Our daughter Katie’s story started before we ever came into the picture. Her story started with her birth mum. We will here to refer to her as “K”. (Yes, she has a K name as well.) K was in her early 20’s when she found out she was pregnant and she decided to place Katie for adoption pretty earlier on. (We aren’t going to go into too much detail about K because that is her story to tell and not ours.)
K found out about us through her sister-in-law. She was a neighbor of my best friend and she had told her about us one day. Our information was passed on to K and she felt really good about us. At the end of K’s 2nd month she sent us an email. We were beyond excited to get it. Her email felt very different from the other emails we had received from birth mother’s in the past. We responded right away and so our journey together began.
After a few months we flew to Utah Australia Australia
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| First visit with K and her family - April 2009 |
K wanted us to experience everything that a couple gets to experience when they are expecting a baby so she was very open about sharing her pregnancy with us. She also asked if I (Kim) wanted to be in the room when Katie was born. Of course I said, “YES!” We never thought that would be a possibility for us with adoption so we were extremely excited and thankful.
Katie’s birth was absolutely the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed. The room was so quiet and K was so strong. She had a epidural so her bottom half was completely numb but I kept forgetting that and while I was holding her leg up (during pushing) I kept rubbing it, then I would remember she couldn't feel it, laugh and stop. After just a few pushes Katie was there. In fact she came so fast that the nurse was still setting everything up. When Katie popped her head out, K’s mum and I looked at each other and then at the nurse, we said, “Uh, she’s out.” We thought we were going to have to catch her because the nurse wasn't even looking.
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| Look who's here - July 2009 |
After a few minutes of staring at Katie and taking a ton of pictures of her I left the room to tell Ken that Katie was here and that she and K were both during great. When I opened the door I found Ken right outside holding up his cell phone with tears streaming down his face. I will never forget that look. He had been standing out there the whole time recording Katie’s first cries.
K’s mum came out and told me it was time to hold her. K wanted me to be the first one to hold her. (Yet one more gracious thing she allowed us to have.) It was surreal holding my daughter for the first time. I couldn't believe after two years of waiting for her she was finally here. I can’t even explain the love that I felt for her. After a few minutes of holding her I walked her to the door so Ken could meet his daughter. What an amazing moment to be able to hand my husband Katie. He instantly fell in love with her.
First time holding our daughter
Placement day was 3 days later. It was a day filled with many mixed emotions. We were so excited to start our journey as Katie’s parents but our hearts were breaking for K. We loved her so much and we hated to see her hurt but we knew that Heavenly Father would help her through the pain because he was the one asking her to make this sacrifice. We spent a beautiful hour together after we all had signed our prospective paperwork. During that time we gave K and her mum some gifts, one of which was a scrapbook that included pictures from the first couple of days of Katie’s life and letters from both Ken and I expressing our gratitude to her. They had some gifts for Katie, children’s book from Australia
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| Placement Day - July 2009 |
Once K and her mum left the agency our journey as Katie’s parents began. We could not stop crying and smiling. We felt so blessed to be the parents of such an amazing little spirit. That first night with her was amazing. It pretty much consisted of us taking turns holding her, kissing her, starring at her and taking many pictures. The love and joy we felt was indescribable.
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| Our first official family photo |
Katie was such a good baby from the very beginning. She slept very well, in fact she started sleeping through the night before she was a month old. Katie hardly ever cried not even when she was hungry or had a dirty diaper. My Mom would constantly tell us, “You know that she isn't your typical newborn right? You guys are really lucky.” And this we knew. We could not get enough of her. There was hardly a moment that she was not being held.
It was so fun seeing Katie grow out of one phase and into another, although there were many tears shed as we watched her grow. One of my favorite memories of this is when Ken started tearing up after seeing her crawl for the first time and he said, “I don’t like this! She is growing up too fast.”
In February 2010 our adoption of Katie was finalized in the courts. Up until that time LDS Family Services had legal custody of her which is the normal procedure in adoptions. It was a good feeling knowing that she was finally ours – legally!
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| Court finalization of Katie's adoption - February 2010 |
A few short weeks later we took Katie to the Dallas LDS Temple
Katie is now a toddler and we cannot believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like if we blink we will miss something. There is not an ounce left of her baby look anymore. She is so big! She still doesn't cry that much even when she gets hurts. She is a very tough girl! Katie is also very smart, funny and beautiful. (We are just a little bias, but really she is!) She is a ton of fun. She is constantly on the move. She wants to figure out everything. She loves to dance around and actually has great rhythm. She also loves to sing and seems to understand pitch and can sing very close to on key. She is incredible at mimicking any sound or thing she hears. She is like a parrot! We love listening to her talk and seeing her facial expressions. She is very expressive! She brings our family so much joy and laughter. We love our little girl so much!
Sealing Day - February 2010
Dallas LDS Temple
