Our Adoption Story: Our Baby Is Born

We arrived in the state our baby was born in on the evening of the second.  Baby Boy made his arrival on April third.  We had the blessing of meeting all of Nat’s family the day before M was born.  Natalie’s aunt and uncle invited us into their home for dinner where we were able to meet Natalie’s parents and siblings and other Aunt Debbie.  She has two Aunt Deb’s -- both awesome ladies.

Natalie’s family is amazing.  The love they have for each other is very sweet to witness.  Spencer and I were so touched by the way they rallied around Natalie during a difficult time in her life.  It was so special to spend the evening with them.  We honestly felt like we were just an extension of their family right from the first time we met them.  We had fun all guessing the length and weight of baby boy, as well as what time he would be born.  We exchanged a few meaningful gifts and lots of tears. 

We drove to Spencer’s Mom’s house and went right to bed, but I didn't sleep AT. ALL.  I was far too wound up.  In fact, I think I got far more sleep AFTER we brought Baby home than I did in the days prior to his birth.

Natalie went to the hospital at 6:45 the next morning (she was scheduled to be induced).  We got a text from her bright and early letting us know she was on her way there.  Bless her heart, Natalie kept us posted all day.  She gave us updates on how she was doing and feeling.  My favorite text was one that said, “How are you guys doing?  You freaking out?”  The girl was in labor and she was asking US how WE were doing!  That’s Natalie for you. 

For our part, we stayed as busy as possible trying to pass the time.  We took Lizzy on a walk.  We unpacked.  We set up the pack and play.  We ran some errands.  We picked up some flowers for Natalie and some balloons for Baby Boy.  We honestly did everything we could think of to occupy ourselves so we didn’t lose our minds while waiting for the most exciting moment of our lives.  If I would have just sat at home, I would have totally gone crazy. 

(We’re working on making a little adoption video of our story, but here’s a short clip of us waiting for Baby’s arrival.  Most people aren’t shopping for produce when their son is being born :).  Just kind of funny.)




Finally, shortly after 4:00 we got a text from Natalie saying that it looked like Baby Boy was going to be born soon.  She told us that we better start heading to the hospital! 

We arrived at the hospital in plenty of time, though there was just enough traffic to make us nervous that we would miss it. 

I can’t even begin to describe the things we were feeling as we were sitting in the waiting room, knowing our little boy was being born just down the hallway.  It was surreal.  All these years of waiting, and it was finally here.  I hardly knew what to do with myself. 

Eventually, Natalie’s Aunt Debbie came out of the delivery room and told us, “You have a boy!”  Though I didn’t know it was possible, I started crying even harder than I had been before.  She told us he was seven pounds six ounces, twenty-one inches long, was born at 6:10 PM, and had lots and lots of curly hair. 

After Nat and M were all cleaned up, Natalie’s mom came into the waiting room. She gave me a hug and told me that Natalie wanted me to be the first one to hold him. I lost it. I didn’t know how I would ever make it down the hallway.

We walked into Natalie’s room and there he was.  My heart recognized him instantly.

The sweetest little bundle all wrapped up in her arms. And he was WIDE AWAKE. Natalie looked beautiful and peaceful.  She asked me if I wanted to hold him. I somehow managed a yes. And then she placed him in my arms.  A moment that I have relived a hundred times over.  He was finally here!   

Natalie told him, “Look Baby, it’s your momma! Look who it is!” I have never witnessed such selflessness in my entire life.  How do you possibly begin to thank someone for giving you such a precious gift?  We tell Natalie every time we talk with her that we love her, but it is still never enough.   

I don’t know that I have ever cried so hard in my entire life. I just couldn't believe it. My baby boy. I just rocked him and said over and over, “Hi baby. I love you. I love you so much.” I told Natalie, “He’s so beautiful!” I kissed him and cradled him and talked to him. He looked at me the whole time. Like he knew exactly what was going on. It was like he knew me already.



Spencer got to hold him next. His eyes were just as red as mine from all the crying!  Baby Boy got soaking wet from all the tears. We fed him a bottle. It was amazing that he already knew exactly what to do, even though he was only minutes old.





There is no doubt that I loved my Spencer before, but my heart just melted watching the way that he looked at his baby boy.  The way he talked to him.  He’s such a good daddy. 

