It's a GIRL!!!!

 

         We are going to be adopting a baby girl in September! We are so excited, but also kind of nervous. We have been waiting for about 3 years and never really new if it was going to happen.  I am excited to be a mom but I am also scared, this little girls life is in my hands.  The Lord has trusted me with a great responsibility and I will do my best.  I have learned a lot over the past 3 years that I think will help me be a better mother. Thanks to all those wonderful moms I have been able to watch and learn from.  Thanks for all the practice you have given me by letting me watch your kids.  I am also glad for all the experience I have had through my work.  All of these experiences and the Lord will help me to be a good mom for this sweet little angle.

         Now to let you know a little bit about our amazing adoption story. It started about three weeks ago when Curt came home from work Tuesday July 10 and said his co-worker Melanie Bee let him know that she gave our adoption card to a lady she met last night when she was walking with her friend, who ended up being our birthmom Jesica. While walking Melanie and her friend decided to stop by and visit a lady they visit teNow to let you know a little bit about our amazing adoption story. It started about three weeks ago when Curt came home from work Tuesday July 10 and said his co-worker Melanie Bee let him know that she gave our adoption card to a lady she met last night when she was walking with her friend, who ended up being our birthmom Jesica.  While walking Melanie and her friend decided to stop by and see a lady they visit teach.  This friend they stopped to see has a son named Jeremy who had a little girl with Jesica a couple years ago and Jesica left because “she could not be a mom.”  Jeremy moved to Logan with his daughter Brooke so he could be close to his mom.  Jesica stayed in Vegas and when she became pregnant and homeless Jeremy helped her out and brought her to Logan.  Jesica was at the house picking up her daughter Brooke when Melanie stopped by.  Melanie began talking with Jesica and found out she was pregnant and planning on placing this little girl for adoption.  Melanie thought of Curt and wanted to give Jesica one of our adoption cards.  She only had her wallet and usually keeps the cards in her purse, but when she opened her wallet she found our card.  She handed it to Jesica and said.  I don’t know what your plans are but I know this couple, they are great and they want to adopt.   Melanie told us that Jesica had three concerns, one was if we would be ok with a baby with Hispanic blood, another was if we would be ok with a girl. .  She said that she knows that guys like to have boys first, and the last was if we were ready for a baby because she is due in September.  Melanie told her we would be so excited if she called us up today and told us she had chosen us.  At that point what we knew about Jesica was that she had placed some children before, and we know that she has some Hispanic.  Curt said that Melanie just wanted to let us to know incase anything happens.  I was excited because this could be our baby, however Melanie had been one of the biggest advocates for adoption and has given a lot of cards away to people she knows who were expecting and nothing has come of them so I did not get my hopes up too much because we did not know if anything is going to come of it.  I was still hoping that something would! J

 The next day Wednesday July 11 we got a call from a caseworker Charity at LDS Family Services who said that she had a new birthmother come in and wanted to show her our profile.  Of course we said yes, but we were not sure if it was the same girl that received our pass along card or another girl. We did not hear anything so when our case worker come on Friday July 13 to do our home study because we had just moved, we asked if she knew anything and she acted like she didn't and that she would let us know when she found out more information. 

          However we got a call from Sarah around 12:40 the next day Saturday July 14th saying that she forgot to bring over some paperwork and asked if she could bring it over in 20 mins.  I did not think much because there is a lot of paper work involved in the adoption process. When Sara got there shortly after 1:00, I went down to answer the door and Curt was in the kitchen doing dishes. When I answered the door I saw that Sara was holding a pink piece of paper. It did not make me think anything was up because they often copy things on colored paper.  The thing that got me thinking that something was up was when she asked if Curt was there and if he could join us, so Curt came to the front door with the dishtowel still on this shoulder.  Then Sara handed me the packet of papers.  I looked down surprised to see that it was not paper work but some sort of scrapbooked card.  I read the front it said Curtis and Christine Special deliver.  An excitement came over me but I did not want to get too excited because I did not want to be disappointed.  Then I turned to the next page and saw a picture of the ultra sound and a big sign above it that said “it’s a girl”.  There was also a CD with pictures of the ultrasound.  My heart was staring to beat a little faster.  The last page was a hand written note that said “Congratulations on your baby girl!  Enjoy each and every moment with her! Make sure to love her as I do! Always Jesica.”   I Looked up at Sara and asked which girl and Sara said they were the same girl.  I started tearing up looked at Curt and gave him a great big hug. This is when it started to register with Curt that we had been chosen.  He looked at Sara and said so we have been chosen.  Sarah said yes, and we both gave her a hug.  She said that Jesica walked into LDS family services and said that she wanted to place her little girl for adoption.  She showed charity our card and said I want to place with this couple. Then Sarah said that she wants to meet with you this Wednesday at 5:45 at LDS Family services.  We said that we would meet her.  Sara told us congratulations and that she was so excited for us. She left us to enjoy the rest of our day.  We found out that we were going to be parents about 1:10. Our life is about to change forever.

