Halloween

We had such a fun day! we went trick or treating at matts work friday night! The kids got way too much candy ! Matt came in 2nd place for the costume contest at his work as a gay terrorist! On sat We went ot our wards trunk or treat . Then we went home had meal in a pumpkin with friends and grandma Polly. The kids stayed up really late rockin out to music, Playing outside and watching a movie!

 

Future Mommy

Kaiya will be a great mom!! She is compassionate and love to surprise others! I asked her if she could keep an eye on Liv while I jumped into the shower. Of course she was happy to watch her, she loves to babysit ( she is 7 and does it for me when I do small things like jump in the shower). Kaiya wanted to surprise me by having her room clean and did not know what to do with Liv so this is what she came up with ( she has already mastered multitasking!)

 

Officially ours!

What an awesome day! Sept 22nd 2009! Liv is officially ours! I did not realize that court would be such an emotional experience for me. We went over all of the questions my attorney would ask me and I thought piece of cake! When we were at court the judge asked me how our lives have been since Liv was placed with us! The tears started coming and I could barley talk my mind and heart were filled with all sorts of emotions and thought All I could say was " we love her so much and could not imagine life with out her." Next it was Matts turn he could not even talk he was crying like a baby and said that he loves her just as much as all of his other children.
I wish I could have shared more! I know she was meant to be in our family. Liv is a little Angel sent to us from Heaven. ( A lot of people ask me where she is from and that is exactly where she came from Heaven!) She is so sweet and good nature d. She wakes up every morning just talking and gooing! She rarely complains only when she is really hungry or when her diaper is soiled (she gets really mad, she does not like to be dirty). She is sitting on her own and rolling all around. She a lover , gives kisses and likes to cuddle. Taj , Kaiya ,and Marley love her to pieces and hug and squeeze her all the time. Liv loves this she just smiles and seems very content to let them throw her around! Taj was so cute, he said that morning " Mom I really, really want to keep Livvy can we?" My heart melted!. I am so thankful that she is official ours in the state or governments mind, but I can not wait until Matt and I kneel across the alter in the Temple with all of our children and seal her to us for eternity!
I want to thank Alice for her selfless decision to give Liv a better life! We will give her the best life we possibly can and love her unconditionally! we love you Alice thank you for our precious gift from Heaven!

The Mountains make me feel Alive

The Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the crispness of the air, the cool breeze on my face, the smell of rain and the dew. The beauty of change. I love the feeling of romance and the holidays to come! Family and friends and the beginnings of memories!
Matt and I had our first date on Oct 2nd, and the best date ever , a hike in the mountains. This past weekend when we went backpacking reminded me of our courting and all of the things I love about him. The butterflies in my stomach every time I was with him, or even thought of him made me tingle! He is tall, handsome, has big strong hands, amazing abs, and nice lips! He has a great energy about him and loves adventure , he loves to serve others and is tender hearted. I knew when I married him life would not be boring! I am looking forward to the many adventures life will bring!

I am with my friend courtney I would be so happy to own a bike like this!!!!

Our beautiful Alice AKA Baby Mamma

First time we met Alice our birth moms real name, she is ok to share. I was nervous, what should we say, what should we talk about, I hope she likes us, what if she change her mind? We met at Red lobster funny cuz she dose not really like seafood:, but she was brave and tried some of Matts Scallops. Matt and I got to the restaurant before Alice I had butterfly's in my tummy and could hardly wait to meet her. Cindy our case worker was there and helped us feel more relaxed ( thanks Cindy you are amazing!) Alice finally arrived about ten minutes later she was so pretty and very nervous. she would not look at us until about half way through the dinner! WE had a hard time understanding her at first because she has a cute Georgian accent. She did not ask too many question! we asked most of them so we could get to know her better! One question that we did ask her is why did she pick us! She said that our profile was just like the others but we just caught her eye that there was this powerful feeling that she could not explain! ( Matt and I were both teary eyed) The lord knows where these children are going! Livvy is meant to be ours and Alice is meant to be our birth mom! Alice is so sweet and very smart! She likes to write poetry, play basketball, photography and loves the beach. My kind of girl! We asked what she would want us to tell our little girl about her? She said she would think about it and let us know! After dinner we decided we wanted to get together again before baby was born so she could meet our kids and we could meet her lilttle boy! we decided that Classic skate would be the perfect place!






