We finally got to meet her!

Saturday May 20^th, 2006 was a very special day for us. We met the birthmother who has chosen us to parent the little boy she is now carrying. Her name is Jesse. In our opinion, Jesse is the most beautiful person, both inside & out, whom we have ever met. We just have the most intense feeling of love and concern for her. We feel an overwhelming amount of gratitude and appreciation for her. Of course, I feel like there are not even words adequate to describe my love for her, and that’s why writing this is hard. Although I can try my best to explain our feelings, the words will not be sufficient, I think.

We spent Saturday morning with our dear friend Melanie. She helped us get ready for the meeting. At about 1:15 pm, we left Melanie’s to make the 5 minute drive over to the Provo LDS Family Services agency. My parents, Russ & Linda, were already there when we arrived, and the four of us met Katherine, our caseworker, at 1:30 pm. Shane called his parents to make sure they were on their way and knew where to come. We excitedly talked about what to expect and I was trying hard not to let the nervousness take over. I was glad we had kept busy that morning to keep from getting too nervous. Even still, I could see Shane shaking and I was stumbling over my words so badly!

After both Jesse and her mother, Jolene, had arrived, we walked across the hall from Katherine’s office and entered the room where we were to meet. The four of us hugged and then sat down. Emotions were on the surface and the Spirit was incredibly present and strong. We talked for a moment before Jolene turned to Ryan, Jesse’s caseworker, and asked him to guide us along. He and Katherine did just that through the meeting. They were wonderful.

We told each other more about ourselves, like where we had grown up, our schooling and career plans. Shane and I shared our story of meeting and falling in love and Jesse shared her story of how she found out she was pregnant. Then, she and Jolene shared how they had both chosen us, independent of one another. Jesse had seen five profiles and narrowed them down to two, one of which was ours. She had chosen us and then taken the two profiles home to Jolene without divulging which couple she had chosen. They told us of how Jesse’s sister and grandmother had also chosen us from the profiles Jesse brought home. We told them about receiving the announcement they sent to us along with the ultrasound images revealing the baby’s gender. Other things that came up were openness, names, decorating the nursery, and keeping in touch. We let Jesse know we want her to feel like she can share with us anything she wants us to know about the birthfather, about being first time parents, about naming the baby, etc. She said she would think about these things. There were a lot of tears shed and tissues used. It was amazing how quickly we felt at ease because of the sweet spirit in the room. We laughed together and wept together. My favorite part was the hugging. I can’t even explain why, but receiving hugs from Jesse was my favorite thing ever. I felt my love for her grow almost constantly and I could feel her tender love for this little one so very strongly. Feeling her hug me back was the best gift I could have hoped for that day.

We gave Jesse and Jolene the gifts we had brought with us. We first presented two soft teddy bears which we had brought for the two children Jesse has already. We explained that we had three bears, one for each child, and we would take the other home for the baby. We wanted these biological siblings to have a connection physically, and explained this was the reason for the bears. Jolene loved them and held onto them tightly. I was so glad she liked them. Next, we gave Jesse a card and a small wrapped package. We told her she could open them now or wait. She wanted to wait, so we just told her that the reason we were giving her that gift was to symbolize how we felt about her, that she was an angel to us. We told her of how birthmothers in our family are referred to as “angel mommies” and that more than anything, we wanted this child to know how loved he was, is, and always will be by so many, but especially by her. Inside the package was a Willow Tree figurine, a small figurine of an girl with her hands surrounding a golden heart on her chest. The description of the figurine was as follows:

Keepsake

Kept forever in the heart.

After about 45 minutes with Jolene & Jesse, Katherine suggested we take a few pictures together and then invite our parents into the room. Jesse said it would be alright, and Katherine took a few photos with our digital camera before she went to get our parents from the waiting area. I had a hard time controlling my emotions as our dear parents came into the room. I hadn’t thought that the Spirit could be felt any stronger, but it grew some how to be felt even stronger. It was like a big, joyful reunion of the closest family! It was overwhelming the love that was present in that room. After becoming acquainted, we all sat down and Ryan asked our parents to each tell Jesse one thing they wanted her most to know about their child. This was such a neat experience for us all. When they were done, Jolene asked them to repeat their names so she and Jesse could hear them again. Then, we all hugged again, and Katherine ushered us out of the room.

