Nighttime Misadventures

No pix, but funny stories from tonight. One for each kiddo.

So, I'm sitting here typing the last post, and I hear Ella crying (she's been down for about an hour). It's one of those sleepy cries that means she just wants a binky. I grab one, walk in, find her face in the dark and stick the binky in place. As I get ready to leave, I pat her on the back and notice she doesn't have a shirt on, which is odd because she was dressed in a sleeper when she went down. Then I pat a little lower and find a bare, wet baby bum. Yup, diapers off, crib is covered in pee, and little baby is falling back asleep, happy with her binky. No, I didn't just leave her there. :) Sally tag teamed with me, and we got her all dressed again. She is quite the sneaky little 18 month old. Ha.

Caleb's happened before going to bed. So, I tell them a bedtime story every night after reading a book and prayers and before a bedtime song or two. Caleb always helps me with the stories, so I usually will stop mid-sentence and let him fill in the blanks so he gets to guide the story a bit and use that run away imagination of his. Ella is a bit too young to care at this point. Usually, Caleb's line goes something like this: "And then there was a DRAGON!!" He loves dragons.

As a preface to this story, I did a two year mission as a 20 year old kid in Germany; I tell him about it occasionally. Tonight's story started like this:

Daddy: Once upon a time there was a little boy named Caleb. And one night Caleb's Daddy knelt by his bed and told him a story about his mission.

Caleb: And Caleb said, "No, let's do a other one."

Ouch! Guess that wasn't what he had in mind for a story tonight. A dragon showed up very soon after that. My kids crack me up.

Other Christmas Traditions

We do family night every week on Monday night (unless I'm on call, in which case we switch nights) which usually consists of eating dinner followed by a lesson, activity and treat. The lesson consists of talking about some aspect of the Gospel or being good or something that will be good for a 3 year old and 18 month old. Let's just say, I'm occasionally good at keeping their attention but most often the lesson usually goes something like this. 

Dad: Caleb and Ella, did you know Jesus loves you?

Caleb: Yeah.

Ella: [runs off giggling and starts playing with a toy or trying to leave the room which causes Mommy to run after her].

Daddy: Jesus wants us all to be nice to each other.

Caleb: [now he runs around the room making wierd noises and starts trying to climb on things and jump off them. Mommy again intervenes.]

Daddy: Caleb, how does Jesus want you to treat Ella?

Caleb: [no response, totally ignoring me]

Daddy: Ella, say Jesus. 

Ella:  Chee!

Daddy: Caleb, say Jesus.

Caleb: [still ignoring Daddy]

Daddy: Okay, time for dessert. :S

At least we're trying. :) The activity after the game usually gets more responses from the crowd and then dessert is always the biggest hit.

The pictures below are some family night activities that happened in December.

Caroling with friends and family at a nearby nursing facility, followed by homemade hot chocolate made by me with my mom's (AKA Grandma Jo's) recipe. Good stuff! Marshmallow's and candy canes made it even that much better. 

This is the most random but cool tradition that Sally came up with this year which I'm sure will last for years to come. She made salt dough ornaments during the day and that night we painted them. It was an awesome night. The lady on the left is a single friend of ours' from church. Caleb and Ella didn't make it to the end of the activity before dessert was required but below you can see some of their budding art talent. 

A few thoughts about Sally. First, it is so cool watching her do crafts with the kids. I think most adults (or maybe it's just me) get an idea in their head as to what a craft is supposed to be or what an activity is supposed to be and then try to force the kids into doing it their way in order to teach them. Not Sally. She throws individual bowls of paints and paintbrushes and ornaments in front of the kids with butcher paper all over the table and sees what happens. She's really good at letting them explore their world and try things out without hampering their creativity. It's really fun. Ella, of course, had to taste the pain right off the bat, but after cleaning that off her tongue things went really well! :) Second, Sally loves trying out new things. She heard recently that salt dough ornaments were a new fad (coming back, I guess, because we definitely had a ton of them on our Christmas tree growing up with our pictures on them and painted by us, too). After scouring some blogs, she came up with a plan and we were all trying out something new that we'd never done before. Maybe the tradition in our family will be doing a bunch of random, crazy things we've never imagined doing every Christmas. I can't remember if she mentioned it, but she also made all the gingerbread houses that we decorated that are posted earlier on this blog. I think that's pretty cool. Of course, I am biased.

