New Videos - Episode 12 Part 1 and Part 2.

I decided to break this episode into two episodes. We are taking a brief break from the Quint Olympics. This is partly because we haven't had time to make one but it is also partly because we are waiting for them all to walk. The only one that doesn't like to walk yet is Kaydence. As soon as she walks, then we want to have a walking race. The first video is the BYU Football video we made for the contest. Here it is:



The second video is a lot longer and is a basic overview of our family and what things are like on a daily basis here:

Cheap LASIK and one of the reasons why we were meant to have quintuplets

A few days ago, an old friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU told me she just got LASIK and it reminded me of when I got LASIK and that reminded me of how cheap I am which reminded me why we were perhaps a good choice for quintuplets. To help you understand what I mean, I think I will need to explain a little.

About 5 years ago, I started thinking I wanted LASIK. LASIK is an eye surgery that is supposed to fix your eyes such that you don't need to wear glasses or contacts. I wore glasses and didn’t really like contacts (even though I had only technically tried them for about a minute and 30 to 45 seconds). The only problem was that LASIK is pretty expensive. The lowest cost I could find at the time was about 1400 dollars per eye. Not only that, every time I would go to the eye doctor to get a LASIK evaluation, they would always tell me that my pupils were really big and that I would probably see halos around lights if I got the surgery.

Well, one day I found an ad in the paper that caught my attention. It advertised LASIK for 500 dollars an eye. The ad was actually on the back of the comic pages so that should have clued me in that something was wrong. Anyway, I decided that because of my cheap nature, I needed to check it out or I would always wonder if I could have got a better deal.

I made an appointment with the place that was doing it and when I got there they first told me that my pupils were really big and then told me that they didn’t actually do the surgery there but at their temporary facility in San Antonio. They also said that I needed to agree to the surgery and give them a 100 dollar deposit that day or I wouldn’t get the 500 dollar/eye deal. I decided to go ahead with it even though I was bit nervous.

Well, the day of the surgery arrived and I was pretty nervous. I had actually expected them to call or something to confirm but they didn’t so I went anyway. When I got to the address, I realized what they had meant by the “temporary” facility. It was actually a big semi trailer. After seeing the semi, I just about had a panic attack. We sat there for a few minutes and I debated whether I should go through with it. On one side, I would save about 2000 dollars. On the other side, I could loose my vision. It was an easy choice. I decided to go ahead with it and save the 2000 dollars.

When I went in the little waiting room, I was greeted by about 6 other nervous looking patients sitting in line waiting for their turn. I went to the receptionist person and told them who I was and they didn’t have any record of me coming but said they thought they could fit me in. Well, I waited about an hour until it was my turn and they took me into the prep room. In the prep room, they had a look at my eyes and told me I had really big pupils. They then took me into the actual surgery room which was at the back of the semi. There they had a big LASER crammed in and I lay down in the chair. At this point I was extremely nervous by trying to pretend to be calm. They sort of clamped my eye down and told me to look at the red light. I looked at that red light as hard as I could because I kept thinking that if I didn’t, I might be blind in a few minutes.

Well, the surgery ended and I could still see. They gave me a bunch of stuff to put in my eye and some goggles to wear when I slept and told me that I needed to be really careful. Over the next few weeks, I followed the instructions as exactly as I could and things turned out pretty well. About six months after the surgery, Rachelle reminded me that I had a free checkup through the original eye doctor that I should go take advantage of. I made an appointment and when I got there and sat down with the doctor he said, “So, did you just get this yesterday?”

I said, “No, it was actually about six months ago.”

At that point, I saw the color drain from the optometrist’s face. Apparently, I was supposed to go in the day after the surgery and have them look at me. They actually were supposed to call me right after the surgery and make sure I came in. They forgot I guess. When the doctor was checking me out, I could tell he was really nervous. However, when he got done, I saw him relax and tell me that everything looked good.

The moral of the story is that I saved 2000 dollars. The same personality trait that helped me save the 2000 dollars has helped me save money at other times. I have a feeling that same personality trait will also help save money in the future as we deal with the various difficulties of raising quintuplets. I just hope I don't have to risk anything else on my body to do it.

Why do it?

