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!