The Story of Jaxon

So..we had been trying to start a family for a while and things were not working out the way we had hoped. We were moving around a lot for the end of Luke's rotations and it was hard to get in to see a specialist. When we finally did, that started a long process of tests and procedures. The end result was that we wouldn't be able to get pregnant. I was devastated and I was mad. I was mad at God for not answering our prayers the way I wanted. I was mad at everyone around me who was getting pregnant so easily. I felt like a failure. I was unable to do the thing that women were made for and I felt like I was letting Luke down. I felt like Heavenly Father was saying I would be a bad mother. Over the years my attitude has slowly changed. It is still hard sometimes but I am much more positive about things. 
We decided that adoption was the way for us to have a family and that was a whole other frustrating process. We tried to go through LDS Family Services and they told us they had too many people in Colorado to help and kept trying to divert us to a different agency. After a year or so we decided to try a new agency and we are so glad we did! I felt at peace. This was who we were supposed to be with. We were with Adoption Center of Choice since the beginning of this year. They would call every week-ish telling us they were showing our profile to a prospective birth mother. This was great! Things were finally happening!! I knew that it still might take a while but as long as things felt like they were moving I could be mostly patient. February 19th we got a call that a mother and her oldest daughter liked our profile and they would let us know if we were the right family before the week was out. I was a nervous wreck. I was jumpy at every phone call and text hoping it was the agency with good news. February 21st they finally told us that she had chosen us and her due date for the baby boy was the beginning of March. Both times they talked to us we were at work and I was worthless for the rest of the day. I pretty much had a panic attack (in a good way)! I was so excited and so nervous at the same time. So much to do, so little time and so many things that could go wrong!

I didn't want to tell anybody in case she changed her mind but we told our parents and a few people from church. It was such a hard thing to keep secret. I wanted to tell everybody that we were finally getting a baby!! Especially when I went to a cousins baby shower. I felt a little bipolar. I would get really excited and and go crazy looking at baby stuff then I would get really sad thinking that it possibly couldn't happen. Poor Luke.

We got to talk to the birth mother three times before we went out for the birth. She told us that our profile had been her favorite and then her 11 year-old daughter also picked out our profile so she felt we were the right couple. We thought that was pretty cool. She told us a little about her history and her 4 daughters. She let us know that she was having a scheduled C-section on March 13th. We planned to drive out to Minnesota on the 11th and meet her the day before and be there for the birth.

Those were the longest two and a half weeks of my life. It seemed like such a short time when they told us and then it just dragged on and on. I was definitely glad the wait wasn't any longer.

On the 10th we were all ready and packed up to drive out in the morning. Just as we got into bed we got a text saying that she was having pain and was going to the hospital and they would keep us posted. A couple of hours later they told us that she was being admitted and they were going to do the C-section. We were definitely disappointed not to be there for the birth but we drove 14 hours to Minnesota and still managed to be there to meet him on the day he was born.

Jaxon Cooper was born March 11 at 2:01am. 8 lbs 11 oz 20 in long. He was the most perfect thing I had ever seen. I picked him up and never wanted to put him down. The nurses were really excited to show us his full head of hair and kept telling us how big his feet were.

Jax had to stay in the hospital until his birth mother was discharged so we visited them both over the next couple of days. The birth mother also had to wait 72 hours after the birth before she could sign the papers so mostly we tried to be patient in our hotel room. This is the first picture of our new family!

We were told that due to paperwork and things we could be in Minnesota for up to three weeks. Our work people sent us off with tons of snacks for us to eat while we were stuck in a hotel. Although we missed Jaxon's birth it actually worked out pretty well moving things up faster. Our lawyer was very proactive about getting everything done and we were able to leave Friday the 15th. We were so excited to take our little guy home. We started home Friday afternoon and ran into a snow storm and had to stay the night in Fargo. We made it home Saturday night and came home to this...

Some friends from the ward decorated the house for Jax's home-coming. Everybody was so excited for us and so excited to meet him. This was his first meeting with Baxter...

We have been waiting such a long time for Jax to come into our lives and he is definitely worth the wait! Heavenly Father truely answered our prayers with this beautiful little guy and we could not be more happy.

Hawaii

 Hawaii! We got to visit Hawaii this January with Luke's parents, his brother Zach and his wife Jayme, and our niece Kelsey. It was tons of fun. We love family vacations. It was also nice to get out of Wyoming in the middle of winter. I did not miss those sub zero temeratures!

