Teresa Dee Meyerhoeffer Christensen's Life History : Between Babies 1990-1994

Our Dooley Mountain Court home in Bend, Oregon

1990-1994

After reading through my journals I did not want to leave out events that happened in the years between our last two children’s births. Here are a few highlights from those years:

I always drove old cars (if I had a car at all) and was relentlessly plagued with crazy car problems. A few interesting car issues were 1) I had a blow-out on the I-5 freeway in the little Dodge Colt with all 5 kids in the car, but had been prompted on the way past the same spot earlier in the day to review in my mind how to handle a blow-out, so I was prepared when it happened on the way home. A gallant trucker stopped to change the tire for me. 2) When my van wouldn’t start after loading all our groceries and kiddos one day, a man from our ward happened to be in the area and took all of us with groceries home in two trips. 3) Roger was out of town and our old van broke down, the tow truck driver took me around to pay my bills and run a few errands while towing the car to the locations on the way. He said it was the first time he had ever done that before. :-)

I was in a little golf tournament with Roger and miraculously chipped the ball into the hole from off the green two holes in a row!

Both the Catchpoles and the Larsens asked us to raise their children if anything happened to them and selected us as guardians in their wills. That was quite a compliment we felt.

Roger considered teaching seminary full-time for his job since the students liked him so much.

We sold our Corvallis home in two hours on a Fast Sunday morning from a three-line ad in the newspaper. Ryan Hoyer had to get the birds out of the attic and I left six Books of Mormon with testimonies in them with our Corvallis neighbors. The new buyers even took the missionary discussions after I explained to them in the message inside the cover, if they felt a different spirit in our home it was because it had been blessed.

Roger moved to Bend, Oregon the first of May 1991 to begin a job with Bank of the Cascades. He lived in a studio apartment for a few months and we followed that summer. We all moved into a 3 bedroom rental house with 5 kids, our builder Don and his son Wes sleeping on our couches and Ryan Hoyer (a YM from Roger's Corvallis priest quorum) living with us part time too. Roger’s dad even came to stay for a few days to help, but shot himself with a nail gun in the stomach, so headed home via the hospital.

I was called to be the Primary President the first Sunday in our new Bend ward, but only served a few months. It was determined (after an interesting visit and field trip with the Stake Presidency) that the home we were building in a brand new neighborhood was right on the boundary lines in a different ward. We were asked to attend the other ward, so I was released and called into the Stake Young Women’s again.

I was soon asked to speak on "Motherhood" at Stake Conference with a General Authority. I did a football analogy: Quarterback=mothers, Offensive line=fathers, Coach=God, Receivers and backs=children, Defense=Satan’s army, Crowd=world, Field=life, End Zone= Celestial Kingdom. Roger was called to be in the new ward’s bishopric a few weeks later and Bishop Wilson said he saw “the quarterback’s husband” highlighted in a dream as one of his counselors.

We moved our Christmas tree into our newly finished home we helped build on December 17, 1991. I was lamenting we missed all of the Christmas season with our move as I cleaned the rental toilet on December 21st and had a spiritual experience. I was listening to “Ding Dong Merrily on High” as I cleaned and when they sang “in heaven the bells were ringing”, I had a mini-revelation that indeed we were in heaven celebrating when Christ was born here on earth. It was a special gift that year. Then Roger drove us to Twin Falls on Christmas Eve after not having been there for a 7 years on Christmas.

Christmas card picture at reindeer farm 1993.

On February 27, 1992 my Grandma Helen died and we all went to her funeral in Moscow. I felt badly I had not seen her for over two years, but I had written her every month for over 10 years.

Four sisters from The Jets LDS singing group stayed at our home for a special fireside they were giving for the youth in Bend.They were from a Polynesian family with 17 children.

Laura Catchpole would come and spend up to four weeks with us every summer. Her family and the Martin family made it a tradition to come for the 4th of July every year for many years.

4th of July crew 1994

Chelsea's baptism with Laura 1992

All three of my brothers got married in Twin Falls, Idaho during this time period to Tracey, Eva and Michele respectively. Roger’s brother Jared married Wendy in Salt Lake City, Utah too. We all attended each wedding with many adventures getting there and at the events.