I could hardly believe it was over so quickly! I wanted to linger and be around Jesse and Jolene longer because I just love them so much! It was hard to leave. I turned one last time to say thank you and wave, and then the door was closed. Katherine sent us into her office, and said she’d be right in. While she directed our parents back into the waiting room, Shane and I embraced and smiled grins that might have fallen off our faces they were so big! After Katherine came in, we just sat and talked a while about how we felt. She sweetly thanked us for the experience and said the talk she had written to give in church the next day had just changed, and she knew what she needed to talk about now.

We walked out to the waiting area when we were done talking to Katherine and sat down to talk with our parents for a while about the experience. They of course wanted to know about the time we had spent with Jesse and Jolene before they came in. We were all exhausted emotionally that night, but so pleased with how things had gone. My mom and dad kept telling me the rest of the day what a wonderful experience it had been for them and kept thanking me for letting them be involved. I told them not to thank me. It was Jesse who allowed them to be there and be apart of that beautiful day.

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THE NEWS WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Disclaimer: This will probably be the longest blog post you will ever read. You have been warned! That said, thanks for reading about our exciting news!!

It was 9:50 pm Tuesday night when we received a call from our adoption caseworker Katherine from the Provo agency. Shane whispered "It's Katherine!" excitedly. I glanced at the clock and knew this call couldn't just be normal business as it was almost 11:00pm in Utah. Katherine made small talk as we sat on the couch smashed as close as we could get and holding the phone sandwiched between our ears. My heart beat hard and fast. Katherine finally said she had some paperwork that she needed to e-mail to us and have us fax back to her ASAP. She made it sound like it was something we needed to sign, and I knew that it might be the release of our file to the Mesa agency, so I tried not to get too excited. However, it was still too late for normal business, and I was getting excited. In addition, she said she was going to e-mail something and then would call us back after we got it to talk to us...

Well, then we waited 5... 10... 20 minutes, clicking constantly on the refresh button in the browser, my heart still racing.............. the phone finally rang again and I answered it before it even finished the first ring. It was Katherine again. After a quick discussion, we realized that she'd typed our e-mail address in wrong. It was an innocent mistake. In the e-mail address, my name is "shaneandmeg..." and she typed ''shaneandmegan..." So she said she'd try again and then call us after we'd received it. We were really excited at this point because it was now getting close to 11:30 pm, and Katherine was determined to get this "paperwork" to us that night.

Refreshing, refreshing, refreshing the browser, and finally a new e-mail popped up with the subject line "Open this document first." When we opened it, there were just the words: "Hi-- open and print." We clicked on the attachment and we saw this:

Tears fell, I sobbed actually, but I was surprised at how quickly I recovered from the overwhelming emotions and a perma grin came up on my face. I think it had something to do with the fact that I knew this was only the beginning of an announcement and I was excited to get back to the inbox to see what was next. A new e-mail had popped up with the subject line “Open this 2^nd.” Attached to this e-mail was the following image:

Wow. This took me an incredibly long time to read because I was just so overwhelmed by it all. I was crying again too. Have you ever had the experience where you are so anxious to read something that you have to keep starting over because you find yourself skipping lines or words? That was me. I somehow managed to get through it and we quickly clicked back to the inbox to open the third e-mail entitled “Third and final!” This was very exciting as we now were going to find out the gender of the baby that would be ours. We could see that the attachments were ultrasound images. We opened them as quickly as we could to see these:

Just as the phone rang again, I was reading the word "BOY" printed on the ultrasound image that told us the baby's gender. Shane answered the phone as I gasped and exclaimed "A boy! It's a boy!!" I could hardly believe it! I'll admit I was very surprised. I'm not sure if it's because we were so sure about a girl’s name, or if it’s because both of us come from families where the firstborn was a girl, or maybe it’s because I simply have a harder time resisting baby girl “stuff.” Maybe it was a combination of all these things. Who knows for sure, but I was grabbing Shane's arm, shaking it, and whispering excitedly "It's a boy!" over and over again!

