Our Adoption Story

(warning this is going to be a very long post)

As most of you know Mike and I have been trying to start our family for a few years now. It has been a long on going process. Last summer we started looking into adoption. At the time I was watching my friends 2 kids and was in charge of getting them ready everyday. I started looking at hair blogs for ideas on how to do Belles hair, one day I stumbled across a hair blog called Adopt a do" she not only does hair but has adopted 2 darling little babies and blogs about her process. That is how we first heard about our agency Heart to Heart. We looked into their website and really liked what we saw. We also learned that one of Mikes missionary companions had also adopted from this same agency as well as a neighborhood friend that Mike grew up with. The timing just was not right we decided to try a few other options first, and decided to hold off.

For some reason this last year the holidays seemed to be even harder for us than normal. We realized how ready we really were for our family and we started thinking about adoption once again. We decided that we would hold off until June before we put in our papers and start the process. A month went by and one day we both came home from work, and decided it was time and there was no reason to wait till June. We started our paperwork right away and had it completed and turned in at the end of February. At the beginning of March we had our home study done and we turned in our background checks. It felt like it took forever to get approved but it was only a month and we were approved on April 21. the next day we were presented with our first situation. however it ended up not working out in our favor and the same day we were presented with another situation. Once again it didn't work out. For some reason even though I was sad that we didn't get picked for these two babies I felt relieved and realized that they were not the situations that matched us.

On May 11th, the day after we were turned down for our second situation, we received an email from our agency telling us about another situation. This one would be closed and also the gender would remain unknown until after birth and that the agency would be picking the family. The birth mom was due on June 3rd. I looked at Mike and told him this was our baby. He told me not to get excited and just to be patient but somehow I knew that this was the one. Sure enough the next morning I got a call from our agency. She started telling me about the situation again and then said. "If you're still interested then the baby is yours". I of course said yes and I even told her "you know I just felt like this one was different, like it was the one" then she told me " we were going though the profiles and for some reason I just kept coming back to you guys every time." I called Mike and all I could say was " They picked us, it's ours" We decided to only tell our immediate family and our employers (we wanted to make sure it was ours before we told too many people as hard as it was not to tell the world). The rest of the week was a little crazy trying to get things ready. On Thursday I got another call from the agency saying that our birth mom would be flying into Utah the next day and they would be taking her to the doctor as soon as she got here because she was having blood pressure problems. I immediately started packing and trying to get everything ready.

Our birth mom flew in at 4:00PM the agency called after she landed and said they were going to go to the hospital and make sure everything was ok,and schedule a date for her to be induced. at 6:00 our agency called me; they said she had really high blood pressure, the doctors were a little worried, and that she would be going in for a c-section in an hour. holy cow, mike was still at work, I called mike and told him what was going on, installed the car seat, grabbed a few things and we were off. the trip to salt lake had never seemed so long. We got to the hospital at 8:45 and we had to wait for our caseworker to get there. As we were waiting our birth moms case worker came and found us and let us know that it was a Boy he was born at 7:23 and weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz and was 19 inches long. No one had seen him yet except for the hospital staff. at 9:00 we walked into the nursery and he was laying right there. he was beautiful. and he was all sprawled out and was asleep. we just stood there touching his hands and feet till the nurse walked over and wrapped him up for us and let me feed him the rest of his first bottle. They had held off on giving him his bath so that we could be a part of it. The hospital set us up with our own room. It was down an over flow hallway that wasn't being used at the time. and they gave me the other hospital parent bracelet. Jax got to stay in our room the entire time and because it was down the over flow hall way the hospital staff kind of kept forgetting about us and just let us be with him. I think they only came and got him once in the 48 hours we were there. The first night I stayed up rocking him the entire night. I couldn't believe that he was here and that if everything went well in the next 24 hours that he would be ours forever. The next day was a little more nerve racking. In the state of Utah the birth mom can sign papers as early as 24 hours but is not obligated to do so until she is ready. Our agency kept coming in and giving us updates and let us know how our birth mom was doing. We learned from our case worker what an amazing person this lady really was. she lives in very humble circumstances working 2 jobs just to make ends meet. she had very little support and knew the task of a new baby was more than she could handle. we have so much love and respect for her and the beautiful gift she has given us. I can only imagine what she was going through, and to make the decision to relinquish rights as a parent, she signed all the paper work that night. It was official we were taking him home. we were so excited we called all of family and sent plenty of pictures of our handsome little man.
They let us go home the next day. I have to admit it was really hard leaving the hospital knowing that our birth mom was still there, and that she and Jax missed the only opportunity to see one another. I know it was what she felt was best. I still can't help but feel connected to her. A part of me wishes we could have seen her, hugged her, and let her know how thankful we are for her and her sacrifice. She has given us everything we have ever wanted and we will always love her for that.when we got home we were surprised to find our house had been completely decorated by our amazing sisters in law. We had signs on the doors, windows, and all over the inside of our house along with a ton of blue balloons. It was so exciting to see all of their cars come into the complex one right after the other to come and meet Jax. they all stayed for a while and took turns holding him and taking pictures. carter called later that night to talk to mike he said "I wanna hold that baby and take him home". it was so cute. Everyone has been so great. we have had such great support from family and friends. Thank you so much to everyone for all you do.

