Adeline's Adoption Story

On February 6th we got a phone call from our adoption case worker that he had received a phone call from Maya's birth mom that she wanted to place her baby with us ... and her water just broke!  We were in shock!  We had known for a couple of months that she was pregnant, but didn't expect or think she would place her baby with us. It was a miraculous surprise! 

We flew out the next day to Detroit, Michigan!  All the while, we were in touch with Maya's birth grandma and birth sister!  They were keeping us posted on how things were going with Maya, and now the new baby girl's, birth mom!

Our adoption agent in Utah was able to help us find an agency in Michigan.  We met with them the next day and that night drove to meet this sweet baby girl for the first time!  We were just going to meet her, but when we pulled in, we got a call from the hospital social worker.  She asked us if we had a car seat, we told her we did and she said the baby was ready to leave the hospital and we could take her with us that night! What a wonderful surprise!  

There she was - this tiny perfect human. 6.7lbs, 17.9" long, full head of hair, calm, and beautiful!

It is quite a miraculous experience to look at her for the first time and the thought enters my mind, "Oh!  There you are!"  As I know I've said before, a recognition of knowing someone you've never met is an incredible experience!

Maya was asleep, so she got to meet her sister Adeline, at the hotel.  BIG sister!  She took right to it!!

We stayed in Mchigan for just under 8 weeks! While there, we were blessed to meet our daughters' birth grandma and birth sister!  What a wonderful experience!  We even got to meet the girls' birth mom, but I will save those pictures for our personal viewing. I don't know if we have her permission to post, so we will keep them as a sacred memento for our family. 

We sure do love being a family of four!  We are so blessed! I mean, just look at these two!

Disneyland - again!!

We went to Disneyland again a couple of weeks ago!  We feel so darn lucky to have gone a few times this year!

We went during Halloweentime - so awesome to see everything decorated!
We also went to Mickey's Halloween Party and Trick-or-Treating, such fun!

Happiest family at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Maya loved all of the rides in Cars Land

Our little beauty

Maya loves seeing all of the Disney Characters!

Maya's most favorite character this time was Chewbacca!

We couldn't believe Maya was tall enough to ride some of the
'big-kid rides' like Splash Mountain!  And, although her face may
say otherwise, she loved it and kept asking to go again!

Another favorite Disney Character of  Maya's right now is Baily
from 'Finding Dory'.  She was all about the Baily stuffed animal!
And it's not a Disney trip without a yummy churro!

 We don't know when our next Disney trip will be, but we sure have lived it up so far this year!

May Yay!

May was so exciting!  We had a fun end of year preschool party!  And we celebrated my (Rachael's) 40th birthday!!

Grandma and Grandpa came to the end of year preschool party too!

Brandon took us for a hotel stay in Salt Lake for my birthday!
Look at that view from our hotel - beautiful Temple Square. 

My favorite birthday gift - Brandon took me to Alex and Ani to pick out some bracelets.
I picked Maya and Brandon's birth stones- to always have them with me. 

May Yay!

May was so exciting!  We had a fun end of year preschool party!  And we celebrated my (Rachael's) 40th birthday!!

Grandma and Grandpa came to the end of year preschool party too!

Brandon took us for a hotel stay in Salt Lake for my birthday!
Look at that view from our hotel - beautiful Temple Square. 

My favorite birthday gift - Brandon took me to Alex and Ani to pick out some bracelets.
I picked Maya and Brandon's birth stones- to always have them with me. 

Summer Lovin'

Oh, what a fun summer we've had!  It's been jam-packed full of good times!  We started the summer off by saying 'bye-bye to the binky's'.  One day they all just ended up broken.  Maya did so well with it, if she saw a 'broken' (cut) binky we encouraged her to throw it in the garbage.  She really seemed to understand that the binkys were broken and we didn't have too much trouble.  Whenever she asked where it was we reminded her it was 'broken' and she just went on with whatever she was doing.

We also spent a fun day at Lagoon with family!

More summer fun included: 

Above left to right: watching parades, bye-bye binky, swimming with cousins, potty-training, Maya's best cousins she asks about every day, nickle arcade, drive-in movie, bowling, our nephew's wedding. 

Yep, you read one of those right - Maya is potty training!  Maya was more ready to start than I was so we figured it was time to start. :)  She was already going potty in the morning, and getting out of the bath-tub to potty, plus she liked wearing panties so we went for it.  She is doing so well and has a rare accident here and there.  What a girl!

Happy New Year!

It's January already?  I can't believe it!  We wish you the happiest New Year!  We brought in the new year quietly - ordered take out, Maya was asleep by 10:00pm, and we were in bed just after midnight.  But we sure had fun up until we all got sleepy! ;)

Here's a fun little review of our year that I did on instagram - I just took a favorite pic from each month last year (it was hard to pic just one from each month!

Thanksgiving

We hope you had a fun-filled Thanksgiving!  Ours was the best!

Happiest Place on Earth!

A few weeks ago, we took a little family trip to Disneyland!  Oh what fun we had!  We spent 6 days at the Happiest Place on Earth and we were ready to go back as soon as we got home! ;)  Here are some fun pics from our awesome trip.

We went during 'Halloween Time' - so fun to see it decorated!

In front of the castle. It was hotter than blazes the first couple of days. 

Maya - with her face painted.  So excited to have makeup, and especially glitter!

Maya's not too impressed - but we sure are! ;)

With Walt and Mickey at California Adventure

Maya had the time of her life!

Maya got to meet a lot of characters!

Donald was so cute with Maya!

Maya got to pet Pluto and kiss Mickey's nose!

Dancing with Goofy

Hugs from Minnie

Twirling with Tink - they loved each other's shoes. ;)

Checking out Fawn's wings

Hugs from Buzz and a wave from Woody on his way out!

Ka-Chow!

Kisses from Donald - she sure loved her some Donald!

At the Princess Lunch - Maya (dressed as Tiana) was in heaven!

And we already can't wait to go back! ;)

Our whole world!

Waiting for our flight home.  We could have stayed forever!