And now time for a party

[let's just pretend I'm not as far behind as I am and just carry on...]

Our summer really kicked off with a big party over Cole's blessing.

Cole did a great job and Shawn didn't do such a bad job either. We had a huge showing for the blessing. Friends and family came from everywhere - it was terrific. As it turned out there were four babies being blessed on the Sunday so the place was lousy with kids and adults, the perfect environment. The blessing was really lovely and besides the positive sentiments that Cole might grow up healthy and strong and continue to share his sweet nature that he would also give people the opportunity to turn their lives to Christ and a desire to do good. See like I said, Shawn did a pretty good job, especially with limited sleep.

After the blessing we all headed over to our house - and it really felt like ALL of the people in the chapel.

We hustled home to get started.

Luckily we had set up the yard and the basement the night before so we just had to direct people to assorted spots around the house & yard.

Friends and family all blend together where food is involved

The weather couldn't have been nicer. We were a little worried as the weather earlier in the week had been a little rainy and cold. But that Sunday we had warm even hot sunny weather. So the coverings we put up for rain, worked out nicely for the warm sun.

Apparently this is Taylor's Happy Dance after the blessing for the guests

No, this is their happy to be there face - even if Grandma is taking pictures

Teamwork and everyone gets something to drink

And the months of preparation in the yard were well worth it - it really looked nice. In fact about two weeks before the blessing, as the yard was coming back into focus, I remembered how I really like our yard and landscaping. I didn't feel the same the month earlier when I was pruning bushes in the dark at 10:30 at night.

Everyone stepped up and brought salads, side dishes, and desserts.

Aunt Jeni and counsin Jordan stpped up as good help in the kitchen (not to mention helping at Costco the day before)

And not to be outdone, we decided to make about 4 different salads ourselves along with the 4 desserts -- seemed like a good even match up. There was so much food up and downstairs - inside & out. It all made for good visiting -- everywhere you went there was something good to nibble on.

Cole was in a great mood all day and quite the ladies man.

We decided to try and put him down for a quick nap so he would keep up the good mood. As you can see, no such luck.

Grandpa Keith didn't have too much trouble taking a quick nap.

Who can blame him -- why would he want to miss out on his own party. When Shawn went into check on him, we found his room filled with little kidlets wanting to check out all of the goods.

It was a terrific day & night. We had people who stayed or continued to drop by until about 8:30 that night. We have no recollection of the day after as we were mostly unconscious recovering & continuing to clean up.

We're so grateful for so many special people in our lives who care for all three of us so much. We couldn't do this without all of your good thoughts and prayers. For those who couldn't make it in person, we were missing you and thinking about you.

We're not done yet...

Well with the legal piece completed the next step was for the three of us to head to the temple and make our family a forever family.

It was a lovely day - again. We were joined by family and our dearest friends. It was a special treat as Jacquie is a temple worker in Jordan River Temple which was the temple we chose to be sealed together in. That mostly meant she was able to guide us around and ensure everything went perfectly -- which it did. The temple accommodates for families and has a nursery room with sweet and gentle workers who tend to the children, even those with special needs like Cole's. He hung out there while we changed from our street clothes into our temple dress clothes and they even changed Cole into his temple dress clothes for us.

We assembled in a lovely sealing room inside the temple and waited for everyone to arrive. Once assembled, the officiator or individual conducting the sealing shared with us some very sweet stories before talking to all of us about the meaning and intent behind sealing a family together forever and then conducted the sealing ceremony. The whole ceremony, not too dissimilar from marriage ceremony where the husband and wife are joined together with their children, only took a few minutes but the feeling was beautiful and certainly eternal. We were grateful to have Shawn's brothers serve as witnesses to the event. And we were so glad for those who could attend in person and those who attended in spirit.

The pictures we took afterwards outside the temple grounds only included a few of the folks who remained after we got changed -- we forgot to better coordinate that. Luckily, we've got them in the pictures after the blessings ... coming up shortly.

Afterwards we headed to Uncle Chris' and Aunt Angie for a nice and relaxing lunch. Here's Cole relaxing with one of his favorite 'toys' a piece of mylar paper.

What a way to start the summer

Some of you probably started the summer by cleaning up from the winter /spring garden messes, getting ready the boat (jet ski, wave runner ... fill in toy name here [ ]), making vacation plans, relaxing from the last few days of school -- good for you!

Our summer started in late April with the state's approval to proceed with finalization. You see, due to Cole's medical conditions it was imperative we proceed in a very specific order, securing approval each step of the adoption process to secure him Medicaid for the rest of his life. Unfortunately the process is VERY linear. There is no sense trying to change it or anticipate what they'll need along the way - we know all too well. So while we've been very frustrated at parts, by the end we learned to adapt (probably a good skill to learn in general) and as we did it became easier to enjoy the steps and then jubilation at the final approval. We had started the process of course much earlier as LDS FS gave us approval to begin much, much earlier. However, we were at a critical point last summer setting up additional appointments around the time Cole had his cranial reconstruction and practically a year of hospitalizations and surgeries (May - Nov) we had a major set back. But none of that mattered with our approval to proceed.

Our case worker and attorney preparing us and making sure everything is correct. What a relief to have them both with us in this process.

Just before the hearing

(So there were signs through out the facility about no pictures in courtroom ... apparently Grandma Jacquie didn't see them. Oh well, at least they didn't confiscate them or her

The legal part begins

We hope to see this Judge again in a few months ....

Our sweet case worker to finish what several before her had started - she was fantastic.

The best attorney - ever!

We had a great turn out.

Look at this good looking group!

And Cole did really well!

Right after finalization - big grins by all!

As it turns out another LDSFS family was there for their finalization. They had the same attorney who helped us start and navigate this process. Interesting enough, their case worker was the same case worker as Cole's birth mother (Tami). And they had initially struggled with some of the same challenges on their special needs little girl. But their case worker contacted us and we were able to provide step by step instructions on how to proceed and reduced their time down more than 8 months -- yeah! That makes our wait a little more tolerable to know we've helped someone else (and hopefully others who go through LDSFS).

We're so grateful to Tami and Jay and their families and other families who so loved this child they trusted we would give him a home and could take care of him and all of his special needs and love him as much as they love him. We pray for them and other birth families each day and ask that you'll consider them in your prayers to help join other families together.