Although Jake was born on July 20th, the day he was "delivered" to us was the 23rd. It is hard to believe that this day started out so differently than we ever would have expected. We had a 24th of July (Utah Pioneer Day Holiday) breakfast party planned at my G&G's home in Bountiful that morning. My grandma makes yummy pancakes and my aunt Monica makes yummy breakfast casserole. It is a time to get together as a family, celebrate the July birthdays, and let the kiddos swim in the backyard. It started out normal...and as I am sitting there enjoying my pancake, my sister leans over to me and says, "'E' just text me and told me to call her ASAP"...my heart sank...could it be?! I didn't dare let myself hope. I couldn't stand it, about 5 minutes later I got up and went into the house to see what the text was about. As I entered the house I kept hearing my sister over and over say, "Are you sure? Is this your choice? Are you sure?" Upon hanging up the phone, my sister said the words that I had hoped to hear the past 7 months. She told me, "she doesn't want him and she wants you to have him". I still wasn't sure, and had been let down so many times previous to this by her, that I couldn't dare hope. Jenny confirmed my hopes and said, no really, this is it. We both hugged and sobbed as we rejoiced in the amazing blessing this would be to our families.
If I can slightly detour from the course of this blog post for just a moment and speak on somewhat of a personal level...my sister and broter-in-law had a beautiful baby girl 6 years ago (Zoey). When Zoey was approximately 2, they started the "let's have another baby" discussions. After about 3 years of trying, and testing on both of their parts, there were no 'physical' answers as to the reason why they were not able to get pregnant again. They decided after much prayer and fasting, they would look into adoption. In a few short months (we realize adoption normally can take much, much longer), they were blessed with their beautiful little girl, Layney. After a few months, and we had heard from Layney's birth-mother that she was pregnant again, I had the most amazing thoughts that the reason for my sister not being able to get pregnant was because she needed to adopt and build a relationship with this birth-mother, so that our family would be possible. Of course, we do not know the reason for all things, but we'd like to think that our Heavenly Father definitely had his hand in the mix of helping these babies get to where they needed to be.
Ok, so back to July 23rd... once my sister got off the phone with the birth-mom, we made several attempts to reach an attorney - on a Saturday and on a holiday weekend! We were blessed to have Alan's (my cousin who is on a mission in Guatemala) girlfriend at the breakfast party...she suddenly realized she knew an adoption attorney that was in her ward. We were able to get his home number and reach him on a Saturday. He helped us know all that we needed to know for that day and that we would get everything legal with the courts on Tuesday (after the holiday weekend). We ran home and dropped of our girls (2 dogs)...we got together some paper work and we were off to pick up our new son. Within a few short hours we had our beautiful baby home.
Here are some pictures of our delivery day...
Sunday, August 14, 2011
The Day of Our Delivery...July 23, 2011
Jake's 1st Bath at Home
Jake got a bath the night we got him home. I was quite nervous to bathe him, so I asked my sister to stay and help. Jenny helped buy some of our necessities the day we got him home and this cute tub was one of them! Since the 1st bath we have decided it is much easier to bathe him on the counter-top. I felt like such a horrible mother during his 1st bath - he cried and cried and I kept getting more upset because I was making him more upset. But since then, he is a charm to bathe. He actually kind of likes it (i think!). He no longer cries (for the most part). I love this cute boy.
A few more cute "after the bath" pics from the past couple weeks...
Layney Turns oNe!!
Swimming Fun!
Aunt Diane with Jake
Aunt Diane with Layney
Tess & Angel, Adacia & Donnie (Diane not in picture), Me & Jake, and Jenny & Layney
We're here to party...too bad Jake just wants to sleep
Cake by Dawn...super cute and really yummy!
Daddy feeding Jakey
Jake got all tired out...Gramma took advantage of some snuggling time!
