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.