Dancing Queen

Lisa left this week, so I feel it best to next introduce my younger sister, Grace. Grace is 7 years old and has more spunk and sass then any girl you will ever meet! She and Lisa are incredibly close. Remember how I said Lisa is dancer? And an amazing one at that? Grace wants to follow in her footsteps and be a dancer also. Grace knows what she wants and goes for it. She is in first grade and easily the smartest in her class, and I’m not just saying that. Her teacher told my parents that they aren’t able to test her any higher while being in the 1st grade. 

On the night Lisa left, Grace had a big showcase for her competition dance team. Because Lisa is the other dancer at home, she would always be the one to get Grace ready. So clearly, Grace is used to perfection. We had Lisa do Grace’s makeup before going to the MTC (super silly, I know) but if she hadn’t Grace would have looked really strange that night. Lisa explained how we put the fake eyelashes on, how to do her hair, and which costumes she needed for that evening. Thank you Lisa! When 5:30 rolled around and were getting Grace ready, we noticed that the makeup on one of her eyes got completely wiped off. My mom panicked because, to be honest, we didn’t pay that much attention when Lisa showed us how to do it. Trying to copy from the other eye, then adding the lashes, Grace went and looked in the mirror. Horrified, she said “Can’t you two do anything right the first time?!” We laughed and fixed our mistakes. 

Grace is wonderful, talented, beautiful and driven. She will go very far in life!

 

xoxo

Stacey 

Called To Serve

Have you ever tried to pack for 18 months in two suitcases that could only weigh 50 pounds each?

When my sister Lisa got her LDS mission call to St. Petersburg Russia, we thought of how much fun it was going to be to go shopping. Little did we know that it was going to be extremely difficult to find modest and durable outfits that would last 18 months. We spent hours and hours, (really, I mean hours!) looking in every store for skirts, dresses, shirts, and shoes that would do well in Russia. It was harder than we thought. Since it was toward the end of winter here in Utah, it was easy to find sweaters. So we could check that off our list. There is so much that goes into buying for a missionary that I don’t think we fully understood the amount of time it was going to take.

Just buying the shoes was a whole adventure in and of itself! The recommendation for buying the shoes was something comfortable that you could walk up to five miles a day, run and catch the train, and walking around on cobble stone streets. Keep in mind that Lisa is a “high heel”, I’m-willing-to-get-blisters-for-these-shoes type of girl. She did think it was kind of the Mission President to allow for the shoes to have, at most, a one inch heel.

One day while shopping at Sister Missionary Mall, the helpful ladies inside suggested a place in Provo called Modern Shoe. Lisa has short wide feet. She also needs extra high arch supports. Needless to say, I never buy her shoes without her being there, because I always end up having to return them. Having this “high” demand for her footwear, we decided to go check this place out. Now, I've driven up and down Center Street in Provo, Utah a million times, and I have never seen this place before! WOW! It is THE most amazing place for shoes we have ever seen! It isn't your high fashion, trendy shoes. They are your durable, last a million miles, type of shoes with everything Lisa was looking for! The recommendation was to get 2-3 pairs of GOOD shoes. So we thought, “Oh, if you need 2-3, then 8-9 pairs of shoes should be just fine!” I don’t think between my mom, Lisa, and I we had ever bought that many pairs of shoes all at once. It was an adventure!

Lisa is going to be the most amazing missionary Russia has ever had!! She knows how to work and get the job done the first time around!!

Yesterday, while dropping her off at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo Utah, we were told that we could only take one car into the MTC complex to drop her off. You can see where our problem lies because we can’t all fit into our 15 passenger van. So we pulled into a parking lot across the street, and the people from the two other cars that came down with us piled into the van!!!

Remember at the circus, the little car with 20 clowns inside, and they start pouring out? You think to yourself, “How in the world did everyone fit in that tiny car?” Well, that was my family yesterday. We were all there to support Lisa as she embarks on this new amazing journey she is starting.

 Lisa you are amazing! Keep up the good work!! We love you!!!!

xoxo

Stacey

The Adventure Begins.

To understand this picture you need to understand where this all started. I was in the 3rd grade when my parents announced they were expecting another baby. This would be baby number 11! It was amazing, the thought of having another sweet spirit from heaven join our family.

Sarah Jane was her name. She entered the world during my sister Lisa's 6th birthday party. What a whirlwind of the day that was! Sarah was born with Trisomy 18, an almost-always fatal condition that affects most vital organs. She lived for only 24 days before going back to live with our Heavenly Father. Sweet Sarah Jane would be 13 years old if she was still with us. 

Some years went by before my parents started speaking of adoption. Now, I was in seventh grade. I came home on Halloween to find my father and mother sitting at the computer writing a letter. At the time I didn't know that what they were doing was going to change our lives forever… for the better.

The following February Joseph William Evans was born and adopted into our family. A year and a half later Grace Kimberly Evans was born and joined our family. The next February Emmalee Iris Evans was born. The following November Isaac Matthew Evans was born. Jacob Daniel Evans was born a year and a half later in April.

From anyone’s point of view there were a lot of kids in my family. I was almost embarrassed to tell people because they would be so shocked and start asking the craziest questions about the family. 

I started to pray that I would except the life I had been given. It did not take a lot to fall completely in love with my own family. I started to understand Heavenly Father’s plan for my family, and why we were dealt the cards we had been dealt. Coming to grips with all of the craziness and the large size of my family was difficult at first, but the truth is, I wouldn't want to change anything about my life.

A year and a half ago my family was given the chance to adopt again. One night after dropping my brother off at late-night baseball, my mom and I where headed home. My mom made a comment that caught me so off guard that I burst into tears. I didn’t see that coming at all. At the time I thought that the family was complete. But who am I to say what is complete and what isn’t. I have come to realize that God’s plan is always better. 

I couldn’t be happier with the choice of my parents to adopt those six little babies into our family. I love each and everyone of them. 

I am excited to share stories about my family and how it works being 1 of 17 and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Please, if you have questions or comments, feel free to share! 

xoxo

Stacey 

Mom, Dad and everyone in between.

Hi,

My name is Stacey Evans. I have 16 siblings and a mom & dad. We are living a normal life, just everything we do is super sized. So often I am asked about our life and how in the world we manage to do everything we do. Let me be the first to say that it is not easy, but it is worth it. With this blog I want to share our story. It is easy to look from the outside and say that we are crazy for the life we have. But for those who have been inside our life, you will see that it is a beautiful life we live and we love each other very much. There isn't anything that we wouldn't do for each other and there is no distance we wouldn't travel for one another.