Anyway, I realized at this point that Shane was talking to Katherine again. He had put her on speakerphone, so I tried to listen to what she was telling us about the birthmother we now knew was named Jesse, but my mind was racing and it took a lot to stay focused. We finally said good-bye to Katherine and we conferred about whether we could still call anyone this late at night. We decided we’d call Shane’s parents because we thought there was a good chance they’d still be up. Shane tried to pretend he was thoughtlessly calling for a recipe, but he’s not the best liar. He was absolutely beaming as he announced that a “man cub” was on the way.

Well, needless to say, although we are glad Katherine didn’t wait to call us the following day, we didn’t sleep much that night. We are SO happy! Our dream to be parents is finally being realized! If you have made it this far, we thank you very much for your support and prayers through this adoption process. We’ll continue to add updates as things progress. Here we go on a new journey toward adding a little munchkin to our family! Yee-Haw!

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There and Here

We have come to appreciate the modern amenities that we now have available which we did not enjoy at our previous residence. We loved our home in Provo. It was a charming home built in the early 1900's with a lot of character. It did have its quirks, however, because it was so . . . old . . .

Here is a list of what we miss and don't about our Provo home.



What We Miss About Our Provo Home:

• The shade from all the mature trees around the house, could definitely use that here.

• The hand crafted windows and cabinets with glass doors.

• The garden, not that our first attempt at a garden was all that fruitful . . .
  

• The lawn guys that came around every week. We won't have that here, although our lawn here could fit in many people's living rooms, so it shouldn't be too much work, and we'd hate to pay for water for any more grass in Arizona.
• The bodega. Our storage room off of the kitchen was so poorly insulated that it doubled as a fridge/freezer in the winter. We didn't have to use precious fridge space to chill our entire supply of water and drinks to a crisp, refreshing 33 degrees . . . I'll be back in a minute, I just got thirsty.
• The quails. We got to watch three batches of chicks grow up during the course of the last summer.
• Toby. He was the pathetic stray cat that occasionally came around. He bore a painful resemblance to the dogs back in Ecuador, and without fail, caused us to make a spontaneous donation the the local Humane Society.
  

What We Appreciate Here Because of our Provo Home

• More than one electrical outlet per room. No more extension cord chains to be able to fit in our alarm clock. No more hair styling in the kitchen while looking at a mirror across the room because the "bathroom" has no power to it. Also we appreciate the fact that every outlet in the house is not on the same circuit so we can run the microwave with the lights on . . . luxurious!
• A level kitchen floor. The dining area of our Provo home was an afterthought, so the floor slanted in that area. The fridge was on this spot so the door would close with substaintial force allowing us to play the exciting game, "Guess What Will Fall Out When You Open the Freezer(R)". We had a rolling chair in there once when we had guests. That was also a dining adventure.

• The laundry room . . . or its lack of jungle wallpaper, and sea green paint . . . need I say more.
• The "bathroom." Where to start. Definitely not the selling point of our Provo home. We appreciate a shower without a window coming halfway into it. The shower here does not require the curtain rod to be installed on a slant leaving us with a slender, triangle shaped space for showering. We also immensely appreciate the thoughtfulness of our new landlord of installing a toilet in a place other than directly over the entry door/ kitchen of our neighbors. I won't elaborate, and please don't ask them to because we haven't. We appreciate the fact that there is a bathroom vanity in the actual bathroom, rather than in the kitchen outside the bathroom. . . although, come to think of it, if it had been anywhere else, Megan couldn't have seen the bathroom mirror from the kitchen outlet. We appreciate a tub that is not only spacious, but comes clean without the need for a sandblaster. We also appreciate a toilet room that does not take on the outside temperature during a Utah winter. You can rest assured that the new tenants in our Provo house will not get much leisure reading done in there between Nov. and Mar.
• We appreciate that there is a surprisingly small assortment of trip hazards around our new home. There is not a 4 inch rise between sections of sidewalk, nor completely rounded and crumbling patio steps.
• I will appreciate the fact that I will not need to watch Disney's Sleeping Beauty every few weeks for tips on how to clear the mass of blackberry brambles that overrun the garden through the fence of the neighboring apartments.
• We have come to appreciate windows that can be opened. Not that we would have dared open them yet in this springtime weather, but the fact that they are not either painted shut or missing screens will be convenient on a beautiful winter day here.

