My Story

My name is Lila. I grew up the 5th of 11 children in Ventura County California. I have 6 brothers and 4 sisters biologically from the same, wonderful parents. My family was raised as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of which I continue to enjoy being an active member of with my husband and children. We try hard every day to live a life the Lord is proud of and raise our children the same way. Not only do I have many siblings but currently have 5 Sister In Laws and 2 Brothers in Law but two sisters do have boyfriends as well. That's just on my side of the family. My youngest brother Isaac is currently serving as a full-time missionary in the Texas Ft.Worth Mission and has one more year to go. He is loving it, teaching many and learning a lot about himself and life. There are currently 21 grandchildren and some of us are only just getting started with our families so that number will still grow. :) Since the family picture was taken below, 3 more grandchildren have been born and my niece Nathalie is now married. (There are also 2 uncles and 2 aunts in the photo):

{This exactly how many people that are not only at our house every holiday but many other times
during the year. In-laws parents and siblings join us as well as friends. It's good times.}

We currently live in a suburb approximately 30 miles from Nashville and have since 2002. Here we have my mother in law, Mike's step dad, his older brother and his wife plus their two precious daughters. Before our children came, they saved my life as far as getting a fix being with sweet children. They are wonderful girls and we love them very much.

I love being from a big family and always dreamed I would have one of my own. I wanted 6. Growing up in a big family you learned to be independent and make yourself heard. Combine that with the natural born gift of 'assertiveness', I was not known as 'shy'. I was born the day before my Mom's birthday in early February (Aquarius) and growing up always felt particularly special to have almost a shared birthday with someone I looked up to so much. Until I was 6, our family of 8 at the time, lived in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles County, California. My one older sister Katrina and I would play on the hillside behind our house, pretending to have a kitchen and couches and chairs in the dirt and pine needles.  I remember practicing and teaching myself to ride my sisters bike in our driveway and also the time my sister stayed up past our bed time (naughty naughty) to help me pick out the perfect outfit etc so I could look just right for the first birthday party I was ever invited to. It was hilarious thinking back and completely cute. We had Holly Hobby (she looks like this) wall paper, (that must have been a luxury) and pink bed spreads. When I think back on that, I wasn't as derelict as I thought. All pictures of these times were filled with bed head and something gooey on my face so I think I only assumed my parents lived in a cave. lol. Oh, except this picture (I'm even wearing Holly Hobby shirt I'm sure my mom made):

 and this adorable baby with chubby cheeks, ME...
(now we know that Cora truly is my daughter, from another mother)...

{Aunt Angela, baby Lila and my oldest brother Carl}

I made it out of that part of childhood pretty much unscathed. Apparently my sister wasn't so lucky and was teased mercilessly by my brothers. To be honest, I don't remember a single exchange with them until I was older.whew, he he he. While living in that house my parents became interested in volunteering for foster care through our church. The then named "Lamanite Program" was where children of the Indian Reservations were placed in foster care with families in our church. Eventually my mom's service in LDS "Social Services" (Now LDS Family Services aka LDSFS) led to our family also welcoming a couple unwed mothers waiting to place their babies for adoption. I barely remember these women but they will never forget my Mom or our family and still keep in touch with her. Because of this service, on top of the many siblings I already had, between 1979 -1988? I had 3 foster brothers and shortly one foster sister, all American Indian (Hopi & Navajo) and all teenagers. Most lived only one year with us but one brother lived with us about 5 or 6. Although we loved them as another sibling, because of the situations they came from, some of their stays were cut short when they abused their stay. It had an effect on me that will last a lifetime. Instead of resentment for the bad time, I learned to forgive and am at peace. I am grateful for this gift of forgiveness and try to look at the positive times with my foster siblings fondly. 

In 1980, my parents built a fortress for our family in Camarillo California (where my parents still live today). It is fondly referred to as "The Compound". We lived on a 5 acre Avocado orchard surrounding our house on the hill, had a trampoline, and even a tennis court with volleyball net and basket ball hoops on both ends. I was outside all of the time, running, playing sports or day dreaming. Life was ideal. Mostly I played with my two younger brothers from this time on, Bennett and Jesse. We 'jumped' (trampoline), played war with army men, played house in the Avocado trees (each having our own 'house') with my cousin Jeff, we went on 'hikes' - one time accidentally sitting on a cactus when I was too far from the house to make it to the bathroom-OUCH! Anyway, with all these things at our house, we stayed at home together a lot and enjoyed it. I started playing soccer at around 7 and I played for about 7years, including JV in High School and still think of joining one of the adult leagues in town but would have to get my stamina back up! I think my husband would be amazed to watch me play a sport :). I also played volley ball, basket ball and softball for church and loved it cause even though it was competitive, it was still very fun and I was 'good' at it.

