Last May we decided that we were done with fertility treatments. We knew that we wanted another child and that she was not going to come to us through my stomach. We requested the paperwork and started to fill it out. We started our adoption classes on July 26th. We attended the national adoption conference in August. Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker. His talk helped so much to put the entire process in perspective and helped us with the multiple questions we had. His comments were very timely.
We finished the classes and had our homestudy the end of August. I was very nervous about the homestudy. Our house has never been so clean. It was very interesting to fill out the adoption questionnaire. There were a lot of strange questions but we got it done fairly quickly. We were approved in mid - October. About October 22nd, I was getting on an elevator at our new (not yet opened) hospital. I heard a girls voice as clear as day, it said, "Mom, I'm coming".
We got our profile online quickly so that we could get ourselves "out there". We took our picture in front of the horses. We lured the horses to the fence with apples and corn stalks. Our case worker thought that we needed more professional pictures, but we felt strongly that we needed to use those pictures. When our file went to the committee for approval, the supervisor looked at it and said, “Yep, that Travis and Kristin.” He thought that the picture captured our real lives very well.
We didn't hear anything for awhile. Our case worker had resigned and we were assigned a new one. We met her in January. When we went to meet her, she told us that a request had been sent to all of the agencies in the US for adoptive parents that had horses. She happened to be in the office that day and sent off our profile. On Valentines day, the agency supervisor, from LDS family services, called to tell us that we had been selected by a birthmother in Michigan. We prayed about it and felt that it was the right situation. We had a million questions. Travis and I are information hogs. We want to know everything and struggle when we don’t know. We peppered the agency with questions and they were really good about trying to get us the information. Michigan’s agency worked really hard to get us the information we needed as well. We were planning on having Lily come to Utah but she went into labor just before Easter and so the doctor wouldn't let her fly.
Michigan is a very challenging state to adopt in and our case worker had to rewrite our entire homestudy. It seemed like every other day we had to take or email something else to the office. It was an emotional rollercoaster. One day we were very optimistic. The next day we were sure that it wasn't going to work out. I thought infertility treatments were bad, that emotional ride was nothing compared to this.
We were able to talk to Lily a few times on the phone. She was always so delightful to talk too. Lily was due April 25th but we expected her to go early. We had bags packed for a month, ready to head out the door at any moment. It made living life difficult. We were hesitant to schedule anything because we were not sure when we were leaving. We had rooms reserved in Lansing. 4 days before Lily was due, we were told that we would have to stay in a different county. The Lord set it up so that we could rent an apartment, saving us a ton of money, (but causing me great stress).
On the 24th of April, I spoke with our caseworker in Michigan and he asked if we had our fingerprints done. We panicked because it takes up to 4 weeks to get fingerprints processed. Our caseworker worked some magic and arranged for us to have expedited background checks and get our fingerprints done on Friday. Travis drove down from work in the afternoon and we were able to get the fingerprints done. The fingerprint people were so nice. They printed off extra copies for us to bring to Michigan as well as putting them in the electronic system.
We went to dinner on Friday night and I fell asleep at 8 oclock on the couch. Saturday morning Travis heard my phone ringing. He brought me the phone, there was a message from our caseworker in Michigan. Lily was in Labor. We made our arrangements, got the only flight to Lansing set up and headed to Travis’ parents. Travis’ dad took us to the airport. My sister-in-law got us standby tickets, we were able to get seats all together for both of the flights. While we were in the airport, our caseworker called to tell us that Kennedy had been born. She had aspirated some amniotic fluid and was in the nursery with an IV and oxygen. Her apgars were 8 and 9. We arrived in Lansing in at 10:30pm and headed to the bed and breakfast place next to the hospital where we were staying. We went to the Hospital and met Lily for the first time. She was surprised when she saw us, the only pictures she had seen of us were faxed copies of our profile. She later told me that I had a beautiful family. I had to agree. Lily took me into the nursery to see Kennedy for the first time. She was just what I had seen in my dream a few years ago. She had so much brown hair and a pretty perfect little face and body. The nurses let Travis go into the nursery, Lily placed Kennedy in her daddy’s arms. It was the most precious thing I have ever seen. We were able to spend a lot of time with Lily while she was in the hospital. We were able to meet her son John. He was so cute. He liked Travis right off the bat. He even gave me a hug when I left.
Monday morning Kennedy’s IV came out and we were able to take her to a patient room. Kassidy got to meet her for the first time. We put her in Kassidy’s arms and she said, now she’s my little sister right? Kassidy was so sweet to her little sister. We took Kennedy out of the hospital on Monday.
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