Well, here I am again. I don’t have a video just yet but I have two in the works. A lot of things have happened to the babies and I have been dutifully videotaping these things. I just haven’t found enough time to go and actually make real videos out of everything but I plan to soon. I have decided to blog a little bit more and see if I can get in one video a month. I think that ought to be just about right.

Today, I was in the airport on my way back from a conference in Las Vegas and I went to a store in the airport to get a smoothie. I really like smoothies and have a really good recipe that Rachelle and I came up with but that is another story. In this smoothie store was a sign that read:

If it isn’t fun, why do it?

As I read that sign, I decided that it may have been one of the most profoundly stupid things I had ever heard. As I was waiting for my smoothie to blend, I sat there and pondered all of the things that were not fun but were definitely “worth it”. Some of the ones I thought of were:

• Exercising regularly (at least I assume this is worth it since I don’t really do it)
• Getting a root canal when you need one. (Again, I have to assume on this one)
• Have ANY kind of surgery when you really need it. (I have been a witness to this one so I at least know it is accurate)
• Repairing your car (Have had to do this many times and it is painful but better than walking)
• Learning to do math (Riley is currently going through this one and I keep trying to tell him it will one day be worth it.)

And one of most important not-fun-but-worth-it things is raising kids. I had been at the conference for about four days and I was really missing Rachelle and the kids. It is times like that when you can look and see that it really is worth it. Most of the time, a mom or a dad like Rachelle or me is just trying to get by from day to day and keep from going insane. However, when you can step back and see how wonderful your kids are and how wonderful it is to have kids, you realize that it is all worth it.

A little later I started thinking that maybe the sign in the smoothie shop was actually meant to make me think of all the things that ARE worth it even though they are not fun. If so, it was effective because I started thinking about how I really appreciate many of the difficult things I have gone through because of what I have learned from them. I think I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that their true intention was to make me a better person and not to suggest that I simply should be buying more sugar-filled smoothies (because they are fun) instead of eating healthy and bad tasting food (because it is not fun).

Now, I did say that I am planning on having a video, and I really will just as soon as I can find time to stop having so much fun with my cute but runny-nosed babies.

Quints Visit to the State Capitol on Texas Independance Day

OK, it has been a really long time since I have posted anything but I am going to start doing more now that I have a whole lot more time due to the fact that they are sleeping through the night. I want to start with episode number 7 which is where we take the kids (all 7 of them) and Rachelle's aunt Kathy to the Texas state capitol on Texas independence day. I actually only knew that it was Texas independance day because Riley told me. He is studying Texas in school right now. We now know where all of the big Texas pride comes from. It turns out that it is instilled in them during elementary school. He has come home twice in the last few days and said, "Dad, do you know what is so cool about Texas? It has a cool shape. Some states are just squares but Texas has a cool shape." Anyway, he has been telling us Texas facts for the last week so we thought it was appropriate for us to go to the capitol. Rachelle's aunt Kathy was visiting from Arizona and we also thought it would be a fun place to take her as well.

The babies all did really well and seemed to enjoy it...right up until we got them all back in the van for the 40 minute ride home. It was getting close to bed time and we really didn't want them to go to sleep because we didn't want to mess up their sleeping schedule. Fortunately, we didn't have to worry about that because most of them just screamed the whole way home. It was still worth it because it was nice to get out and do something with them. We had to take the two strollers (the three baby stroller and the two baby stroller) because we haven't received the mount for the big stroller. When we do get it, we should have lots of fun going places and being gawked at.

Anyway, here is the video:

6 Months Old Today!

Today, the babies are six months old. KVUE, the local ABC station, came over and shot some video that was pretty good. KEYE, the local CBS station, also came over and videotaped something a few weeks ago and that is supposed to air a week from today. The KVUE one is below. Check it out because those babies are pretty cute:

http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/013108kvuequintsupdate-cb.7926d68a.html

Wilkinson Quints Show Episode 6

OK, so I made another video. I actually took a lot of the video I had made over the last few months and made a longer video. It includes video from our stroller ride with Aunt Linda, our trip to Rudy's, Riley's award ceremony for the Reflections contest, and our visit to the National Instruments company meeting. I also came up with a new beginning to the show. The beginning ends with "WQ+2" which I made in an effort to include Riley and Kaiya in the title.