In Jr. High I joined a community dance team called "The Camarillo Darlings", competing against other communities in the Los Angeles area. It was great and I was able to get good enough to feel confident trying out for cheer leading. I don't know why I wanted to cheer but I loved it and still delight a few friends and old co-workers randomly with some of my old cheers for a laugh. I also cheered my freshman year of High School but not sophomore so I could play soccer. Anyway, because of our family size, my mom became very self sufficient in many ways, teaching herself to cut our hair for instance. Eventually in Jr. High, I started taking over the job and liked it. After a few years of cutting my brother's hair, I wondered if I could make a living at it since I had a 1.93 GPA or something RIDICULOUS like that and knew an achedemic education would be out of reach but a trade, something 'hands on' was right down my alley. Keep in mind, I had no idea people made a living at this, I'd never seen or been to a hair salon. Even in H.S., as far as I knew, all their mom's did their hair too. ha ha ha. I think I was pretty forward thinking, planning to invent a profession in hairstyling or something. lol. ;) In the meantime, I was a loser with boys. Because I am Mormon, we don't date till we are 16, not that anyone showed any interest and I don't blame them. I was gross. I had crushes on boys like everyone else but I think I was invisible. I wish someone would have at least thrown me a bone cause it did suck. I admit it now. BUT... "luckily" when I was about to turn 18 I met someone from church who was new in town and thought I was cute so he hung out with me on my birthday. HE KISSED ME! It was my first kiss and he knew it so he said... "So... how was it?" BARF! I wanted to die that he even asked that and let's just say, I didn't need to be an experienced kisser to know it was bad. I ignored him from that day on. :) (and did no more kissing for 2 more years!) Well... out of H.S. I reluctantly registered for a few meaningless classes at Moorpark College to see if I liked it. I dropped out, felt depressed and decided I needed to move to young single Mormon central= Provo, Utah. I had the best time there working various jobs (herbal factory,1 day at a health food store, telemarketer... twice) and being social! I went to dance clubs at least 2 nights a week, usually 3. I was put with random roommates who were funny and later when I had to move buildings within the same complex and got new roommates, this is when they changed my life. My new roommates, Jen and Alicia were hairstylists! My dream job! Not only that, they worked for an AVEDA salon (and so my love affair with Aveda began). They made me over; taught me to shape my eyebrows, wear make-up, brush my teeth & shower more often (lol, not kidding sadly) and they cut and colored my hair. I now know why my clients are so loyal to me because they gave me a reason to have a self esteem for the first time in my life. For once, I felt attractive and had hope that one day I would have a husband and children. They also inspired me to go to hair school but first... I had decided there would be time for that later. I wanted to serve a full-time mission for my church. I was called to Seattle Washington in June 1995. I was in the mission field for one month or so when we had a large missionary training meeting. I didn't meet him then but I definitely saw him, "Elder" Stuteville. He was at the meeting and afterward was sitting with some of his friends when I noticed him standing up with a huge smile on his face. His whole body was glowing. I cannot describe it another way but I couldn't help feeling "I had to get to know him". At the time it was nothing romantic which is good cause it is NOT ALLOWED on a mission to flirt and etc. I can only say it was a spiritual draw to him but eventually, months later, I found myself obsessed with asking questions about him to people who did know him. In the year and a half of my mission. I saw him in person 3 times and spoke to him 4 or 5. We barely knew each other but realized when he went home to Tennessee in June '96,  that we wanted to keep in touch. We did. Michael came to visit me 2 weeks after I was home in California (Nov '96) for 3 days and we were choosing wedding dates on the 3rd day before he left. It was a whirlwind. I had never had a boyfriend but was always watching friends and knew what I wanted (and didn't want). He was everything and more. I saw all his potential and best of all, I knew he was dedicated to the gospel (even though he only joined the church at 19, he changed his life around 100% when he converted).

Michael proposed to me here at Fall Creek Falls, Tennessee on February 8th, Photo was taken April 20th and we were married....

June 21, 1997 in the Los Angeles California Temple. We have had a wonderful 13 years so far and have learned so much together. We continue to learn, looking forward to what is around the corner for us in each new day.

The rest of our story will be documented in the "Our Adoption Story" tab...