I just want to bite on their lips!!!

I am in love with my babies... all 18 of them. I remember when Amy first started having babies and people would often ask me if it made me sad that she was younger than me and that I did not have babies yet.... It was the dumbest question ever! I remember the amazing joy of holding each of her babies in my arms and knowing that they were mine, eternally. Families are forever... FAMILIES... FOREVER!!! These precious babies are my family, my nieces and nephews... MINE! MINE! MINE! The family unit is never ending.
(Thank you Auntie Karen Hill for years of cute matching clothes!)

(Thanks Auntie Sue Ward for years of wonderful toys, trinkets and treasures!!!)

As Bill and I have made the decision to move here, the BIGGEST part of our decision was cousins. We craved cousins for our children to play with, sisters to go walking with, Brothers for Billy to work with and enjoy. We miss our West coast family so much. California, Utah, Washington, Nevada... they all seem so far away!

This year, I got to serve Lani. My plan was to do Kids Are Music and incorporate having Houston be a part of it and help him feel confident and important. I thought it would be a fun idea to work with him to catch the true spirit of Kids Are Music. The service, the patriotism, the excitement in serving your community.



He is so wonderful, I can't seem to stop giving him everything he wants!
So I was going to focus on Houston in my service to Lani, but then I was given an opportunity to spend an entire week with her delicious baby girl. It was such a joy and a blessing to be able to snuggle her, hold her, care for her and sleep with her. My little sister Lani was called on to offer a week of service that no one else could possibly do, and there was no way that she could keep her Hadley Bear with her. I felt so blessed to be there and be able to step in to be a one week temporary mommy to our sweet Hadley Addison. Sometimes service doesn't even feel like service, it just feels like fun!

Yes, She is DELICIOUS!!

To Bill, Love Amy

When I found out that I had Bill I thought of what a Rock Star of a Dad he is. There are so many things I could have chosen.

One of my favorite Bill stories was when he and Char went to go see Cole for the first time. Here was a baby Boy that 13 (I think) adoptive parents came and saw what it would take to be a parent to this little boy and they turned around and left. What did Bill say when he saw this little Boy? He went to the nurse and asked for a diaper, “My son needs a diaper change.” The nurses cried because they knew someone would take good care of this little boy who need much attention.

As I thought of Bill and Cole for some reason my thoughts kept returning to “Make a Wish”. This is a program that grants wishes to terminally ill kids. When Bill brought Cole home, he could have qualified for this program. But now with the love, attention, and miracles that Bill and Char have given Cole, he no longer qualifies.

So Bill, in honor of the fact that because of you, Cole doesn’t need “Make a Wish” I chose to do something with them. They have a program called ribbon and bows. It is for people like us who want to help even if it is in a smaller way. It puts on some finishing touches to a childs wish.

I contacted the director of the NW Make a Wish and gave her a link to our web site. She loved it! I chose to put together some backpacks of things to help kids when they went on the airplane for their wish. I am a Mom that knows what is good to pack on a trip that requires airline travel. I got back packs full of fun things that make the trip better.

Here is what was in each pack:

• Backpack
• Disney Crayons
• Disney Card Game
• Disney Coloring Book
• Sunscreen
• Pirates Booty
• Cups of Noodles
• Chicken Salad in a Can with Crackers
• Granola Bars
• Corn Nuts
• Beef Jerky
• Hot Coco
• Hawaiian Punch Singles for Water Bottles
• Oatmeal
• Gum
• And my favorite to travel with, Flips

Here is the info I was given. We helped two “Make a Wish” kids, and each one had a sibling, so 4 in total.

3-year-old Jennifer is going to Disneyland with her mom and dad and 5 year old brother! She is so excited to be going on an adventure with her family. She is hoping to meet the Princesses (it has been arranged that she will have a Princess lunch, but that is a surprise). Jennifer has been battling rhabdomyosarcoma, a type of cancer. She has had chemo, radiation and surgery, and she is such a little fighter. No one is more deserving of a perfect get-away than little Jennifer. Thank you for helping make her trip perfect.

Isaac is going to Disney World in Florida! He will also visit Animal Adventure and Universal Studios. He is staying at Give Kids the World, a villa as remarkable for our wish kids as Disney World. All of the children who stay there must medically qualify with an illness and all of their facilities are accessible to everyone! There are unlimited train rides around the campus, an ice cream parlor open 24 hours a day, two restaurants and everything is complementary. Isaac has heard about Give Kids the World from his hospital friends and he can’t wait! Isaac loves animals – he is looking forward to visiting with the Disney animal characters. Isaac is 7 years old and has had congenital heart disease his whole life. Thank you for helping him have the trip of a lifetime!

Side Note: When I saw Aunt Lanae (our Startup Aunt) at David’s funeral I told her about what I was doing. She loved it and said it would have been so nice to have that. Carole Joy also stayed at “Give Kids the World” and she said it was amazing!

I will be getting photos back from both families that I will do a follow up posting after their trip.

I love and admire you greatly Bill! Love, Amy

PS…doesn’t that first photo look a bit like our Coley?

Merry Christmas Wayne

One of the things that Lani and I loved the most about living in Spokane was the opportunity we had to have regular visits from the Dittbrenners. My favorite visits took place while I was working as an intern with the Spokane Shock.

With the Shock one of my responsibilities was to help plan and organize all of the in-game entertainment that took place during breaks in the actual game. One of our most popular contests was the "Outback Pass, Punt, Kick Challenge". For this contest contestants have to throw a pass from the goal line through the uprights, then make a punt from the 10 yard line through the uprights, and then for the final phase they have to make a field goal from the 20 yard line. For those of you that don't know the uprights on an arena football field are half the width of regular uprights so making the field goal is very difficult.

