Kassi in Young Womens..

My little baby girl is growing up and tonight was introduced into the Young Women's program.. I had to write a little get to know you about her and decided it would be a good post for today as it sums up most of my thoughts for her today..

Tia Ko Be Pooka!!

On February 15th, 1999 a little angel was born in a province called Hung Yen in Vietnam to a very special woman name Leigh. She named her little angel Mai and then lovingly gave her to the care of an orphanage for adoption.

Two weeks later a picture was sent to our family with her paperwork to get things started to bring her home. Before we saw her picture we had gone through a series of events:

For about 5 years I had a dream that would be consistent and reoccur quite often. In the dream Savana and Kacee would be standing together and a little girl with big brown eyes and long dar hair would peek around their legs and smile. She was shy and cautious but obviously loved her two "sisters".

I shared the dream with my husband one day and to our surprise discovered that he was having the same dream as I was. We started looking at adoption shortly after. Different times for several years we would get close to picking up a child or for some reason or another be told that we couldn't have a particular child.

In 1998 Kacee, my 2nd daughter started having a dream about a little baby sister. She would continually tell us that it was time to go and get our little angle. One day, frustarted because of her persistance I told her that obviously she needed to pray about it because we had done everyting we could to get her here. Kacee's reply to me was "Mom, no, it is your turn to pray, I have."

About a week later a friend of mine called to tell me of an experience she had in the temple that she had felt impressed to share with me. I called Focus on Children the next month, which was January 1999. What should or normally takes about a year of paperwork and preparation through the government, to everyone's surprise was completed in about 3 weeks. On April 14th 1999 my husband and I were in a hotel room in Hanoii Vietnam anxiously waiting for someone to bring us our little angel. She came to us through a translator, her care giver and a wet nurse that had been hired to feed her on the way to the hotel. Wrapped in a frail worn out blanket, a hand sewn bonnet and a new bright yellow outfit a very tiny and weak baby girl with big dark brown eyes was carefully placed in the arms of her daddy for the very first time.

As we layed her on the bed she looked up and smiled the most adorable smile I felt that I had ever seen. The caregiver started to speak to us and was translated to that is the first time she has ever smiled and be careful with her as she is very weak.

Kassandra Elizabeth Mai Madsen was born on February 15th, 1999. She was named after my mum, Sandra, her sister Kacee starts her name and her middle name of Elizabeth is from her great grandma Elizabeth or "Beth" Cutler. Her given name of Mai is also shared as a middle name in honour of her birth mom.

She was born at 8 lbs. 8 oz but lost 4 pounds due to lack of nutrition in her first 2 months of life. Though she had a rough start, we know she was blessed and protected by the angels in those short 2 months.

Kassi is the youngest of 5 siblings and an aunt to 3 boys (1 being older than her) and 1 girl who is one of her best friends.

She loves to shop, play basketball and dance. She is very artistic and loves to read and text her freinds constantly. She is a constant model for her mom and sister while they are going to cosmetology school and is excited for her first runway show the end of this month.

Kassi loves the color blue, loves eggrolls and fried rice. Although she is tormented by her brothers she is definately stronger for it. Kassi took the challenge a couple of years ago to develop a "six pack" and currently does about 200 push ups each night and over 100 situps. She is also diligently working on her "spiritual sixpack" of reading the Book of Mormon, a goal given to her by her oldest brother Bug.

Kassi is dedicated, loving and a true friend to those she is friends with. She is shy until you get to know her and then watch out, she is loud and crazy and a ton of fun to be around.

Kassi is very excited to start Young Women's next month and even though her big brother doesn't want her to grow up she is and ready to be a Young Women with Values and share in these experiences.

We love you, Pooka, and hope that you have as much fun in Young Womens as we did.

Tia Ko Be

mom