• The home's lack of narrow, steep, wooden stairs of abandon-all-hope-ye-who-enter-here doom leading to the loft upstairs. In our previous home, if you had a firm grasp on the handrailing, and an experienced belayer at the end of your ropes, you could use the provided world map wallpaper to guide your ascent to the upper level.

Becuase of our home in Provo, we do not lament too much the fact that some of yesterday's luxuries have become today's necessities.

* Guess What Will Fall Out When You Open the Freezer(R) is a registered trademark of Milton Bradley. Used with permission.

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Are you kidding me?!

Okay, so I was going to take this a day at a time and number all the days we'd been here, etc., etc. However, recent events have made me aware that it will be easier to take it more towards an event by event basis.

Case in point:

Those of you closest to me know of my passion for hot baths-- and, no, Mom, I am not talking about the after surgery kind. I have lived in a really old house with a really old, gross tub for the last two years. In those two years, I have not taken a bath. So when I saw the tub here and how nice and big it is (and its newness and cleanliness make it even more appealing), I was thrilled, to say the least.

Last night, I was finally gonna test it out, and I was gonna like it a lot because I had been moving in 100 degree weather for two days without a shower. My body hurts. So, I turn on the water and wait... wait... wait for it (the hot water that is)...................... still waiting...........................

So, I think you get the point. Sadly, after several attempts to fix the situation, Shane gave up. WE OFFICIALLY HAVE NO HOT WATER IN THIS HOUSE!!! Kind of ironic isn't it? I mean, it's 100 degrees outside, yet the water is freezing cold coming out of the faucet! What kind of cruel joke is this? I am not sure I have ever had the experience before where you are so relieved to get out of the shower because it's so warm in the rest of the house. Usually it happens the opposite way. Don't worry Marci, I am sure we'll have hot water before you get here! ;)

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The Master Bedroom & Bathroom

Here's the master bedroom viewed from it's door (picture to the left). The window faces the back yard. The blinds, like in the rest of the house are wood ones. I couldn't get a great picture to prove it, but it's very spacious! The walls have a very interesting treatment on them that looks like torn, layered paper. It's like the brown treatment on the kitchen walls but it's olive green colored with black on the edges. I'll have to take a closer picture of the wall later to post.


The picture on the right is taken looking from the master bedroom into the master bath area.





This picture to the left is of the bulk of the master bath. Off to the left side before the tub is the seperate little room with the toilet in it. Behind me as I took the photo is the master closet, shown below.

Not too shabby!

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Laundry Room

I know this one is really boring, but this is the laundry room, and I am grateful for it, so I couldn't leave it out. It's great that it has a door on it that I can close if it gets messy. ;)

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Hall Bath

This is the hall bathroom. Interesting shower/window treatment. See the detailed version of the burlap stapled to the ceiling in the picture below. From closer inspection in the freshly painted living room, we can see that the living room used to be this dark bunt orangey color. So glad they painted.

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The Kitchen

I love my new kitchen! The fridge is so immaculate and beautiful-- there is so much space. It seems brand new. I am also thrilled to have an ice and water dispenser in the door. I feel like such a fancy pants!

Shane was excited about the toaster oven mounted above the counter behind the fridge. You can't see it here, but he's stoked.

The pantry is the door you see to the right of the fridge. Nice and big.



The famous horseshoe window treatment is the last remaining in the house, but Carolyn told us there used to be horseshoes everywhere until this last month when they removed almost all of them to repaint. Phew!

Anyway, the wondow in the kitchen you see looks out over the front yard and street. It's nice.

The dishwasher. It does not have a name as of yet, but all Shane wanted was one that's not named Shane. Mission accomplished. We'll get back to you on it's name.


There's the garage door and the lovely security system control center to the left of the door.

You can't see the vinyl too well, but I adore it. Very modern and yet neutral.

There is a large eat-in area of the kitchen to the left of the garage door. The table has plenty of room there.

I love this place!