We will forever be grateful that Natalie let us share that moment with her.  That she let us be the first to hold her little angel.  It was among the most sacred and special experiences of my life.

Best Birthday Ever

I had the most lovely birthday weekend!  Lots of good time at home with my boys—the best birthday gifts I ever received.  Look how cute they are!  Sure do love them! 

Here’s proof:

Four Years Ago Today

A little shout-out to my boo on the news. Woot woot!    

I love you, Whitney! You've made my life unfathomably better than it ever could have been otherwise. Happy Anniversary/Birthday!

Our Adoption Story: We Meet Natalie

We planned a special trip to Utah to meet Natalie.  We were so excited to meet her in person.  But OH SO nervous.  I thought it was really cute that Natalie told us later that night that she had been nervous too!  Probably a lot of the same kind of thoughts were running through all our heads. 

We planned to meet at the LDS family services office.  Once we arrived, we were greeted by Natalie’s caseworker.  We talked with her for a minute before she left to go get Natalie.  Cue the heart attack.  I really was dying.  What if I said the wrong thing?  What if we were different in person than she had expected?

Then, there she was.  Our sweet Natalie.  One of the first things I noticed about her was how beautiful she was.  She seriously is the most gorgeous girl (who had the most petite little baby bump even though she was like seven months pregnant for Pete's sakes).  And she has this goodness about her.  She is so genuine and just has this light in her eyes.  A person can’t possibly say too many good things about Natalie for my taste.  We adore her. 

We had a really good visit.  Natalie’s aunt and uncle were there too.  They are such awesome people.  Very fun to be around.  They had adopted two children themselves, so it was so neat to hear their perspective from the adoptive parent side as well as the birth relative side. 

It was amazing to finally be able to speak in person.  We talked about baby names and what we wanted in an open adoption. 

My favorite part of the evening was when Natalie let us feel the baby kick.  It was seriously the most precious thing of my life, feeling him bounce around in there.  I totally fell in love with that little jumping bean.  It was so kind of Natalie to let us experience that.  It was so special.  We talked about it the whole car ride home.

It was hard to believe that we would get to meet the little guy in person in just a few months… 

Our Adoption Story: Things Fall Into Place

To read the first part of our adoption story, go here. 

So we continued writing Natalie back and forth over the next several months.  I can honestly say I have never met a more cheerful, positive person than our Natalie.  No matter what was going on in her life, she simply exuded enthusiasm.  We loved hearing from her! 

As a side note, I recently compiled all of the e-mails we had exchanged into a word document.  It was SO fun to read everything we had written back and forth during those months we were getting to know one another.  I am so glad that we have that correspondence to share with Mason one day.  Those e-mails are seriously one of my treasures. 

Anyway, we continued to stay in contact even after Natasha officially selected us, and we were supposedly expecting a baby. 

When things fell apart, our caseworker contacted Natalie’s caseworker to inform her of what had happened to us. 

Upon hearing the news, Natalie wrote us one of the sweetest e-mails we have ever received.  She told us that she was so sorry about what had happened to us and that she wanted to be there to support us as we had supported her.  We were so touched that she would reach out to us. 

A few days after that, my phone rang.  Spencer came running into the room with my phone, saying Natalie was calling.  We had called each other a few times and texted back and forth, so I wasn’t quite expecting what she had to say.

Natalie told us that she knew that everything had happened for a reason.  She told us that she still really wanted us to be the ones to adopt her baby, and that she had prayed about it and knew that it was right.  She said, “I really want to give this baby to you.” 

We started SOBBING.  I kept apologizing to Natalie through my tears for crying so hard, but I simply could not contain myself.  I felt so grateful. 

It was amazing that we had stayed in contact all of those months.  Even more amazing was the fact that Natalie had not found another couple to place with.  She later told us she didn’t know why, but she just couldn’t bring herself to look at other couples.  From the time she found our profile she didn’t look at a single. other. one. 

Natalie’s mom came out to visit her a few times and one of the things on her to do list was to help Natalie find a couple to place with.  It just didn’t happen.  Eventually Natalie’s caseworker said that she would help her look too.  This was only a week or two before things fell apart with Natasha.  She told Natalie to give her a list of things she wanted in an adoptive couple.  Natalie did so.

