Final day of Adoption Month

And what a sweet way to spend it.  The final day of this month, we were blessed to have our courageous birth mom place little McKinley with our family!

McKinley holding her birth momma's hand after she was dressed in her I {heart} my birth mother onesie.

It's been an emotional journey and we are sad for the hurt that our birth mom is feeling.

But the experience has taught and changed us so much.

I thought I knew the love of a mother. 

When you see a mother place the dreams for her child before the wants of her hearts it's pretty incredible.

And life-changing.

And then my Dad started laughing tonight about how our sleep patterns were going to change.

And I honestly was excited about getting up in the middle of the night.

This is what we have hoped for and Ryan wondered if it would realistically ever happen.

Everywhere in nature we are taught the lessons of patience and waiting. We want things a long time before we get them, and the fact that we want them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come.

~Joseph F. Smith

Life is pretty precious.

The most beautiful miracle

She's here.  And she's perfect.

Just as I was getting to hold her for the first time, the kids were oohing and aahhing over her.  Then Tanner pipes up with, "I think we should have TWO babies."

 And as much as we love this tiny little girl, we love her birth parents just as much.

We are so thankful for this little miracle.

Mommychat regarding adoption

We found out today that our birth mom will be induced this week!  We are thrilled and excited, but also worried for the pain our birth mom will experience and nervous for the delivery with her health concerns.  I don't know if I even know how I feel now that I say that...

I will tell you that when I told the kids the news that our birth mom shared with us, their eyes grew wide and they started jumping up and down and chanting, "I'm gonna have a sister.  I'm gonna have a sister in a couple of days.  I'm gonna have a sister."  They can hardly stand themselves.

So I decided to link up to a blog I follow, whose author is an adoptive mommy.  Her name is Lindsey Redfern, and her blog is the r house.  She did an interview for an internet channel and split up her first sons' adoption story into three parts.  Since we will most likely be experiencing placement this week I will suggest listening to her story on portion 2.  Of course you can go to her blog to see the links for the entire story.

One last thing.  I have a livestrong type bracelet that I got at our FSA Conference a couple of weeks ago.  (I had one in May, but I think Gracie acquired it.)  It is something that I have decided I might wear forever.  It says Birth mothers Never Forget.  Or you could read it as "Never Forget Birth Mothers".  I think it's a powerful reminder and our birth mom will be in the front of our minds all this week and many years to come.  How could we forget her loving care and choice to place her baby in our family?  In a week of Thanksgiving, we truly feel we have SO much to be grateful for.  And this is what our baby girl will wear home from the hospital when the day comes.

National Adoption Awareness Month

With National Adoption month comes the challenge to spread awareness of the blessing that is adoption.  I wish I could blog everyday this month, but in reality, I am preparing for a beautiful baby in my home and I have given myself a long list of to do's before she comes.  I decided a weekly post would be a good start and maybe next year I can post more often.

Our weekend was full of education on our favorite topic.  We learned so many things and had a great time with birth moms and other adoptive couples.

I was given the job of photographing the event.  Here are some of my favorites:

Ryan loves to take serious pictures

A sweet 7 week old baby boy with both of his mommies

I also got to work on the Heart Gallery.  These are beautiful photographs of children currently in foster care and wishing for a family.

I get a lot of questions about what kind of adoption we will have: open or closed.  We are excited to have an open adoption where our baby girl will be able to have a relationship with her Birth Mom.  We truly are excited for our daughter to know where she came from and be able to ask questions of her birth mom that we might have never thought to ask.  Is it possible for a child to have too many people loving it?  I hope we will be posting pictures like the one above with a sweet baby girl and her Birth AND Adoptive Mom.  Only a few weeks left before baby's arrival!

National Adoption Day is November 20th.  Mark it on your calendar and take a minute to watch this beautiful video from a presenter I got to hear over the weekend.

Veggies for sale

 
 A few weekends ago, our housing community held a garage sale.  Our kids were really wanting to earn some money and Braden starting going through all of his things assigning prices so he could buy some new lego sets!  Usually I would be ok with that if it weren't brand new things that I know he loves...so we told the kids that they could sell some of the bounty from the garden.  Afterall we have used our kids to help with weed control and watering this summer, so we figured they could help pick and then make some money for their efforts.       

Ryan helped the kids with some signs and I suggested some inticing prices so the kids could get lots of traffic.  Carrots 10 cents a piece, cucumbers 50 cents a piece, and zucchini $3.  (They were mammoth in size.)

Braden brought the play cash register and sat at the picnic table as the cashier.  Ryan and Tanner helped to bag produce.  Gracie held the signs and yelled "Fresh veggies from the garden" with Tanner.

In two hours time, they sold out of their produce and made around $27 + change!  They were stoked with their earnings that they split evenly.

Weekend getaway

When Ryan's dad told us he was going to be married in Utah this summer, Ryan and I figured it would be a perfect opportunity for a romantic getaway. We booked a room in the Hines Mansion in Provo, where we stayed in the same room that we occupied the night of our wedding! The Library has a secret door that reveals a bathroom and a private exit! There's also a spiral staircase in the room that leads to a private jetted tub on the second floor.

We did lots of this on our weekend away. See Ryan enjoying the bed and breakfast?

We went to Raging Waters where we went on these CRAZY slides. It was so scarey, I only did it once and screamed the entire time.