Third, Sally is actually a really good artist herself. It fits with what I just said about her. About 6 months before Ella was born she decided to pick up her art skills again, and she found a community education class for water color painting. She got all the supplies and started painting all of a sudden. She was good, too! I love the spontaneity in which she lives her life. It keeps things exciting for me and her but more importantly for the kids. They have an awesome mommy. :)

Christmas Party

So, our congregation at church does a family Christmas party each year, and this year, I got asked to head it up. To put it in perspective, each Sunday we go to church with about 80-100 adults and about 150 kids under the age of 12. Crazy! The Christmas party is awesome but also a bit time consuming to organize. Thankfully, it went great. I actually really enjoy putting together stuff for big groups of people. Instead of getting stressed, I get kind of excited. This one went great. I got put in charge about 2 weeks before it was supposed to happen, so the whole thing was a bit thrown together. Despite that, our little Nativity play and reading of Luke 2 was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. Mostly because Caleb and Ella got to got out on stage as little sheep with a ton of cotton swabs pasted on paper ears and tails. The effect was actually pretty sweet! Sally is quite creative when it comes to things like that. The kids love doing crafts with her because of it. The funny part came at the end of the party after Santa had come and gone, and Caleb was sitting in Santa's chair and a friend of ours came up and let me know he had an accident all over the chair (and his cotton swab tail). Oops! The poor kid has been doing really good with potty training but in the excitement of the party both he and we (Sally and I) had forgotten to take a bathroom break. Thankfully someone had a couch cleaner at home and took the cushion with them and got it back for Church the next day. Good times. The picture below is of us eating dinner at the party. 

Dec 2011

Joe's Catch Up Post

So, I have not done my fair share of blogging recently (or ever), so I've been thinking I should do some catching up. Be prepared. :)

It's amazing to me how easy it can be to entertain kids if you simply give them your time and attention. These two love playing in the car. Attention is definitely needed in the car, though. :) I asked Ella if she was ready to drive the other day and she nodded "yes" quite solemnly. Funny girl. 18 months going on 16 years. We're really in for quite the ride with her. Oh, and while I'm talking about her, check out her new hair-do!

We dropped her off at a friend's house with Caleb the other day (their daughter is biracial, too, and has hair just like Ella's) and when we got back we found her looking cuter than we left her. She loved playing with the little curls on top of her head. :)

Caleb loves forts and books. The new favorite past time is pulling down ALL of the books at once and then sitting in the middle of them and looking at them. It is amazingly quiet when he goes at it. It's awesome! I love seeing my boy read. He can't really read yet, but he still loves books.

My two favorite times of day with the kids are when they wake up (on the days I'm lucky enough to be at home) and when I come home from work. In the morning, they're both snuggly and sweet. Caleb has started curling into a ball as I hold him and saying things like, "Ohh, Daddy, your warm!" He says warm like "arm" with a "w" in front. I love it. When I get home there's just a lot of screaming and cheering and running around. It's like a surprise party every day. Dad's have it good. It's like you're a celebrity everyday when you arrive. Little Ella just starts babbling and telling me about everything and grabbing my hand to have me follow her. I'm in love with my kids. I couldn't be happier...except with one more. :)

Caleb and Ella love taking my iphone and playing with it. The other day I think Caleb had opened every app on there. He is very entertained by it all. Sally also found a way to keep him entertained (above). The phone has cameras on both sides so you can actually look at yourself as you take pictures. The quality isn't quite as good, but both Caleb and Ella LOVE seeing themselves real time. You'd think a mirror would be just as cool, but somehow the phone is way better. Probably because if they break it, it's WAY more expensive to replace. Gotta love how kids gravitate towards things that are expensive to replace.

The calmness of this scene doesn't happen all that often. I love seeing my family all chillaxed watching a movie. We just recently started family movie night on Fridays featuring classics like Cinderella, Peter Pan, Cars 2 (it was more of an epic failure for our family, though. Ella requested Baby Einstein on the laptop 5 minutes in and Caleb ditched it for "Meet the Robinsons" after 30 min. Oh well.), Tangled, etc, etc. Name a cartoon and I'm sure we'll hit it. Caleb loves movies. Sally is pretty amazing at limiting him to one per day lately. She even does occasional "No movie" weeks to detox from the mindlessness of staring at the TV. That's a hard one, though, because it requires A LOT more effort on her part, and pretty much no breaks while I'm gone (which can be a lot is I'm still a resident in training).

