Birth mother scrap book

Hi! Thank you for taking the time to get to know us (well, as much as a piece of paper with words all over it can let you get to know someone). We are so excited to see what these words can do in your life and the life that you are carrying.

Emilie is a New Mexico girl through and through. She was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and lived there until she was 3 years old. At that point Emilie’s dad decided to start a ministry to alcoholics and drug addicts in Valencia County. Emilie’s mom and dad, Niven and Kathleen, are wonderful parents and raised her and her older sister, Anna, with love, fun, discipline, and with deep moral conviction. Anna and Emilie are three years apart in age and have grown to be best friends as well as sisters. Anna now lives in Arizona with her amazing husband, Javan, and her mom and dad are still ministering in Valencia County.

Emilie was home schooled until 8^th grade and then went to a private Christian School for her High School years. She worked very hard for her grades and graduated Valedictorian of her graduating class. With that title she received a scholarship to New Mexico State University and decided to further her education in Las Cruces. She met and married the best man she has ever met, Chris, and has been happily married living in Las Cruces. She is very involved in her church and sings on the Worship team that Chris leads. She loves people and investing in meaningful relationships with other women in her life. She is currently mentoring three high school girls from her church and she and Chris are about to start serving as Youth Pastors.

Chris was born in Mansfield, Ohio and lived there for the first 5 years of his life. He had the joy of growing up in a large family where he was number 5 out of 6 children (2 brothers and 3 sisters!). When his dad decided to switch careers from teaching English to being a high school principal, the family ended up living in several locations, from Las Cruces, NM, to Nebraska, and finally to Colorado where Chris spent his middle school and high school years. Through lots of change and a few trials, his parents never stopped teaching the kids by example that God is good all the time. Doing life together as a family was always very important and this value was passed down to the children.

Through high school Chris always had something going on, whether it was sports, taking the lead in the school play, or his involvement with his youth group. He excelled in his school work as well as in football, basketball, and track. Through his hard work he received an academic scholarship to New Mexico State University where he earned the status of Crimson Scholar while studying Civil Engineering Technology. Soon after receiving his Bachelor’s degree in May of 2008 he took a job with an engineering firm in El Paso, TX, where he works today.

Chris and Emilie met their first day of college, freshmen year, at New Mexico State University. Emilie saw Chris (well, the back of his head) before Chris saw her and the moment she saw him, she knew that he was the man that she was going to marry. That evening Emilie would meet him face to face. Chris just happened to be roommates with a friend of Emilie’s and that friend introduced them to each other. Chris thought Emilie was pretty cute (Okay…really cute) and they began a friendship. After a year and a half of getting to know each other, Chris asked her on their first date. Not just a casual, “let’s have fun” date, but he wanted her to know that he wanted to date her with the hopes of it ending in marriage. Both Chris and Emilie were on the same page and from the first date they knew they would be married one day.

Chris had called Emilie on a Saturday morning in October and told her he wanted to go on a hike with her. Emilie, not being particularly fond of hiking at that point, hesitantly said “yes” to a hike for the following day. Early that Sunday morning, Chris picked Emilie up at her house and they drove to a hiking trail. It was a nice hike and they were enjoying each others company, when a tarantula crossed their path. Emilie had, for some strange reason, always wanted a pet tarantula. So Chris emptied out his water bottle and caught it for her. Needless to say, Emilie was very pleased with her boyfriend’s heroism and was delighted that she got a pet tarantula out of it. They continued on their hike, holding their new pet that had been named Hector, in the water bottle. Chris stopped to tie his shoe and Emilie took the opportunity to inspect her tarantula. Before she new it, Chris was on one knee holding his grandmother’s ring asking her to be his wife. Without even a second thought, Emilie accepted the proposal.

June 3, 2006, a hot Las Cruces Saturday, marked the day that Chris and Emilie began their life together; for better or worse, in sickness and in health. Their commitment wasn’t just to each other, but to God, trusting that He would be their strength in hard times, their joy in sadness, and their provider in need, never really understanding what exactly that would look like. Married life is such a blessing for Chris and Emilie. Both cherish being able to do life with their best friend.

After one year of wedded bliss, Chris and Emilie decided that they wanted to start a family. Emilie had already graduated from NMSU with a degree in Family and Child Science and a minor in Counseling and Educational Psychology and Chris only had one more semester left before he would receive his degree in Civil Engineering Technology. It seemed like the perfect time to build on the love that they already had by adding a baby.

After nine months of trying with no success, Emilie decided that it would be a good idea to see a doctor and see if maybe there was something wrong, because most of the people around her were getting pregnant at the drop of a hat. With testing and blood work, the doctor concluded that Emilie had Thyroid disease, an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid gland, a common obstacle in getting pregnant. Emilie gladly took the medicine prescribed to help solve the problem. Two years went by and Chris and Emilie still did not see the much longed for “two purple” lines on the pregnancy test and the doctors could not tell them exactly why. In that time, Chris graduated College and received a job working as a Civil Engineer in El Paso. Emilie, ultimately desiring to be a mother, worked at a Salon and Day Spa as a Salon Coordinator. They also got a funny and crazy dog named Charlie, whom they dubbed their “Fur baby.”

