YOUR 1ST TURKEY DAY

Our house was full for Thanksgiving 2009. A lot of family came to visit so they could see the new addition to our family. Muuma, Papa, Jacson, Shaye, Chris and Spring all came that weekend. They were in awe how beautiful they thought you were. Muuma kep talking about how alert you are for your age. I forget how young you really are because you just really look and study things. You seem so much older. We had a great weekend and I don't think you ever got put down. There were a lot of arms to hold you. Your uncle Chris was so cute. He was always holding you. Muuma bought you and your sister matching outfits. That was one of the things I was so excited about having two girls close in age, dressing you alike. I am so excited for Christmas in a couple weeks. I am so glad we have you to share it with.

BRINGING HOME BABY

We had to stay in Kansas City for a few more days until Wyoming gave us approval to bring you home. Your dad had left the day before and so I had to haul you and your sister home all by myself. You were both so good though, so it really wasn't so hard. I was worried that you would cry on the airplane because of your ears but you didn't. You just slept the whole way home. Everywhere we went people made comments on how beautiful you were. No one could believe that you were only 1 week old. Your umbilical cord stub started coming off right before we left on the plane so I had to put a band aid on it to keep it from coming off. I was worried it would come off on the plane and bleed really bad. When we got home that night it came all the way off. It only took a week. When we got off the plane your brother Caden was so excited to see you. He is still excited to this day. Every time he gets home from school he runs in to see you and kiss you. He is always telling me that he thinks you are so cute. Kadrie, of course, absolutely adores you. She thinks she is your second mom and tries to tell me how to take care of you. She could hold you for hours. All of my friends were so excited to finally see what you looked like and they all think you are absolutely gorgeous. You also seem so much older than you are. You seem to be more advanced that just a 5 week old baby(which is what you are as I am writing this). You can already hold your head up for the most part. If I put you on your stomach for tummy time you will kick yourself over to the side. Your legs are so strong. If I pull on your arms to stand you up you will push yourself all the way up with your legs. It's amazing. You even stand up in your daddy's hands. It scares the crap out of me but I know he knows what he is doing. He does it with all babies. Also, in just the last couple of days, you have started smiling at us. Not like you did before where it was involuntary. If we look at you and make faces you actually smile back. It is so cute. Your daddy is so cute with you. He absolutely loves you. He is such a cute dad and he actually loves babies, but only his own:). He thinks you are so cute. I know he was worried about loving another child the way he does Caden and Kadrie, but as soon as he held you he understood how it is possible to love more and more children. I absolutely love every second I get with you. I could hold you all day long. You really are such a good baby. You really only cry if you are hungry, tired, or have a dirty diaper. You are a really good eater too. You are up to 4oz and are starting to get a bit chunky. I love baby chunk. I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father and how he blessed us with you. I am so glad everything worked out and that you were able to join our family. I love being your mom and I can't wait to watch every second of your growing up.

