When we were approved for adoption Tiffany was teaching school and Tyler was working as an accountant. We were not expecting a call from our caseworker for quite awhile but 2 months after we were approved Tyler got a call at work from our caseworker. He came to the school and boy was Tif shocked to see Ty there! :) When we were finally in the hallway Ty shared all the information about a girl named Heidi that was due with a little boy and that she had chosen us to be the parents of him!!! Tif started crying immediately and didn't know what to do! But, there was a room full of students that were getting a bit restless! Heidi wanted to meet with us the next night so the next 48 hours were quite a blur! We spent a lot of time together praying to know if this little boy was supposed to come to our home. We both had the most warm, peaceful feeling come over us and we were both so excited (and VERY nervous) to meet Heidi the next day.
Even though we were both so very nervous, we quickly found out that Heidi was even MORE nervous to meet us! Needless to say, we loved Heidi the moment we met her. She was fun, outgoing and easy to talk to. She told us that her due date was about a month and a half away so the plan was for me to give my boss a month to find my replacement and then I'd be able to stay at home with our new son.
Then, about 2 weeks later we had the surprise of our lives when Heidi's caseworker called us and told us that she had gone into labor early and that our sweet little boy was born!! We screamed and cried and couldn't wait to go and see how Heidi and Bryson were doing. Bryson was quite small when he was born, only about 3 1/2 pounds so he was in the NICU, but Heidi wanted us to come and see them both the very next day!
When we arrived at the hospital we went to Heidi's room first to see how she was doing but the only thing she wanted to do was let us see Bryson! So, we headed to the NICU to get our first look at our new little man. The minute we saw him both of us started crying. We couldn't believe how blessed we were! Bryson was perfect in every way. We took lots of pictures with Bryson and Heidi and promised we'd come back the next day.
While Bryson was in the hospital we kept a journal by his bed that we would write in when we came to see Bryson and also Heidi would write in it when she went to see him in the hospital. It was so fun to write notes to each other back and forth! We gave her this journal at placement so that she could always remember those 3 weeks that Bry was in the hospital.
It was a VERY long 3 weeks until Bryson could come home but finally the day came! Heidi wanted to do placement at her LDS Family Services agency so we headed there first. We took lots of pictures and shed many many tears. We couldn't believe that this was all happening. We were so very grateful for this amazing woman and all that she had done for us. We are still grateful to her and we know that we will never forget her.
We wish that the drive home was as wonderful as placement was. But, no such luck. Bryson needed to eat so everyone said goodbye and we were left at the agency alone. Ty went to go turn the car on and warm it up a little (it was November, after all!) and realized that he had locked the keys in the car!! Luckily, Tif was still inside so we were able to wait in the warm agency until a locksmith was able to come. :) By this time Tif was feeling a little bit sick. It had been such a long day with so many emotions but we started our 2 hour drive home anyway. But, about half way home Tif's stomach decided that it had been through too much in one day. Needless to say, dinner was not as good coming up as it was going down!!
Even though the drive home was awful, we can look back and laugh that our lives together started out in such a funny way! We are so very thankful for a beautiful Birthmom that followed the spirit to find us. We are so very thankful for a beautiful little boy that is full of energy and life. We love him so much!
After we were approved for adoption the second time we again expected to wait for quite awhile. But, out of the blue a call came 7 months later. A couple in North Dakota was considering us and wanted to call us on the phone to get to know us a bit. We talked to Micheal and Amy 4-5 times over the course of a week or so and then one day we got a call from their caseworker. Micheal and Amy knew that it was a VERY tall order, but they wanted to meet us and the other couple in person to make their final decision. It was such a tall order because we live about 18 hours away!! So, Tyler got a very tearful phone call from Tif. What should we do? Tyler was so amazing. His exact words were "pack up, we'll leave in an hour." Ty's parents kept Bryson for us and we made the 18 hour trek to meet Micheal and Amy.
We met at a coffee shop and they poured over the scrapbooks they had asked us to bring. They wanted to see everything and wanted to know all the stories behind the pictures! It was so fun to get to know them. They took us around their town and then we took them out to dinner. The conversation was so easy! It was so fun to get to know them. Then, after dinner we headed back home. We didn't know what to think. We thought that the meeting had gone well and we loved them already, but they had met the other amazing couple and had a very difficult decision to make. But, half way home they called us and told us the news that they had chosen us to be the parents of their little baby girl!!! We screamed and cried!! What a miracle!! Amy was due in about a month, but her doctor told her that she could actually have the baby any time. In those next couple of weeks it was so fun to talk on the phone to Amy. We talked almost every day about everything: The pregnancy, sports, school, jobs, hopes for the future. It was so fun to have that time to really get to know her.
Amy ended up going full term with Maddie and she was born healthy and strong. Micheal called us just a few minutes after she was born and told us to leave the next day to come out and see all of them! So, we packed up everything and made the drive yet again. :) We ended up staying in North Dakota for a week, which was CRAZY! Luckily, we got a hotel with a pool and Bryson went swimming EVERY day! We spent a lot of time with Mike and Amy while we were there and met Mike's family as well. They were so welcoming and invited us into their home quite a few times while we were there.
We are so very blessed to have Maddie in our family and we love her so very much!!
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