Meet Cristi Millard

Cristi was born in Colombus Ohio. Her mother was LDS and her father was not. Their family lived in Colombus because her father had been stationed there with the air force. After Cristi's older sister was born, her dad tried being a musician, but after Cristi's birth, he could see that music wasn't going to pay the bills, so he re-enlisted with the military. From here on out Cristi was an Air Force brat.

Their first assignment was Clovis New Mexico. Cristi and her family lived there the next 8 years. The branch in Clovis was very close. Even though Cristi's father wasn't a member of the church he sang in the choir and helped build the new meeting house. Also while living in Clovis, Cristi's mom had 3 more baby girls. Cristi's dad struck a bargain with the Lord. He told the Lord if he had a son, he would get baptized. The next baby that came to their family was a little boy. Cristi's dad, being a man of his word, was then baptized.

Finally, after 8 years, a new assignment came. The family was transferred to Okinawa Japan. Cristi's parents had a gift for helping their children love wherever they lived. She thought that Japan was so fun, all the Japanese school kids would stop by their house and practice their English with them. They also loved trying all the food and being part of the Japan Obon Odori. It's the Japanese biggest celebration of the year. She remembers collecting little coins in origami type envelopes and dancing.

After 6 years, her parents came back to the states. However, they then divorced. Cristi's mom remarried a man who worked for the military as a civilian. After their marriage, he was assigned to Okinawa Japan, so back to Okinawa Cristi and her siblings happily went.

Cristi then spent most of high school years at a big military school on the island. She was involved in drama and sports. She loved sports. She played volleyball, softball and track. She also was the statistician for the baseball teams. Her Junior year she was also a cheerleader. There was another Junior young man named Art Millard who was playing football for the same team she was cheering for (the high school was so big they had 4 football teams). Crisit's parents had told their girls they could go ahead and date non-members as long as they had high standards (they realized otherwise they girls would have no one to date). Cristi and Art started dating. Art became interested in the gospel, took the missionary discussions and was baptized. Shortly after that, he and his family left Japan and went back to their home in Florida.

After dating Art the athlete, Cristi met another young man named Keith a musician. She started dating Keith. He too became interested in the church, met with the missionaries and got baptized. Their relationship ended when Cristi's family were transferred to Korean in January of her Senior year. Their family tried to figure out a way Cristi could stay with friends to finish up at the high school she had attended since 9^th grade, but the military wasn't having it and her parents really wanted her to come with them, so she moved to Korea with her family.

Cristi says she loved everything about Korea but Kim-Chi. She said being at eye level with all the Korean's she could smell it on everyone's breath. She also said the women would always come up and pull on her arm hair, because Asian's don't have any. She however loved working there. She got a job on Saturdays working at the mission home helping the mission recorder imput information because she could type really fast. She would hang out there and have lunch with the missionaries. It was so much fun for an 18 year old girl.

After graduation, she got on a plane and headed to Rexburg Idaho. She did a year at Ricks. While there she mainly worked with the Dean of student's office and she also waited tables at JB's. She finished up her year and went home to Korea for the summer. But once back in Korea, she was offered a really good job working at a drug and alcohol rehab center. She decided to stay in Korea for a year or so and saved money. After that, she headed back to Ricks.

Once she got back to Ricks, she started dating a young man seriously and they got engaged. However, before she could graduate, they got unengaged. That did it for Crisit. She didn't want to be at Ricks any longer. By this time her parents had moved back to Utah so Cristi moved to Salt Lake and got a job at the church office building in the finance division. She worked there a year and a half. Then she decided she was ready to go back to school. This time she enrolled at BYU.

While at BYU she roomed with her younger sister and worked on campus doing registrations for conferences. She helped with the registration for any conferences going on, workshops, athletic camps, EFY, pioneer trek, women's conference, etc. She was studying English and she LOVED it. She also met a young returned missionary who recently had returned from Argentina and they got married.

Cristi started working more seriously to put her husband through school. She took a job at UVU (UTC at the time) but she wanted to finish her bachelor's degree. She approached her work at UVU and told them she would probably have to quit. They didn't want to let her go though, so they offered her a special contract that made a way for her to continue working there. It allowed her the freedom to work as her schedule permitted. Sometimes she might have to work part time or not at all for 2 months or so. With that job she continued working until she and her husband graduated from BYU.