 Fall 2004

 Spring 2005

Fall 2004

Have I mentioned how amazing Sally is? She is. I like this blog better than other ones we've done because I feel like I need to go back in time a bit and fill in who we are since you've never met us. One of the things that I loved most about Sally when we met was how kind she was to me. It sounds kind of funny, but I don't think I'd ever met someone who was so nice to me. After having dated a few other people in my life and then meeting Sally, I realized that I was a pretty sensitive guy and that I needed someone who would be truly kind and understanding. Sally made me feel like I could open up my heart completely, and she would still love and accept me. On top of it, she still believes in me and encourages me to be better. None of this "I love you just how you are; never change" nonsense. She sees me for the best I can be. It has made me a truly better person. You know what the most amazing part of realizing that she was the kindest person I have ever met back 7 years ago is? After those 7 years, she has lived up to that realization. I am one lucky man. 

Sally LOVES the ocean. She has pretty much set the ultimatum that we must be within a half day drive from the beach wherever we settle down for good. I'm good with that, too. We love family beach trips. We've started at least biannual beach trips, now, and hopefully we'll increase that to more frequent or at least longer trips in years to come. The best part of the beach...hmm, I don't know if there is a best part. Sally just loves it all. We bring our kites and half beach tent and lunches in a cooler and boogie boards and shovels/buckets for sand castles. Sally is always a bit embarassed because she thinks I look like a hobo hauling all this stuff from the car to the edge of the water. I really do look like a hobo, too. I love it. :) Maybe the best part is just being in a beautiful, relaxing place with my favorite people in the world. Yup, that pretty much sums it up. I love the ride home, too, when the kids crash in their car seats and Sally and I sit and drive and hold hands, chatting about this and that and future beach trips and how great life is. Actually, the last ride home was pretty much the opposite of that peaceful seen because Ella had an eczema flare and was miserable. Poor girl. Thankfully it's under control now. But usually, the drive home is great. :)

My girls are CUTE!! This is one good looking picture of the two of them. This sub place was awesome. It's over by my brother's house where the kids had spent the morning. Talk about problematic at lunch time, though. See the fountain drink machine in the corner? It's this new and improved thing that has about 160 different drink flavors. It's crazy! But also awesome. You can guess about how much lunch Caleb and Ella had there. They basically just drank soda for the hour we were there. You're only a kid once, I guess. :)

Doggie

Cadee, our cute lab-mix doggie, is getting a new home tonight. We enjoyed her for the past 8 weeks or so--she is super-smart, cute, energetic, and sweet, but she just seemed so bored here, poor thing. Our kids are just not ready yet to play with her in the way that she needs. And then there was the dog hair. I've tried to keep up with it, but it has just gotten worse--Our next attempt at a pet will be a non-shedding dog! :)

I am glad we had her--each time we've had a pet, we have learned something new about ourselves and about pets. And Joe and I both like the idea of having a dog--a buddy for the kids to play with and love, when they get a little older.

When I told the kids this morning that Cadee would be leaving tonight, Ella didn't understand or care (she just turned 18 months :), but Caleb got sad for a few minutes and just sat on my lap. He seems to already be over it, but I'm sure there will be a few sad moments in the next several days. I am glad that the kids liked having her around so much--all the more motivation to find the right kind of pet for us someday!

A couple random pics of the doggie--

Ella enjoying a movie while hanging out with Cadee

Thanksgiving Day, we went to the park while waiting for the turkey to cook

Eating ice cream cones for family night--Cadee loves to be wherever we are :)

A visit from Gramps & Grandma Jo!

Joe's parents are currently serving a mission in South America, but they were able to come back to the states to visit Joe's oldest sister who just had a baby, and on their way back to their mission they stopped in to see us! The kids LOVED it--they sure love Gramps and Grandma Jo!

Christmas Fun 2011

I have to say, I am enjoying the Christmas season more this year than I think I ever have in my life. I think one of the well-kept parent secrets is that it is WAY more fun to watch your kids getting excited over the holidays than it was to be a kid yourself! :)

Some of the happenings...

