February 5, 2012

Adoption Story part II


We were in Saint George Utah for Thanksgiving this year with my entire family. It was so fun to be with my all my siblings and all my little nieces and nephews at once. Because we were in Utah and because we were with family we didn't even think about our profile or thought to check our adoption email account.

One evening I accidentally touched the email app on my phone. But to my surprise there were 2 new emails. Both from our caseworker. I read the emails and rushed to read it aloud to my family. It said that our little couple was re visiting thee idea of adoption. It was very clear that they were NOT totally sure but just thinking about it again.

When I talked to our caseworker I expressed concern of what we would be going through again. But, some how, some way, she calmed my nerves once more....she is so good at that.

Over the course of weeks our little couple had attended a birth mother panel to hear from others who have placed and started working with their caseworker more.

With each update our couples consideration to place was increasing. Not by much but, it was increasing.

As I put away my fall decorations and pulled out Christmas decorations I knew that this birthmom only had about 7 weeks left. I thought about her all the time. I wondered what she was thinking and how she was feeling.
I cried for her and prayed for her.

It was between Christmas and New Years we got a phone call telling us that our couple was ready to do this again. We went back and forth with what to name the baby, what the birth plan was going to be, and what contact there would be etc... We knew her due date was January 30th, so we had been telling ourselves to not expect him until early February. Well to our surprise, she was having a c-section in 3.5 weeks. WHAT??? 3.5 weeks? Panic set in. I started cleaning the cupboards, organizing closets and scrubbing the house. Romney worked on some projects and built a darling closet for the nursery.

3 weeks til the c-section we got word our couple didn't show up to their appointment with the caseworker and history was starting to repeats itself. The caseworker was still confident that the placement was going to happen. Calls were made and text messages were sent but they didn't respond to anything. In an instant the walls went up protecting my heart and hesitantly I wondered what was going to happen.

2 weeks til the c-section there was still no word from anyone. Organizing my home and freezer meals came to a screeching hault. A new kind of panic came over me. My mind was occupied every second of the day just wanting to know what they were thinking. I went on several walks with Magnus talking to Heavenly Father trying to stay calm. We opened this situation up to our families and asked for their sincere prayers for this little couple.

1 week til the c-section the birth father called the caseworker. They were still on for the adoption! In this last week of waiting it consisted of me praying! I found myself on my knees crying in my closet while putting laundry away, I would be in the guest bedroom changing sheets sitting on the corner of the bed petting Magnus, crying and praying. Vacuuming under my bed resulted in tears and more prayers. I had to laugh because each random place I fell to my knees, Magnus would just come lay by me wondering what the heck was wrong.

1 day before the c-section the birth father called and said everything was still "a go". Though no one except the birth father had heard from the birth mother in 3 weeks we headed to Utah in faith that it really was "a go".

We left California with a dog and a car seat in the back. The weather was ugly. The fog was thick and the wind was strong. The rain was loud as it hit the windshield. But something great was on the other side of the pass. There was no rain. It had cleared and there was a rainbow. We had made it through the storm. I thought to myself about our situation and prayed that this was a sign of what was to come. I prayed that our storm would be followed by a rainbow soon.

We drove to St. George and dropped Magnus off and continued north where we would stay with some friends. Friends who lived 3 tiny miles away from the hospital.

The c-section was scheduled on January 24th at 2:00pm. We anxiously waited for the "ok" to go to the hospital. We finally got the call that evening that baby boy was born at 2:51pm weighing in at 7lbs and 7oz. and 19.5" long.
We were also told we couldn't go to the hospital to see him as originally planned.

We were told to be at the hospital the next day to sign the paper work at 3:00pm.
Wednesday morning we received a phone call explaining that the birth mother was in a lot of pain. She didn't want to sign the papers and didn't want us at the hospital yet either.
Gulp.
We rescheduled the paper signing and placement for Thursday 2:00pm.

Thursday morning we got a phone call stating things were looking good and she hadn't taken any pain meds since 2am. If she could hold off from taking any narcotics a couple more hours she could legally sign those papers. An hour and a half before signing, her body was in pain and she could not last any longer, so she took her pain meds.
Which resulted in not being able to sign.
She wanted to try for placement again that night at 7pm. I called at 5pm to get a report but she had just taken her next dose. Legally she can not sign documents until the meds have been out of her system so many hours.
But she just had a c section, when was she ever going to be pain med free?

I asked the caseworker...."is this really going to happen?" she answered "I am planning on it."
That wasn't a very confident answer.
Our birth mother was being discharged the next day so we knew a decision was going to be made.
We had waited this long, what was one more day...

