Eli's Adoption Story

Dear Family and Friends,
hi! How are ya? So, most of you have heard by now but maybe some of you have not...we have a baby!!! His birth story is so special, I just really wanted to document it and so here it is...this is the long version so you may want to grab a snack:)

Almost exactly one year ago, we were in Stake Conference and singing the closing song when all of a sudden it hit me from my head to my toes...it is time to start the adoption process again!! I told Dan and he said he felt the same thing! So, the next day I called LDS family services and sat up a time to meet and start working on the paper work. We had our meeting and they gave us the large stack of papers to complete. One of them is a recommendation from our bishop saying we are fit parents. We gave it to him the next Sunday. We were kind of frustrated it was taking him so long to complete the paper work...while we were waiting, I kept hearing rumors that LDS was going to stop doing adoptions, we kind of just put that in the back of our heads and kept on working on the paper work. I kept nagging and finally, a few months later he had it done. By this time, it was early fall and we were starting to second guess our idea to go through LDS Family Services. We ended up not going through them, but in January we started looking at other options. We realized that we could get a home study done for about half the cost as LDS Family Services and then other adoption agencies can use it. So, we got our home study done in February, and started completing paper work for lots of agencies in Utah. I never even thought to call the agency we adopted Sophie from. There was one agency who promised us a baby within 6 months so that is kind of what we were thinking.
During this whole time, I just kept thinking, " I think that we will get a baby when Paul goes on a mission...the blessings of having a brother on a mission are so very powerful!"
One Sunday the end of March, I think it was the 30th, I got an email from the social worker of the agency we adopted Sophie from saying "I think I have a baby boy for you....birth mom is deciding between you and a couple other families...I will let you know soon...baby is due may 5th." So, we kind of got excited, but knew that this baby might not be ours, but we couldn't help getting excited to add a little boy to the family!
so, our social worker is seriously one of the very most Christ-like people I have ever met. She just drives around all day, answering phone calls of how she can help people. When I asked her why she thought of us after having no contact for 3 years she simply said " I have been having a feeling to find a little boy for you family and I just know this little guy is perfect for you."
 On Tuesday, April 1st, I got a message saying the birth mom had picked us and that our social worker will get back to us sometime next week to work out some details. we were Super excited and made a big announcement to the internet:

I was so happy to be a mom again and I was so happy that we found out before my spring break began...Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent cleaning the house, getting a nursery together, and I even wrote a few general sub plans...inspiration and nesting instincts kicked in and I am so grateful for that!
Saturday, April 5th around 8 in the morning we got a call saying that our birth mom's water had broke and we needed to get to Kansas!!!!! The baby was coming a month early! Wow! So, we packed as quickly as we could, took Sophie over to my moms, and headed to Kansas. my dear sweet husband drove the whole way because he wanted me to sleep so I could be awake for when we got to the baby. last picture of a family of three:

we got the call around 2:30 in the afternoon that our baby had been born with this sweet picture:

we had been texting different names back and forth with our birth mom but when we saw his sweet face, we just knew he had to be an Elijah. I received a text from our birth mom the same time I sent a text to her saying "he is definitely and Elijah!" So, we double knew his name is supposed to be Elijah. We chose the middle name to be William which is my dad's, brothers, grandpa's middle name.

We got to the Hospital around 6 am and found our sweet birth mom and sweet baby. We talked to her for a little bit, and then she wanted us to go in our own room with baby Eli so she could think and we could bond. over the next day we were able to talk to Eli's birth mom and really develop a friendship with her. It is so much fun to share the love we have of Eli with her. Whenever he is doing something cute we send her a picture and she sends back a cute response. I am so happy to have a friend in Eli's birth mom. She told us about how he liked to kick a lot while he was still in her belly, especially at night. he hated it when she would drink cold water, she didn't really crave anything
and it was a pretty smooth delivery with her only pushing three times.

On Monday we go to go home...and when I say go home I mean to the home of the social worker. she and her husband who is the lawyer let every adoptive couple stay in their home, eat their food, and even invite people over to stay, seriously the nicest people ever!

Wednesday we appeared before the judge who gave us legal guardianship and we set up the day of May 22nd to be finalization!

Friday, we were hoping to be able to go home, but when I called Utah ICPC the lady on the other line made it sound like we wouldn't get to leave until Thursday or Friday of next week, I hung up the phone and cried and then we ate lunch and I felt much better! Food always helps! I decided to call back and see if there was anything I could do to expedite the process. when she answered the phone, I pretty much started to cry saying we had a three year old at home that we needed to get to. she said that she would look over our paper work and call the head person at home so that we could possibly leave that afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! two minutes later, she gave us the ok to head home! we packed our bags and started to drive! We decided to stay the night somewhere in Wyoming and we were home Saturday early afternoon.

Sophie loves her baby brother! so much! She loves to hold him, kiss him, feed him, scream, I mean sing in his ear, poke his eyes, try to carry him around the house, and tickle him. Before we knew Eli was going to be a boy Sophie was set on having a girl named Ruby...so She will sometimes call him baby Ruby:)

This boy is so sweet! He rarely cries, sometimes hi whimpers. he loves to be swaddled. he is having a hard time gaining weight (he was born at 5 lbs. 12 ounces and was down to 5 lbs. 2 ounces and now he is 5 lbs. 8 ounces) so the docs have us on a every two hour feeding schedule which is very exhausting so I am hoping he gains some weight soon so we can get off it:) he loves to be snuggled, rocked and held.
I just wanted to thank you all for your kind words! Also, mark your calendars for May 18th because we are going to have a fun fundraiser to help with our adoption cost's! There will be a yard sale (if you have any items you would like to donate, please let me know!) car wash, food and lots of other fun activities!