Chris and Emilie knew that the only thing that they could do about their infertility was to get educated about why they were infertile. So they went to a reproductive endocrinologist and underwent painful and, quite frankly, embarrassing tests to help the doctor figure out why they could not produce a little life out of their love. In October of 2010, Chris and Emilie were given the devastating news that they had a 0% chance of getting pregnant. Both had reproductive issues and with both of their issues at play, the only option for pregnancy would be In Vitro Fertilization (a process where an egg is taken from Emilie and a sperm is taken from Chris and they are combined in a test tube and then developed into an embryo that would be placed in Emilie’s womb, when and if it was ready). Both Chris and Emilie felt a deep moral conviction about not going through with In Vitro Fertilization and made the decision to build their family through adoption.

That is what brought Chris and Emilie to this point, hoping and praying that a young woman would be willing to give them the gift of a child. Could that woman be you?

Chris and Emilie greatly desire to be parents and to invest in the lives of their children; to love their children deeply so that they always know that they have “Biggest Fans” in their mom and dad. They look forward to having a front row seat to the complexities of a little person and getting to know who that person is and what makes them tick. They desire to help instruct their children to be contributing members of society and live lives that make a difference, no matter what that difference looks like. Chris and Emilie know that parenting will be hard, overwhelming, and sometimes nuts, but they look forward to the challenges knowing that God will help them and give them strength, no matter what the future holds.

Are you sitting down?

I know this has been a long time coming. Thank you for your patience. It all happened so fast that Chris and I had to take it all in before I was even able to compose a thought, much less a blog posting! It's been a whirlwind, but a glorious one.

I'm going to start from the beginning. And here is where we first learned about our sweet miracle.

First of all, God directed us to the right social worker at the right time. A few days after we met with Kathi for the first time, she received a phone call from a friend of hers who had a friend who worked at a local family clinic. This friend of a friend was the OBGYN nurse and performed preliminary meetings with new patients who are looking to receive prenatal care. This nurse happened to encounter a young lady who had decided that she did not want keep the child growing inside of her. This nurse decided not to call CYFD, because apparently it's a nightmare working with them, and called her friend who she knew had a few connections with social workers. This friend heard the news about this young mother and immediately called Kathi and asked if she had any couples who were willing to take a child. Kathi, of course, said yes and she gave her friend all her information to be passed on to the nurse who would in turn pass it on to this young mother. Now, please know that situations like this are a long shot...a friend of a friend who doesn't really know the pregnant woman, it's just crazy.

Kathi had told me of this interaction the day after it happened. I was excited to hear the news, but reminded myself to guard my heart and not to get excited about it. I remember thinking to myself, "This isn't the answer to your prayers, this is just a step in the right direction." A few nights after receiving this news from Kathi, we had another scheduled home visit. I was preparing a meal for all of us to share together and Kathi showed up a little bit before Chris got home from work. Kathi was sharing with me her excitement over the news she received and had shared with me. And then she told me that the night she was contacted by her friend she had barely slept and continually woke up to the same dream. The dream went something like this.

Emilie's phone rings and she picks it up to hear Kathi's voice:
Emilie:"Hello!"
Kathi: "Emilie, are you sitting down?"
Emilie: "Yes, I am sitting on my living room couch, why?"
Kathi: "Well, Emilie, I am at the hospital."
Emilie: "Oh no, Kathi! Are you okay?"
Kathi: "Emilie, I am wonderful. I am calling to tell you to come and pick up your baby."

We both cried. I lifted up a prayer in my heart "Lord, let it be so."

On a normal Saturday (February 19th, to be exact) Chris woke up WAY before I did and performed his normal routine of brewing coffee and then spending time with Jesus. I got up about an hour after I heard the dinging of the coffee maker. I joined Chris at the table with my Bible, groggy eyes, and a piping cup of joe. For some reason, that morning I woke up super overwhelmed with the whole adoption process. I was worried, worried that it would never happen for us, worried that we wouldn't get all our "ducks in a row" for the home study, just worried. I looked at Chris and told him, "I need a vacation, a vacation from adoption. Can we go do something today, something fun...can we go shopping?". Chris just chuckled at me and with a knowing smile said, "Sure, where at?". We decided on the Outlet Mall and set out for a mini vacation.

Chris and I really enjoyed each other that day. We had many meaningful conversations and prayed together. I scored a few awesome deals too. It was a good day. On the way home, Chris and I decided that we wanted to make spritzers to have with dinner (a summer favorite and it was hot like summer). We stopped at Walmart on our way home and as we were driving back, I heard me phone ringing. When I looked at it I saw it was our social worker, Kathi. And this is how the conversation went:

Emilie: "Hi, Kathi!"
Kathi: "Emilie, are you sitting down?"
Emilie immediately starts crying and says: "Yes!" (Thank God that Chris was driving!)
Kathi: "How do you feel about little girls?"
Emilie: "I feel WONDERFUL about little girls!!"
Kathi: "Good, because it looks like you are getting one. I just got off the phone with a young lady who is due March 19th with a little girl. I told her a little bit about you and Chris and she loves you already. She wants to meet you next Saturday. You've been chosen by a birth mother!!"

At that point I was crying so hard I couldn't breath and I had to pass the phone over to Chris who was just hoping it was good news! Kathi spoke to Chris and gave him some action items that we needed to get in order before we met with the birth mother. Our home study still wasn't complete at that point, so we had to scramble! It was such a joyful scrambling though! A friend of mine had suggested we make a scrap book to give to the birth mother when we met her, so my primary job that week was to get that put together ...and then quit my actual job because I was going to get my dream job, being a mommy.

We cried tears of joy. By God's grace, we had just happened to purchase a car seat and stroller with Chris' tax return, thinking that we would need it someday, not realizing we would need it in just a few short weeks. God is so good. His mercies are new every morning and He truly does hear our prayers.

More to come.