James and Cecilia's Family

This is James and Cissa with all of the kids last summer. The kids are, from left to right;
Taige (now 12), Tiago (now 5), Tegan ( now 10) and Tiffany (2). The two older children are from James' first marriage and they live in Florida, with their Mom.

This is my oldest son, James and his wife Cecilia (we call her Cissa) and their 2 kids, Tiago (5) and Tiffany (2). This was just taken on Easter Sunday, 2008. They live in Utah, so I don't get to see them very often And I miss them a lot.

James is adopted. We adopted him when he was 10 years old. At that time we already had Laurie, Tresa, Barry and Lisa. (Rhyming unintentional - but kind of cute - don't you think???) So he was actually our 5th child, but is the oldest. He was my husband's sister's middle son (or our nephew) and she decided to put him up for adoption. We thought he should stay in the family - rather than ending up either with strangers or in the Foster Care System, so we adopted him ourselves. There were a lot of adjustments to make in our family, and not all of them went all that well, but I have never regretted adopting James. It completely changed the birth order of all of our children, for those who have studied Birth Order and it's effects on personality and etc. Of course the biggest adjustment was for James. We had an entirely different life style than what he was accustomed to. Over all, I think he did amazingly well. He was an excellent student, my neatest child and only cleaning fanatic. He is also an incredible cook. He was Captain of the Swim Team in high school and was an Eagle Scout at age 13. ( Both of his younger brothers followed that example and did the same.) James loves music and is a D. J. in his "spare time".

Cissa is from Brazil. She and James met at Church, at a Brazilian Ward in Salt Lake City. James served as a Missionary in Brazil for 2 years and so is fluent in Portuguese. Several years after his divorce, he was attending the Brazilian Ward to keep up with his Portuguese. When he met Cissa, he was smitten - but then, who wouldn't be!?!? Cissa is beautiful, sweet and loving. She is also very determined and saved her money from the time she was very young to be able to come to the United States to be free. She came here legally, when she was 19, she is now an official citizen. I admire her very much. She is also a wonderful mother.

"Tiago" is "James" in Portuguese. Tiago has Cissa's coloring, with almost black hair and deep, dark brown eyes and that lovely tan skin. He is so fun. He loves airplanes and is currently into Transformers. He is bi-lingual and Grandma can't always understand everything he says, but he gets his message across. We always have a lot of fun on the neighborhood play ground too.

Tiffany is as light as Tiago is dark. I was present at her birth and the Doctor had asked all of us what color hair we were expecting. We all kind of laughed and said "dark brown", assuming she would have Cissa's coloring, just like Tiago. When she crowned the Doctor said, "That's not brown hair!" When she was fully delivered, he turned and looked at me and said "She looks like Grandma!" Of course he didn't know that there is actually no blood relationship between James and I, but it was sooooo fun!!! Tiffany is still blond haired and blue eyed. All of Cissa's Brazilian friends were just amazed that she had this blond baby!!! It was really fun!!!!

James first son, Taige, was born on my 41st Birthday and was my very first grandchild. That was certainly exciting and turned a very boring Birthday into the best one ever. His sister, Tegan, was born just 3 days short of exactly 2 years later. She was my first Granddaughter, and therefore, holds a special place in my heart as well.