Holiday and New Year update!

So much has happened in the last couple months! The holidays have kept us very busy. It is amazing how different this year was from last year. Last year we spent days dreaming about what life would be like with a child and this year we actually got to experience it!

Our special Christmas:

Christmas Eve was special this year! At 4:30 pm on Christmas Eve we became a forever family of three! It didn't feel real and on Christmas EVE?? What an amazing Christmas gift. We were over the moon this Christmas.

On top of our family Christmases, we got to add another little family Christmas with Kaetheo's birth family, and it was pretty amazing! We had them over to our house, exchanged presents, they got to hold and play with Kaetheo while we all caught up since we hadn't seen each other for a couple weeks! Kaetheo even got to meet his birth great-grandma! Although we have only known them for a couple months, our hearts just have this amazing love for them.

We read on a blog post recently about the term "WHY ME?" and it hit home. The excerpt below was particularly meaningful to us.

5.) It will be worth it.

When we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility, I always asked myself, "WHY ME?"

When the going got tough with the adoption process, I often times asked myself, "WHY ME?"

It's easy to be angry when you wonder WHY the adoption process is so hard. Why it's such a
roller coaster. Why there's so much red tape.

But when you hold that sweet baby in your arms, it will be worth it.

These days I find myself looking in the mirror while holding Olivia [she loves to see herself], and I ask myself the same question: "WHY ME?" except in a completely different context.

Why did God choose me to be Olivia's mom?

Why did her birth momma feel I was deserving to be this precious girl's forever mom?

What did I do to deserve such a perfect, AMAZING gift?

It is such an honor to be an adoptive parent.

There aren't adequate words to describe how awesome it feels to be CHOSEN.

Click here to read the entire blog post. 

This is exactly how we feel and have felt. She explains that through infertility and the adoption process couples often ask them selves "Why us?" Of all people "Why us?" Then she goes on to explain how after you're chosen, and have your child in your arms, the question meaning changes completely. Very often we can't fathom to understand "Why us". I, too, have looked in the mirror holding Kaetheo thinking out of all people in this world what did I do to deserve his birth family to chose us. I can't say it better then she did without plagiarizing so just read it! ^^:)  

Grandparents with all the grand babies

Admiring his presents

Kaetheo and Great-grandpa 

Christmas -Jordan's side 

Kaetheo and his cousin Thorin. Matching Pjs<3

Kaetheo update:

Bouncer at Nema's (Grandma's) house

He has grown SOO much. He is already in 9 month clothing. He rolled over for the first time right before he turned 3 months old, but isn't super consistent with it yet. 

He loves his jumparoo bouncer. He had so much fun in it we caught him almost falling asleep in it last night.

He generally sleeps from about 7:30 pm to 7:00 am, which gives mommy and daddy a lot of catch up time on cleaning the house (and of course sleeping). We have been working on his leg strength and we are starting to think he will walk before he crawls!  

He loves grabbing his feet! His personality is getting bigger and bigger each day. If we pretend to look away from him he will make a loud yell and when we look back he belly laughs. He sure knows how to get our attention <3 


Our must haves this month were his play mat, bouncer, and rattle OBall!

His laugh is precious. We got it on video just last night<3.

In November Kaetheo got to meet his great great Grandmother. (Jordan's great-grandma). We were fortunate enough to take a special five-generation picture that not many have the opportunity to take. Unfortunately, a couple months later Grandma Miller passed away. We feel lucky that he had the chance to meet her even if it was just once. Grandma Miller was a tremendous woman and she will be missed very much by her family.

5 Generations <3 

4 month pictures!! He loves standing<33

Kaetheo was baptized 1 day short of his 4 month birthday! It was a very special day for all of us<3 Both sides of our families came to celebrate his special day with us!

Until next time!! 

Xo 

Parallel Journeys

When a family decides to adopt for the first time I don't believe they understand the full journey they are about to encounter. For some, everything goes very smoothly. For others, not so lucky. But in the end, we all end up in the same place - with a child we love more then anything, and many more friends that they met through their journey.

We have met a lot of adoptive couples that we stay in touch with: Some from other blogs, some from our adoption education courses, and some we just met in passing. One couple in particular is very important to us: Amber and Dan. We met them through our agency, and we think our story of how we came to know each other so well is pretty amazing!

www.facebook.com/amberanddanieladopt

Back in June right after we had our failed adoption our adoption worker had called to ask us if we would be willing to give out our contact information to another couple that was encountering the same heartbreak. The baby girl they thought was going to be their daughter was also reclaimed from them. She was born one day after the baby boy that was reclaimed from us. Of course we immediately said yes, give them our number and email. We started to check our email, constantly hoping the family would reach out to us. Although we would wish the pain we went through on no one, it was a relief to know we weren't the only ones. All we wanted was for someone to talk to that understood the agony we were going through. Minutes later an email popped up and it was Amber. 

