Jax's temple sealing

What an incredible feeling it is to be sealed to Jax. Today is one of the days that we have been looking forward to for a very long time. Many people asked us how cool it was to go to court and have the adoption finalized. To us it was alright but today was the day that we were really looking forward to. I think it is so awesome that our Heavenly Father recognizes any adopted child just as if they were born into their adopted family under the covenant when we are sealed to them. When Shaileen and I walked into the sealing room it was incredible to see our family and friends there. We have had such love and support throughout everything we have gone through. Throughout the many heartbreaks in the adoption process it just did not effect just the two of us. It effected our family just as much. That is why it was so great to have them there with us to celebrate our FOREVER FAMILY!

Mostly it is just me that blogs but I really think it is super important to get Shaileen's thoughts from today. Here you go :

So my top moments in life, so far, are:
     1- The day I married my best friend,
     2- The day Jax was born,
     3- Bringing Jax home,
     4- finalizing Jax's adoption,
AND now
     5- the we had Jax sealed to us for time and ALL eternity.

Today was such an incredible experience. To know that no matter what happens in this life, Jax will be ours FOREVER!! This process of adoption has taught me so much. It has taught me to never give up, there is always something brighter to look forward to. It has taught me that no matter how lost you think you are, our Father in Heaven can help guide you back. It has taught me that PATIENCE is definitely a virtue. It has taught me that GOD knows ALL. It has taught me to be a strong, independent, loving, caring, hard working, confident, and funny woman. Adoption has taught me to never take advantage the relationship I have and can have with my children. It has taught me that no matter the struggle I can turn to my Father in Heaven for peace and guidance.
When Jax entered the sealing room he was thrilled, it was almost as if he knew what was about to happen. I sometimes wonder how thin the vale is for him still, and how much of what is happening in his life he knew was going to happen.
Today in the sealing room an overwhelming feeling of gratitude poured over my heart and slapped me in the face. I have so much to be grateful for. I feel as if we are always thanking those that have been a part of this journey with us, BUT sometimes we forget to thank the most important person. In the sealing room today, though everything that was happening, I poured my heart out to my Father in Heaven in silent prayer. I thanked him for this incredible MIRACLE he gave to us. I thanked him for trusting me enough to mother this precious child. I thanked him for allowing me to guide him through this life with his help and the help of my wonderful companion. I thanked him for not giving up on me through the years, and keeping his faith in me even when I wavered in my faith in him. lastly, I thanked him for being my strength, and for listening to me when I was sure no one else was.
I feel so much joy in my heart after today. Nothing will ever compare to the amazing experience of sitting across the alter from my incredible husband and our beautiful son, being sealed for TIME AND ALL ETERNITY!!! I know without a doubt that Jax was meant to be a part of our family. We will forever be grateful to his amazing birth mother Sarrina and the beautiful gift she has given us. She not only gave us the child we had longed for, but a new extended family as well. We love our Birth Family and we are so proud to have them in our lives.
I also just want to add that I would be nowhere without my husband. He has stood by me when others have not, at my lowest and at my highest. I know that God provided Kurt for me. He choose Kurt to be mine so he could teach me to be kind, generous, patient, gentle, soft of heart, and most of all faithful. I love you Kurt Reed Cline. You are mine forever and I cherish that thought. I love you madly and I am beyond grateful to share every moment of every day with you.
AND
Jax... one day you will read this. I want you to know that mommy loves you so much. I cried a million tears before I found you. Daddy and I waited, and waited, and waited and we know that Heavenly Father was finding the most special baby to send to us. I love you more than I can put into words. You have my heart little man. I know that one day you will be a daddy, and if you feel even an ounce of the love I have for you for your children you will be the best daddy around. I loved you before I even knew you existed. I have prayed for hours on end hoping that one day those prayers would be answered... Buddy, my prayers were answered with you. I love you my angel, you are my miracle. xoxo - mommy

I asked Shaileen to come into the computer room and not read what I had written earlier in this post but to just write down her feelings for today. WOW! I have no idea why I am the one that blogs because she can pour her heart out way better than I can. Shaileen, I love you too with all of my heart. You are the woman I had been looking for to marry but more importantly be the mother to our child. I love you!