The cute birthday girl!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Jake Stephen Miller - Born 7/20/11
This has been the most unbelievable week! We are grateful beyond belief for this most amazing blessing. Jake Stephen Miller was born Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at approximately 6pm. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces. Jake is so cute and such a good baby. My emotions have been on a roller-coaster ride for the past 7 months. Here is our story on how this beautiful baby boy came to be ours:
It all started 1 year ago today when my sister, Jenny, and her husband, Ben, adopted their little girl (“L”). Today happens to be little “L’s” 1 year birthday. Their story was wonderful too, but I'll start after they adopted their little girl. When “L” was approx 4 months old, Jenny got a phone call from “L’s” birth-mom that she was pregnant again. She asked Jenny if they would ever want to adopt this baby. Jenny and Ben didn't feel like it was time for them and having the 2 babies so close together could put a lot of stress on them, especially financially. However, she told the birth-mom that her sister and brother-in-law (me and Steve) were starting to look into adoption and might be interested. Jenny talked to me about it and I was instantly intrigued. The birth-mom nonchalantly told Jenny, "Your sister can have this baby". These discussions all started happening in January. We started filling out paperwork with LDS Family Services and attended their orientation meetings. In April, the birth-mom told LDS Family Services that she was not going to place the baby for adoption and instead wanted to keep the baby. We were devastated and heart-broken, but knew our kids would get to us in some manner. A couple of months went by. Even though she said she was keeping him, I continued to hope. Steve and I still prayed every night for the birth-mom. We prayed that she would be touched in some way to have a change of heart and reconsider giving this baby a better life that we really felt we could give to him. About 1 week before he was born, the birth-mom contacted Jenny requesting a visit with “L”. Jenny was open to this in hopes that maybe she was having second thoughts and would feel something while meeting with her and in return, change her mind. The visit never happened because she went into labor 5 days early and gave birth to this precious baby boy. Jenny still said she would do a visit with the birth-mom. She went to the hospital on day 2 to visit the new baby, the birth-mom, and let “L” see her new "birth-brother". At this point, she never brought up anything about adoption. These 2 days following the birth of the baby were emotionally horrible for me. I was mad and frustrated at God. I didn't know why he wouldn't allow this baby to get to us when we really felt he was ours. I think I shed more tears those couple days than I had my whole life. Then it all changed! Saturday morning (he was born on Wednesday), Jenny got a text message from the birth-mom to call her ASAP. I happened to be with Jenny at the time. She immediately called the birth-mom to see what was going on. The birth-mom proceeded to tell Jenny that she wanted to give the baby to her sister (me)! Jenny asked the birth-mom if she was sure – she seriously asked her like 20 times. She was sure. She said she just couldn't give him what he deserved. She felt her apartment was no place a baby should be (and it wasn't!). We were able to find an attorney to talk to on a Saturday and by 1:30pm we were ready to pick up our new baby boy. We had him home by 3pm that day. It has been a whirlwind ever since trying to complete all of the paperwork and get everything done so the adoption is official. We love every second of it though. I can’t really explain the feelings I had, but I just knew he was ours. We instantly fell in love with him.
Anyway, there is our adoption story. It was an emotional roller-coaster for several months, but in the end it was well worth it!
I'm learning to survive on a few less hours of sleep a night, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Steve loves being a dad and adores little Jake. It is fun to watch him be a dad to this little boy. Amazing how quickly you can develop unconditional love for a little baby that you didn't carry in your womb. We KNOW he is ours...and felt it instantly!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Zoey & Layney
Lola
Lola joined our family on May 14, 2011. She is a sweet little girl. It has been fun having a new puppy. She was 8 months when we got her. It was kind of random as we weren't really looking for another dog, but we happened upon her picture on KSL and couldn't help but fall in love with her. She is very sweet and loving and always wants to cuddle. Her and Macey have been having their issues...mostly, Macey is acting like a little bully and likes to nip at Lola's ears...but Lola nips back at her. They seem to entertain each other well. We love our dogs!
