Welcome to our corner of the web! Here you will learn about our family and our journey of a family member adoption. In July of 2010, after 9 years of trying to add to our family and 5 years after we started our adoption journey, we welcomed baby Emily Rose. Emily's birth mom is Sharon's adopted sister. We look forward to someday adopting more children but for now, we are enjoying our time together as a family of 4!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Finished!

Jacob finished taking the deck out and leveling the soil (of course remembering to slope it away from the house for drainage - thank you home inspection! That was part of our home inspection when we bought our house, the sellers needed to fix a small area near the house that wasn't sloped properly for drainage-which we were totally willing to fix, but the VA inspector wouldn't let us. But if it weren't for the inspection letting us know what we would need to do in that instance, we would have had no clue we needed to do that). He built a sprinkler as well out of PVC pipe and sprinkler heads. This way we can water all of it at once. So the new yard has been de-decked (HAHA!), all the cement footings for the deck have been taken out, the area has been cleaned, the soil has been prepped, fertilized, seeded and watered (alot!). In doing all this work he uncovered a flagstone looking (only it's not flagstone) walkway that goes from the patio to the area in front of Jacob's shop. So funny because I was thinking of adding one! lol This is a heavily shaded area so we made sure to get grass seed made for shaded areas. Hopefully we will end up with a nice, lawn back there. Wish us luck! ;o)
Jacob is setting up the sprinkler that he made. You can't see the walkway very well because it's so dark outside and Jacob is in the way. ;o) Jacob also trimmed the Ivy on the fence back a little. In a couple of weeks hopefully he will be able to get it all out.

Today (Sunday) we went to church, and then it was over to my brother Ben's house for a get together. It was really fun. I will post pictures in the next few days.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Bye Bye Deck! A.K.A. what Jacob has been doing on Spring Break.

When we moved into our house the one thing we really had reservations about was the size of our back yard. The side yards, and the front yard are really a good size. But the back yard is small. Like from the house to the fence is around 14 feet or so. Tiny! Ecspecially considering what we're used to. Our backyard in New Mexico was massive! It was bigger then our house which was 2,000 sq feet. We miss that yard. So does our dog! But I digress.
We set out to find a way to make our back yard more user friendly. After all, when we bought this house we felt it was the one for us. And now that we live here, we know it is. If you recall from previous pictures, our back yard looked like this before we moved in (this is from the listing photos before we bought the house):

Incidentally, the green astroturf carpeting is no longer on the cement. Now it is just a nice cement patio. But as you can see, the deck takes up most of the back yard, making it really small, and really chopped up, and really, not user friendly, and definately not kid friendly. So, this week is spring break for Jacob and he has spent his time working on projects, this being one of them:
Good bye deck! It opens up the backyard soooo much! We are working on getting this all cleaned up and we will get some grass growing here instead of the deck. So by the time our little one is old enough to be playing back here, it will be nice and ready for her. :D We are also going to get rid of all the Ivy you see growing on the fence. It is actually from the neighbors yard and is overgrown into our yard. They want it gone too so we are all going to get rid of it. And that will open up this area even more!
In other news, "K" is 22 weeks along. Only 18 more weeks to go! She has an appt. on the 6th that I am going up for. I can't wait! We started a blog for her. We wanted to anyway, so that after the baby is born we can post pictures and updates for her to see. Yes, she will be very involved in the baby's life, but she does live 2 hours away, so she won't be able to see the baby every day. So inbetween visits, she will get to see lots and lots of pictures. The blog is private so only she can see. We started it early so "K" could see all the preparations that we are making for Baby Girl.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Our Birthmom "K"

5+ weeks ago we got a call from a family member. He asked if we were still looking to adopt. Of course I replied yes! He asked if we were still through LDSFS (our agency). Yes, we are. How could he see our profile online. So I walked him through how to find it. It was then my turn for a question. I asked him if he knew someone looking to place their baby for adoption. His reply? "We'll see, maybe". O.k. seriously! You can't just leave it at that! You have to tell me more! But, he did leave it at that! *sigh* So we had to wait to find out what was going on. One week later we found out, yes, there was someone who was pregnant and considering placing her baby for adoption, and she was considering us. But she hadn't decided.

O.k. so we wait. That's o.k. We've been trying to have a baby for over 8 years (almost 9, it will be 9 years in August). We have been hoping to adopt for 5 years. We've become experts at waiting. Besides, we didn't want to put pressure on whoever this person was. We wanted her to come to her own decision, in her own time. We would honor her decision whatever it was. Waiting was o.k. with us. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy! Every time the phone rang our hearts raced a little. Everytime we checked email, our breathing would speed up, wondering if maybe, just maybe, we would hear something. With each passing day we prayed for this unknown woman. That no matter what her decision, she would be comforted and know she is loved.


Fast forward to Wednesday, March 10, 2010. I was getting ready to go visit some ladies in our ward (local church congregation) and I was was filling out cards to take them with my phone # in them, when the phone rang. Yes, my heart skipped a beat. It was a bill collector who only spoke Spanish, asking for someone who doesn't live here (this is a weekly occurance). I explained in my best fake Spanish (cause I don't speak a lick of Spanish, I really should learn) that no, they had the wrong #. Two minutes later the phone rings again. Again, my heart skips a beat. It's the same #, so I don't answer, I figure when they hear the voicemail, maybe they will get the hint that whoever they are looking for doesn't live here (not sure why since this tactic hasn't worked yet). Five minutes later, I'm almost ready to walk out the door. I was filling out 1 last card when the phone rings again. This time, my heart didn't skip a beat. This time I decided not to look at the caller ID, sure it was the same #. A couple of rings in, I thought, maybe I should look. It wasn't the same #, so I answer the phone......


