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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Was it a BOY or GIRL?

This was my favorite cupcake making extravaganza yet. A lady from work asked me to make these cupcakes because her daughter was finding out whether she was having a boy or girl. She asked me to make 2 dozen cupcakes with half having a strawberry filling and the other having a blue cream filling. She had the ultrasound tech call me today to tell me if it was a boy or girl and I told her which box to open and eat. Her whole family was getting together tonight and they were going to hand out cupcakes and all bite into them at the same time to find out what the sex was. I thought this was the coolest idea and was so happy to be able to be part of this fun experience. By the way it was a GIRL! Hope you enjoy as always! :)


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Physical for adoption...




Today we went in for our physicals to get one step closer to finish our adoption application process. It was one thing I was not looking forward to doing because I have not been to the doctor for myself since having to get a physical before going to scout camp when I was probably 15. It was not too bad. Shaileen thought it was going real well until the doctor asked have you had your hepatitis shots and we had to say "I don't know", then he asked the same thing about our tetnis shots, and we had to say that we didn't know as well. So we got a total of 3 shots and our blood drawn. :) I told the nurse after they took my blood if I could at least get an apple juice or something because that is what you get when you give blood. She said I could have a sucker on the way out if I wanted...you better believe that I took a sucker and boy did it make my arm feel better. After, we ran all of the paperwork that we had up to the LDS Family Services Center and dropped it off. Now all we have to do is get our birth parent letter, teaser and a couple other things completed. Then we need our personal interviews which we will probably schedule this coming week and then our home visit. We are getting so excited and look forward to getting our names out there. We do ask for anyone reading this to keep us in your minds and prayers and if anyone brings up adoption feel free to bring up our names in conversation. Having a network of people putting our names out there will help we believe. Thank you and we love you!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Bees Game

Friday during work we got a call from Scott and Cindy saying that they scored some tickets to the Bees Game and they asked us if we would like to go. We said that we would love to because we love Bees game and to get out and spend some time with the family. It was a great game and was tied up until the 8th inning until the Bees gave up some key runs. They ended up losing 4-1 but we still had a great time as we were able to get out and just enjoy some sports. Thank you to Scott and Cindy for inviting us!




Friday, August 19, 2011

Adoption Paperwork

About 2 weeks ago we walked out of the adoption intake quite overwhelmed with all that we were told that we had to do and fill out. The good news is we have been well on our way to getting our profile up on itsaboutlove.org. Let me be the first to say that there is a ton of paperwork to fill out. We have completed:



  1. contact information

  2. personal information

  3. marriage information

  4. employment information

  5. church information

  6. references

  7. release of information

  8. financial statement

  9. Health Insurance information

  10. Parents Background

  11. Siblings background

  12. Husband Matching Sheet

  13. Wife Matching Sheet

  14. Questionaire for Me

  15. Questionaire for Shaileen

  16. Child Preferences

  17. Birth conditions

  18. Contact with Parents

  19. Getting to know us form

  20. Contact couple form

  21. Certified Copies of Marriage License

  22. Certified Copies of both Birth Certificates

  23. Temple Marriage Certificate

  24. Employement Verification

  25. Infertility Verification

I feel that we have done pretty good with getting on our way. We are to the difficult things now. Not that it should take long but hard to know what to say. We are trying to put together our birth parent letter which is the letter that potential birth parents first read when they look at our profile. It is difficult because there is sooooo much to say but we want to make it really show who we are without boring them. Also we are deciding what photographs to put on our profile. This is difficult because as you probably know I am a little into photography and we were looking on our computer and we have over 70,000 photographs. Its hard to narrow it down but I think we pretty much know which ones we are going to choose now for the most part. We continually pray for guidance and strength to make it though this process. Birth parents are always in our prayers. We do not understand what they are going through but through continual study about adoption we have learned about their strength and great courage to look seek what is best for their child rather it be through adoption or not. I do not think I have ever asked for it but if you are reading this we would like to ask anyone that is willing to keep us and all birth parents in your prayers. We know that our heavenly father hears each and every one. Thank you for all of your continued support.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Adoption Intake

