It's a ...

 Boy!!!

The little guy was very active during the ultrasound. We got a lot of pictures, but this one is my favorite. Remind you of a famous painting? I'm sure he was just yawning and not screaming. As J said, though, he's much cuter. WE ARE IN LOVE!

Thanks Beautiful J for letting us share this experience with you. We will always cherish it!

Exciting News!

We have a very exciting announcement to make! It looks like our family of three will become a family of four this summer!!! We met Beautiful J via our online profile a few weeks ago, met her in person last week, and this week she gave us the good news. We are ecstatic, grateful and humbled. Even though I've known about this for several days, I haven't written anything because, honestly, I feel at a loss for words. You'd probably think or expect that I'd be shouting it from the rooftops, announcing the news on Facebook, and posting all about it here. But, as I discussed with J and her mom, there really aren't adequate words in the English language to express my feelings. It's also sacred to me in a way that makes me feel very private and protective of everyone involved.

This news also means that our adoption profile is on a hard hold. Basically, this means that it's not online anymore because we have a pending placement/adoption. I can't believe I just typed those words. It still seems like a dream!

Stay tuned ...

p.s. We love you, J =)

Serendipity

Sam's parents and sister have been in town for a couple of days, and last night we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. While we were listening to the narration of and looking at the main nativity ...  

someone from behind called my name ...

Katrina's brother Chris and his beautiful (and preggers!) wife!! 

Serendipity at its finest!

Among the zillions of people there, Chris noticed Cohen's darling wolf hat (given to him by Katrina) and then the cute little face peaking out. We are actually planning to go the Temple Square with Katrina's family in a few days (Chris hadn't heard yet) , but I'm so glad we bumped into them.

Luckily Sam's sister, Emily, had her camera handy. Sam's parents and Emily went with us last year to see the lights, so I didn't bring my camera this time. Besides, she recently took some amazing photos of Paris at night, so I know she'd take better pictures than me anyway. I was right.

Cohen talks a LOT about wanting to go inside the temple. I'm so excited to take him there again. The first time was sincerely beyond words--an experience I gladly share in person when prompted, but am hesitant to share through this medium. I'll just say that even though he was only six months old, he understood what was going on--probably better than anyone else in the room. The privilege of taking your child to the temple is truly a tender mercy from our Father in Heaven to us couples who cannot create children together. 

Anyway, Cohen knows that he will get to go inside the temple again when he gets a sister or brother. So he (and we) pray for that every day. 

November Roundup

our back yard cherry tree

Wow! This month has flown by. I just realized I have only published one post this month and December begins in a couple of hours. Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to this month: 

Sam went to work peeling and sanding the logs he harvested for his parents banister. 

Cohen started using the toilet - very infrequently, but it's still a major celebration at your house!

Sam taught Cohen the art of tortilla making and Cohen became a master of glue while making our first displayed Christmas decoration (it's on the fridge behind him)

For the 3rd year in a row, we participated in the annual Adoption Walk With Me 5K to raise awareness of the positive outcomes of adoption in our community. BTW, Katrina is doing great on her mission. She's in a new area that she loves. We miss her TONS and can't wait to spend some time with her family who will be in town next month. 

Sam tried to use the shop-vac as a leaf blower. It didn't work very well, but Cohen had a blast playing with it. 

We discovered the joy of indoor camping. Cohen calls marshmallows "farfallows".

The newest member of our extended family was born last month. He was born 8 minutes after Megan's sister arrived at the hospital! Cohen calls him Baby Will and we can't get enough of him. 

Grandma (Megan's mom), Cohen and William on Thanksgiving.

We decorated for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Cohen's tree ended up looking very similar to the way he decorated it last year. At least this year he hasn't tried eating any of the ornaments.

One night when Cohen was supposed to be in bed he got into the gift wrapping box and had a lot of fun with the ribbon.

And last of all, some stuff I've been thinking about A LOT lately, but I'm not quite sure what to say about it ...

We've only been approved to adopt again for a few months. Why does it feel like SO MUCH longer?! I obviously have yet to master the art of patience!

This month we've had contact with a couple of different women trying to find families for their children. This time is such a roller coster of emotions. Trying to be realistic while staying hopeful, faithful and grateful can be a struggle at times. Discouragement and doubt keep trying to rear their ugly heads. And trying to make sure we're doing all we can to help our next child find his/her way to our family vs. having faith that the Lord will bring us together can be a tough balancing act. 

However, as frustrated and powerless as I sometimes feel, I always think of those planning to  place their child for adoption and the task they have of trying to find the right family. Now THEY have the hard part in all of this. I cannot imagine the pressure that must accompany making such an important decision. I'm glad we can be a part of a few of their journeys. I truly feel blessed for the opportunity to do whatever we can to help them with their decision. We clearly experienced through Cohen's adoption that Heavenly Father has a way of working things out. I just have to be patient. 

APPROVED!

We're finally approved to adopt again. Even after going through this once before, I still can't believe how much the approval process involves. Background checks, doctor visits, interviews with a social worker, home inspection, essay questions, references, financial review ... the list goes on. Then of course there's all the stuff that needs to be done for the online profile. It's totally consumed me for the last several weeks.