We met at Classic skate. Alice had an amazing gift for us she had put together a scrapbook and a three page letter to livvey telling her how much she is loved! It is amazing and I can't wait to give it to Olivia one day! We had so much fun and instantly became friends. Its getting late and I am so tired stay tuned for the day Livvy is born!

Then and Now

Happy Anniversary


once a hippie always a hippie



Can you believe it has been 9 years! It truly has been the best nine years of my life! I love you

Babe! you are the love of my life!

Look what the stork dropped by our house

Olivia Skye Ward
Born March 12th 7:39 a.m.
6 lbs 6 ounces 17 1/4 "

We are so happy to announce the birth and arrival of our newest princess livvy! What an amazing experience adoption is. Matt and I decided about a year ago that we wanted more children, but I get so sick so we decided to start the adoption process! we have a family in our ward that is adopting through Ethiopia and we thought it would be fun to adopt at the same time as them so we could possibly travel together to get our kids.
My mom works at the hospital in the newborn Icu as the parent support guru! and a women who works for the adoption agency Heart to Heart was adopting a baby who was born early at this same hospital and became friends with my mom. My mom told her that we were thinking about adopting and Shelly insisted that we come to her home and talk to her! (shelly had just brought her precious preemie home and invited us over when no one was allowed in her home cuz of germs! doctors orders! she treated us like family and told us of her adoption story and let us know that their is a need here in the us for adoption, but told us it was our decision what ever we felt our course was!
Matt and i left feeling great we immediately decided we needed to get the ball rolling and look into heart to heart. I remember in june we prayed every night for our birth mom! by the end of september we had our home study approved and our application sent to Heart to Heart. At the time we really wanted a boy and we were called a couple of times about a baby girl! but we said we wanted a boy!
At the end of November we got a call and Twins were born and we had to decide if they were ours I wanted them to be my babies so badly I was so anxious and emotional. We prayed, fasted and went to the Temple and we were so confused we wanted these babies so bad why couldn't we decide. we asked our bishop for blessings and he had us come over on a fri. night at 10:30. As soon as he was done giving s our blessings we knew that they were not ours. It was so hard to say no! I cried all night long!
The End of Janurary Heart to Heart called again on a Monday night and said that a baby girl had been born and that the birth mom was bringing her in on Tuesday. They wanted to know if they could show our profile and if she picked us we could bring the baby home on wed. We were so excited even though it was not a boy we got all the girl clothes out washed them and were ready! the next morning I got a phone call and was told that the mom decided to keep her baby! Wow talk about an emotional roller coaster I called Matt at worked and we cried together ( he thought i was calling him to say lets go get our baby! I called Heart to Heart the next day to see about any other babies that were going to be born she told me about one that stuck in my mind (we will call her Donna( for privacy purposes ) but they were not sure if they were going to match her soon or not there were complications. she told me about some others but nothing i felt good about. They told me that they would keep in touch.
The next morning I got a call again about a mom in Mississippi and we would have to go out there for two weeks. no not interested but what about Donna? They would call me back.
the next week heart to heart called and said they were ready to match Donna I said great show her our profile. I felt so good about this until I called and talked to Matt. He told me that maybe we should wait because we did not have the money! He was right. but I was so mad and told him to call and let them know! I was done it was to emotional for me! I was ready to start throwing up for nine months straight!
Matt got busy at work and did not have time to call. the following morning I got a call from Heart to Heart Donna wanted to have a conference call in 20 minutes. Matt was snowshoeing so i would have to do it by my self. What would I say! I hope she likes my voice. all sorts of crazy thing went through my head! We talked and it was great. Matt finally called and we conference him in we talked for about 15 minutes and Heart to Heart called me 5 minutes after that and said that she had picked us! WE were so Happy.
I am gonna go to be but my next entry will be about our first dinner With Donna!