Happy New Year!

Ok it really is crazy how fast time flies by! this is basically what we have been up to the last 2 months
- Mike turned 27. We had banana splits and brownies for his birthday since he doesn't like cake. some of his favorite presents were finger flashlights, eclipse the movie, and of course university of Utah pillow cases
- the next weekend Glen and Kathy treated us to a nice weekend stay in salt lake. We had a blast. We went to temple square with Stephen and Nikki one night, went and saw Tangled with Jeff, Lorraine, there three kids, and Glen and Kathy (loved the movie, it was way cute), went to the annual Berlin family Christmas party and watched Mikes cousin Dustin propose to his girlfriend. Mike and I had to head home earlier then everyone because Mike had to be to work at noon. The snow was so bad on the way home! I was a little scared!
-We had an Awesome Christmas at home and with the Berlin family. We got a few clothes and some things we needed for christmas all in all it was a great holiday.
-Mike had to go to training in Denver for a week at the first of January. My sister decided to come and stay for a few days. It was great to be able to spend time with her, Mack, Lydia and Addie for a few days, it was also nice not to have to be alone while Mike was gone.
Other than that we have just been doing the same ol' stuff.
-Mike had a great time in denver apparently the food was delighful. The only downfall however is that he learned these little trips will not be uncommon, something like 13 weeks of it this year. I am NOT really looking forward to having him gone he is just so amazing :)

We're as suprised as you are!

We aren't sure how it happened but somehow today my mother in law convinced me to update my blog and I decided that it was time. Notice that there are a lot of new posts so please make sure to read all of them if you've been wanting to know what we've been up to.

Mike- Mike is still working at Alltel. They were bought out by AT&T. During the buy out they decided to add a few more positions to each location. The main one being an Assistant Manager. Mike decided to apply and after waiting a month and half to find out if he got it or not he finally got the phone call offering him the job. We were pretty excited and I am so proud of him. He is such a hard worker and does so well with his job.

Last year Mike called me one day and told me that he had just won a 50 inch flat screen T.V. from work. I honestly thought he was kidding me but about a month later this got dropped off on our door step. We were thrilled!!
So this year when he called me again to tell me he had won another T.V. I really thought no way! but sure enough a week later another T.V. showed up. Yep that's right 2 T.V.s in a year!! Luckiest guy I know but he did work hard for them. Needless to say we love his job!!!
Me- I stopped working at the floral over a year and half ago due to the fact that Mike and I were ready to start our family. Unfortunately we haven't had much luck in that department but we are still patiently waiting. I have had a lot to keep me busy though. I got called as the first counselor in primary last year and since I am the only one besides our secretary who hasn't had a baby this year it has been keeping me on my toes. about 6 months ago a friend called me and asked if I would like to start watching her kids. This has honestly been the most fun and rewarding job ever. I absolutely love these kids and they make my day. They just had another baby in November so I have had a break for the last month but I am excited and ready to start back up on December 15 and yes I get to watch the new baby too! Aren't they the Cutest?

Sugar, spice, and everything nice!

