Deciding to adopt

For the next 8 months after my car accident, and after much fasting, prayer and priesthood blessings, my answer about adopting came in the most unlikely of places.  (Grant had already made up his mind about wanting to adopt and was just waiting for me to decide for myself.)  One of the jobs I had had since high school was cleaning other peoples houses.  One couple who's house I had cleaned had a little boy that Grant and I tended sometimes.  One night in December of 1997 while we were tending 'Sam' we were watching a movie called, "Beauty and the Beast Christmas" (I think that's what it was called) Anyway, in one of the scenes, Forte, the wicked 'villain' was trying to convince Belle not to fall in love.  He said to her, "Don't fall in love.....it takes up so much precious time!" That's when 'it' hit me! I thought to myself, "Yes, being a mom will take up so much time but it is so worth it!"  From that time forward, my husband and I decided that we should pursue adoption and started the necessary paper work. It was interesting because the month we had made up our minds that we should try to adopt a child was the month our daughters birth-mom got pregnant with her.

In June of 1998 my husband, Grant and I were approved as potential adoptive parents. On August 31^st of that same year, we got a letter from a birth-mom in Idaho telling us that she knew we were meant to be the parents of her unborn child. We could hardly believe it! Within a few days we got to go to Idaho and meet our daughters birth-mom and we fell in love with her right away.
Three seemingly very long weeks later, on September 22, 1998, our daughter was born. On September 24^th, (Grant's dads birthday) we drove to the Idaho adoption agency to pick her up. As we walked down the hallway of LDS Family Services to the room where our daughter was, we heard a soft little cry and I could hardly contain myself. When I saw our daughter laying in the bassinet I was overcome with emotion. I asked the adoption worker if I could pick her up and she assuredly said, “She's yours.” Tears of joy spilled from my eyes as I held our daughter for the first time. I kept telling my husband, “She's ours. She's really ours.” I could hardly believe that I was the mother of the most precious and perfect little baby girl. We named her Kaela, which means “ beloved sweetheart.” We were elated and my life long dream of being a mother had come true.