CAMPING & FISHING

Paul, Chambray and I love to go camping. About once a week, Chambray will ask if we can go camping. We can't wait until we can start camping again. We usually start camping around Easter and continue to go until September or October. One of the things that Chambray and Paul enjoy to do while camping is.....FISHING!!! Paul taught Chambray how to cast her own fishing pole and she loves to show you how AMAZING she is!

Word of Advice.....

You know how you always tell yourself that you should do a back up on your computer for your photos. My advice.....DO IT!!! I have been telling myself for months that I should back up my photos and have I done it? No! Our computer just crashed and we are not sure if we are going to be able to save our pictures. DEVASTATING!!! Thankfully I have a lot of pictures on other computers but I won't have them all. We can see the pictures on the computer but can not get them to go anywhere. I'll let you know if we save them. BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS!!!!

Our Adoption Story

Paul and I were married April 1998 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. After being married for nine months, I went off "the pill" because it made me so sick. So for eleven years I have never been pregnant. After surgeries and other methods of trying to get pregnant for 4 1/2 years, we decided that we would try adoption. We were approved and put on the adoption list for birth mothers to look at in October 2003. It was definitely an emotional time because we never knew when we would get a call telling us that we have been picked. As time went on, I asked myself why are we not getting picked--I thought we were a cute couple! Each holiday I would wonder if this was the last one we would have with just us and if next year we would have a child. Family members and friends would get pregnant and I truly was excited for them but couldn't understand why we couldn't start our family. There were many tears shed! One of the many blessings I have received from this trial of not conceiving children is the relationship that Paul and I were able to develop. We were both going through this trial together. We have hand friends and family comment on our relationship and how they look to us as an example of the type of marriage they want. What an honor it is to us and humbling for people to feel that way about us. In April 2006, we finally got that call we had always waited for. We were told there was a couple that was 99% sure they wanted to place their baby with us. They wanted to meet us in a week to make sure since she was due in a month. Our agent said, "Aren't you so excited?" I said YES but what if they don't want us, I don't want to get excited. She said, "They are 99% sure-BE EXCITED!" We met our birth mother and birth father a week late. We learned all about each other and they told us they were having a girl and what were we going to name her. We said Chambray and they said they liked that name. Our agent asked our birth mother why they picked us. She said that it was important that this baby could have both of her mother's love and felt that I could give Chambray that. I was so touched that she would trust me with something so important. A month later on May 22, 2006, Chambray was born. Two days later we went to the hospital and Chambray's birth parents placed her in our arms. What an experience. I was so excited to finally be a mommy but my heart went to those two AMAZING people to be so selfless, having the courage, strength, trust, and love to make our dreams finally come true! Chambray is such a blessing in our lives. We have this plan on how we think things should go: get married and have children a little after. But Heavenly Father sometimes has a different plan for us. If Paul and I were able to get pregnant we would have never gone to adoption and had Chambray in our family. I figured once we adopted Chambray I would get pregnant and continue our family-that is how things went for my sister. Well, that is not Heavenly Father's plan. There is another child that needs to come to our family and we can't wait to welcome that child!-or two! As we say: We are a six foot family hoping to grow by two or four feet!


Baby shower the weekend before Chambray was born

Chambray the day we picked her up! WOW HAIR!

Chambray at 5 days old!

Chambray 3 weeks old

This is at the temple when Chambray was sealed

Chambray loves Disneyland!!!

About every day Chambray asks if we can go to California. She has been to Disneyland two times, once with my family and once with Paul's family. She absolutely loves Mickey Mouse! For Halloween one year she had to be Mickey Mouse. She has the best memory and can tell you all about the rides and the songs from-It's a small world and Pirates of the Caribbean. The last time we took her to Disneyland we went because she was turning 3 and when they are 3 you have to pay for your child so I convinced Paul that we needed to take her before she turned 3 because it was such a better deal!! So we went a month before her birthday. The one unfortunate thing about going then was that although she was free, she was not quite tall enough for the good rides. She was just under the height for the "Mountain" rides and Soarin in California Adventure. So the next time she goes to Disneyland it will be a whole new experience for her. She absolutely loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and was so cute dancing around at Playhouse Disney when Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and The Super Sleuths were there. I have to say-Disneyland is magical!!

Chambray and Mickey Mouse

Halloween Costume

Meeting Buzz Lightyear (She was really into
Toy Story then)

Having fun in Bug's Life Land

Running through water at Bug's Life

Mickey Mouse's house

We are in California!!!

Blogging for adoption!

As everyone says when they start a blog......I am now a blogger!! Paul and I decided to start a blog to help us get the word out that we are trying to adopt another child. For those of you that may not know, Chambray is adopted and we love her to death!!! She has been such a blessing to our lives. She is just about to turn four years old and wants a sibling sooo bad. She actually wants 2 sisters and 1 brother. Paul and I would love that, but we would be happy with just giving her a sibling. We are going through LDS family services again and of course want to adopt right now! So if you know someone that is considering placing a baby for adoption or know of anyone that you could share our blog with to help us spread the word to more people, we would love your help.