After Sara left I gave Curt another great big hug and he picked me up and twirled me around.  He said that we should pray.  We knelt down in our living room and prayed to thank Heavenly Father for this wonderful blessing we had just received. I am so grateful that the Lord has finally answered our prayer. We just needed to wait for the Lord’s time.

We were supposed to be heading to my parents around 3:00, but we just took the rest of the afternoon to celebrate.  We called Curt’s family and we were able to tell my family in person that night at my dad’s birthday party.  We stuck the CD into our laptop, it was out because I was going to work on fixing up our adoption profile, I guess I don’t need to worry about that right now.  The pictures were so cute; we already know she is going to be a beautiful little girl. 

We first called Curt’s parents to tell them they were going to be grandparents again.  They were excited for us.  Then we called Curt’s sisters. Tiff called because she was just getting off work.  She was so happy that she started giggling while she was talking.  After we told her what had happened she said “I want to throw Christine a Baby shower”.  She asked if we had told Maegan and Julee yet, so that she could talk to them about planning the shower.  We called Julee and at first she wanted to call us back but then she asked if it was important so we told her yes.  She was so happy for us and was excited to help plan a baby shower.  Curt tried calling Maegan but she did not answer because she was at work.  So curt sent her a picture of the ultra sound.   A little while later she called and said, “Do you want to explain this picture to me?”  She was so happy that started yelling, she said she was so excited that she was going to do a happy dance when she got home.  She asked what kind of booties we wanted to, I told her the Mary Jane’s.  Then she said that she wanted to also make her, her first pair of cowboy boots.   I bet she would look so cute in both.  Later Julee called back, she was telling us how excited she was for us and how much the lord is in charge.  She said that maybe this is why the jobs were not working out and we were meant to stay in Logan longer.  She stared to cry and made Curt start to cry as well.  Then a few minutes later she was just talking to Curt and just screamed into the phone.  We are so happy that our family supports us and is so excited for us.

The rest of the afternoon Curt and I just were in a daze thinking about the fact that we were going to be parents.  We sat on the counter for a while eating pizza just talking about how excited we are and how much we needed to do.  We went upstairs to check out how we were going to set up her room and our room for when she comes.   We were in the spare room and I just started jumping up and down because I was so excited.  Curt just laughed and gave me a big hug.  We took some pictures of the card and of us holding the card; we want to cherish this day and the wonderful excitement we felt.

           We finally left to head down to my parents’ house about 4:00 which would get us there just in time for my Dad’s birthday dinner.  We got there and we just casually talked and helped get dinner ready.  Just before dinner when everyone was sitting in the living room, I handed my dad the card.  He looked at the first page and the second page then looked at me with a questioning look.  My mom grab card to look at it and yelled out “really”, I said yep, she said “I am so excited for you.”   Everyone else was wondering what was going on so I said that we were chosen to adopt a baby.  My dad said I knew it had something to do with a baby but I wasn't sure if you were pregnant or if you were adopting.  I felt a little bad after that because it kind of turned into a celebration for us getting a baby.  We talked all though dinner, we told them what we knew about Jesica from Curt’s co-worker. 

         We did have cake and ice cream and gave my dad presents.  But we also looked at ultra sound pictures, scanned in the card and talked about the baby shower my mom Kathy and Debbie are going to plan for me.  That makes two showers so far.  This little girl is going to be spoiled.   This one is going to have to wait until after Debbie gets back from Peru, she would kill us if she missed.  I had to email Debbie to tell her the exciting news and just wait for her response. I know she is going to be so excited. Kathy is so excited for me and a little jealous that she is going to have dark eyes.  I know that she wants to have children of her own someday.  I also called my Grandma Taylor and my Grandpa Stauffer.  They were both very excited for us.  We told them not to spread the word because we had not met Jesica yet, I think that is going to be especially hard for my grandma Taylor.  We stayed talked much later then we should have and got home really late.  We were very tired at church the next day. 

 We know that the Lord had his hand in this from the very beginning and we feel very blessed. We are so grateful for the Gospel in our lives.

Thanks for all the prayers and support we have received from our wonderful family and friends.  Please continue to pray for us to make sure that Jesica and the baby's health will be good and that there will be no problems with this adoption. We love you all!         

Here are some pictures of the cute card that Jesica made for us to announce that she had chosen us.

If you can't tell we are supper excited and are always going to treasure this card.

Here are a few entries from my journal to share more about our adoption experience. 