  We flew into Maui for the first half of the week. We snorkled and played on the beach and relaxed. Monday Luke, Zach, Jayme and Philip went scuba diving while Cindy, Kelsey and I played on the beach. It sprinkled a lot while we were there but it made for some awesome rainbows.

This was our sand castle. We decorated it with coral we found along the beach. It was one of Kelsey's favorite moments of the vacation.

We drove to the top of the Haleakala volcano. It was windy and cold! The view was pretty cool though.

Kelsey turned 6! We tried to tell her that Hawaii is like Neverland and you don't grow up. She didn't buy it and was determined to have her cake!

One day we took the road to Hana which is a windy road to a small town. You mostly take the road for the view and the adventures along the way. This was the best hike we stopped for. We hiked through a bamboo forest to reach 3 waterfalls with pools to swim in. There was a fourth waterfall after a 100 yard swim through one of the ponds but only Luke swam it. He and his brother and dad also jumped off some cliffs into one of the pools.

After Maui we flew to Oahu and stayed in a house on the North Shore. We spent lots of time playing on the beach, which was my favorite part of the vacation. Here we are boogie boarding...

and playing in the sand. Everyone got a turn to be a mermaid (or merman). 

We stayed in Laie which is where the LDS temple is. I learned that it was the first one built outside of the continental US.

Luke lead us on a hike to Laie Falls but apparently took a wrong turn and we never found the waterfall. The view was pretty good.

We spent one day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  

Here is Luke trying to start a fire with a stick and we are enjoying the Hawaiian Luau.

We had a great time with family and enjoyed the warm sun!

Christmas!

This has been a crazy Christmas season! It didn't even feel like Christmas until a week before. We started off having some friends over for an ugly sweater party where we played some minute to win it games. I only had my camera phone so the pictures are not great.

Trying to get the cookie from the forehead to the mouth.

See who can stack the cups up the fastest. The babies thought it was the greatest thing to get to knock over the tower.

 The Saturday before Christmas we had my Mom's side of the family Christmas party. Lots of food, games and fun!

I had to work Christmas Eve so we did our family gift exchange early. Here are Luke and Eric modeling their gifts.

 Lindsey sporting her Slytherin purse direct from Harry Potter World!

 We introduced my family to dominoes last Christmas and they loved it so much they had to get their own set.

Christmas Eve we had a little get together with some friends. I never remember to take pictures! We went caroling, played some games and listened to the Christmas story. Just as we were all getting ready to leave it started to snow. Everybody was so excited that we would be having a white Christmas!

I had an awesome cold just in time for the holidays so our Christmas was pretty low key. Here is Luke teaching me how to play Cribbage, the new game he got.

It is a tradition in my family to do a puzzle over the holidays. Here we are continuing the tradition.

Baxter loves to stick his face in the snow then come and share it with us!



Vegas

This last week Luke had a pharmacy conference in Las Vegas and I went along for the ride. My hair looks awesome because we just got off the New York New York roller coaster.

 We stayed at the Luxor.

The great thing about Vegas is there are plenty of things to do for free. I really liked the Bellagio's Christmas lobby display. The houses were made out of dark chocolate and frosted mini-wheats.

The Polar Bears were made out of flowers.

 The worlds largest chocolate fountain! Yum.



 Our room was really close to the crepe and waffle booth. Oh so tasty.

 We went to the Tournament of Kings for dinner one night (it has always been on my bucket list). We were in the Hungary section. Our king was definitely the coolest but he didn't win. Lame. But it was lots of fun and had some really good food.

There were tons of pharmacists walking around. You could tell who they were by the bright green bags they were all carrying. Not sure why Dr. Sheldon Cooper was there, but Luke got a picture!

Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was pretty low key. I had to work the day before and after so we couldn't go anywhere. But this didn't stop me from baking...a lot.

First stop: mini sour cream apple pies.

#2 Cream cheese pumpkin bread

#3 German Pancakes

 #4 Garlic cheese rolls

#5 Cinnamon and sugar pull apart bread

#6 Sweet potato cupcakes. The marshmallow frosting did not work out and looked pretty sad but still tasted awesome.

After we went and had Thanksgiving dinner with one of the doctors we worked with, we decided to brave the Black Thursday at Walmart. This was our haul.