A Forever Family!

We had the amazing experience of being sealed to our beautiful Mia on Saturday in the Mesa Arizona Temple. Most of Dee's family came down to visit and be with us on this special day. My sister Becky also came with her family. We are so grateful for the sacrifices they made to be here and experience this with us. 

This is us after being sealed together as a family for all eternity. It is such a joyful day. My heart is still so full of love. How wonderful to be able to take Mia to the temple as an infant and feel the peace there. I think that she could also feel the calming influence of the spirit there. Despite the long trip to get there she was really happy. No crying in the sealing room, and she was chatty and excited to be there. I look at the picture of us dressed in white and hope that the memory of this moment can remain with us forever!

A note about the white dress Mia was wearing: Dee's Grandma Marie Campbell made this dress ~30 years ago for his sister to wear for her blessing, and it has been passed onto the grandchildren to wear. It was very special to feel her presence with us even though she is no longer with us. 

Us before going into the temple. We should have snapped a picture of us putting her into the outfit from the trunk of our car. Fortunately we didn't travel with it on since we had to make an emergency clothing change in the middle of our 2 1/2 hour drive to the temple. Traveling with babies is so fun!?

Our happy girl!

 Dee's family that came from across the country to be with us.

Carrie's family (Those that could make it). Unfortunately Carrie's Dad got sick the night before and couldn't be there.

 Becky with Mia. She was kind enough to take most of the pictures. 

BLESSING DAY!

Sunday, we had Mia's blessing at church. It was also her five month birthday.  My brothers and Dee's dad held her in their arms and Dee gave her a wonderful blessing through the Spirit. 

Dee's parents with Mia.

I think that Mia was tired of pictures by the time we did this one, but she is still a cutie.

My thoughts about these two days...

We have waited so long to have these experiences and it is almost unreal that it has finally happened. I feel a greater sense of peace knowing that we are sealed and Mia is connected to us no matter what happens in life. I feel that she was meant to be in our family and I can't imagine our lives without her. She brings us such great joy. Dee and I are forever grateful to Mia's birth mother, for her choice to place Mia in our arms. We hope she is blessed with joy and peace in her life. 

 My faith in Jesus Christ is strengthened through these experiences. I know that by following His example, we can come closer to our Heavenly Father and return again to live with Him. I am grateful for my knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the many blessings we have received in our lives.  

Have HOPE for the future. 

Yea!!! She is Officially Ours!

Today we went down to the court and finalized our adoption! Yea!! It has been quite the journey, but everything went smoothly, and we have the signed paper in hand. (Dee made reference to a song from Pete's Dragon afterward, and while I thought it was funny I wouldn't put it as the title of our blog post.)

I think that Mia was the youngest kiddo there, and we are so happy we could finalize so soon rather than wait six or more months. We almost didn't make it this morning. All three of us came down with colds, and fortunately Dee was much better today than yesterday. I took Mia to the doctor after court, and he said likely this cold will have to run its course- so not to worry.

Everyone at court was really nice. People were cooing at Mia and how cute she is. It must be the best court job, everyone is happy for you. Definitely the only reason you should ever have to go to court.

So now we are on the road to becoming our forever family. I just have to call the temple and set up a time to be sealed. (If you don't know what that means, feel free to email us and we can give you more info.)

We are so excited! We can't wait!

Three Weeks Old

Mia has now surpassed her 3 week mark!! She keeps growing and I can't believe how fast time goes by. Her newborn clothes are finally fitting her and in the next day or so will probably step up in diaper size:) Today she started focusing her gaze and really studying our faces. It is amazing to see how each and every day she develops new skills and awakens more. We have had a few colic filled days and nights that have been hard, but Dee is great and helps out ALL the time.

 Are we tired? Of course we are.

 Are we still excited? Absolutely!

We had our first adoption supervisory visit and will have one or two more. This one was at 9 AM. Maybe not the best time for a visit, having been up all night, and a particularly difficult one.
We were asked questions about her sleep schedule and all I could think was... "Does she sleep? I don't know anymore."
How often does she eat? "Every three or so hours unless she tells us sooner by loudly making it known."
But- this is normal for a three week old, and a pretty cute one too.
So... things are going great!

And here are more pictures.. which is really what everyone wants to see. Good thing she doesn't mind playing dress-up.

Things You Do With a Newborn

Until you have a newborn, you don't fully realize how many little things need to be done. On top of doing laundry, washing dishes, going to the doctor, and all the normal daily chores there are all sorts of new experiences for Mia and for us.

Here are some of the many things we have done over the last few days.