It was 5:22 p.m. according to the caller ID.
This young woman, we had been told about 5+ weeks earlier was on the other end of the line. She wants us to be the parents of her baby! She asked me how we felt about that. All I could say was, "We would be honored." She asked me to guess whether the baby was a boy or a girl. Our guess, we had a feeling it was a girl. We were right! A lot of tears later, I hung up the phone with an agreement to come up on Friday to talk. Jacob had already left for work so I called him on his cell praying he would answer. He normally doesn't hear the phone, ecspecially when he's driving. Please, please answer the phone! YES! He answered the phone! Through my quickened heartrate, fast breathing, and excitement, I could barely choke out the words, "She called! She chose us!" I don't know who was more excited, him or me! The next call was to Tammy. She was thrilled! So thrilled in fact, she told her dad's family before I could! Silly girl!


We visited with "K" today (today being Friday, even though I'm writting this and it's technically Saturday, it's only 1 a.m. and I haven't gone to bed yet, so it's still Friday to me). She is doing great! A lot of people have been asking me how she found us. How did our story play out. Details! They want details! (I totally understand!) Well, as I said earlier, a family member called us to see if we were still looking to adopt, because she heard we were. Out of respect for our birthmom, we have decided not to give out a lot of details, ecspecially not online. But we will say this. We have known her for a very very long time. She is not new to us. When we went to see her today, it wasn't our first time meeting, far from it. Somehow, we were still nervous. So was she. We were surprised when we found out the young woman considering us was "K", but, at the same time, we knew. We knew it was her. I don't know how we knew, but we did. We have known for weeks, months, really. Even since before we knew there was someone considering us, we had a feeling she was pregnant and considering us. She is a wonderful, amazing, young woman. We are very protective of her, and it is for this reason we have chosen not to give out a lot of details about her. Someday, when she is ready for the world to know, and when we are ready to tell, we might give more details. It really is an amazing story. But until then..... Here is an ultrasound photo we were given of our little one (With our birthmom's name removed of course). Doesn't she have the cutest nose!


There are a few people who know who "K" is. And if you are one of those, out of respect for "K" and us, please keep that to yourselves. Thank you everyone for your love and prayers, and support. Please continue to pray for us, but most especially for "K".


Baby Girl (we don't have a name picked yet, so for now, we are calling her Baby Girl), is due July 29th. And we could not be more excited! We will have a very very open adoption. "K" will be extremely involved in Baby Girl's life. And again, we could not be more excited about that too!


We love you "K"!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Birthday Celebration and Surprise!

Monday was hubby's birthday but he had school until 1:30 and then had to work that evening, so instead, we celebrated on Sunday. Tammy wanted to make him dinner. She said, "I don't have any money to get him a gift, so this is my gift to him." Trust me babe, that dinner meant more to him than any store bought gift could have. And it was YUMMY!!! She made steak with roasted veggies (potatoes, carrots, and asapargus) on the side.
Tammy making the yummy steak! It was a flank steak with red pepper, swiss cheese and spinach all rolled together. Sooo good!
And the yummy yeggies!
The steak she did on the George Foreman grill that we got Jacob for Christmas, and the veggies were roasted in the oven.
I asked Jacob what kind of a cake he wanted, he wanted an ice cream cake, so I went to Baskin Robbins and got one.
Cake from Baskin Robbins.
Silly man!
I know he likes Chocolate Cake and this Peanut Butter Chocolate cake was the only one they had that was a chocolate cake that didn't have Pecans or some other nut. And since I am allergic to nuts Jacob won't eat them either. All in all it was a great evening.
For my gift to him, I redid his office. But I had to wait till this weekend since he was away for drill for the Reserves and I wanted it to be a surprise. And boy was he ever surprised! My mom and Tammy helped as well, and I was grateful! It was quite the task, but the look on his face when he saw it, it's well worth it. He loves it!
Office before. It's in the basement, so it was kind of dark and dirty looking. We all hated going down there. I wanted to make it a nice room where Jacob could relax and study.
And the after. Here you can see his desk and TV. The TV is for him to watch movies, shows, or play games while he takes a break from the stresses of studying. The picture hanging on the cabinet door directly in front of his desk is a Greg Olsen print that his mom got him for his birthday. I also hung next to it a family picture from our recent photo shoot and picture of the Provo Temple. He has his bulletin board and calender hanging right there for easy referrence. the rug he got in Afghanistan. And I had my mom make the curtains to seperate this room from the food storage room.
And here is his reading/game corner. My mom and I brought the chair, affectionately known as "Jacob's ugly orange chair" down and set it in the corner where he can relax or play video games. I put his Lord of the Rings posters up and had my mom make a throw to go over his chair.

He was thrilled when he saw it! And we are just thrilled that he is thrilled!

Happy Birthday Honey! I love you!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Happy 33rd Jacob!

Happy Birthday to Jacob! Today he turned 33! Sadly he had school today (first class at 8:30, not done with the last class till 1:30) and he had to work tonight. So we celebrated yesterday. Tammy made him dinner. I was going to, but she asked if she could as her gift to him. I will have pictures of our celebration later this week.

Happy Birthday honey! I love you!