Adoption Profile feel free to share with friends and family

Hi,

We are a fun loving family of five Matt (fun to be around dad), Alissa (caring and comforting mom), Kaiya (spirited “princess” 7 year old), Taj (laid back “wanna be cowboy” 4 year old), and Marley (happy “little bug” 1year old). We love spending time together as a family. Some of the things we enjoy doing are camping, hiking, swimming, racing, flying kites at the park, exploring the Dinosaur museum, playing at the beach, reading books and having parties with our cousins. We want more kids in our family to share our love! We have always wanted to adopt!
Matt is 32 years old and was born and raised in Orem, Utah. Matt is so much fun and he is full of energy! He is a good friend and likes to make others laugh. Matt loves to serve those around him and is always there when you need him. Matt is the best Dad he is very loving and caring. His favorite thing to do is spend time with our kids. Matt is a hard worker and makes sure that his family is taken care of. Matt is very determined and if he sets his mind towards a goal it is always achieved. Matt is very smart He graduated from UVSC with an associates in philosophy and from BYU Hawaii in International Business. He often takes courses and reads lots of books to continue educating himself. An education is very important to us. Some of Matt’s hobbies are biking, snowshoeing, swimming, running(he loves ultra marathons 100 miles of running in 24 hours), water skiing and his favorite is surfing. We have been married for 8 ½ years. Matt is a wonderful husband. He is the love of my life and my very best friend.
Alissa is a very loving, kind and patient mother and spouse. We feel grateful that she has always been able to be home with the kids so our children can have the friendship and loving foundation of our home. Alissa loves to make happy memories for the kids, at birthdays and holidays especially. She will stay up late planning fun parties, she loves making beautiful home made birthday cakes from butterflies to elmo to motorcycles. Every holiday is a fun event as she always goes the extra mile to make sure they have fond memories including exciting Easter egg hunts, great Halloween costumes and Christmas surprises. Alissa feels it’s very important to be the best mom she can be. There are so many outside influences on our children and we want them to grow up happy, self sufficient for the future, safe and able to make good choices. Alissa has our children involved in extra curricular activities such as dance, sports and music to help them find their talents, develop self discipline and to have fun with other children. She invests a lot of time into our children by reading to them, playing, singing, and reading to find ways to teach our children. Alissa loves to cook and is big on healthy wholesome food. She is very good about teaching our kids responsibility by giving them jobs and making sure they do them before they can play. Alissa loves being a mom and is happy she gets to be with them all day! Alissa enjoys biking, swimming, hiking, camping, gardening and being outside in the sunshine.
As for our extended family, we are very involved with lots of fun things. Alissa comes from a happy family of 6 children and we have regular family dinners to celebrate birthdays and holidays with all of the cousins on that side (7 cousins and counting). We also will go boating and on short little vacation with some of Alissas siblings; they all live with in 30 minutes of our house. Matt only has one brother (Jeremy) and though we live about an hour apart we are still very good friends, they bike and run together. Jeremy has 3 kids; the oldest was adopted as an infant. Matts parents love their grandkids and enjoy sleepovers at Grandmas house where Grandma gives them all of her attention and spoils them to death. We are so blessed to have such a great family who loves us so much and are just as excited as we are to have a new little baby join our family.
We live in a diverse, quiet neighborhood located in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Our home has 6 bedrooms and a spacious back yard where we enjoy family BBQs on warm summer nights.
Our streets are filled with kids and we live a block away from the park where we have weekly play groups with our friends and neighbors. The church and elementary school are in walking distance of our home. We love our neighborhood and feel that it is the perfect place to raise our family.
We are so grateful for what you are doing. This is how we feel about you!
Courageous, full of love and selfless we admire and respect you! we will always let our child know of the love you have for him and the hard decision you had to make. You are an answer to our prayers
thank you for giving us this most precious gift!

With Love,

Matt, Alissa, Kaiya, Taj, and Marley

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