As we put up Christmas lights on the house a few weeks ago, Caleb ran around the front yard, yelling, "It's Jolly Christmas! It's Jolly Christmas!" (Not sure where he got that, except maybe from that song, 'Have a holly, jolly Christmas...') He was one happy kiddo :)

Getting a tree: The kids had a great time wandering around the "tree lot" in the grocery store's outdoor plants section that was converted to Christmas trees for the season.

They especially enjoyed taking a ride on the tree carts. And drinking hot cocoa at home afterward :)

Playing songs on the piano with Daddy and singing Christmas carols: The kids LOVE playing on the piano when Joe does, and they also love to dance around when he plays fast, happy music.

Some Christmas music fun - and Caleb in his pirate getup :)

We also took the opportunity to go Christmas caroling at a local rehabilitation center last week for our Monday night family activity, and the kids enjoyed shaking hands with the residents/patients afterward, and of course drinking hot chocolate with the friends who sang with us.

Decorating gingerbread houses: My mom made us gingerbread houses to decorate almost every year at Christmastime, so this year I decided to continue the tradition. My first homemade gingerbread turned out great, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be! We had Uncle Peter, Aunt Lindsay, and cousins Joey & Kimball over to our house for the traditional decorating and eating of the candy :) as well as watching movies & playing games. It was so much fun!

Daddy helping Caleb on his house

The finished product!

We've also put up decorations together--which started the day before Thanksgiving when I was desperate for something to do to entertain the kids while Joe was sleeping post-call; made Christmas countdown chains; made paper snowflakes for the kitchen window; decorated the tree (& re-decorated it, as the kids keep taking the ornaments down to play with... ha!); & played Christmas music as often as we can!

Family Movie Night! and Caleb's pretending

We are trying to start a tradition of having a Family Movie Night on friday nights--and from the picture above, it looks like the first one, Thanksgiving weekend, was a hit! Popcorn included :) We watched Bolt, and Caleb LOVED it.

He is at such a fun stage, where he likes to pretend he is a character from whatever movie he has recently watched; or even that he is whomever we have visited most recently, such as a favorite cousin. And sometimes he says, "I'm Daddy," and then gets some papers and either heads for Daddy's desk and says he is going to study, or heads toward the front door and says he is going to the hospital.

End of a crazy week

This week has been a stressful one. There was just a lot going on. But y'know, it still amazes me that putting my kids' well-being & happiness ahead of everything else--ahead of church responsibilities, specifically--makes everything work out in the end. And I am a happier mommy :)

Just cute to me :)

Joe plays the piano very well, and he loves to play Christmas music, especially happy, upbeat music. And the kids love to join him :)

Sally's Thoughts on Joe--Super Daddy :)

Tonight, as I was eating my dinner while Joe & the kids, having eaten theirs, played in the living room, I quietly enjoyed listening to the hysterical giggles of the kids enjoying time with Daddy. And I thought about how wonderful Joe is--what a great father he is! Caleb and Ella just adore their daddy, and they both rush to the door every evening when he gets home--as does the dog :)-- Caleb screaming "Daddy!" and Ella screaming something that is sounding more and more like "Daddy" every day!

It is the sweetest thing to hear the kids almost punchy with laughter (it is getting close to bedtime, so that could be part of it;) as they play with Daddy--he wrestles with them, spins them in the chair, tickles them, and they all chase each other around the living room. The kids also try to show off their new tricks of the day for Daddy--and I can tell that they are just thrilled with the attention he gives them.

Despite all this, we definitely each have our difficult moments & days. A few nights ago our night was rather long, when Ella woke up crying; the dog wanted to be let out; and then Caleb walked out of his room wailing sometime between the dog and 5 am. Thankfully, Joe heard Caleb crying in the living room, because I certainly didn't. We both ran to his aid. He'd had a bad dream & just wanted Mommy, so we took him to our bed & he slept a bit while I held him; then last night, when Caleb came in sad again, Joe snuggled him back to sleep and returned him to his bed, despite how tired I know Joe was. I really appreciated that. We make a good team :)

I am so grateful to be married to such a loving father, especially one who tries to be a better person/husband/daddy every day!

Just being silly

Playing pirates!

Visiting Daddy!

