Rafts, Helicopters and Ambulances

We had a really big Scare on Saturday August 16th. We were white water rafting down the Highwood River near Longview with some of Gordon's highschool friends and their wives (& wives-to-be). It was not the greatest season to be rafting as the river was so low. It was a lot of work rafting in a shallow river. But there were some deep parts that were really nice to swim and cool off in. We would stop and enjoy jumping in for a while. Of course the guys were a lot more adventurous than the girls and they would look for "funner" ways to jump in. On one of these stops we were all cooling off and Gordon asked me if I was going to jump in. I said " no way!" and so he asked if he could trade helmets with me as his was faulty and kept coming off. So I did. We were all wearing life jackets too. So Gordon and his friend Stephen Kotkas decided to climb up a cliff on the opposite side of the river and jump off of that. It wouldn't have been bad had they made it to the top! Half way up the cliff the Rocks under Gordon's feet gave out and so did Gordon. As he went flying through the air I screamed out his name, and then watched in horror as he fell on the jagged rocks about 15-20 feet bellow him. He bumped his head, back, front and everything else you could imagine and ended up on his knees gasping for air. His helmet was broken but did help save his life. The life jacket also spared a bigger break on his back and ribs but at the time we knew nothing except to keep him from moving and to get help. Two of the girls went to look for help on the highway, the guys were all helping Gord and one of the girls and I swam back and forth to Gord and the guys with clothes for them to use to stop blood, and clean water etc.. It was hard to keep calm this whole time not knowing what was going to happen in the end, but I kept praying in my heart that all would be well.
Gordon's friends were great, Stephen Kotkas kept everything under control and everyone was so helpful. When the paramedics got there they decided Gordon needed to be air lifted out of there and taken to the Foothills Hospital. They assumed at the time that he had broken both legs, a toe, ankles, ribs, back, neck and didn't know if there would be damage from the big cut on his head. After recieving a priesthood blessing from his Father and Business partner Tony Stephen at the Hospital, Gordon turned out to be in much better shape than it looked, having only broken his back and toe (as opposed to his whole body) and recieved a bunch of stiches and staples to his head, leg and feet. He was in a lot of pain for a while but amazingly got well enough to come home only 4 days later. It has been a miracle. He is doing so well, thanks to the power of the priesthood and all your prayers!
I have recieved more pictures and videos from Katie Kotkas who was so thoughtful to record this for me, knowing I would appreciate the document later! Here are some of them.
It really was a brutal fall. It is such a miracle that Gordon is doing so amazingly well right now. You can hardly tell now, just a month and a half after the accident that he was even in one! He has to wear his back brace for another month and a half (total of 3 months, if all goes well) so his back will heal, and the other wounds are all closed up and fine! It's unbelievable, but again we know that with God, all things are possible.

A little taste of Florida!

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We had a wonderful trip to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando Florida in May 2008. The kids were great and loved every minute. Even Faith was a trooper. We went with my sister and brother-in-law : Ammon and Leticia Christensen and their baby Jacob. It was a trip to always remember. The picture you see of a couple of little legs tossed in the ocean waves are Charity and Grace. As they were posing for a picture in front of the ocean for the very first time, the waves just came up behind them and totally took them and Gordon (the photographer) by surprize! They didn't like the taste of the salty ocean like that, but they got over it! We did a small cruise to the Bahamas. It was quite a small ship but we still had a good time. The kids thought they were in a fairytale the whole time. I overheard them tell each other " Don't you feel like Cinderella?" when they were on a horse and buggy ride in Nassau Bahamas. We then went on to enjoy Disney World ( My absolute favorite place in the world!!!) and Sea World. It was definitely not long enough! When we look at our pictures we just miss it so much. We are definitely going to be vacationing in Florida again, especially Orlando!

The beggining

I thought, since I want this to be our "family journal", that I would start at the very beggining. (cause it's a very good place to start). By the way this is probably going to be my longest entry...

Well, that goes back to 1988. My family had moved to Canada from Brasil (where I was born) for a period of 4 years in which My Dad was doing his Doctorate in Forest Engineering. We became Canadian citizens in this time. We lived in Edmonton for less than a year and the rest of the time in Calgary. In 1991 we moved to the NW part of Calgary, and started to attend Bow Valley Ward. I was not even 10 years old yet but I distinctly remember walking into the Chappel and seeing the cutest Boy ever! He was soooo cute. I quickly learned who he was and was very impressed with him and his family of 15! Although I NEVER spoke to him (until quite a few years later) and he probably never really noticed me, I decided that Gordon Lee was the one I was going to marry.