4 Year Wedding Anniversary

I first off have to say that I am the luckiest man on earth. The reason is I am married to my best friend. These last 4 years have been the best of my life easily. Shaileen has made our marriage so wonderful and perfect. She is the most loving, fun, caring person I know. She is going to make the best mother one day. I cannot wait for that day The coolest thing is we have eternity to go. Shaileen I love you!

Delivery Room Vs Sealing Room

On Friday we went to an adoption panel that Families Supporting Adoption put together. It was a panel of adoptive parents that told their stories. It was really good but the thing that hit me most was the quote in the photo. He said "I would trade a delivery room for a sealing room anyday." How true is that and how cool is it also. I have been in 3 sealing rooms when an "adoption sealing" was taking place. It is such an incredible thing to see. Like I said in my previous post it is pretty cool how Heavenly Father understands and allows adoption to complete families eternally. I look forward to the day we are able to take our child to the temple and be sealed. I can just picture us kneeling there together and then looking in the mirrors that symbolize an eternal family.

Christmas Day 2012

Its finally Christmas day! We woke up at 5:45 to get ready for the day and open our own gifts to each other at our own house. I love seeing Shaileen open the gifts that I got her.

 

 

I put together a little stocking for our future kid. Never too early to prepare :) 

 

 

 

Shaileen said that this was her favorite gift of the year. It is an adoption necklace from the R House. it says "I Love Adoption" in a heart shape. 

This was easily my favorite gift of the year. Shaileen is so thoughful. She put together hard bound books of this blog so we have it in written form. It was 2 books with one of them being about 135 pages and the other being about 75 pages that spanned over the last 2 years. It is going to be the best coffee table book. It's not very often that I get online to look at old blog posts. This will be cool to look back at, especially with our future kids to show what life was like before they were born and show how the adoption process went and how much we did to bring them to our home. Thanks Shaileen! I love you!

Immediatly after we finished up at our house we went over to Shaileen's Dads house. We spent about 4 hours over there and had a blast. Their favorite Christmas tradition is having what they call Christmas Hash in the morning for breakfast every year. So we opened gifts and had breakfast. Can I just say that I have the best wife ever. She opened a gift from her Dad and it was a Packers hoodie and she freaked out with excitement. How cool is that?

Right after finishing up at her Dad's house we went over to my parents house to spend time over there. It was really fun but to begin with a little hard at the same time because it was the first year without my Grandpa there. It is generally his and my Grandma's yearly tradition to do Christmas breakfast and have everyone over to their house. My favorite were the eggs that Grandpa would make. I am not sure why I liked them so much but it was one of my absolute favorite things about Christmas day. This year my parents decided to continue the tradition at their house. They did an excellent job and we look forward to continuing the tradition in a new way.

After going to my parents house we went home for just under an hour to grab a few things before we went over to Shaileen's Mom's house. It was a blast. Both of her sisters were there as well as the step siblings. We were excited because her Mom gave us a photo of the temple and it was the temple that we were married/sealed in. We spent time eating and just time together.

We were absolutely beat after the day but it was a great day! Thank you to our family for all of the gifts but more because they make not only Christmas but everyday special to us. Merry Christmas to everyone. 

