Our Prayers Have Been Answered

 It has been such a wonderful week. We made a quick trip to Utah to meet Lonia. She is truly an angel. This is Lonia and her son, Treycen (fyi he is not up for adoption). Lonia is 29 weeks pregnant and has decided that we are to be the parents. I just can't believe it. How do we ever show our gratitude?
Our baby (I like the sound of that) BOY is due August 27. We know that he is our baby and has always been a part of our family. We couldn't be happier. I am also starting to panic because we have so much to do/learn before he comes. Its so soon!

Treycen is almost 2 and is super smart. I think he has a photographic memory. He warmed right up to us and wanted us to give him "loves" (hugs). I'm not sure if our baby will look like him or not because he has a different dad. Either way I'm sure he will be super cute.

 Here's the story: Lonia really wanted to meet us because she felt a strong connection to us. So we met her at her apartment for a nice long visit. She has been through a lot the last several months and we admire her strength and courage. She told us that this baby has never felt like it belonged to her. She knew he was meant to be in someone else's family. When she met with LDS Family Services and started to look at profiles, our profile was one of the first ones that came up and she immediately felt good about us. While we were with Lonia, we felt very comfortable around her and I think she felt the same way about us. Even though she has had a hard life, she was always smiling while we were with her. After several hours of visiting with her we went over to her parents house for dinner. Her parents are very supportive of the adoption. After spending the evening with her family, she told us that she wanted us to adopt her baby. What a special moment. We all cried.

 These pictures with Lonia were taken Monday, the day after we first met her. We visited a little more and she gave us ultrasound pictures. Which was so thoughtful of her. I show them to almost everyone I meet. I'm a proud mama :) She even asked us to be in the delivery room with her when she gives birth. How cool is that?

 The rest of the our trip was spent with Jackie, Mark and their kiddos. We also got to do sealings in the Oquirr Mountain temple. We were reminded their that our baby boy will always be a part of our family.

 Playing by the ponds near Jackie and Mark's.

 We also went on a fun field trip to the copper mine. Cooper is showing off his good side in the above picture :)

Jackie and I had a good time picking out fabrics for a baby quilt. We decided to go with a baby blue, gray, and navy color scheme with kind of a pin stripe patterned quilt. Your quilts always look awesome Jackie. Thank you!
As far as names go we are deciding between Benson and Brig/Brigham. What do you think? I am also going to need lots of baby advice so feel free to chime in!

Soooo Excited!

I don't even know where to begin. The last couple of days for us have been full of excitement, hope, anxiety, and tears. We have been contacted by a birth mother who is considering placing her baby with us! We will be meeting with her next week! I've been trying really hard to not get my hopes up but I am failing miserably. Neither of us can sleep at night and I'm finding it really hard to sit still. I have to keep reminding myself that if we are the right family it will all work out, and if we're not, it wasn't meant to be. More details later...promise!

The Future Mr. and Mrs. Dylan Weishaar

Mauri and Dylan

Congratulations you two love birds! Dylan and Mauri will be married July 23 in the Cardston, Alberta temple. That means we have two family weddings this summer. Its a summer of love I guess.

An Anniversary Gift

On May 4th we celebrated our 4th anniversary! Time flies when you are married to the perfect guy :) While we were in Spokane celebrating we received some great news. We are approved to adopt! What a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. We are that much closer to having a baby be a part of our family. Our profile has already been viewed over 200 times thanks to our wonderful friends and family. Thank you for spreading the word and we will try and keep you all updated! Here is the direct link to our profile through LDS Family Services:
https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/25923877/ourMessage.jsf

Or visit www.itsaboutlove.org

• Click "View Adopting Family Profiles" on the left-hand side of the page.

• You will then need to enter the site as a Guest. Please click "continue" under the Guest column.

• After entering as a "guest", you will be taken to the search family profiles page. The easiest way to find us is by searching with our ID (25923877), or by our location (Montana), or by our first names.

We have also created an adoption blog for birth parents to get to know us better. You can check it out here: www.jaredandbrookehopingtoadopt.blogspot.com. For privacy reasons, please do not share our family blog (the one you are reading right now :)).

Darcy, Perry and their stinkin' cute boys!

Cash thought it was funny to wear my sunglasses upside down.

Kyler's got a great smile!

 We spent a wonderful week with Darcy, Perry, Cash, Kyler, and baby Dylan on the Oregon Coast. It went by way too fast. We didn't want to go home. Be prepared for lots of pictures in this post, and of course they are all out of order. Thanks guys for letting us come visit and taking us up and down the coast!

Baby Dylan. Look at those blue peepers! I really wanted to take this little guy home with us.

Up by the lighthouse. It was a windy but beautiful day.

Cash throwing rocks at cobblestone beach.

This picture is kind of dark but if you look closely you will spot 3 sea lion noses sticking up out of the water.

Kyler laughing at the sea lions at Newport harbor.

Hello sea lions! There were 9 sea lions lounging around on the dock. The boys were so funny imitating their barking.

Jared and Newport bridge

Playing in the tide pools. We found lots of cool rocks and sea glass at this beach.

Kyler's pants got wet but he was just fine running around in his diaper. :)

This is the sea lion cave. You ride an elevator down about 100 feet to this cave. There must have been 200 sea lions there just lounging around.

One of the highlights of the trip was crabbing. Pulling up the traps was like waiting for Christmas. It was really fun catching the crabs and I think Jared had even more fun eating them.

The first catch of the day.

Cash holding the star fish we caught.

This pesky sea lion kept trying to steal our bait. He finally succeeded and had the audacity to surface and flip the bait up in the air to mock us. LOL

The master crabber.

We caught some weird looking fish. It looked poisonous so we threw it back.

Look at that smile! And those cheeks!

I've decided when I grow up I want to be a professional baby cuddler :)

It was so nice the last day we were there that we made a slip and slide. What a blast. Thanks again Adams' family! Hope to see you again soon!

hAppY BirtHDaY JAreD!

This year Jare turned 28 on the 28th! Jared worked the night before his birthday, so I surprised him at midnight at the hospital with raspberry cheesecake, his favorite dessert. For one of his gifts I framed his mission call and included pictures from his mission as well as the words "Called to Serve" and "San Antonio, TX". I think he really liked it. He said it brings back lots of great memories. We also headed to Helena for dinner and a night out. Earlier Jared had picked out some new mountain bike gear and a trail book for the Helena area. He is really excited to do lots of mountain biking this year. He got a new bike last fall after passing his NCLEX. The pictures are of him riding it the first time when we picked it up. It is a Santa Cruz Blur. He has started training for a 50 mile mountain bike race he is doing with his brothers in Butte, MT on July 30th. Go Jared! I'm excited he has a new bike because I get to use his old one. Hopefully he shows me some easy trails and I don't die on my first ride.
Happy birthday babe, I hope you had a great day!