Mikey's Adoption Story

When Kellan was about a year old we decided to sign up with a local agency with hopes of adopting a baby.  We were matched with an expectant mother 6 months later.  We met with her in Carlsbad and we were excited to meet her.  While meeting with her she said that she wanted us to be the parents of her little baby girl.  We were really excited, but there was just something about this situation that didn’t quit seem right.  We really wanted another baby so we ultimately just ignored those feelings and pressed forward with this situation.  Fast forward 2 months and despite the optimism of the agency we still had this nagging feeling that something wasn’t right.  Her due date came and went and that was the last we heard of this situation.  Looking back it was easy to see that what we were feeling was that this was not our baby.

A few months went by when the bishop in our area called us into his office to speak with us.  We were confused as to what this was all about.  We followed the bishop into his office where he proceeded to tell us about a 3 year old boy who was being raised by his grandma and grandpa, but within the last year his grandpa, who was this little boy’s main caregiver, had passed away.  This put this little boy’s grandma in a very undesirable situation where she became the main breadwinner working long hours and was unable to be with her grandson as much as she wanted to. She loved this little boy, but she didn’t want him to just grow up in daycare.  She wanted more for him, so she was seeking out an adoptive family. 

We had never considered adopting a child before, so we surprised ourselves with how excited we instantly were. After leaving the bishop’s office Michael and I both confessed that we had often times dreamed about having the bishop call us into his office to tell us about an adoption opportunity.  We immediately started corresponding with a friend of the little boy’s grandma.  Things were taking too long so we decided to just call her up ourselves.  Nobody answered so Kristen just left a message.  We waited to hear back and we never heard anything.  We moved on and figured she had changed her mind.

Then, in August Kristen got a text on a Friday from Denise asking us if we were still interested in adopting her grandson.  We said yes and that we wanted to meet with her that Sunday.  We met at a park and loved Denise right away.  She was so sweet and personable to us.  She expressed her love for her grandson and that she wanted more for him.  We were a little nervous at how Mikey would respond to us.  Our first impression of him was that he was so dang cute, so happy and we were pleasantly surprised at how he warmed up to us so quickly.  We played with Mikey at the park and talked more about his situation with Denise.  We then made plans to take Mikey during the week while Denise was at work. 

 

Over the next 2 weeks our family became more acquainted with Mikey and it became more apparent that this was right.  After the 2 weeks were up we had a frank conversation with Denise telling her that we wanted to be Mikey’s parents and she said that she wanted that too.  Denise also told us that she asked Mikey if he wanted to live with us.  Mikey said, “Yes.  Sorry Nana but I gots to go.”  We were a little overcome by Mikey’s words and we were so excited!  Mikey started living with us while all the paperwork was finished and the rest is history.

Visiting with Mikey's Birth Aunt and Birth Grandma at our house.

We feel so lucky to have this little boy in our family and we can't imagine life without him!  We are so excited to experience new things with him and watch him grow.

 Mikey's finalization.  Denise was able to come.  She said she wouldn't miss it for the world.