And so it begins...

Tomorrow we start a whirlwind weekend full of special events in our lives and the life of our sweet baby girl. It's so hard to believe that six months has gone by since we welcomed her into the world, and now here we are, ready to make it all complete and final! Whew, talk about emotional! (I can't even really see what I'm typing right now because of all the happy tears!) Of course there are lots of nervous, anxious butterflies fluttering around in my stomach for the upcoming events, but mostly there is just such peace and joy knowing what this all means to our family! Tomorrow morning we head to court where the judge will legally finalize Kaiya's adoption and turn custody of her over to us from the state. Saturday we head to the temple to seal her to our eternal family. Then Sunday, we will bless her at church. Talk about incredible and a little emotionally overwhelming (in the best of ways)! We are soooo excited!

I have been working on this poem to put in Kaiya's scrapbook of all these events. It's very amatuer, but I tried to express emotions close to my heart pertaining to the miracle of Kaiya coming to our family and the blessing of meeting Jessika and all that she has given to us. She is very much on our minds as we approach such special moments as we know that we would have none of this without her. We love her more than we could ever express.

Moments

There are moments in life where time stands still,
And it seems there aren’t words to say what you feel.
Moments forever engraved on your soul
When empty spaces are filled and all at once you feel whole.

Over the course of recent life-changing days,
We’ve been allowed moments which altered us in many ways.
How could we know just how much those moments would mean?
How lives would intertwine in the midst of hard things.

For many years those empty spaces were hallow, raw and sad
Two young people longing to become mom and dad.
So many prayers said, and countless tears shed,
The heartache released during sleepless nights in bed.

A whisper of the Spirit gently spoke to our hearts,
Presenting us an option, a new place to start.
So we followed what we felt, and we made our choice,
We knew that adoption would carry our voice,

To the heart of another with her own heavy load to bear,
A different kind of struggle would lead her to where
That moment would find us all in one place,
Brought together in a room to finally meet face to face.

A young girl with a heart as beautiful as gold,
As beautiful as the face we had come to behold,
Came to tell us the news, she had a gift for us alone,
A gift to change our lives, of her flesh and bone.

For in a moment that changed HER life, you see,
She made the choice to share the life of her growing baby.
In those moments she bravely spoke the words we longed to hear,
We would finally have a child, the end of wishful tears.

We spent the coming months in anticipation and joy,
Getting the room ready, buying clothes and toys.
We also spent many moments with that precious golden girl,
Getting so close to this person who was changing our world.

And then before we knew it, at the hospital there we were
Awaiting the priceless moment of the arrival of our girl.
4:50 a.m., August 14th, 2007,
The moment our girl entered mortality, still clothed in heaven.

You were the most beautiful light our eyes had ever seen,
So perfectly full of softness, innocent and clean.
Your very breath was a sound so revitalizing to our ears,
Your body and spirit filling empty arms after so many years.

The tiniest of fingers, and roundest little toes,
Petite arms and legs, perfect little nose,
Your “kissing lips” struck me, as small whimpers gently came
Our easy flowing tears and kisses could hardly be contained.

And in a humble moment, as our two families sat in wonder
I looked around the room at faces older and younger
This was one of many moments, through our experiences I had come to know
When the Spirit was in abundance, filling that room with His warming glow.

The room could not contain the love that we each felt
We knew that in your pre-existence you made your Father melt.
And through His tender mercy and constant, watchful care
He made His decision that with all of us He would share,

His special, choice beloved daughter, a spirit strong and true.
He wisely knew the love of one family simply would not do.
So through miracles and prayers and works only He could perform,
He gave you TWO families; unique, special and outside of the “norm”.

In His perfect love, under His perfect plan,
He said in perfect wisdom, “They cannot do it, but I can.”
“I can answer two very different sets of prayers,
And send you to a place where you will never want for care.”

That is how we knew in that moment that you arrived
That God was watching over us, your birth-mom, your dad and I.
That your very special journey in coming to this earth
Was planned even before we all prayed for your birth.

And now after six months of you filling our cup to overflowing
We approach another special moment where the heaven in you will again be showing.
We will go to court to legally finalize what for us has always been fact
That you are our child, meant for us by God’s merciful act.

We then take you up the hill, to the Mountain of the Lord,
Where in the temple, the Priesthood power binds us with its’ cord.
In that precious moment time will again stand still in eternity
When upon the alter you will be sealed to your daddy and me.

And in that special moment, when in white we all are dressed
We will think of our golden girl, with the golden heart in her chest.
And we will hope that you and she feel of our deep abiding love
The kind of love God willed to be shared from our home above.

These sacred moments in our lives have come because of you,
You now influence every thing we say and do.
You are the gift that someone special gave, and we gratefully took
The special moments you have brought could fill up countless books.

Now in every moment of life that for you is in store
May you feel of the love of your TWO families and even more,
The love of your Father who sent you to be
The light of our lives, an eternal family now are we!

So, we'll be saying lots of prayers as we go to bed tonight, that all will go well and smooth and that tomorrow morning, Kaiya will legally be what she already is in our hearts and in our home -- our beautiful, sweet, baby girl!