The Evans Edition: The story of our stories

I finally got around to compiling an archive of our Evans Editions for each of the kids. It got me thinking about how this all got started.
About 11 years ago, I was visit-teaching a lady in our ward who wrote a full-page letter to each of her 8 adopted children every month, detailing what they had been up to and how she felt about them. I loved this idea but thought I'd better stick to a paragraph about each family member in a one-page newsletter. McKenzie was six, Mia was four, and Getty was just a year old.

I wrote about the time when McKenzie (6) wet the bed and then just pulled on some jeans over her soaked underwear and went to school for the day(!) (she's always been low maintenance :) I wrote that during prayers, a peeking McKenzie informed us that Mia (4) was silently flailing her arms around and making wild faces and then quick folding her arms and shutting her eyes just as we said, "Amen" (sounds like Mia). I wrote about how we'd moved 12 times in 9 years. I go back and read this stuff, and it brings tears to my eyes and melancholy grins and full-on belly laughs—all these details I'd for sure have forgotten by now.

 (These are pictures of pictures Mia took of her album.)

So, back to my story—around the same time I was inspired by my friend's monthly letters to each of her kids, my sister showed me a one-page monthly update her in-laws sent to each of their married kids to keep them informed of new addresses, phone numbers, and happenings in their siblings lives. All at once, I saw the beginning and the end of a family newsletter. It's creative, it's practical, it's genius. Love brilliant people who inspire me to copy them.

So now technology enters the picture. And suddenly, my scrapbooking is obsolete. Heck yes. But the blog hasn't replaced the Evans Edition newsletters (though they do overlap some). I still need a place to brag non-stop about the kids (which they love, but friends—not so much) and a place to talk about the nitty-gritty details the kids may be interested in when they're grown but don't necessarily want broadcasted on the blog here and now.

And so, those giant white plastic binders will get fatter and fatter. Makes me wonder what those newsletters will reveal about our lives 11 years from now. Rob and I will be in our 50's! MK will be 27, probably married with a couple of kids. Mia will be 25. Probably married with a baby. Getty will be 22. If he's like Rob and I, his wedding plans may be in the works. He could be at college trying to figure out a career he can be happy with. Cy will be 19 and hopefully on a mission. Cam and Elle will be the same ages M&M are now. Cam, "the professor" as we like to call him, could be a straight-A student, and Elle a spunky cheerleader. It could happen, but I bet reality will be much more interesting. SO much has happened in the last 11 years, and so much more is to come. Probably the best of times and the worst of times. Just how life is supposed to be. And it'll all be encapsulated on the Evans Edition. Of no consequence to the world, but fascinating to us in the world Rob and I brought together.