I think the next video I am going to make will be about the sleep training stuff.

Thanksgiving and a lot of cool stuff happening

OK, I haven't posted for a long time because I have been really busy. Too busy, in fact to make a video. However, I have a lot of cool raw video that I will be putting up here soon once I get the time to make it into something that isn't boring. Anyway, some of the cool things that have occupied my time in the last few weeks are - a big company meeting that featured my babies (that I have video of), a talk I had to give in church on gratitude, and Thanksgiving.

First thing I want to say is how grateful I am for all of the night shift people we have had over the past few months. Rachelle and I took our first turns at the night shift last week for a few nights and we quickly realized that had we been doing that every night for the last 3 months, we would be totally crazy. It isn't as bad as it used to be because the babies are starting to have a better schedule but it was still bad enough that it would wear us out really fast if we had to do it every day.

The next thing I want to talk about it football. We were watching the UT vs. Texas A&M game last Friday and as I was watching it, I was really surprised to look up and see one of my babies on the TV during the commercial break. After a moment, I realized that it was a commercial for an upcoming special report about our babies on KVUE (ABC) on Monday Nov 26th at 6:00 PM. One of Rachelle's cousins who was visiting us was shocked about how that kind of stuff didn't totally freak us out. I guess it was a little weird but kind of cool at the same time.

Also, speaking of football, I have to mention here that BYU beat the University of Utah (their big rival) this year in a very dramatic finish. I didn't actually see the game but I watched the score update on ESPN.com. I chose not to watch or listen to it live because I have learned that doing so really upsets me. The University of Utah is our nemesis and it always bugs me when they beat us (which has happened a lot in the past 6 or so years). Anyway, BYU won and I think it might be partly because of the clothes we put on the babies.


Another really cool thing that happened this week was that we went to Rudy's. For those of you not from these parts, Rudy's is a really good barbecue place here in Austin (and a few other places) where we like to go. Rachelle's brother Ryan was visiting so we decided to take him there. However, because we didn't have any volunteers for that time, we decided to take the babies with us for their first big outing.

It was a little crazy going there but we made it OK. When we walked in, a few people stared but we assumed they probably thought we just had a few families together with a bunch of babies. Anyway, we put them all in the back of the restaurant and had Rachelle's mom go and order the food. As she was ordering, she realized that she probably wouldn't have enough cash to pay for it so she asked Ryan to go get some from me. While he was going, the manager of the store asked her if she was with us. When she said "yes", he said that our meal would be on the house and kept insisting that we order a little bit more. He was really nice and it turned out that he has twins and understood what was going on with us. A little later, he asked to take a picture of the babies with a bunch of Rudy's Barbecue sauce bottles for their wall of fame. We said, "Sure", so they brought out their camera and took some pictures then gave us all of the bottles of sauce. It was very nice. Here is a picture of the event:

Other than that, we had the baby blessings for our babies today. Rachelle will talk about that so I will just mention it briefly here. In our church, we give baby blessings to newborns to kind of get them started off right. The blessings are given in our "sacrament meeting" which is the big meeting we have with everybody. The person that performed the ordinance was me and doing five was a bit of a challenge. We had a bunch of people come which was really great but I am sure that Rachelle will talk about it.

Something I wanted to also share were some TV news stories that happened over the last few weeks:

Here is one from News 8 Austin that they were showing on Thanksgiving day (the link to the video is down near the middle of the story):
Link to news 8 story


Here is also one from KEYE that they showed last week (the video is on the right of the story)
KEYE story

The spelling of the names

I think there were a few of you out there (like Jeanette Nielson in Thailand) who can't view the video (which is a shame since my kids are so cute) so I thought I ought to write them out. I also want to do this in case one of my kids was less articulate than he or she should have been. Here are the names spelled out:

Rustin
Ryder
Kyndall
Kaydence
Kassidy

There is a very real danger that I have spelled them wrong so I will have Rachelle check this to make sure they are all correct. Also, keep in mind that something strange could happen and we could completely change our minds.

Something someone pointed out to Rachelle yesterday, that I thought was funny, is that July 31 is Harry Potter's birthday. OK, so Harry Potter is a fictional person that some think is evil but I still thought it was funny thing especially considering the last book just came out a week ago. We still won't be changing their names to match Harry Potter names though. Personally, I think that would be kind of funny but it probably isn't a very nice thing to do to your kids and Rachelle would never go for it so we will probably stick with the names listed above.