OUR JOURNEY TO GET YOU

So early in the morning on November 11, 2009 your sister, Kadrie, your daddy and me all went to the airport to catch our plane to Kansas City. We finally got to the hospital around 3:30 that afternoon. It felt like it took forever. I was so excited to finally see you in person and I was stunned by just how gorgeous you were. I had seen pictures but they did not do justice to how gorgeous you really were. You were just peacefully sleeping. Hannah was so sweet and handed you to me. I loved the feeling of holding you in my arms. You were such a good baby from the very beginning. We only could spend about an hour with you that first day, but we were able to stay the night at the hospital starting the next night. It was so wonderful to wake up with you at night. You didn't sleep well just in the bassinet by yourself so I had you sleep snug up right next to me. On Friday November 13th we went to court. I should have realized it was Friday the 13th and that things wouldn't go very well. When we got to the courthouse we were told that Richard would not sign the papers and allow us to adopt you. This was emotionally very hard for your dad and me. We had planned and waited for this for the last four months. We couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to fly back home without you. We had already attached to you and you were our daughter. This was very hard on Hannah, too. She knew this is what she wanted for you. An agreement was made to wait until Monday and we would allow Richard to think about it all weekend and then we would go to court again. It was a very emotionally draining and hard weekend for our family and a weekend I never want to go through again. We wanted so badly for you to be in our family, but we knew it was out of our hands at that point and we left it up to our Heavenly Father to do what he felt was best for you. Eventhough we knew we might lose you and not be able to take you home, I did not feel right just leaving you at the hospital. I knew that the nurses would feed you and change you and hold you some but no one there was going to hold you and cuddle you the way a mom does. Even if I was only your mommy for a few days it was better than nothing. Finally, Monday came and we went to court again. Once again Richard changed his mind and refused to sign. This was heartbreaking for us. How could we go home with empty hearts, empty arms and an empty pocketbook? How am I going to go in to your nursery that I had decorated just for you and not cry so hard? How long will it take for my heart to stop hurting? Then at around 4pm our lawyer came in and said that Richard had signed the papers. I know that this decision for Richard was a very agonizing and hard one to make. I feel that he thought he was abandoning you when in all reality nothing could be further from the truth. He made a wonderful decision to allow us to be able to raise you and give you all that we can. I hope one day he will understand adoption and realize that he did not do anything wrong and that he did not abandon you. I am so proud of Hannah and how strong she is. She could so easily have backed out, but she stayed strong to give you all she wanted you to have. At around 6pm we went to the hospital for the last time and we put you in your car seat and put you in the car to take you home. Finally, we could call you Tailee and you were ours.

YOU VERY FIRST PICTURES

These two pictures are the first pictures Hannah sent me right after you were born. I think it is so cool that we have these since we were unable to be at your birth. These are right after you were taken out. Sooo cool. Look how stinking cute you were from the second you came into this world. I love the look you have on your face on the second picture.

YAY, HERE COMES BABY #3!

Tailee,

I am starting this blog for you so that you will have a journal of your life when you are older. You are the third child in our family and the second girl. When we heard about the possibility of you coming to our family we were extatic. We had been trying to figure out how to add another child to our family and we were looking for a miracle and you definitely were a miracle. It all began with a conversation I had with a patient. She and I were talking about adoption. I told her that we were wanting to adopt but that we could not really afford our agency fee at the time because of other things we were paying for. The next day she called to tell me about a little girl that was due in October, whose birthmother was looking to place for adoption. Your daddy and I couldn't believe what we were hearing. She asked us if we were interested and we said definitely. She then put us in touch with your birthmom's mom. We spoke with her and sent pictures to her and then she talked with her daughter, your birthmom, Hannah. Hannah seem to like us from what she heard and from her pictures and so we flew her and your birthfather, Richard, out to our house to show them around. They were very nice and easy to talk to. It was a long day. They had a very long flight and then a very long drive. All day long I am sure they felt like all they had done was sit, but they were great and never complained. Hannah had brought me your first ultrasound pictures too. This ultrasound on this blog is you at about 26 weeks or so. After meeting us they agreed to go along with the adoption and so we started getting ready to bring you home. We still had four months to wait. Those four months seem to go by sooooooo slow. I couldn't wait to hold you in my arms and be your mom. Your daddy, and siblings, and I would pray every night that you would be safe and that your birthmom and birthfather would be comforted in their decision. Hannah and I both thought there was no way you were going to make it until your due date on November 9th, but sure enough you did even better than that and Hannah was induced on November 10th, 2009. I was at work that day because Hannah and Richard wanted us to wait and come until the day after your birth so we didn't leave until the 11th. I remember telling every patient that day that my baby was being born. I was so excited and Hannah was so good at keeping me involved and texted me all day long with updates. Finally, that evening I got a text that said you were hear. You were born on November 10th, 2009 at 5:23pm. You weighed 8lbs 3oz and you were 20 1/2 inches long. You had tons of hair. I was so excited to see that first picture. I had said that i didn't want to see any pictures so that I would be surprised but I couldn't wait to see what you looked like. I had already waited long enough.