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The Back

I probably should have added this picture to the last post... here's the back of the house. It is a big lawn, etc., but Shane cut that all off and gave you a beautiful view of the blue sky so you wouldn't see as much of the splotchy grass that needs SO badly to be mowed. He'll do it in the morning, he says!

There is a large side yard on either side of the house, but the side you see is enclosed as a dog run.

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The House

Here she is in all her glory!! This is the front of our dear little home. I am thinking the lawn looks REALLY green in the pictures, but wondering how long it will last in this heat!

Oh, by the way, this is an official invitation to you all to come visit. Please. I'll send out an e-mail later on with our new contact information.

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Introduction

Okay, really this all started last year when Shane received a call from Intel asking him to come for a second interview in Phoenix. He'd begun the application process at BYU's fall internship fair in September. His trip and interview resulted in a job offer and then another trip for me to check out the area. Previously, I had only been in Arizona for two reasons, a) to drive through the northwestern tip of the state on I-15 (between California and Utah), and b) I think I came here as a little girl when we took a Colorado River trip. When I got to Phoenix in December, I was grateful for the beautiful weather and fell instantly in love with Chandler, the city where Shane will work. I was sold.

Boy, those guys at Intel really know when to bring you down to suck you in. Summer was far away from my thoughts then, but now it's right in front of me. It was 100 degrees here in the Phoenix area yesterday. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It is supposed to be SPRING!!! I mean, I knew it was gonna be hot, but we left the most gorgeous Utah spring ever I think to come to the desert. Nice. Okay, sorry about that tangent, I'll get off my soapbox... for now.

Back to the story. Shane accepted the job with Intel in December and started his last semester at BYU in January. I took all the classes this last semester that I needed to graduate that I won't be able to take through independent study. We spent spare time (which was rare) all semester looking at houses online. As of two weeks ago, we still didn't have a place to live. We had looked a lot online and just not felt good about anything. We wanted to visit but had little time or money for a trip. However, on Thursday, April 20th, the day before finals started, we impulsively left Provo, UT and drove that night to Page, AZ. We left Page early the next morning and arrived in Phoenix around noon. After looking all afternoon at rental homes and facing a lot of dissapointment and confusion, we ended up at Starbucks. This sounds really dramatic, but honestly, I just wanted to cry. I was exhausted in every way and scared we would have to settle.

Then it happened. Shane reassured me before handing me a few dollars and telling me to go get a double chocolate chip creme (PS-- I LOVE THOSE). When I came back to the table Shane was at, he had hooked up to the T-Mobile hot spot and was online looking at new rental listings in the area. He was calling around trying to get showings. The problem was, it was 4:15 on a Friday afternoon. After leaving a bunch of messages, someone actually called his phone back and it was an agent named Carolyn. Shane asked if it was possible to see the property she had listed online. We knew it was too much to ask to see it that night, so Shane explained we were out of town and that we could find a place to stay overnight in Gilbert and see the home in the morning. I was kind of bummed because we had hoped to find something and make it halfway back to Utah that night, especially with Finals having started that day. Then, Carolyn said it would actually be better for her if we could see it at 5:00 that night! I was thrilled. I wanted right then and there to reach through the phone and kiss her!

So we took the scenic route to the house because we had a few minutes to kill. We had no expectations of the home because there were no pictures in the listing online, but when we got there, it had great curb appeal and a good neighborood feel. Plus, it was in a nice area in Gilbert. I had hoped to live in Gilbert. In addition, the rent price was a great deal, and much less expensive than the other places we'd looked at. I tried not to get my hopes up about the inside. We met Carolyn and walked inside... Bullseye! I think we both knew right away that it was a dream come true. We tried not to appear too desperate but asked if we could fill out the application then and there since we would be leaving town that night. Carolyn let us and we promised to send the application fee when we returned home the following day. We were kind of on pins an needles the next day or so after until we heard we had been accepted to lease the home. Relief filled my soul when I got the phone call.

A mad crazy week of packing, taking finals, and wrapping up work obligations followed and now here we are in the house on Oriole, but this time as residents. We've moved. We're here now, and I can hardly believe it. So this blog, The Arizona Experiment, has been created to document our experience, our adventure, our experiment if you will, here in Arizona.

Thanks for joining us!

Enjoy!

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