Rachelle's Story Featured on our Local News!

Update: I heard just today that my dad also worked it out so that his side of the family will be helping with the washer and dryer as well. I am actually really glad that we have the opportunity to do something that will bring the families together.

Last night, KVUE, a local ABC affiliate showed a story about Rachelle that was really nice. They used some of the video I put on yesterday's post as well as a bunch of other stuff. It was really good and you can check it out at by clicking on this link:

KVUE news story

It was a really busy day for Rachelle yesterday actually. Originally, a news crew from one of the Phoenix stations (Channel 3) was going to come and get some video of her here for a local Phoenix news cast. Unfortunately, right before they were going to come, they had a really tragic helicopter accident where their helicopter ran into another news station's helicopter and killed both the crews from each. After that, they called Rachelle and told her they probably wouldn't be able to do the story yesterday.

Something else that I wanted to mention was that more and more people are stepping up to help us out. My uncle Ken is a graduate of West Point (Class of 66) and sent an email to all his graduating class about us and many of them responded very generously. Also, my mom's side of the family (The Nelsons) got together and decided to buy us a really nice washer and dryer! When I say really nice, I mean super nice. That is really so generous of them that I feel kind of bad but people keep telling me that I need to stop feeling bad about that kind of stuff so I am working on it.

Anyway, I visited with Rachelle a lot last night and we went to take a tour of the NICU. It was amazing how little those babies are in there. While visiting the NICU and seeing those babies, the reality of what is about to happen set in (it does that every once in a while) and I felt just a little overwhelmed. However, that passed fairly quickly and I got back to just thinking about what is going on today instead. I realize, however, that in just 72 hours from now, I will have 5 babies and a tired, but recovering, wife. I guess I had better read that Harry Potter book soon.

Back in Arizona

I arrived back in Arizona today and visited with Rachelle. She really looked great. She is a bit uncomfortable...OK, I understated that, she is a lot uncomfortable but she will make it. There is just 13 more days until the scheduled C-section. Normally 13 days doesn't seem like very much but now it seems like a lot. In at most 13 days, all of this buildup with come to a head and we will have some interesting new challenges to think about. It is a little surreal I guess.

Something I forgot to mention yesterday was that I was really grateful for the haircut I got from Cassaundra and the help that our friend Natalie gave us in helping get our broken cupboards fixed. Without the help of all these people I would probably have some sort of breakdown. Having all these wonderful friends has made this whole experience bearable.

In coming back to Arizona, I also got to see my kids again. When I talked with them last, they asked me to bring one thing, their toy light sabers. I am not sure why these were so important (although anyone that knows me well is probably not surprised that toy light sabers were a thing of great value) but I was diligent and, wanting to be a good dad, found them and put them on my desk so that I wouldn't forget to bring them...which is where they are at right now. Of course, the first thing that Riley asked when I saw him was, "Hi Dad! Do you have our light sabers?" That was one of those moments that is kind of like those dreams where you suddenly realize that you signed up for a math class and forgot about it until the day of the final. I felt really bad because I failed in the only thing that he asked me to do and he gave me that look of extreme disappointment that I knew was my fault. So, I decided that it would be OK to go to Target tonight and get some new light sabers. They are only 7 dollars so I figured it was OK. I got lots of hugs for this and now I just have to keep Riley and Kaiya from hitting each other and any of the stuff in Aunt Jeanie's house.

On a non-related note, we went swimming again today and both of them did something new. Riley learned how to float on his back which was a major accomplishment and Kaiya jumped off the diving board. It was funny because at first, she didn't even want to jump into the 3 foot section. However, after I convinced her that I would be there to catch her, she was able to do that and we progressively got deeper and deeper until she said she wanted to go jump off the diving board. Then after a few times of fearfully jumping off the diving board, she suddenly yelled, "cannonball!" and actually jumped up and tried to grab her knees. It wasn't a great cannonball by some standards but it was one of the funniest things I had seen in weeks. She and Riley are just so funny sometimes. It is stuff like that that makes me realize that having kids is one of the best things you can do to get the kind of perspective that brings long term happiness. Seeing them accomplish even something as small as floating on their backs or doing mediocre cannonballs off the diving board provides such a feeling of satisfaction and makes all the difficulties of raising kids worth it.