We have been so blessed to have 4 new baby girls born into our families this year.
The first two are my sisters twins Lydia Marie and Addie May. They were born on February 5 Lydia weighed in at 5 lbs 14 oz 17.5 inches long and Addie weighed in at 6lbs 8 oz 18 inches long. It has been really exciting to have twins in the family. There personalities are completely different and it totally shows.

This next little cutie is my brothers first baby. Her name is KayLee Jane. She was born on August 24. She also weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz 18 inches long. She looks so much like my brother to me, although everyone else says she looks like her mom.
And last but not least is our newest little niece Peyton. She is Mikes brothers little girl and she was born on November 17 Weighing in at 7 lbs 8 oz. It has been so exciting to have another girl in the Berlin family. Girls are a very rare occurence on that side so we were all pretty shocked when this little sweetie was born. I am so glad that they live close so we can hold her all the time.

GO UTES!!

The last 2 years Mike and I have started making it a tradition to go to a Utah game at least once a year. Last year we went with Brian, Chase, Colby, Cooper we sat on the 20 yard line 4 rows up. They were awesome seats.
This shows how close we were.

The pictures above and below are from this year. We sat at the north end zone 9 rows up. The seats weren't as good as last years but it was a lot more fun to watch them get a touch down. and the crowd was more rowdy and exciting.

I hate this picture of me but swoop came right up to where we were sitting. The row in front of us stole his attention and we couldn't get it back so this is the best picture we got.

family reunion

Unfortunately ever since Mike started working for Alltel we've missed out on a lot of the usual Berlin family events. We each got to go boating once this year but not together. and the only time we were able to go camping this year was at the Berlin family reunion. We look forward to this every year. I am so glad that we were able to go
Every year we have an auction where everyone donates a couple things and everyone else bids on them. The money goes toward the future family reunions. It gets pretty crazy and things can get a little competitive when it comes to bidding but it's a lot of fun! We always have some sort of cooking competition. This year Mike and I were teamed up with Stephen and Nikki. The competition was whole chickens this year. Ours took 3rd.

We played some fun games while we were there. this one is where you put a cookie on your forehead try to get it into your mouth without using your hands. It's actually really fun and it's funny to watch everyone do it because they pull some pretty funny faces.

St. George

The last 2 years Glen and Kathy have rented a house in St. George for a few days and they have been kind enough to let all of us come and stay with them. I love St. George and if I could I would totally stay and live there. It is so warm and beautiful!
This year Kathy had all of us bring an activity for everyone to do. Mike and I built a bottle rocket launcher. These are some of the pictures we got of them being launched. They went a lot higher then I expected!!

I think this picture was from part of Brian and Brandy's activity. As you can see this was the part that I wasn't very good at and didn't win.

Kathy bought stuff to do glitter toes with. I spent the week before we left figuring out how to do them and when we got there I did all the girls toes. It was actually fun although I don't think I must have been very good at it seeing how none of them came back for a second set.

We really enjoyed our trip and hope that we get to do it again next year. Thanks again Glen and Kathy.

Washington

This last summer my sister and I went on a road trip to Washington to spend some time with my brother and his family. We were asked to judge a clogging competition, went swimming at the lake, and went to Ensign Ranch while we were there. I had such a great time with them. I only wish we lived closer so I could see them more often.
Katelin makes me laugh. She is such a sweet girl but is also a total tomboy. I love her outfit in this picture especially her socks that are rolled down.

Savannah is there youngest. She is total opposite of her big sister. She is a girly girl through and through. She can be so sassy and sweet at the same time. I just love it.

Weston was so little when I moved from Washington. I still can't believe this is him and that he is growing up so fast. He bore his testimony at church while we were there and it totally blew me away. He has such a strong spirit and is such a good kid.

And then there's Cody. He is SO much like his dad it kills me. I think my mom has about 20 pictures of Kyle doing this exact same pose. Cody is such a hard worker and is so good with his animals it amazes me. He even made us breakfast one day while we were there all by himself. When we went up to ensign he was the first to go and get the wood. After dinner he would always stay and help me clean everything up till it was all done.

As you can tell from the pictures when we went to the lake the boys decided it would be so fun to get in a sand fight with me. I spent the next week scrubbing the sand out of my hair. the boys however decided that they weren't dirty enough so they made sure to cover there entire bodies with sand before we left.