My family moved back to Brazil in late 1992. The members of Bow Valley ward had made a special photo book for us to remember the families we had all come to love. I took out the picture of Gordon's family and kept it in a picture frame in my room for many years to come.

I visited Canada and my old friends from Bow Valley ward when I was 15. I spent that summer at my best friend Elise Leavitt's house. I briefly got to See Gordon again at church, and yep, he was still the cutest boy ever.

Now I told a few people that I was going to marry Gordon Lee, and of course no one believed me. Why should they? I still had never even spoken to him, and really didn't know that much about him. But there was something so special about him, and for some reason I just knew that he was right for me. I wasn't a total looser though, of course I dated other guys, and really liked a few of them, but I would always come back to the conclusion that no one was better than Gordon and that he was the one I wanted to marry.

It wasn't until the year 1999, just before Gordon was to leave on his mission that I talked to him. I was again visiting Elise Leavitt and one of my friends mark Jones had been talking to Gordon and told him I was coming to visit and perhaps told him a little too much information. So on the very first night I arrived in Calgary, I was very surprized to be talking to Gordon on the phone! It turns out he had noticed me in the earlier years (but of course not how I had noticed him) and here he was talking to me like we had known each other for years. He invited himself over to Elise's house to talk to me. I can't explain how I felt just before talking to him. I was so nervous. But amazingly enough when I opened the door to let him in I felt incredibly comfortable. We talked for a few hours. He asked all the "could she be the one for me" questions, and we had a great time. He invited me to a dance the following night. It was so fun to be with him. Of course I was always a nervous wreck before I was to see him, but as soon as we were together everything was so perfectly normal, and comfortable. He asked me to say something in portuguese to him that night on the way home, and my friend Elise who was with us said " say 'Eu te amo' ." which she knew meant I love you. So he asked what does that mean?

I said "I love you". So he practiced "Eu te amo" for a while and said, " I'll tell you that someday". Of course I was hardly breathing, and I don't know if he realized what he had just said, or if it just gave me a little glimpse of the future or if it was a total fluke, but I remembered that forever. We spent the whole week that I was visiting together, and really got to know each other. The last day I was invited to Gordon's family dinner. His family was on my side and were crossing their fingers for us (although I didn't know it at the time). It was a wonderful week, and just re-affirmed to me that he was the one I was going to marry.

I went back to Brazil and he went on to his mission to Jacksonville Florida for the next 2 years. I returned to Calgary that Summer to live with the Leavitts and go to school at SAIT for the next 2 years. (conveniently planned, don't you think?) We wrote a few letters to each other but not too much. Elise and I had a lot of fun together, and dated a few different guys. I was really trying not to wait for Gordon, but deep in my heart I knew that he was the one I wanted to marry and I can say now that many times I felt the spirit confirm this to me. Although I really didn't know when or how this was going to happen. The big day finally came and He returned home. We went on a few dates right away, and although my feelings for him were all there and he really seemed to like me, something was akward and not-normal whenever we were together. I simply could not be myself. I had prepared myself all these years and tried to be my best, I just can't explain why I couldn't be myself. So he went on to find the right girl for him. We would still go on dates all the time, and things got so close sometimes. My prayers were always answered with a distinct "just wait". Well I didn't mention that Gordon had been diagnosed with epilepsy just before his Mission and he had been having some quite severe seizures lately. He couldn't drive, So when I bought my car I drove him around to alot of places. He had brain surgery scheduled for that October and just before that, he needed to be in the hospital for a week so they could study the activity of his brain and find out just what it was that they needed to do to help him. It was while He was in the Hospital that I was suddenly able to be normal around him again. I hadn't noticed but we had become very close friends through all this and I was suddenly comfortable with him again and able to be myself.

The surgery was succesful and he recovered quickly. I guess something in him was changed too because he started to see me differently too. On November 25th 2001, he told me how he felt about me. It was pretty amazing. He thought quite highly about me. We started dating steadily from that moment on and not even a month later he asked me to marry him. My childhood fairytale had come true. On March 15th 2002, I was sealed to the cutest boy ever, for time and all eternity!