Now I get to relax.

Okay, "relax" is a huge understatement. I'm definitely not as anxious as I was the first time we did this, but it's like waiting for Christmas morning to come, but you have no idea when it will be. Maybe next week, maybe next year ...

Luckily I have a lot more faith in the adoption process then I did last time. I tried my best to believe it would all work out, but I had a lot of doubts. After what we experienced with Cohen I came to see Heavenly Father's hand in everything. When the time was right, He made sure everything came together. He helped Katrina find us and let her know we were the right family for Cohen. And He help prepare Sam and me to be worthy of His and Katrina's incredible gift to us. In the end, it was worth every second of waiting.

DIY Family Photo

The time has come for an updated family photo. We're super close to getting approved to adopt again, and we need a new photo for our website. After our last family photo shoot I swore we'd hire a photographer for the next one.  I should know myself better than that by now. Sam and I are diy-ers and we both dabble in photography, so we made a few alterations to the method we used last time and decided to give it a shot (no pun intended). We scouted out a location in advance and then dragged my parents along to "assist".  We set up all the shots, my mom actually took the pictures, and my dad did whatever was necessary to get Cohen's attention and make him smile. A few minutes into our shoot the wind kicked up, clouds gathered above us in a pre-tornado formation, and it began to pour. Luckily it cleared up for a few minutes before the sun set. We got a few good shots in, but here are some that didn't quite make the cut:  

"Come on Cohen, stand on this tiny pole, ignore the 100 mph wind, smile like you're having a blast, never mind that funnel cloud forming above us, look at grandpa ..." A bit much to ask of a two-year-old! Really, he was a champ. 

I ruined way too many pictures by brushing hair off my face--Sam was about ready to shave my head.

Cohen is dancing--I love this pic, too bad he's out of focus.

How hard would it be to photoshop out the cracker?

This method worked much better than our last photo shoot, but I am glad it's over!!
Here are our two favorites. Now we just have to decide which on to use.

Thanks for being such good sports Mom and Dad!

Beads

My sister Allison and her kiddies are in town for a few weeks. We've been busy going to the pool, throwing a surprise baby shower for our sister Emily who is pregnant with a boy after having three girls, going shopping, having slumber parties, and helping Alli with one of her latest projects. For the last several years she's volunteered with an organization called Mothers Without Borders. She goes to Africa to work with orphaned youth, organizes fundraisers in her hometown, and recently was the brainchild of a genius idea to help the youth she works with raise money for themselves. Through a lot of trial and error, she figured out a way for the youth to make beads that is similar to the way they make bricks for their buildings (a couple of years ago she made bricks with them that were used to build a school.) 

Just before her visit to Utah she was in Zambia where she taught the kids how to make the beads. Then she brought them here to have my mom (a seasoned jewelry maker) help her figure out how to make beautiful jewelry out of them. The jewelry will then be sold to raise money for the kids. Each set (necklace and earrings) sold will pay for half of one year of their education. Each child made enough beads to make two sets, so when both sell, they've earned enough money to pay for their own education. The idea is to empower the kids and give them hope for their future. 

Each child who made beads had their own bag to store them in. We had to make sure not to mix any of them up because each necklace will come with the story of the child who made the beads. As we worked on them, Alli told us their stories--stories of tragedy, brutality, healing and hope.  These kids are my heroes.

Before we could string the beads onto necklaces and earrings we had to open up some of the bead holes that were too small (thank you Sam for giving us free reign of your tools and helping us figure out how to do this) and apply a glaze:

Who thought you'd need a power drill to make jewelry?  (btw, this power drill was a wedding present I gave to Sam--we sure have gotten a lot of use out of it!) 

glazing the beads--being very careful not to plug up the holes again

The finished product. I can't wait to see what they'll look like as part of a necklace.

Alli also told us about a couple of really cool things that happened while we were there. First, a mission for our church opened up in the area, and second, she found out laws have made it "easier" for Americans to adopt orphaned youth from Zambia. It's still kind of complicated, but it is possible. However, Alli has mixed feelings about it. She sees how well the children she's worked with have thrived in their new Mother's Without Borders home, and how they've formed strong bonds to the other children there. Alli has developed a great love for those kids, and a very strong bonds with several of them, but she doesn't want to take them away from their "family" in Zambia. It's a very complicated situation.

I'm grateful I was able to help out a little with this project. I'd really like to meet the kids who made the beads someday. Time to start saving my pennies!

While we worked on the beads, Cohen was hard at work on his cousins giant jaw breaker. Thanks for sharing, Ethan!

Mr GQ

Last week Sam and I went to a local high school to do adoption education presentations in the health classes. We've done this before, but this time was extra cool because Katrina was able to come with us. We didn't bring Cohen, of course (what toddler would enjoy sitting through seven hours of high school classes?), but since he's the main man of our story, and because he's so darn cute, I wanted to show him off.  So the day before our presentation I lifted Cohen up into our backyard cherry tree and snapped some pics. He loved sitting in the tree and cooperated like a champ.

Here are some of my favs.