After her husband graduated she and her husband wanted answers about why they weren't being able to get pregnant. They went to the doctor and found out Crisit had a small growth on one of her ovaries. She went into surgery and found out the problem was bigger then they thought. They had to remove one of her ovaries and remove her fallopian tubes. So at this point, they knew that Crisit would never be able to get pregnant. They told her she could try IVF but it was on the cutting edge at the time and cost around 40,000 dollars. It wasn't even a possibility. They then looked into adoption with LDS Family Services.

Before they could even get their paperwork in however, they had a miracle. A cousin of Cristi's called to tell them about a birthmother she had living with them. The birthmother had seen them and liked them. She wanted to meet. So Cristi and her husband flew out to visit the birthmother. While they were there, she went into labor. Cristi was able to be there for the delivery! This was 1989 and almost unheard of.

After the birth of their daughter Cristi kept working at UVU. In 1989 she moved to a job at Salt Lake Community College as a financial aid advisor. Their family also bought a home in Bountiful Utah. When her daughter, Jessica was 6 months old she had to find a new babysitter. She found one in Taylorsville, a family that would watch Jessica in their home. This allowed Cristi to take Jessica to work with her and drop her off at the babysitter. So even though Jessica was raised in Bountiful, she didn't attend Bountiful schools. She would go to school in Taylorsville by the babysitters house. When Jessica was old enough to babysit herself, she did start attending South Davis Jr. High, but found she didn't really like it, so instead, they got a variance and Jessica attended school at Eisenhower Jr. High with her friends from elementary. She went on to graduate from Taylorville High School. Cristi loved that time everyday of driving back and forth to work and school with Jessica.

In 2004 Cristi decided she wanted her master's degree. She started doing classes through the University of Phoenix to get a degree in Office Management. She finished her degree which allowed her to move up in position at SLCC. Currently she serves as the director of financial aid.

In 2006 Cristi and her husband decided to divorce. It was a difficult decision but they were very committed to making it as cordial as they could for their daughter. Today, Cristi and her ex-husband still are very polite to one another and are willing to attend family events together for the better of everyone involved.

In March 2007, Cristi's sister told her she had been on a social network site and that Art Millard, Crisit's boyfriend from high school had been on and he was looking for her. She connected with Art and they exchanged Christmas cards. Then in January of 2007 Art and his wife came to Utah for a visit. They met with Cristi and had dinner together. Art's wife wasn't feeling well at the dinner. After their visit, Art and his wife went up to Wyoming to visit some family. In Wyoming, Art's wife suffered an aneurism and died. It was shocking to say the least. She was buried here in Utah and Cristi attended the funeral.

A few months later Cristi had a feeling she should call Art up so she did. He was very sad and missing his wife tremendously. They started talking. Three months later they decided during a phone conversation that they would marry. It felt like the right decision. So Art brought his youngest daughter and moved out to Utah. They had a blended family with Art's daughter and Jessica living together for about a year until Jessica graduated and moved out. It took some time for Art's children to heal from losing their mom and come to accept Cristi, but now they have accepted each other and really like one another. Cristi is also the only grandma most of them know. She says being a grandma is so much fun!

In Cristi's free time she likes to crochet and cross-stitch. She also likes watching mysteries on TV. She loves listening to music – all kinds and even enjoys many of today's popular bands (Imagine Dragons and Killers). The thing Cristi loves most of all is reading. She belongs to two book clubs. One she has belonged to for 17 years. Her very favorite books are the Lord of the Rings series. Some of her other favorite authors include JD Robb, Tammy Hoag and Orson Scott Card. She enjoys reading mysteries, fantasy and science fiction.

Cristi is a very accepting person. She is interesting and can discuss a lot of subjects. I asked her if she had any advice she'd give to others what it would be. She immediately responded, « Enjoy your children. » She says so often we get so focused on correcting and training them to be people of good character we forget to enjoy them. She says its so important to take time to play with them because soon they will be too old to play with and enjoy. » Wise words from a wise woman. I hope you all have the opportunity to get to know Crisit better, you will be greatly rewarded!