One day my boss and I were having a meeting to discuss whether either of us knew someone who had experience kicking (we were hoping to find someone who could make the field goal because we wanted to make the event more exciting). I suggested that we use my brother-in-law, who had kicked in college at Dixie State.

I called Wayne and we figured out a way for him to fly up to Spokane so that he could show off is kicking skills. We had a lot of fun and Wayne put on a great show in front of over 10,000 fans including his wife and four kids. It was really fun to watch him go through the kicking routine. Check out this video to see him in action (sorry, after 3 tries and sucking up everyone's bandwidth trying to post- we will try again later- it is worth coming back for!).

After the game Wayne and I had a really good talk. We talked about my goals and discussed one of the goals I had made on my mission, which was to win a championship ring. As fate would have it, the Shock ended up advancing all the way to Arena Bowl XXIII (which is the Arena Football League's equivalent to the Super Bowl).

I called Wayne to invite him to the game. In talking with him, it was evident that he had a few things going on, but he dropped everything to come up to Spokane and support me.

The game was a lot of fun, and the Shock ended up winning the AFL Championship. I found out after the game that I would be one of the few interns that would receive a Championship Ring. I was so excited and Wayne was so excited for me.

After the game Lani, Wayne and I all went to the different after parties that the team was throwing to celebrate the win. It was awesome to have Wayne there to take part in an exciting time in my life. I think Wayne had a good time, but what really stood out was how proud he was of me for accomplishing one of my goals. I felt really special that Wayne had made the effort to come up and be there for it.

The time Lani and I had in Washington was awesome and we really loved living by Wayne, Amy, and the kids. During my time up there I really grew to love Wayne and developed a brotherly bond with him. Unfortunately, I had quite a struggle figuring out the best way to honor him this Christmas.

Initially, I decided that to honor Wayne I would volunteer to help with setting up at the Kids Are Music shows and ride on the Kids Are Music float in the Town of Cary Christmas Parade. I knew Wayne and Amy had done Kids Are Music for awhile and thought that helping with those things would be a good way to grow closer to Wayne. However, after doing the set up at a few shows and riding on the float, I concluded that those activities were really more fatherly responsibilities than a service to Wayne. After this realization I felt a bit distraught knowing that I still hadn't really done something that would be a cool service in honor of Wayne.


The next Saturday, a Christmas miracle occurred. When I received word from Mitzi that she had hurt her foot while hanging Christmas lights. I thought "this is perfect!!!" In honor of Wayne (who hurt his foot a few years ago while hanging Christmas decorations), I will do some service for Mitzi."

That night, with the help of Houston, I baked Mitzi some cookies and took them over to her. Unfortunately, the service for Mitzi idea never really got off the ground, because her foot healed much faster than I anticipated. I was more or less 0 for 2 in performing a cool service idea for Wayne. In reflecting on my time with him I came up with the perfect idea.

I decided to host the first ever "Wayne Dittbrenner Football Day Camp" in which I will teach my nephews (and any nieces who are interested) the basics of Wayne's favorite game. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with my plans and it rained everyday this week. However, I believe that will work out well because now we can schedule the camp for a day when Dillon can come out to North Carolina and participate. We will even provide a room for him at the Hock Football Training Facility here in lovely Cary, NC.

During this exciting one day camp participants will learn the fundamentals of throwing, route running, catching, and maybe even kicking (though Wayne is much more qualified to teach that skill than me). Campers will also be treated to lunch and game film (Wayne's highlight video of kicking for the Shock).

Merry Christmas Wayne. I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to bond while we were both living in Washington. Thanks for being a great older brother and friend.

Hock

PS. When are you coming out here to visit? We miss you.

The Glory of God is Intelligence

The recipient of my service this year is our beloved “Hock”. I am honored to have him, as he is a continual example to us of selfless service year round.

As we were on our mission and involved in service 24/7, I wanted to think of something that would be an extra stretch for me. As the last month became packed with things we needed to do, I decided that I wanted to make time to do my project. I decided to think of what Mike would do with his time. I have had the opportunity to teach a 9 year old sweetheart, Rein, how to read and do some math throughout the past year.

As we neared the end of our mission, I considered telling Rein that our lessons were finished, because I had so much to do. Then when I thought of Hock and the sacrifices that he made for his education, I decided to make teaching Rein a big priority during my last month. I decided to move it up a notch, and dedicate my efforts to Hock.

The Congolese French first reader book was very boring. We had worked on it for months and she had learned the sounds and basic words. However, I wanted to teach her to love reading books. I went to the only bookstore in town and found some cute little French/African storybooks about children.

 I bought them up and took them to read with Rein. We had a wonderful time reading the books together. We loved the book on “Bananas” and then the book on “A New Dress”. We would read them and study the darling paintings, and together we would laugh and squeal with delight. I left one or two books with her at a time, and then traded the next week.

On our last day in the Congo, I took the time to go for one more lesson. When I said goodbye to Rein, I gave her a cute pink blanket to use in her new room and a CTR ring. But I think her favorite gift was the book that she chose about a little girl who grew out of her dress, so she got to choose new fabric for a new dress, African style. Everyone tried to talk the little girl into choosing bright African prints, but she stuck to her favorite fabric and ended up with a darling white dress with red polka-dots.

Rein and I both learned from these lessons. She grew in knowledge and ability and self confidence.
I grew in appreciation of the education that we have been blessed to obtain in our lives.


Thanks, Michael Hock, for being such a great example to our children and grandchildren on the value of education.  You're the best!