On Thursday August 4 2011 we got off work a couple hours early because it was time for our adoption intake. We were quite excited as well as quite nervous because we did not know what to expect. Promptly at 4pm we showed up and met up with Amber which is our caseworker. She had an intern there with her learning as well. As we first sat down Amber asked us to tell a little bit about us and about our upbringing and then pretty basic questions came from there. Before intake we had a very general idea of how the process worked and what it was going to take to be able to be approved and to get our profile out there on the Itsaboutlove.org site. Let me be the first to tell you that it is a ton of paperwork that you have to fill out online. I am happy that this kind of information is required though because it ensures that we are ready as a husband and wife to bring a child into our home. We are going to try to fill out this paperwork as quick and efficiently as we can because we both believe that we are ready! We were both a little sad though because this past weekend was the Families Supporting Adoption Conference (FSA) and we wanted to go and learn really bad but were not able to make it. The next classes that we are going to be able to attend are in October. It is going to be a really great experience because we have been told that they have birth mother, adoptive parent and children that were adopted panels. It will be really nice to learn what others are really thinking and have a knowledge and background on how they really think. In the long run it will be really helpful because I know there are going to be times that we are going to want to know what to do in certain circumstances and how we should handle certain things and it is always good to be educated as much as possible. I just have to say that I have a testimony about adoption. It has really strengthened Shaileen's and my marriage because we have been able to work with each other through some hard times. We know that there is a certain little child that is going to come to our home one day and it is really meant to be. When we went into adoption intake we purchased this book about adoption and I truly did not know the churches stance on adoption. The first page was a First Presidency Letter that was read in Elders Quorum, High Priests Quorom and Relief Society. If you ever get the chance to read it do so because I didn't know the church had such an opinion on it. Anyways, we are going to take a couple of hours today to fill out a lot of this paperwork online. Wish us luck. As always, keep us in mind and do not be afraid to bring us up in conversation letting people know that we are looking to adopt. :)

Friday, August 12, 2011

VEGAS BABY!

VEGAS BABY! This past weekend we planned a little getaway with Tristen and Nelson to go down to vegas to get a way for a while. As you will be able to tell from the pictures we had a blast.



This is us driving down to vegas in our car
We must have been driving too fast because all of a sudden I looked our my rear view mirror and the wing on the back of our car went flying behind us down the road. Thankfully we noticed it fly off because we were able to reverse down the shoulder of the highway to pick it up and put it in the back of the car to fix when we got home!


The first thing we did when we got to Vegas is we went to the Silverton Hotel and Casino to sign up for the players card there because they give you a free buffet and $5 to play with. They have this awesome fish tank with every kind of fish you could possibly think of. I was the only one that had ever seen it before so it was cool to take everyone there and have them enjoy it. We were not able to see the show this time but in this tank they have mermaids swim all around in it and put on shows. Next time we go down we will have to make sure we catch the show.



Shaileen was excited because there was a casino named "Shea's Casino" ...here she is pointing it out...funny thing is we never even went inside there. :)


We stopped by the Flamingo hotel and stopped and saw the flamingos and huge cat fish they had in the rivers. There was this cool waterfall so we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a fun little photo!

As we were walking around in the Forum Shops inside of Caesars Palace we saw Mike Tyson. We didnt have enough time to stop and take pictures but it was cool to see someone famous there!

We were able to go see Nathan Burton! He put on an excellent show, he does comedy magic. The things he was able to do with making things disappear and reappear were incredible. The best thing were the tickets were free (we did decide to upgrade to better seats though which was totally worth it)

This is the stip taken from the 3rd floor of the M&M factory!

We went down to Fremont Street (old strip) and Tristen was soooo excited that Michael Jackson was there. She had to take a picture with him. As you can see Mr. T, Stevie Wonder & Tupac were there too...we had a great time down there. One of my favorite things to do down there is watch the spray paint artists do their thing down there. It is hard to explain and I don't want to ruin it for you so if you are ever there make sure you stop and watch!




This is my favorite photo of us from the trip I think, we were just waiting for the bus!


Shaileen was in her element because of all of the walking around and shopping that we did!


Ok...nevermind I think this one is my favorite!

Before we left for Vegas we booked the Legends show tickets on Expedia and it came with a free buffet at Harrahs. It was sure worth it because the show was great. It was a show of impersonators of singers. It was a blast. The impersonators really looked just like who they were going for as well. I though the Steven Tyler look alike was the closest.

Steven Tyler making the move on Shaileen

Lady Gaga and her monsters

I think this was Stevie Wonder but was not sure because I could not see him

And you cant go without Elvis in Vegas




We went inside the new Cosmopolitan Hotel and this is a photograph I took of the Chandelier that is 3 stories tall. It is absolutely incredible. If you ever get the chance to go there you have to take the chance and do it. It is easily my favorite hotel there because of how contemporary it is. Make sure you watch the Video to check out what the full thing looks like...

This gives you a glimpse


These were two huge random shoes that were in the middle of the Cosmopolitan Hotel.






These last several pictures were taken atop the Stratosphere. We did not realize that we could go to the top for free since we stayed in this hotel. It sure is a pretty sight from up there.

The night before we left we went into the Gold & Silver Pawn shop. This is where they film the TV show "Pawn Stars". It was really cool to see what it looks like in real life. We just missed Old Man which we were kind of bummed about but it is ok.


I thought this was really cool to be able to see a bunch of championship rings whether it be college, Superbowl etc.

We had a great time on this vacation and were happy to be able to get away for just a bit.