 Eating often.

 Having a manicure.

Taking a bath and making our hair pretty.

.

Getting dressed up.

Visiting with family

 Meeting with our adoption caseworkers to sign paperwork.

 

Happy Birthday Mia!

Beautiful Mia was born Wednesday morning and is now home with us. The last few days have been a wonderful, amazing, emotional, stressful, tiring, uplifting time. Things seem like they have happened so suddenly, and now already and finally she is here.

 Here she is! So very cute.

7lbs 3oz

20 1/4 inches!

All bundled up. Our nurse made the cutest bow for her hat, that way everyone would know she is a girl.











Her cutie little foot and super long toes.

 Dee looks so confident already.

All snuggled tight with grandma. They came to visit at the hospital the night she Mia was born.

Happy with grandpa.

They sent us home after just one night at the hospital. We were shocked and thrilled to be able to bring her home so quickly!

Baby Shower Fun!

We feel VERY loved. I had 2 baby showers one with friends and family and one at work. Here is some of the baby shower fun:

 The cake mom made. You can't tell that is is super yummy chocolate inside. 

It reads: "We made a wish and you came true."

Diaper cake / Yummy cake

This picture cannot even begin to show the number of people jammed in my mom's living room, dining room, and office. Everyone was trying to answer questions in the quiz like 'How many diapers do you use in a year?' The answer is A LOT!

 Opening gifts

 The gifts in the baby's room, the shelf and couch were empty before!

The shower decorations which I plan to hang from the ceiling- hopefully.

At Work: My coworker's wife also is due close to the same time so we had a double shower.

 Carol made this huge amazing basket with all home sewn stuff!

 My boss brought this all the way back from South Africa. 

Any work party must involve FOOD... lots of it!

We're Adopting!!! The Story.

We are adopting a newborn baby girl due in October! We just found out recently and this is how it happened.

About a month ago we got a call from our LDS Family Services adoption caseworker, telling us that a birth mother wanted to meet with us. "Now she hasn't chosen you," she said, " but she wants to get to know you.  Can you meet on Thursday?"

With a lot of excitement and nervousness, we left after work on Thursday afternoon and met up on the other side of town.  After getting there early and waiting for a little while,  into the restaurant walked our caseworker with the birth mom, and some of her family.

We ordered food, sat down and talked for about 2 hours. At the end of the meal and conversation we gave her our cell numbers, got up, and shook hands. Our caseworker reassured us that it went well, and we left for home.

Now, we didn't get her number, but she had ours, so all we could really do was wait. Then one evening we received a little text and over the next week we continued to talk...   She wanted to meet up again!

So we met up again two weeks after on a Wednesday. Sorry Mutual girls, I missed the activity. It was for a good cause:)

This time we met with her and her mom. We felt that it went really well. We parted with hugs.

AND before we made it home I had this text waiting for me on my phone:

"So I have some bad news and I thought I should let you know instead of making you wonder......get your Sunday naps in because come October you will not have that freedom anymore... go to Costco and buy 18 years worth of Excedrin. Make sure while you are there to get hair color because you will go gray. Get your date nights in and make sure you have a lock on the bathroom door cause that's the only privacy you will get. Congratulations, you are going to be a mommy and a daddy."

Elated is not enough of a word to describe our feelings. We cried, our parents and grandparents cried.

We are so blessed beyond compare, and are so grateful for this courageous birth mom, and her family for being so supportive of her. She has shown us great trust and great love for her daughter! She has made it possible for us to have an eternal family that begins here. Our hearts are so full.

New Adoption Profile!

We have a new adoption profile on Parent Profiles! Check it out. We are excited to get the word out to a greater audience. Hopefully we will find the little one meant for us soon.

Click below:

Arizona Hopeful Adoptive Parents - Dee & Carrie AZ. Parent Profiles

www.parentprofiles.com

Welcome!

Thank you for visiting our adoption website.  We're excited to announce that we are certified to adopt.  We would welcome an open adoption.  We hope that you enjoy getting to know us better.  Please click on the tabs above to learn more about us.

We are certified to adopt!

We are excited to announce that we are certified to adopt.  Check out our profile at itsaboutlove.org . Today adoption is more open; many children are matched with their adoptive parents through networking.  So please let everyone know that we are searching for our little one.  If someone you know is considering placing a child for adoption, please let them they know they can contact us or LDS Family Services.  Our email is CarrieandDee@gmail.com; our LDS Family caseworker is Hannah at (602) 332-8523 or rawhouserhe@ldsfamilyservices.org.