Guest Bloggers Victoria and Linda

OK, I am going to turn the blog over to Victoria and Linda. I figure it is the least I can do considering all that they have done for us. However, before I do that, I have to let you know that Rachelle is doing fine and she is still not too excited about waiting until 34 weeks. Anyway, here are Victoria and Linda.

Aunt Victory here, Linda and I have had an extraordinary 5 days here in Austin, TX. We don't know what Austin looks like be we now know every nook and cranny of Jayson and Rachelle's house. Jayson has been incredible, letting two mature bossy know it all Aunts take over his house, possessions, and life for the past week. He's worked all day and come home to a TO DO LIST every night. Not once has he complained although late on Saturday night he was ready for bed and wearily said to us, " how can you keep working". We all laughed and then he went to bed and we continued to stencil stars in Riley's room.

We've met many of Jayson and Rachelle's friends this week and they have been so helpful and supportive. Our thanks to David for loaning us a van so that we could make Home Depot and IKEA runs, to Natalie and Randy for good advice, the best meal in Texas and a helping hand at hanging cupboards, to Liz and Bruce who also stepped in with last minute needed items and cupboard hanging.

On Thursday Linda hung a plaque in the kitchen, it is the word FAITH. That word sums up our visit at least for me. Jayson and Rachelle are an example to us of FAITH in action. As they have accepted this exciting and overwhelming responsibility they have moved forward with great Faith. We are grateful to Rachelle that she had Faith in Linda and I to let us help make here house a home. We know it was hard for her to be so far away as we attempted to make here beautiful new house into HER home. We have Faith that they will be truly wonderful parents to a much larger family. As we've met their friends and listened to their many enthusiastic plans for helping Jayson and Rachelle we have witnessed the Faith and Love they have for the Wilkinson family. It gives us great comfort to know there are so many here willing and wanting to help. We also have Faith in all of you out there who have followed this wonderful event. We hope you check out the Now to Help page of the Blog.

Before I go to bed tonight I would like to say that my sister Linda is truly tireless and creative and I've had a hard time keeping up with her. We both feel so privileged to have had this opportunity to help and also to spend time with Jayson. It was a joy to serve this family that we love dearly. Rachelle you are totally awesome and amazing.

My July 4th trip to Arizona

On the 3rd and 4th of July I drove to Arizona. It was a long drive but it seemed much shorter without the kids. I arrived and got to go swimming with Rachelle and the kids. She was doing well but seemed to be much more uncomfortable than she was when I was here a month ago. She kept tossing and turning in bed all night. Anyway, we had a good fourth and fifth of July. I was glad that she wasn't in the hospital when I got there because we were sure that she would be by this time.

Anyway, on July 6th, she "failed" her contraction monitoring two times. She normally monitors for 1 hour two times a day and they count the contractions during that one hour. If she has more than 5, that is too many and she has to re-monitor. If she has more than 5 again then she usually has to either go to the hospital or do something else out of the ordinary. Well, on the morning of July 6th, she had 8 on her first monitoring session and 6 on her second. The doctor was not available to make a call on the contractions so they told us to go to the hospital. I took her in and we were pretty sure that she was in for good this time. When we arrived, they gave us the bad news that she was going to have to go on the magnesium again to slow the contractions. This is the medication she had before that made her feel really awful. I guess it feels like a really bad flu except that you also have double vision (if that gives you any indication of what it is like). It probably wouldn't be so bad except that she has a whole bunch of weight sitting right there on her front side that makes it difficult to adjust sleeping positions.

Well, they put her on it and kept her in the hospital. As of Saturday night, July 7, the contractions appeared to have slowed a little bit but not as much as they hoped. They are hoping that they slow more over the next few days. They gave her some steroids to help the babies develop their lungs better but the steroids caused the contractions to get worse. She receives her last dose of the steroids tonight (July 7th) and after that wears off, the contractions should come down. I still think she can make it to July 31 which would be 34 weeks.