Joe is on-call at the hospital today, which means he is there from 7 a.m. today until 10 a.m. or so tomorrow. We miss him a lot when he is on-call, so today, while driving home from an errand, we stopped at the hospital to keep him company for a little while. He bought lunch for us to share in the hospital's cafeteria, and the kids had a wonderful time seeing Daddy. After we ate, since he still had not been paged to head back to the ICU, he walked outside with us and we let the kids play for a few minutes on the grass, wall, etc. It was rejuvenating for all of us to get some daddy-time!

Getting ready to go, just being silly at home

Waiting for Daddy to buy lunch

Waiting. "Daddy!"

"Dadddddyyy!"

Having lunch! I don't know why we don't do this more often :)

The Pumpkin Patch

October 22, we met up with Joe's brother & his family at a local Pumpkin Patch! The kids loved it--a little train ride, a haywagon ride, bouncy houses, and a pony ride, plus lots of pumpkins to see!

Ella was the brave one to ride the pony :)

Caleb riding & loving the train with his cousin

We got this pic really quickly on our way out,

after everyone was pretty tired :)

Let them love sand

I have a hard time letting go and just letting my kids get dirty. When we were at my parents' home in Salt Lake City the past couple weeks, they ran and jumped and played all over--it was wonderful! But every time we got close to the sandbox, that was all Ella wanted to do! I felt like I had to gear up for it--the sand always gets everywhere, always--in hair, in the clothes, even in the diaper! That's just how it is. As I watched her sheer joy, scooping up shovelfuls and dumping them in a bucket, or on the ground, etc., I realized I need to just let go. Here's hoping I'm making progress in that direction :)

Well we did it...

...We got a doggie. It was my idea (seems like it always is:) and I picked her up on Monday night, just a few hours after we arrived back in Texas from our trip to Utah. I must be crazy :) But she is so cute, and such a smart little puppy! She is 6 mos old, and seems to be potty-training very quickly; she is obedient, playful, and the kids love her--which is the main reason I was so interested in trying to have a pet again. I'll tell you about Zeke the cat and Emma the previous doggie another time ;)

It is so fun to watch Ella get so excited to see Cadee ("Katie") every morning, and hear her say "hah bubby" (which means "hi puppy") and squeal with delight. And Cadee is earning her keep--I haven't had to sweep up crumbs off the kitchen floor since she arrived! :)

Cadee seems to like us, as well--she loves to run around in the backyard, especially if we are out there with her; she is making friends with the doggie over the fence behind us; and she got out today when Joe took the kids for a walk and didn't see her slide out the door with them, but she never ran away. She just ran back and forth across the front lawn/drive, occasionally scratching at the front door, until the neighbor knocked to tell me she was out there! I'm hoping that means she wants to keep us. :)

I love animals, especially puppies, but we grew up with only outside dogs, and so I'm still trying to get used to the idea of an animal in the house. (And it is definitely too hot to keep an outside dog in Texas!) Hopefully this third try will be the trick--I'll let you know how it goes!

For now, here are some cute pics--Scratch that, they still aren't uploaded. I'll add them when I get them :) Stay tuned!

Surprises

This past week has been pretty awesome. I (Joe) convinced Sally a few months ago to take the kiddos for two weeks up to Utah to be with her parents and sisters and, most importantly, their cousins. :) She complied although we both agreed being apart that long would be pretty lame. Unbeknownst to her, though, I had got myself a plane ticket and 4 days off work this past weekend. So I was on call overnight on Thursday, got off work at about noon on Friday, got on a plane at around 2pm and showed up in Sally's parent's living room at 4:30. Pretty sweet. Sally was totally WOWed by me showing up. She looked utterly confused when I walked in the house because, as she said, "My world didn't make sense for about 1 1/2 seconds." Ah, victory on my part! Best surprise yet. We all had a great time together.

Caleb and Ella's first snowman of the year...(Ella's first EVER ;)

Later this week, it snowed up in Utah, and the kids couldn't get enough of it. Little Ella was experiencing snow for the first time, and Sally said she put up a fight every time someone tried to take her inside to warm up a bit. I missed it because I was back at work, but Sally kept me updated with frequent pix sent to my phone. Technology sure makes being apart a lot more bearable these days. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Caleb LOVING the helicopter at the Children's Museum in Salt Lake City.

