A happy day

Two years ago today we brought our new baby home with us. We had been registered with LDS family services for almost a year, when we got an excited call from my mom about an agency that had an overflow of black babies and they were recruiting families to adopt these babies. I was skeptical, but excited. I wanted a baby so bad I didn't care if it was orange. So we made some quick calls and found out the lady from the agency that represents adoptive couples lived in Cedar City, but she was in Spanish Fork for the weekend and we could meet her at her hotel to talk. So, we drove right down. Very excited. We almost had baby hungry Michelle talked into getting one too. That same weekend we decided to go to Moab to think things over and talk to our parents. While there we took a quick trip to Junction, and on the way I got a voicemail from the agency saying that Kimberlyn, the birth mom that was due on August 14th and hadn't been matched with a family yet, had been told about us and we were exactly what she wanted. She liked that we had no other kids, and that I was a nurse because she was going into nursing school at the time. She had been feeling like she would deliver earlier than her due date, and wanted to come to Utah a little early. She ended the message saying " I just have a really strong feeling that this is your baby." When I heard that, I knew that Kimberlyn was our birth mom, and that her baby was meant to be ours. I was useless for the rest of the day.

We spent the next week gathering information and paperwork, all the while trying to decide if this was really the right thing, or if we should wait. It was so fast! I had just started a new job at Primary Children's Medical Center, and Kenny was only working part time because he was also going to school. If we decided to do this, he would have to step it up to full time, and continue to go to school. I would have to go to my new boss of four months and ask if I would be able to take a three month maternity leave, and then come back to work part time. One other big issue among many is that we didn't even have half the money. We had been saving for an LDSFS baby, and those were way cheaper. We fasted and prayed, and talked about it a lot. I couldn't see how we could say yes, but I knew we couldn't possibly say no.

We met with Kimberlyn a week after our meeting with the ladies from the agency, and we loved her. She apparently liked us too, because after our meeting as we were leaving she came up to us and said that we'd better get shopping because she wanted us to be the parents of her baby. I went out that day and bought a car seat/stroller, some newborn outfits, diapers, bottles, formula and bath soap. That was all we had until the day we brought him home with us.

Kimberlyn had an appointment with the doctor on the next Wednesday, and she had been hoping he would induce her then, so we were hopeful too. But when we called that night they said she hadn't made any progress and it looked like it wouldn't be until the next week. Kenny had planned to go to youth conference with the young men over the weekend, and since nothing was happening he decided to go ahead and go.

I was scheduled to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights so I was at work on Thursday when I randomly decided to check my messages. There was a text message from Tory saying that Karlene had made the comment that if we were going to be adopting a black boy we would need to learn to talk jive and play basketball. Then there was a voicemail that had been left at around 8:00pm. It was Sheri saying that Kimberlyn thought she was in labor, Amy had taken her to the hospital and I should probably call her back. I called her right away, it was 9:00 by then. She told me Kimberlyn was in labor and was progressing rapidly. I got off the phone and told the girls that I was working with (I didn't know any of them) that my baby was being born. They looked at me like I was an idiot. Then I tried to call Kenny which I knew was useless because he was camping with the youth in the mountains out of cell phone range. After I called his phone three times and left two text messages I gave up and panicked.

Sheri called me through the next couple of hours giving me updates. She called at 1:00am to tell me that he had been born at 12:51am, he weighed 7lb 8oz, and was 20 in. long. It was the weirdest feeling in the world to know that my baby had just been born, but I was at work. I was new at this whole thing, and didn't know what to do. I didn't even know if Kimberlyn would want me at the hospital, so I decided to stay and finish my shift and then go see him. Then Sherie called an hour later and said that Kimberlyn wanted Kenny and I to be there bonding with him as soon as possible. I explained that I couldn't get a hold of Kenny, but that I would try to get out of my shift and get down there. I explained it to my charge nurse (the weirdest thing in the world to try to explain by the way) and left Kenny six more voicemail, and three more text messages. I drove straight to the hospital stopping only at Wal-Mart to get some flowers for Kimberlyn.

When I get there at 4:00am, Amy introduced me to him. He was beautiful, even only a couple of hours old. The first thing I noticed were how big and beautiful his lips were. And his nose. He had perfect little features. I sat there alone in the waiting room holding him for the first few hours. I had called my mom when I left Primary's, and I called her again after I was alone with him to let someone else know how beautiful he was. I left Kenny more messages, each one getting more and more desperate even though I knew he would be getting any of them till at least morning. I just was hoping he had the presence of mind enough to go somewhere there was cell service when he got up in the morning and check his messages. When I talked to my mom she could tell how frantic I was that I couldn't find my husband and let him know we had a baby, so she said she would be leaving in a few hours to come see Aiden, and if I hadn't heard from Kenny by then she would go find him herself.

I sat alone with my baby until 7:00, then the nurse came to get him and said that Kimberlyn wanted him back so I left to go home and shower and get my camera. I was pretty tired due to not sleeping at all since the day before, but after I showered Michelle called and said she'd like to see him before she went into work so I left and drove back down to the hospital that was and hour away from my home. Michelle saw him first after me, which still makes Kenny crazy. Michelle and I were sitting in the waiting room holding Aiden and taking pictures when Kenny finally called, it was about 10:00am. I answered his phone call with "Where have you been?" He said " Why, what?" I said "didn't you listen to your thousands of messages or look at your text messages?" He said "no, why?" I said " Kenny, we have a baby. I'm holding him right now. Get your butt here!" He jumped in the car and drove home to shower then met me at the hospital. All that day we sat in the waiting room with our baby and our family.

The next day, August 5th we went to the hospital again to sign papers and pay up, and then we brought our baby home with us. It's been the best thing we have ever done, and I have never once regretted making the decision we did. I can't think about what our lives or his would be like if we had decided to pass and wait for a more convenient time. We have been so blessed beyond what we deserve.