We talked through email, and it was clear we all were feeling the same way: pain, hurt, anger, frustration, hopelessness. Soon after talking with each other, we both got the courage and re-entered our agency's profile book as waiting families, again. As we moved on and time passed, we kept in touch. We all had good days and bad days. We had been meaning to meet up for dinner a couple of times, but life was very busy for all of us. We became Facebook friends and started following each others' journeys. 

Shortly after, they became matched with another amazing birthmother who was due in the beginning of October. We were happy and excited that one of us was able to move forward. We got updates about how things were going for them and the birthfamily they were matched with, which was refreshing because it gave us hope that it could happen for us again too. However we still had our bad days. I remember one day in particular my spirits were down, I reached out to Amber spilling my guts on how scared I was that we were going to wait forever, how would we be so lucky to be chosen twice in the same year? She picked me up when I needed it most and helped me through that rough day which I can't thank her enough for! Little did I know our happiness was coming, very soon!

Amber kept me updated and told me that they were expecting their little girl to come in the next week. They were super excited and nervous and of course we were for them! A week passed and all of a sudden our phone rang. It was "the" call, the right one this time, for us! A birthmother had chosen us. She was in labor, and we were asked to  meet her the next day! I immediately told Amber and she rejoiced with me! We were both hopeful to become parents again. IN THE SAME WEEK! They were born one day apart just like before :-) Their little girl, Opal, was born one day after Kaetheo was born, and we just so happened to be in the same hospital, just three rooms apart from each other!  We met Amber and Dan in person for the first time at the hospital, and it was amazing to be able to support each other excitedly as we got to take our new little loves home!

So in a nutshell: we each lost a baby, a boy and a girl, born a day apart. Then we both found our babies, a boy and a girl, born a day apart! How crazy??

Since then, we have attended each other's baby showers, talked constantly about how things are going, and finally got a picture of the two lovable babies together!

We all agreed that we would not change one thing about our journeys. We would go through the heartache and heartbreak again to get chosen by Opal's and Kaetheo's birth families. We are so thankful for them! So here is this quote again, and this time we know it's true:

Two month update!

Two months today! Update on Kaetheo and life in the last month<3


This is going to be one long blog post full of pictures & updates! We finally got the pictures off the camera from the hospital and when Kaetheo came home with us. Also just some cute pictures of Kaetheo's adorable smile and of course our amazing shower !!

Two Months

Kaetheo has amazed us with how much he has grown in just one month! He can reach for toys, stick his tongue out back at you, and of course he loves to talk to us! He has started sleeping through the night pretty regularly which is AMAZING. The first time was a little nerve racking, we didn't get much sleep because we woke up waiting for him to wake up! :) He is eating 7 oz about every 4 hours and he has his two month check up on Friday. I am not excited about shots :( He is still in 6 month sized clothes. He smiles at us all the time, I just love going to get him from his crib in the morning to see how excited he is to see us! He is the love of our lives! 

 

Hospital and home!

Proud and excited new grandpa, grandma and aunties

New grandma (Jordan's mom) kisses 

New auntie and uncle visiting

Just got home<3

Auntie Kaitlyn (Jordan's Sister) holding Kaetheo

New grandpa (Kaylah's dad) holding Kaetheo

Auntie Sierra (Kaylah's sister ) holding Kaetheo

Kaylah's side of the family. New cousins, aunts, grandma and grandpa 

Shower #1 Kaylah's side 

The weekend of the 15th was amazing! My mom, sister and cousins threw us a shower and the turn out was way more than we expected! We had family and friends drive from over 3+hours away just to celebrate our little family of three. We had over 110 family /friends show up! The house and garage were both packed with love for Kaetheo. We tried very hard to talk to every single person, we wanted to make sure everyone knew how thankful we were for their support throughout our journey to find our sweet little guy.

Almost everyone brought a book for Kaetheo. Inside they got to write a message to him so when we read him bedtime stories he will know who the book is from. He now has quite a collection of bedtime stories! We have already started reading them to him <3

Cousins <3 Mason (5 weeks) , Kaetheo (6 weeks) , Thorin(5 months), Elliana (10 weeks)