The picture above is of Sally's parent's driveway. They have two plasma cars (the cars you sit on and swivel the steering column at the front which then propels you forward), and the kids love using them to scoot around on. Both of them would frequently cruise around the kitchen inside, especially if the kitchen was in use. :) Grandma had to ask us to go outside a time or two. The driveway is inclined slightly as seen above, and Caleb and Ella wouldn't stop going down on the plasma cars. This is family photo-op/racing moment. Thanks to Grandpa for taking the picture. Caleb is just enjoying himself. Ella is focused on winning. :) That just about explains their personalities in a nutshell. The simple things in life sure are great.

Joe's Thoughts

The circumstances around this letter are explained in its contents. I wanted to upload it here because as I wrote it the first time, I felt like it really expressed my feelings and experience with adoption. Likely it repeats much of what you've already read, however I hope it is still something that helps you see why I feel so blessed by adoption and why we are hoping to adopt again soon. I wrote the letter in November 2010.

Hi,

You don’t know who I am (and I don’t even know your name...sorry!), but my sister-in-law, Lindsay, was talking to my wife, Sally, today and mentioned that it would be nice if we could share our experience regarding adoption with you. I know that I don’t know much about you at all, really anything except that you’re expecting and maybe unsure of what to do. That last part is obviously an assumption. Having said that, take the following at face value please. I share it only because it means a lot to me, and hopefully in some small way it will be helpful or encouraging to you.

Let me first say, I’m a pretty normal guy with a very happy little family. I met Sally during undergrad at BYU out in Provo, Utah. We just finished med school about a year ago, and now I’m an anesthesiology resident. We wanted kids as soon as we got married, and they didn’t come for 4 years. Three years into that ordeal, we were frustrated and tired of waiting, and one night Sally said to me over dinner that she thought we should adopt a child. Wow, that blew me away. We’d kind of talked about it previously, but honestly, I still had the perception that adoption was for older couples who had tried to have kids for years and years without success. We weren’t even technically infertile. The doctors we went to said there was nothing obviously wrong with either of us, and infertility just happens without an obvious cause sometimes.

Now comes the part that is most meaningful to me. I don’t know if your religious, church going, a simple believer in God, or none of the above. Just to get it out on the table, I am. I can’t explain my experiences with adopting my son and daughter without bringing that aspect in. I believe we are all children of our Heavenly Father. He sends us here to earth as a test and to learn and grow. His intention is for us to return to Him as families when this life is over, and the final goal is that we will all be tied together and to Him as His eternal family forever. I also believe that Heavenly Father actively participates in our lives and helps us to choose paths that will lead to our ultimate happiness and success in life as well as make it back to him after this life. So, with that background of my faith out on the table, I’ll proceed.

After Sally brought up adoption to me over dinner, I told her I needed some time to think and pray about it. I actually started to fast from food and water in order to show Heavenly Father that I really needed His help in making this decision. I’ve fasted and prayed many times in my life, but this time was different. That night I went to the computer to read some things about adoption, and before starting, I knelt down and simply asked Heavenly Father if adoption was right for us. Immediately, I was overwhelmed with a feeling that not only was it right for us, but it was something we should pursue immediately. The feeling was one of the strongest, most direct, and fastest answers to prayer I’ve ever had. We started our side of the process and within a year M., our son Caleb’s birth mom, contacted us through LDS Family Services. Caleb was born a few months later.

The days after his birth were the hardest for M., I think. We didn’t realize how much so until after she placed him with us and signed the paperwork. I admire her determination and courage and her willingness to struggle through doubt and outright opposition to Caleb’s adoption into our family by some of her own family members (thankfully she has a sister who was very supportive). I look at my son now in awe every day knowing that Heavenly Father truly guided this whole experience. There was no mistake about Caleb coming into our family.

10 months after Caleb was born, I was in my first year of residency (it was actually 1 year ago now), and I began having the recurrent thought that it was time for us to start the paperwork for adoption again. Wow, that was a surprise. This wasn’t the same overwhelming feeling I had with Caleb’s adoption. It was just persistent. Over and over again, I thought that it was time for us to start our paperwork. Over time it turned into a feeling of the need to hurry up and get everything in order. I also began feeling that we were going to have a daughter join our family. I told myself and everyone that it obviously didn’t matter to us if we had a boy or girl, but something in my mind (I attribute it to the Spirit of God working on me) just said over and over that we had a daughter coming, and we’d better get ready soon.