I was asked to speak much during this time…girl’s camps, Women’s Conferences, Stake Conferences. The biggest talk was probably at a Women’s Conference where I spoke with Barbara Smith the former General RS President on “Garden of Women”. That talk practically wrote itself in just a few minutes, it was given to me. The scariest was probably when Stake President Fuller would not give me a topic to speak at Stake Conferences and wanted me to speak by the spirit. I had been called to be the Stake YW President. I felt panicky about the calling and said I would only accept it if the Stake Pres. could guarantee me it was from Heavenly Father. I had so many young children and Roger was in the bishopric on Sundays, it would be hard to travel to all the wards since some were over three hours away. He assured me it was a call from the Lord and would bless my children. I accepted and all went smoothly for the most part. Faith over fear.

In May 1993 I had a tubal pregnancy that was misdiagnosed for a few weeks as a miscarriage . On the 2nd trip to the ER when they determined I was still expecting, but the baby was not in the womb, the doctor decided to try an experimental drug that had only been used a few times in the U.S., but regularly in Israel (my Dr. was Jewish) instead of surgery. So I received a shot of Methotrexate and for seven weeks I bled, cramped and had my HCG blood levels checked. I think I would have preferred the surgery if I had to do it again. Then in October of 1993 I found out I was unexpectedly expecting again. My body and my family were not ready for this little spirit and I miscarried when 11-12 weeks along after hearing the heartbeat and watching it fight to survive. It was an emotional, hard time.

I recorded these attributes of my children in my journal on May 7th 1993: Emily (13)-puts others at ease, positive, intelligent, dramatic, well-rounded, tries new things and is not caught up in herself.Stephanie (11)-sensitive to the spirit, intuitive and spiritual by nature, very creative, writes wonderful stories and music, organized, gets things done and is very responsible. Chelsea (8) - easy to have around, undemanding yet knows her mind, quiet strength, very agile and coordinated, great with babies, special look of innocence in her face. Hailey (almost 6)- determined, unique fresh spirit, loyal, likes her home base and parents around, tender yet very strong. K.C. (4)- good boy (insists on being), close to Heavenly Father (wants to do Jesus’s work and help people when he grows up on a horse named Paul :-), loves his family, deep thinking little mind for his age.

My Christensen kids with special attributes.

July 23, 1993 our children threw a surprise birthday party for Roger and I with a diverse guest list (Raus, Cards, Laursens, Fraziers and Carla) and interesting party games. They made the cake at a neighbors house. We were totally surprised! It made we wonder what they could pull off or get-away-with if they were bad children! They even arranged child care upstairs…very capable.

December 1993 the three oldest girls and myself were in the community theater play of “A Christmas Carol” with 15 sold out shows. I played “Mrs. Cratchit", Emily and Stephanie were my daughters “Martha” and “Belinda” and Chelsea played “Little Fan” Scrooge's little sister.

Mrs. Cratchit

The girls with Scrooge.

In April of 1994, Eri, a Japanese exchange student came to live with us for 9 months. KC called her our foreign “strange” student :-). Her father and uncle came to stay with us during that time too. Hailey especially bonded with Eri and it was hard on Stephanie. Eri called me “mom”, but struggled with homesickness for awhile.

Exchange student Eri

In May 1994 I looked into adopting a brother for KC who wanted one so badly.

I had a couple very spiritual experiences. I been struggling with an issue (I cannot remember) and was looking through the phone book crying, wondering if I needed to talk to a counselor, when the Jehovah Witnesses knocked on my door. They could tell I had been crying and said they would not stay, but wanted to leave me with a message. They said that the world was looking for answers in all the wrong places, listing a few including counselors. They said their message for me was that "every answer I was looking for I could find in the scriptures"!!! Heavenly Father used curious messengers, but I knew the message was from Him and have found it to be true. Then another day I was in my closet praying about something else and the song came to me “Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be.” Those words have come to me various other times throughout my life and have been a profound message I am still fathoming.

In the fall of 1994 I started an RN re-entry program before the nursing laws in Oregon changed. I had to complete 12 credit hours on COCC campus including pharmacology and 160 hours of clinical work at St. Charles Hospital. Little did I know another adventure was on it’s way….