After the photo shoot he gave our seedlings a "dwink." I really need to get these things in the ground.

This shot was the winner. Holy shmoley he's cute!

Happy Birth Mother's Day!

The day before Mother's Day is a very special day at our house. It's the day we celebrate the women in our lives who have exemplified courage, faith, hope, selflessness, and LOVE by giving others the honor of raising their child. We have three of these women in our family: Megan's sister who placed a baby girl for adoption many years ago, our nieces first mother who lives in China, and of course, Katrina.  

We feel so blessed that we had the opportunity to spend today with Katrina. We went to lunch and then just played for several hours until she had to go to work. 

Today got me thinking about the Tummy Mummy of our next child. We're working on all the paperwork and other stuff to adopt again, so she's been on my mind and in my prayers a lot lately. It's truly hard to express in words how I feel the about the first mother(s) of my child(ren). In adoption circles people often discuss how open adoption can be very helpful in aiding birth mothers through the post-placement healing process. But I also think it's helpful to adoptive families as well. Sam and I are so grateful we get to share Cohen's life with Katrina. Cohen's adoption, especially placement day and the weeks after, were a very bittersweet time for us. We were so excited and grateful to have Cohen in our home, but our hearts hurt for Katrina. We knew she was missing him dearly. Being able to thank her directly was integral in enabling us to focus on the sweetness of the experience. At the time she didn't really know how open of a relationship she wanted post-placement, but we knew that at the very least we could email her to give thanks.  That's something the other birth mothers in our lives haven't been able to have. We have no idea what our next child's birth mother will want in regards to openness, but at least she has a choice.  And hopefully she'll know we celebrate her all year long, not just on this day.

1 Year Old!

Cohen had quite the birthday experience.  Sam's family had a family reunion in Arizona the weekend of Cohen's big day, so we were able to celebrate with much of Sam's extended family and then we had an official birthday party for him after we got back.

Cohen and his cousin Tristan the first night of the family reunion.  Tristan is two months older than Cohen and he acts two months older, but Cohen definitely looks like the older one.  (At Cohen's 12-month doctor appt., he measured the size of an average 18-month old!)  They kept trying to play with this tractor all night, but their second-cousin did not want to share.

Luckily Sam's sister gave him the perfect birthday present the next day--his very own tractor.  He played with this thing for HOURS!  However, he had no problem sharing with all of his cousins--I was so proud!

       

We spend most of Cohen's birthday at the lake.  He LOVED it!

Cohen met his Great Grandma B for the first time.  I'm so grateful they could finally meet.  She lives on the Navajo reservation, about 4-5 hours away from Sam's parents, so we don't get to see her as often as we'd like.  Cohen went right up to her, tapped her on the leg to get her attention, and and then went right for her necklace!  They were so sweet with each other.  

***

For Cohen's party, I made him his very own cake.  The idea was to have several layers of chocolate cake stacked on top of each other, then covered in beautiful wisps of whipped cream and topped multi-colored sprinkles.  I wanted it to be cute, yummy and messy!  I froze the cake to make it easier to cut and frost, but it was about a zillion degrees, so the cake defrosted too fast and little cake crumbs got into the whipped cream as I was frosting it.  The whipped cream also didn't stand up to the heat very well.  It ended up being the ugliest cake I have ever seen!  However, Cohen loved it, and that was my ultimate goal.  Several of his cousins couldn't help themselves either and joined in the fun of devouring the chocolate & whipped cream mess!  I was grateful to the zillion degree weather afterward because we could just hose him off!

Katrina and her brother came to the party, too.  I'm so glad they could share this special day with us!  Katrina had just gotten back from Costa Rica and gave Cohen a really cool drum.  Here you can see where Cohen gets his good looks!

It used to bother me when adults would say something about kids growing up too fast.  As a kid, growing up seemed to crawl by.  But now I'm one of those annoying adults.  I can't believe how fast the past year has flown by!  I am so grateful that I get to have this little guy in my life.  I love getting to know him.  He teaches me something and makes me giggle every day.  I can't imagine my life without him!

Happy Birth Mother's Day

May 9, 2009

May 8, 2010

A year ago tomorrow was the Saturday before Mother's Day. It was Birth Mother's Day. And coincidentally, it was the first time we met Katrina and her family in person. It was also the day we learned that this year would be the first time our little family would celebrate Mother's Day. Tomorrow wouldn't be complete without today. We feel so blessed that we were able to celebrate this special day with Cohen's amazing Tummy Mummy. Thanks for being a part of our family, Katrina. We love you!

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Legit!

Cohen is finally legally our son.  What a relief!  In Utah (where we live) adoptions aren't made final until at least 6 months after placement.  Of course Cohen has felt like our son since we first brought him home, but it's nice to know that the law now sees it that way.

Our legit family outside the court room with
our adoption attorney and adoption worker. 

The very next day (which also happened to be Megan’s birthday—talk about THE BEST birthday present ever!) we went to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity.  This experience was truly a sacred event that will stay with us forever. 

Then, the day after that, Cohen had his baby blessing at church.  Below is a picture of him with Katrina at our house after the blessing. 

What an amazing few days!  We are truly blessed!!!