Sally agreed, and we started the process again. There were road blocks and difficulties with our schedules, etc., but we pushed hard to get everything taken care of. It still took 6 months to finish our home study and all the paperwork, and then the funniest thing happened. All those feelings of urgency went away, and we were left with completed adoption paperwork wondering what was going to happen next. Were we going to now wait for years before our second child was placed in our home? Were all of those feelings just me be an over excited and over ambitious father? Some doubt crept into both our minds at that point as well. We honestly stopped feeling anything. We wondered if we had taken too long and missed our chance. We wondered a lot of things. This was April of this year. The start of May brought a dramatic change to our lives. We got a letter from Y.’s mother saying that she and Y. wanted to place her grandaughter in our family. Y. was to deliver her baby girl in June. And so it happened, and now we have little Ella Elise in our little family.

The craziest part (really the most amazing and in my mind the most divinely directed part) of our experience with Ella had to do with timing. Only in retrospect could I observe that very soon after Ella was conceived and just as Y. was starting her own struggle with what she was to do for her baby, I began having those first thoughts that it was time to prepare for our next child to join our family through adoption. And soon after that the impression that we would be having a daughter. I guess it feels so amazing to me because I felt it all and experienced it all and then saw it all happen so fast. To me, it was a personal miracle performed by Heavenly Father for my family. I know that Heavenly Father intended to have little Ella be my daughter. I can’t explain it better than that. I just know it.

So, Y. and M.’s stories are unique. They are significant to us, and we know that we really don’t know the whole stories behind the sacrifice and struggle each of these wonderful women went through in order to bless their children. Our children’s birth mothers are our angels. We think about them and talk about them often with Caleb and Ella. We keep up blogs, email, and send pictures and videos of the kids. Sally texts with M. every now and then. Y. has not felt she could maintain very close contact with us however, but our lives are still connected. We love these two women with all our hearts, and I believe that Heavenly Father will bless their lives for the selfless sacrifice they performed for their children and us.

With all that, you can tell I’m obviously an advocate for adoption. I’m not trying to convince you to place your child with an adoptive family, though. That is a unique, and I suppose, an intensely personal decision for you alone to make. People will give you opinions on the matter and quote statistics or anecdotal experiences, but in the end, you will be the one making the decision. Only you will know what is best for your child. I just hope you realize from this letter that adoption is a blessing in everyone’s life who is involved. It can also be painful and heartbreaking in many ways. I didn’t experience all of that. M. and Y. are the ones who ad the greatest struggle in my mind. However, I feel deeply that they did the right thing. I know that Heavenly Father sent Caleb and Ella to our family. They came in a way that was different from how I ever expected to have children, but they came in the way that He intended for them to come. There were no mistakes about any of this. Heavenly Father sent Caleb and Ella to Sally and me, and in some unspeakable and beautiful way, He connected our lives with theirs. He also connected our lives to M. and Y. forever. How much actual interaction we’ll have in the future will be mostly up to them, but the connection and love we have for them will endure throughout our lives. Caleb and Ella will grow up knowing what a beautiful gift their birth mom’s gave to them in bringing them into the world and placing them in our little family.

Again, I know we don’t know you, but we love you. Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely,

Joe (and Sally, Caleb, and Ella)

Photos

Here is a random collection of photos of our family's past comings and goings... (new photos added occasionally, so check back! :)

(You can click on any of the photos to make them bigger.)

While Daddy & Caleb went camping...

Mommy & Ella visited the Farmers' Market

Easter Egg Hunt at the cousins' house, Spring 2012

Buddies on the backyard swingset

"Cheese!"

Favorite Aunt Lindsay's bday party

Fun with hats

Loving Grandma's trampoline

Snow--a new experience :)

Meeting Maggie, Aunt Donna's doggie

Summer beach trip 2011

Riding the ferry

Family fun!

Our big little helpers

Zoo train ride--they loved it!

Silly Caleb :)

Helping Mommy make bread

Best buddies

We love to swing!

Wake up, Daddy!

We love reading books!

Caleb and Mommy flying to Grandma's house for a visit

December 2009

Visiting nephews in El Paso

April 2009

Joe & Sally, April 2009

At Daddy's graduation June 2009

(Sally made Caleb's robe/cap)

Watching a movie with the cousins

Joe's family at family reunion, August 2009

Sally's family at family reunion, May 2010