February 1, 2012

Adoption Story part I

(miles' little hand on day 4)


A little insight and background:

When we started this process we were warned that as a new adoptive couple online we would get lots of "hits" on our profile, and receive some emails. We were also warned that it is common that we will probably get emails from birth mothers and never hear from them again.

And so the story begins:

Back in July we received our first email from a birth mother who was 13-14 weeks along in her pregnancy. Her email was short and nothing promising. Just a question or two. But, it literally took us all day to answer that email. Romney and I sat in our office trying to answer everything perfectly. We sent off our email knowing there was a birth mother interested enough in us to email. We checked our email everyday excited to hear the response but....NOTHING. We decided that we weren't going to get our hopes up and to let it go. A week and a half later we got another email from her. She asked a few questions more. Again we took a whole day answering it. Two weeks went by.... and nothing. We decided to let it go once more. But lo and behold after 3 weeks, we got another email!

After the third email, I called my caseworker to see if we could get a little more detail on who this girl was. When I called our caseworker, she actually had just got off the phone with the the birth mothers caseworker. We were told she was really interested in us and another couple.

It worked out with Romneys work schedule that we could meet this little couple the following week. So we drove 10 hours to meet the girl who could be potential carrying our baby.

We finally made it to our destination with goodies to give and a whole bunch of butterflies swimming in our stomach.

I was so nervous. All who know me, know I have the gift of gab. But not this time. I sat awkward and quiet. Romney did so good doing the talking. I was just so nervous. I just wanted this couple to like me. The face to face meeting lasted a couple of hours and the caseworker chimed in stating it was time to wrap it up and that we could continue to build a relationship through email if that was wanted.

We came home surprisingly feeling calm. A week after our face to face we received another email. They told us that they liked meeting us and felt comfortable talking with us. We started writing emails more frequently, and learned more about each other. On September 27th, we found out that this couple officially had chosen us to adopt their baby. We also found out baby was a boy!

We were so humbled and excited. We wrote back with humility and gratitude accepting their proposal. Daily we checked our inbox awaiting their response. Weeks went by and we hadn't heard anything. I called our caseworker concerned that we hadn't heard from our birth mother in a while, but she calmed all my nerves and had an excuse for everything.

A few days before October 16th, I had a very strong feeling that our birth mother was going to change her mind and our adoption profile would be back online. And on October 16th, we got the phone call from our caseworker telling us that our birth mother had changed her mind. She decided she wanted to parent. The tender mercy was that my mind was ready, and my heart had been prepared.


On the 17th of October our profile was back up online and we had experienced our first failed adoption.

January 29, 2012


Please welcome our new addition
Miles Dean


...through the miracle of adoption.
Weighing in at 7 lbs 7oz 19.5"

January 21, 2012

magnus' diary

Dear Diary,
Today I ran some errands with my mom.
Whenever I hear her keys come out of her purse I RUN to the door in hopes I can come too.
Sometimes she puts me in my kennel and sometimes she takes me with.
And lucky me....she took me with her today.



After we ran errands I cuddled by her feet for a little nap.


and then I ate the remaining pomegranates from the tree.
I just waste them.
All I like to do is peel them apart and go get another.

And then when my dad got home from Scout Camp he gave me a
much needed bath.
And by the looks of my face you can tell...
I just LOVE bath time.

BUT,
Mom says clean boys are easier to love...
so I have to stay clean.

Love,
Magnus

January 5, 2012

A Very Merry Christmas!

Once again Romney had to work on Christmas!
Boo.
But people do call 911 everyday....



So...we celebrated on Christmas Eve morning!

We had fun opening presents.
It's always so exciting to see all the surprises we have had up our sleeves.
We like being sneaky!

Magnus enjoyed being a part of the festivities!

and I enjoyed my new iPad.

After our Christmas eve morning we had to clean up our mess super fast
because the whole Ellsworth clan was coming over for breakfast!
It was a Merry Christmas over here.
I look forward to the new year and have high hopes.
Hopes that next Christmas we will have a little one to add to our party!

December 20, 2011

sunshine in December

Only in California would the doors of our candy houses melt in the window sill.


???????

December 14, 2011

Two Very Exciting Things....

NO,
none of them revolve around us getting a baby....for those curious ones.


Anyway....

1.) I made whipping Cream.
Yes you read that right, I just whipped up some cream.
I have NEVER turned on my Kitchen Aid for whipping cream and by golly I liked it!


2.) After 4.5 years of living in our house I finally used a Pomegranate from our
Pomegranate tree.
We usually ignore the huge red bulbs on the tree.
This tree just came with our house and we let our friends come and take em.
I found a recipe that called for pomegranates.
It was fun to go out and pick a piece of fruit off our tree and actually use it!

and dang it...
It was delicious.

See I told you,
exciting things over here at our house.