Sunday July 15^th 2012

We had a difficult time getting a hold of Curt’s brother Ryan and his family, so finally after playing phone tag Ryan called Curt after they got home from church around 4:30.  Curt made sure everyone was able to hear except Lisa because she was in a meeting, then he said, “We decided it was finally time that you had a Snelgrove Cousin.”  There was no response. Then Ryan finally said, “You should see their faces they are all shocked, except Emmy I don’t think she understands can you teller what is happening”.  Curt said “Emmy”.  She said “yeah”.  “We are going to adopt a baby”.  She responded “ok”.   The other kids were all excited they asked us the age, gender and when she is going to come.  I think they are happy to finally have a cousin on the Snelgrove side even though she will be a lot younger and for Mathew it is another girl.  Ryan was excited and told us that if there is anything that we still need after the shower to call them before we go out and buy it because they have lots of girl stuff.        

We also went to visit the Kjars, one of our best friends ever to tell them of our exciting news.  We have been friends with them for year.  We have had countless game night, baby sat their children a lot, gone to the Zoo together and even went to Disney Land together. These are also the friends who named us guardians over their children if anything were to happen to them.  Needless to say we are really close.  

We waited until they were handing out dessert to put the card Jesica had made us onto the table in front of Damaris’ chair.  It took Damaris a minute to figure out what it was then she said, “Really, this makes me so happy I am going to cry.”  Curt and I also got a little teary eyed as we told them how we found out and a little about Jesica.  Steven and the kids were excited for us as well although I don’t know if they truly understood what was happening.  After dessert we showed them the ultrasound pictures and Damaris helped us figure out that our baby girl would be due the 24^th of September.  They were so excited for us that we stayed talking until well after their kids’ bed time, but they said it was a celebration.  Damaris also volunteered to throw me a baby shower. I think that makes a total of three baby showers that will be planned for me.  This little girl is going to be so spoiled. We love the Kjars and appreciate all that they do for us! 

Tuesday July 17th

 we went to the temple to do sealings and prepare for our meeting with Jesica. I was listening to the names of the daughter since most of them were Hispanic names and we found out Jesica is half Hispanic. I heard a couple names that I liked but one stood out to me, Aleana.    After the session Curt and talked about the names that we liked.  Curt also really liked the name Aleana.  This could possibly be her name and what better place then the temple to find our babies name. Maybe our little girl was there to tell us or  help us find her name. 

Wednesday July 18^th 2012

Today we had our face to face meeting with Jesica. Curt and I were both very nervous. We didn’t know what she was going to be like and how well we would get along.  We were not sure what to say and glad that the case workers were there to facilitate the meeting.  Before going in we meet with Sara and she gave us an idea of what we should expect.  Sara has been a good case worker.   We walked into the room and Jesica and her boyfriend Jeremy were already sitting down.  Sara had us tell a little about our reasons for adoption, our expression when we received the announcement and a little about ourselves.  Jesica told us about her reasons for adoption.  She told us how she and Jeremy had been living in Vegas in the house that Jeremy was born in with Brooke, 2 Jesica’s sisters and their kids.  Jesica and Jeremy broke up and Jeremy got custody of Brooke.  She said that Jeremy moved to Logan to raise Brooke and to be close to his mom.  Jesica said she stayed in Vegas and she met Matt.  Jesica found out that she was pregnant and her first thought was to get an abortion, but Mat would not give her money because he did not believe in abortion and need the money.  When it was too late to get an abortion Jesica said she decided on adoption.  Jesica said that she tried to go through some agencies in Vegas but Matt would not show up to the meetings.  He eventually kicked her out and she was living on the streets of Vegas pregnant.  The agencies would no longer work with her because she was not responding to the mail they were sending to her, because she no longer lived there.  She said that she had no one else to turn to so she swallowed her prided and called Jeremy.   Jeremy was nice enough to drive to Vegas and bring her to live with him in Logan.

I feel bad that this all had to happen to her so that she came to Logan and met Curt’s coworker and chose us for the adoption. 

 Jescia also said that she is glad to have Jeremy back and that she wants to make this relationship with him, Brooke and the dog work.  She feels that this baby could come between them, and that she does not want to make Jeremy take care of her since she is not his baby.  She never wants this baby to ever feel that she does not belong and that she is not loved.  She wants her to have to parents who love her and she will be their child.   

We already feel a love for her and know that this love will grow in our hearts as this adoption goes forth and after she is placed with us.  We hope that she will always feel loved and that she belongs in our home. 

We also got to see pictures of Jesica’s girls that she has placed with family, her little girl Brooke and Jesica when she was a baby.  All the little girls are so cute; we hope Aleana looks a little like her sisters and her mom.  We already know that she is going to be a beautiful little girl.

We gave Jesica our present we picked out for her, which was a Willow tree figurine of a girl with tan skin with braided hair pulled back into a pony tail, reaching her arms out.  It was called blessings, unexpected every day.  We wrapped it up all nice with a card.  She treasured the gift and was too afraid that if she opened it she would start to cry.  She was touched that we spelled her name right on the card because even her brothers don’t spell it right.  We are so glad that we could give her something to show of our love and appreciation.

 We are excited that we have meet her and are so excited to go forth with this adoption.