Thoughts at temple tonight

Some friends invited us to the temple tonight. We had not been for about 3 months so of course we said yes. We were both really looking forward to going because we were both looking for answers to a few things but also wanted to thank our Heavenly Father for the many blessings we have in our lives. There is one thing I learned today that I need to share. As a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we are given a commandment to multiply and replenish the earth. With us going through infertility issues sometimes it is hard to hear this. The thing that went off like a lightbulb in my brain today is there are tons of ways we can fulfill this commandment other than having children. The word replenish means to fill, to fill with what is what is interesting to me. The one thing we have tried to fill the world with I love. Love for our family. Love for our friends. Love for our primary kids. There can never be enough love. To show someone you love them can give someone hope. When we were going though our failed adoption placement love is what held us together. Another thing we try to do is serve others. Service is a lot about love but we do that also. I don't think I need to explain how service is important as well as helpful. We also try to throw out the knowledge we have obtained in our experiences especially with adoption mostly through talking with others but also through our blog. As we go through our adoption process we constantly lean on others that we know personally and others we don't know through blogging, Facebook, Instagram and other places. We hope that our experiences can maybe help someone one day that goes through similar issues, problems, and even our successes. Isn't it cool how going to the temple can put things in our minds that we need to know to build our testimonies to be the best people we can be.

Weddings, Temple, Baseball, Heartbeats, and Fighting Oh My!

This past Friday night Shaileens cousin got married so we traveled down to Talons Cove Golf Club in Saratoga Springs. It is such a beautiful place and we had a great time. We are so happy for them.

Told ya it was beautiful, but not as beautiful as my wife!

Early Friday morning we had the opportunity to go to the Jordan River Temple because Tristen (Shaileen's Sister) was going through for herself for the first time. It was a very special time for her but it also meant a lot for me as well. I have been to the temple may times but I don't think any time has hit me as much as it did Saturday morning. I think it is an incredible place where we can go and get inspiration whenever we need it.

Later that night some of our friends got several tickets to the Salt Lake Bees game and were kind enough to invite us. We showed up early and there was a BBQ with some excellent food. We loved our seats being able to sit on the first base side gave us a great view of the field. Thanks Megan and Ryan for inviting us!

 Monday we got off about 3 hours early because "J" had a Dr's appointment. The picture below is us driving to the appointment. We are so thankful for J and her kindness like we always say. We have the best relationship with her and look forward to continuing it forever! The Dr's appointment went perfect and baby is doing great. We asked the Dr how much he estimates that the baby weighs and he estimated about 7 to 7 1/2 lbs and could grow another 1/2 pound this week. We are excited to see how big and how long he really is. It is crazy to think that these 3 months since J contacted us and we only have 6 days left until we get to meet him. With it getting closer we have been so tired because we have been so busy but we both have  had a very hard time sleeping because we are so excited and want to make sure we have everything ready. It is just getting to darn close!

This is the video of the heart beat.

Since MTuesday was Pioneer day Questar gave it to us as a vacation day. So we slept in until baout 8:30 if I remember right. I then go tup and did some much needed yard work and Shaileen was the best and cleaned up the house. Later we ran to some stores and then Kimberly and Jason invited us to their house to play some games. Usually we play board games but for some reason Jason pulled out the Xbox and we played MMA fighting and golf. Shaileen claims to have never played video games before but no one believes here because she beat everyone at the fighting game. she beat everyone litterally at least twice. I thikn that is why we decided to play golf quickly after that severe beating. you can see tihe video below of how much Shaileen enjoyed it.

Last night Shaileens mother and Greg invitied us to go see the Dark Knitght Rises.  It was a really good show. I was pretty skeptical because I am not usually into superhero movies but I really liked this one and Shaileen loved it too. It has been a crazy weekend/week and we are excited to get the rest of this week over with.

Adopting sealing

Another special day in our family happened yesterday. Alex was sealed to Kimberly and Jason in the temple! We are so happy to have him in our family through the wonderful gift of adoption. Alex sometimes wont let others hold him if Kimberly (his mom) is in the room but in the temple today he was super calm and was as happy as can be. The sealer in the temple said that pretty much all of the time when a child is brought into the temple they are super happy and calm. I can't wait for the day that we are able to do this in about 7 months or so! Thanks for inviting us Kimberly and Jason.