She could technically have the babies now and they would probably be OK but it would be much better if they could hold off until at least about a week and a half from now. One of the problems is that the NICU at Good Sam Hospital is totally full. You might have heard about the recent sextuplets that were born in Phoenix. Well, those babies are doing well but are still in the NICU here. Apparently, if our babies were born in the next week, they might have to be sent to another hospital which would be scary for us. However, I am pretty sure that won't happen. I think that Rachelle will be able to hold them off until the end of the month.

In reality, Rachelle is really lucky to have come this far without having to go to the hospital. The doctor told her that he hadn't seen any other mom be able to stay at home as long as she did. Many of the moms had to stay in the hospital, on the magnesium, for much longer than Rachelle will have to stay. Our good friend, Lindi Briggs, had quadruplets and had to stay in the hospital on the magnesium for more than 2 months. Neither of us can imagine what that must have been like. Rachelle thinks that she can endure it for as long as it takes to bring these babies here healthy.

Aside from that, the other kids are doing pretty well. Rachelle's aunt Jeanie has a pool in her back yard (like many people in Arizona) and Rachelle was using the pool daily because it actually felt really nice to get in the pool and be away from gravity for a little while. I found that during the time I was here, it didn't actually cool me off very much because the temperature here has been above 110 every day I have been here. When it is that hot, the water in the pool feels more like a warm bath. Despite that, however, Riley and Kaiya have really been enjoying their own private pool. Riley could barely swim when we first got here but now he can swim all the way across the pool as well as dive to the bottom of the deep end. Also, before the last couple of days, Kaiya couldn't even stick her head under the water but today (July 7th), she not only stuck her head under the water but actually swam about 6 feet! I was really excited but sad that Rachelle couldn't be there to see it. I am also sad that tomorrow I am heading back to Austin so I won't have a chance to teach Kaiya any more swimming.

We visited Rachelle today and she was in pretty good spirits but a little out of it. I think things will stabilize in the next few days and she will feel better. We continue to appreciate all of the many prayers people have been giving for her and us. We also continue to appreciate all of the other things we have received. I think we will have more than enough preemie clothes now. Also, because of a new found friend, there is a good chance that one of the local car dealerships might give us a van which would be really exciting. I don't know if it is actually going to happen but it sure would be nice. I doubt it will look like the A-team van but, really, who wants a black van in Austin anyway?

My second trip to Europe

Well, last week I was in Europe again. While I was there Rachelle had to briefly go to the hospital just like last time. Fortunately, this time was much more brief and she was out in just a few hours. Unlike my last trip to Europe, I actually got to see something interesting. I went to Aachen Germany and Ge,neva, Switzerland and in th first part of the trip I went one night to the church in Aachen where Charlemagne was crowned. It was built in circa 800 and was pretty interesting.

In Aachen, I was there to make a video about an application from a company called FAG. Apparently, in German, the acronym FAG doesn't have the same meaning when you say it as a word. Well, they were very nice there and I didn't have any of the strange light problems because I had done my homework and had prepared myself with European voltage compatible lights. The big problems didn't start until we went on our next leg...

After Aachen, we then drove to Frankfurt and flew from Frankfurt to Geneva, Switzerland. When we arrived in Geneva Switzerland, we got off the plane but my luggage never did. I had three checked bags and, fortunately, I had one of the others traveling with me check one of my bags (the one with the camera and camera gear). The bags I checked never arrived. To make it worse, I had accidentally left the little luggage receipts at a security desk in Frankfurt. These pieces of luggage had all of my clothes, toiletries, and all of my lighting stuff. So, again, despite all of my careful preparation, we still had issues. Fortunately, one of the others traveling with us, Darcy Dement, had a lot more European experience and a cooler head than I did and called someone we knew from Geneva and was able to find a company that, for some strange but wonderful reason, had 24 hour service for renting their lighting equipment. The video shoot in Switzerland was at CERN, home of the worlds largest super collider and was much more significant than our video shoot in Aachen so I was so glad that we were able to find something that worked. I think we were really lucky to find a lighting company at all and one that offered 24 hour service (with a really nice guy named Oliver) was truly a miracle.

Unfortunately, although we were able to solve the problem with the lights, we were not able to solve the problem with my clothes. I only had that one change of clothes so I washed them in the sink (with shampoo) and dried them with the hair dryer in the wall. This actually worked surprisingly well but just took a long time.