Just in case they don't look very scarey to you, here's the description straight from the park:

Calling all thrillseekers...Get ready to break the speed limit! Dare to take a vertical plunge from the top of a 70 foot high tower then travel more than 30 mph down a 244 foot long, head-first slide to the bottom. Can you make it over the "hump"?

And honestly, you ride a little tobaggan-like sled down the slide! When you drop down the SEVEN STORIES high slide head first, your stomach and legs separate from the slide so you feel like your doing a handstand. NO JOKE! And Ryan went on the crazy U slide. TWICE!

Seriously, I got out of the pool afterwards and couldn't stop shaking while I watched Ryan go down his INSANE slide again.

We also went up to the canyon where Ryan proposed almost ten years ago. While we got lost and lost our time to find the exact spot, it was still fun to drive through the canyons and relive those memories.

Our final day of the getaway was the wedding of John and Linda. They were married August 21, 2010 in the Ogden Botanical Gardens. Look how happy they are...

Rock Star

Our birth mom is SO COOL. She stopped by on her motorcycle yesterday! All male members of this household were practically drooling over that piece of machinery. Just when I thought she couldn't climb any higher in the cool factor, she continues to climb. I think she officially reached Rock Star status in this house especially when we watched her drive away... Now Ryan thinks he needs one.

It's a girl!

Our sweet friend who was considering an adoption plan for her baby contacted us a week and a half ago to let us know that we would be the family for her baby! After tears and bouncing around and lots of hugs between Ryan and I, we drafted our reply.

Thank you. Thank you for trusting in us and for allowing us this opportunity. Thank you for being such a special part of our family.

We just feel so blessed. She really is the most special woman. Everytime I think of her, I feel like she is an angel. I know I am just getting more and more gushy, but that is honestly how I feel. She is just so special.

Tonight she dropped by to tell us the results of the ultrasound. As you can already tell, our best Christmas present ever will be pink! YAHOO! And our cute, cute expecting mom presented it in the most exciting way with two adorable outfits!

We love her to bits. Did I mention how fantastic she is? Well, she's pretty fantastic.

Exploring WA

My attempt at a weekly summer schedule has the kids and I exploring Washington once a week. We have plenty to explore. I'm hoping by the end of the summer we have seen the rain forest, mt st helens, and the troll under the bridge in Seattle.

So far we took Grandma and Auntie along with us when we hiked about 45 minutes at Rattlesnake Ridge.

Tonight's View

It's been a BEAUTIFUL night at our home in more ways than one. (See the faint second rainbow?)

It's nights like these when your heart skips a beat and you are so grateful for all of life's blessings. so grateful.

5 days of SW Summer

We just returned from our trip to visit family. One of Ryan's favorite childhood memories includes spending the summer at the pool just feet from his home. This year we were happy to warm up and relax at the pool to kick off our summer vacation.

Gracie and Tanner with a thumbs up before heading off the diving board. Braden is in the background looking admirably at the high dive which we noticed him attempting in just enough time to make sure Ryan was there to assist in the landing (just in case).

And what one does (Braden), the others do too (Gracie)...

The pool was a HIT! We couldn't get enough.

We also went to the mountains where Ryan learned to fish. Las Conchas is where Ryan took me when I first visited his home in 1997! We hiked the same path this time with our kids and Steve & Becky's family while fishing along the way.

These crazy teenagers cliff jump into that pool of water. It looks like suicide from below but it's actually got a pretty deep pool below them. I still don't know if I would ever do it. I'm pretty sure most of these kids were drunk.

We also stopped to visit Grandma before we left town. We helped Grandpa edge around the headstone and clean the dirt from the engravings while we talked about how much we love and miss Grandma. (It was really bright. Lots of squinty eyes...)

Now we need to get into our real summer routine. Tomorrow we might explore Washington...

Major events

It's the last week of school around here. That means crazy schedule and lots of exciting events. This week's highlights have been making a sweet, new friend who is considering making an adoption plan, and Gracie's Variety Show. While this week has been busy, it's been a VERY happy one.

Last week Gracie decided to audition for the school variety show with her friends. They had a limited number of talents (18) that could be showcased in an hour and they had over 40 participants audition! We were thrilled when Gracie found out she was invited to participate (last Friday). On Saturday we went shopping and created the coordinating wardrobes. Gracie strung beads and made matching bracelets for the girls. Here's the number that they created in two week's worth of recesses! (Gracie is wearing green.)

Camping at Fishhook

We just got back from our annual Memorial Day camping trip. This year's spot was at a park called Fishhook. We had a fantastic time relaxing and enjoying the outdoors together with my family.

Rolling down the hillside:

Watching the TRAINS mosey by as they flattened our coins:

And letting everyone (including Penny) run wild.

Now back to real-life and SHOWERS.

For this child I prayed

I saw this in a church bookstore catalog and loved everything about it. I love the title, the picture, the emotion, etc.

I'm praying today.

Prima Ballerina

Gracie's recital was Saturday. It was the crowning jewel on an exciting girl's day. The boys had gone camping overnight Friday night for Father's and Son's campout so Gracie and I lived it up. We woke early Saturday morning and went to breakfast with our neighbors who were also boy-less. On the way home we stopped at the nail salon and got our nails done!

I digress...

So here's a few photos until I can get some sleep and add a few more. Enjoy!

(second from the left)

Look at those beautiful blades (drill team hands)! *I'm so proud.*