Little Leo

I haven't blogged for a long time, feeling like I have nothing to blog about. It doesn't mean there is nothing happening in my life, it just seems like everything is so routine and not so exciting. Blogging, for me, is not all about letting others know what is going on in my life, but hopefully some day I will be able to put my blog in a book as a family history. . . as soon as I learn how to do that!

One blessed and exciting thing in our family is the adoption by my sister and her husband of Little Leo. My sister, Cristi, and her husband, Jeff, have been married 5 years and have not been able to have children. They found a little guy they thought would be available for adoption from an orphanage in Ghana, but have run into some major red tape with the Ghanian government. They hope to some day be able to adopt Charlie from that country, but have decided to continue in their efforts to adopt in the U.S.

They had turned their papers into the agency about three weeks before getting a call saying they had been chosen by a birth mother to adopt her baby, due October 22. They were soooo excited, as you can imagine, but found out 2 1/2 weeks ago that the birth mother had changed her mind. They were quickly disappointed! I can't even imagine the disappointment that comes with infertility and then being subjected to the emotional roller coaster associated with adoption.

My sister wrote on her facebook page the next morning that "joy comes in the morning," which comes from a talk given by one of our church leaders several (?) years ago. I almost added that "joy comes in the mourning," or maybe after the mourning. Little did I know that the very next morning (the very day my sister had written that joy comes in the morning) they received a call from the adoption agency at 10:30 am stating they had a birth mother that had given birth two days before and she wanted to terminate her rights at 1:00 pm and would they be interested. They couldn't believe what they were hearing. The baby was 3 weeks premature and was in NICU with a possible lung infection. Turns out that everything was just fine. He was in NICU for 2 weeks and came home with them on Wednesday. He is the cutest!! little guy.

Now here is something I didn't know for the first week after they adopted Little Leo. An adoptive family had been chosen from MA, but when the baby had to be in NICU the birth mother decided that she wanted someone from Utah who could be at the hospital on a daily basis and could bond with the baby. The couple from MA would only be able to come spend a short amount of time and the birth mother didn't feel comfortable with that. The birth mother also loved Utah so much (she was from out of state) that she wanted the baby to be raised in the state. We were all so excited!

My mom and I had the opportunity to go spend some time with the new little family on Thursday to help with his first bath. I didn't get photos of me bathing sweet Leo, but the following pictures are of my sister getting him dressed after his bath. Isn't Leo a cute name? It is a family name. My grandad's name was Leo and his dad's name was Leo. His middle name is our maiden name, which is Rudger. Sounds manly, doesn't it? Enjoy the photos of Leo!

Congratulations Jeff and Cristi. . . and little Leo!