Something that ended up making me feel a little better was that when we got to the hotel, I looked at the building right next to ours and noticed that it was a church with a familiar looking steeple. I walked over to it and, sure enough, it said (in French), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. On my last night there I went over to it and tried to get in just to find some comfort in a familiar setting but it was locked. Then someone from inside saw me and came over to open the door. He turned out to be the bishop of the local English speaking congregation and we chatted for about a half hour which was fun and comforting after the stress of the previous few days. I told him about my babies and he, like most people, was a bit shocked. Anyway, it was nice to just sit and talk with someone for a while and made me feel much better. I think it is amazing the way that God works to help us in our times of need. I decided that as long as Rachelle was OK, then the stuff I was dealing with just didn't matter that much. Now that I am back home, wearing clean clothes, and getting word that my luggage is, apparently, making it's way back from Europe, I can see a little clearer that it is all unimportant relative to how well Rachelle is doing. She continues to exceed the doctor's expectations and it is just amazing to me. For me, the events of the last few months, weeks, and days are clear evidence that there is a God and he cares about us even enough to help me find a little comfort in a church in Switzerland over something as minor as lost luggage.

Last week, our friend Natalie Woods went to visit Rachelle and took some pictures. Below is one of the pictures. I noticed that her face is actually starting to get much thinner but her belly is getting much bigger. I assume this is normal but at first it made me nervous because I wasn't sure if she was getting enough to eat. Rachelle was visited by a ton of people this last week. My Sister Alicia and her husband Mike were there to bring Riley and Kaiya back to Arizona. My uncle Larry and aunt Gloria along with their son Danny and his wife also visited. People ask me if she is just going crazy with boredom and I have to say that I don't think she has enough time to go crazy with all of the people there to hang out with her. It is just amazing to me that we have been so blessed with all of the things we have had and seen. We have received so much from many people who seem excited to get the chance to help us out. Without all of the help we have received from so many people, I don't know how we would have made it. There is still a long way to go but I think, based on past experience, things will work out fine.

Closing on a house and sending the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa's house

The last week or so have seen a lot of interesting things. I visited Rachelle for Memorial Day weekend with Riley and it was a lot of fun. She is doing well and things seem to be progressing as good as we could hope.

Closing on our new house
Right after I got back, I had to get everything ready to close on our house. That turned out alright I suppose. At the final closing, my realtor, Barbara Oldham (a really good realtor if you need one) asked me if I was nervous. I honestly replied that I had a lot more to be nervous about that a simple house closing.
Doing the whole power of attorney thing was really tedious. It meant that every time I had to sign Rachelle's name I would have to sign, "by Jayson V Wilkinson attorney in fact". It took forever but I eventually made it through and got the keys to our new house which turned out nice.

Getting the kids to Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson
Two days after closing on the house, I drove the kids to Amarillo which is approximately half-way between Denver (where my parents live) and Austin. I found that it is much more difficult to drive without a copilot who can both navigate and meet the needs of the kids. They were mostly good but had a few issues along the way and I only missed two turns which I felt was pretty good considering everything.

It is nice to not have the kids around because I can get a lot more done but at the same time, I already miss them. I really have great kids. Kaiya was starting to be a bit of a stinker (I think it was mostly from not having a lot of stability over the last few months) but I am sure she will be better when things settle down.

Article in Meridian
Last week we also got an article published in an online LDS magazine called Meridian. It was recounting the whole story but a lot of people saw it and sent some really nice emails to us. Here is the link to it:

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/journey/070601quint.html

Moving
I am now getting ready to move on Saturday June 9. I was going to try to visit Rachelle this weekend but realized that since she left on April 10th, I have only had two Saturdays that I was here in Austin. We decided that I would stay here and move and visit her again on the fourth of July weekend. I am hoping to recruit a bunch of friends from church and any from work that are interested to come and help me move.

It seems pretty amazing that in just about 8 weeks or less, these kids will be here. We still don't have any agreement on names but we haven't discussed it as much as we need to (which is my fault). There just seems to be so much going on that I haven't really had a chance to sit down and ponder names. A lot of people have a lot of opinions on this which makes it challenging. In the end, I am sure that we will probably ignore most of the opinions and just go with what feels right.