The funny thing is, that Natalie’s caseworker never got around to looking for other couples.  Every single time she would sit down at the computer to search, she would get interrupted.  An entire week passed without her getting online to look at profiles.  Then she found out we were unexpectedly available.   

I have never before witnessed Heavenly Father’s hand in our life so strongly.  We felt so grateful to Him and to Natalie for the courageous thing she was about to do. 

We continued to talk and plan with Natalie and started to plan a trip to meet her in person…

Our Adoption Story: M’s Birthmom Finds Us

M’s adoption story is nothing short of a miracle.  It is really amazing how many things had to be in place for M to join our family.  There is no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father had a hand in all of our lives.  It has honestly taken me a bit of time to organize my thoughts and feelings into a format that I feel comfortable sharing.  I believe what we experienced was truly sacred.  But I also know that our story is meant to be shared.  Adoption is a beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing.  I feel blessed to be able to be an advocate for adoption, as well as share my testimony that God loves all of His children, and has a plan for each of them. 


This is our story.  
   
We first heard from M’s birthmomma via e-mail on November tenth. 


It’s amazing that we even received that e-mail in the first place, because we were already in close contact with Natasha. Though Natasha had not yet officially selected us, our caseworker called us the morning of the tenth to tell us that he had taken our profile off itsaboutlove.org because it was looking like things were progressing.  We agreed that was a good idea, and logged on to our e-mail just to make sure that we hadn’t been contacted by anyone since we had last checked the evening before. 


Imagine our surprise when we discovered that someone had sent us an e-mail just a little bit prior to receiving that phone call from our caseworker.  The e-mail was from a girl named Natalie.  She explained that she had found our profile online and that she had a good feeling about it.  She wrote that she thought we were the ones! 


What she didn’t realize at the time was had she gone online literally just a few minutes later, our profile would have been gone.  Miracle.


What we didn’t realize at the time was that we were actually one of the first profiles Natalie had found.  She was looking at couples with her mom when she found us.  She said that she wanted to contact us right away.  Her family encouraged her to perhaps wait a bit and think about it, but Natalie knew that she needed to write us RIGHT THEN.  Had she waited even a little bit, she would have missed us.  Miracle. 


I knew that though we were in contact with another “potential birthmom” (keeping in mind that at that time that is what we thought she was), that timely message from Natalie was not a coincidence.  Heavenly Father wanted us to find one another.  We sent her a response back explaining that we were already in touch with Natasha, but telling her that we still hoped to be helpful in some way.  I wrote:


“Part of the blessing of this journey is that we can perhaps be a support to you!  Whether or not we end up being the ones, we want to offer our support of your decision and words of encouragement.  It takes so much courage to make contact with a potential adoptive couple, and we want you to know that we are grateful that you reached out to us.”


I have made lots of friends in the adoption community through blogging.  I actually wondered if maybe I could “introduce” Natalie to some of my friends who are birthmoms.  I know that meeting people who have been where I am can be a tremendous comfort.  I thought that perhaps one of the reasons Natalie had contacted us was so we offer comfort during a difficult time in some way.  I later sent her a list of links to some of my favorite birthmom blogs.  I also wondered if maybe we could help her find another adoptive couple somehow.  I didn’t know why we had found each other, but I knew that we were excited to get to know Natalie a little better.  It’s always a pleasure to meet another friend in the adoption community!


We asked Natalie a little bit about herself.  She responded soon after.  We started e-mailing back and forth just getting acquainted and updating one another about what was going on in our lives. 
And so our friendship began…

Those Chubby Cheeks

They get me every time.  I really can’t get enough of smooching them. 

Mason was born at 6:10 on April 3, weighing in at 7 pounds 6 ounces, 21 inches long. 

I really am planning on sharing more of his story soon, but in the meantime… here’s a few pictures of the blue teddy bear to tide you over. 

Man oh man, we are totally smitten. 

Happy Easter

Our Angel

Our sweet baby boy is finally here!  He was placed in our arms by his amazing, selfless, beautiful birthmomma.  I can’t wait to share his story.  It’s a pretty special one.  But for now I’m just enjoying time with my little sweetheart.

Thanks so much for all the prayers and well-wishes!  Our family feels so very loved!