck would have it, a very smart therapist (no, not me...there must be two of us out there) suggested doing something different on August 18th, so that day would start to have different, new memories for us.  I felt myself struggle for a minute with the idea of not having that day be about Ruth, Nick, and Audrey, but the light in Joie's face suggested this was not only a good idea, but a necessary one.  Her therapy homework was to make a list of things she would like to do on that day.  As she did, the joie de vivre started to return.

"Balancoire"


French for:  "The Swing."


According to dictionary.com, "A seat suspended from above...between ropes or rods by which one may sit and swing to and fro for recreation."


According to the Campbells:  "Two huge cables hanging from massive pine trees supported by a welded rebar frame and heavy-duty metal base.  The cables are long enough to drag the swing up a hill and release it flying downward out over the hill and back again."

As you can see by the look on Joie's face, it ranks right up there with an amusement park ride.

"Bonte"

French for:  "Kindness"

Paul said to the Hebrews:  "Let brotherly love continue.  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:  for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."  (Hebrews 13:  1-3)

On August 18, 2007, earthly angels attended Joie as she lay hurt and helpless at the side of a highway.  Their names were Jeareme and Jaci Hawkes, and we can't think of August 18, 2007 without thinking of them.  Because of their love and kindness on that day, Joie's suffering was cushioned with love.  Parents of two girls the ages of Joie and Audrey, Jeareme and Jaci knew how to comfort her.

The Hawkes family (minus Jeareme who was working), joined us in Juniper that evening for the adventures at the swing.  (The oldest girls, Madeline 10, wearing purple, and Clara 6, wearing green are pictured above with Joie.)

Jaci with her youngest daughter, Leah.

"Guerison"

French for:  "Healing"

Words can't describe the peace of hearing Joie's words to Madeline.  "Your dad cradled me in his arms until the ambulance came," she said to her new friend.

Joie also talked with Jaci about her memories of that day, and unafraid of the answers, she asked questions about what Jaci remembered about the accident.  

About Joie's attempts to understand the tragedy of her life, we've said "It's like trying to make sense of senseless."  After seeing her struggle off and on to understand what happened that day, it was good to see the pieces of the puzzle coming together in her mind, and good for all of us to let her need for healing lead us to a day of living.

Joie de vivre.  Love life.  Love family.  Love friends.

May you all find joy in living.

More Birthday Pictures!

I'm just getting around to adding these other pictures from Joie's birthday to our blog.  What a fun day!

Joie!

This happens to be the only picture I captured of Joie on her birthday...

Happy #11 sweetheart!

The day was actually a lot of fun...  

If you start the day with orange julius and chocolate cupcake batter you can't go wrong!

We then drove to Juniper to hang out with cousins for a party that night.  Of the three cameras we own, none of them made it to Juniper with us.  Thankfully Melissa captured some pictures on her camera which I'll post later.

Highlights of the day included:  

• Pretzel Cake (cupcakes arranged in the shape of a pretzel...created by Megan, Joie and cousins).
• Being drenched in a downpour (while riding in the back of a grain truck).
• Pizza dinner (with fruit salad which was delicious but optional).
• Lighting her own birthday candles (took a few extra verses of the Happy Birthday song and some help from Uncle Ben to get it done but she did it).
• A sleepover with cousins on the trampoline (including attempts to jump from a swing set onto a trampoline using a blanket as a parachute).

What a "totally wicked" birthday!

Our Adopted Family

I'm playing catch-up on summer blogging.  Summer always seems to be about living, with a few hours of sleep here and there packed between the adventures.  The bears have it right...sleeping all winter and living it up during the summer.  All that leaves little time for blogging, but I'm trying to catch up.  I haven't been able to find my camera for over a month now, so the pictures are courtesy of those who were able to capture some incredible moments.

More on those incredible moments later...

This post is dedicated to one of the most treasured experiences of our summer so far, a reunion with the Caldwell family.

... Jarman... Campbell...  You might have noticed there is no Caldwell in either of those names.  

Enter exhibit A:  Our family tree, a mix of tangled roots and branches extending out in every direction, across oceans, climates, cultures, and religions...and right on to Vernal, Utah where we connect with the Caldwell Family.  Here's how we explain the Caldwell branch of our tree:

The woman in the center is Freda Caldwell (a.k.a. Grandma Caldwell).  She is the mother of (left to right) Susan, Marcia, and Brenda.  Susan is the mother of Nick Weaver, who married my sister, Ruth and were the parents of Joie.  Joie became a part of our family in August of 2007 when her parents and baby sister died in a car accident.  We were warmly welcomed into the Caldwell family several weeks ago when we attended their reunion.

Our new extended family:

Grandma Caldwell with her grandchildren and their spouses.

Grandma Caldwell's great-grandchildren.

So let me tell you about the Caldwell Family.  Their idea of an adventure is taking the entire family rafting down a river with ginormous rapids, dumping half the family in the river and getting a  thrill out of pulling people back into rafts, fishing water bottles, shoes and oars out of the river, and continuing the journey in a partially deflated raft...  And that's just the beginning!

The next phase of the reunion included hunting for cell phone reception and finding our way back down the mountain without keys to vehicles because yes, those were also dumped in the river.  

Ok, ok...  So the real story is far less exciting than that.  We did end up in the river while going over class one rapids, but I've found it necessary to embellish the story because every time I tell someone what happened, they say, "There are rapids on that stretch of the river?"  To which I've learned to reply, "Yes, very small ones.  And apparently if you get the right combination of people in a raft who don't know what they're doing, it is possible to get a raft high-sided on that stretch of the river."  Enough said.  The blessing is that we're all ok and eventually ended up with keys to all the vehicles and all members of the Caldwell (and Jarman) families made it back down the mountain to enjoy the rest of the reunion.  Dear Caldwell Family:  If this was initiation, are we in?

 

The rapids are just ahead...I swear!

A few more reunion memories...

Joie had a cousin sleepover at Aunt Brenda's

(Joie, Lexi, and Whitney)

Family work project at Grandma Caldwell's

And lots of chatting...

Since Joie has been a part of our family, we've counted the love and support of friends and family among our greatest blessings.  Having worked in adoption for a long time, and having adoption touch our own family in a variety of ways, I have had the thought many times, "There is no limit to the number of people who can love a child."  Sometimes the world says otherwise.

The Caldwells say it wasn't a big deal to invite strangers to their reunion.  That's just the kind of people they are.  But to one family who helped a little girl gain access to her entire extended family through their gift of inviting strangers to their reunion we say, "Thank you!"

Happy Birthday Jeran!

Happy birthday kiddo!  Was it really 12 years ago today? 

Jeran doesn't like cake.  Instead he usually chooses to have cherry pie for his birthday...and today he wanted to light the candles without help.

But in the end with wax dripping all over his cake pie, and candles threatening to tip over, he allowed me to help.

Pie anyone?

My wake-up moment for the day was sitting in primary and watching Jeran walk out to priesthood meeting after receiving his Faith in God award.  Joie was home from church sick today, and I was there in primary for the first time in years without any of my children there with me.  I wanted to get up and go visit mutual!  

Earlier, when the primary children sang happy birthday to Jeran, a little 7 year old girl sitting in front of me said, "Cool.  He gets the priesthood on his birthday."  Following church, Tim, Grandpa Jarman, Bishop VanWagoner, and Bill Farley (his primary teacher) ordained Jeran to the office of deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.  We're proud of you Jeran and love you tons.