The Next (& BEST) Adventure of Our Lives!

As promised in our last post, the next adventure of our lives has officially begun, and boy are we excited! On May 31st at 10:33am our little baby boy was born! Many of you know Allyson and I have been going through the adoption process with LDS Family Services for quite a while. Our second weekend in the UK our case worker emailed us saying she wanted to talk to both of us as soon as possible. We saw the email at about 7am UK time so we had to wait until that evening before we could call and talk. (One of our first posts on this blog was our trip into downtown London. That was our attempt at distracting ourselves for the day so we wouldn't think too much about what the call with our case worker would bring.)

Needless to say, we were absolutely thrilled (that is to say, ecstatic, elated, excited, gladdened, joyous, jubilant, overjoyed) when we found out that a birth mom had picked us to be the parents of her little baby boy! The birth mom, Katie, dropped off a Tonka truck filled with clothes and a teddy bear to our case worker (Kris) to announce that she had selected us.
Then the waiting began...

Kris told us to email Katie about once a week, which we did religiously. The only problem was the weeks went by and we didn't hear back from her. We didn't feel like we could announce to our family until we were sure it was for real. After about 3 weeks we finally called Kris and asked her if she had heard from Katie. Kris was kind enough to call Katie's case worker so she should encourage Katie to write us. We were so relieved when we finally heard from Katie!

We could hardly wait to tell our families, so we quickly put together a slide show of The Top 10 Things We'll Remember Most About England. (Of course, the announcement was number one.)We waited until we were on a call with as many as we could before emailing the slide show so that we could hear reactions. (Unfortunately, we missed many of your reactions - sorry!) We wish we could have caught all of the reactions on tape!

Then, of course, the waiting continued. But this time many of you joined in!

We continued to write to Katie throughout our stay in the UK and when we returned to the US we met with them in person several times before the baby was born. We've really felt blessed to have Katie come into our lives. She and her family are wonderful and we feel so privileged that she chose us!

Now, onto the real reason you've come looking on the blog...baby pictures!

Little Brigham Jared Cook was born on May 31st weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces and measuring 19 inches long. We know he is the handsomest baby alive! :)

Katie and the baby stayed in the hospital on Thursday and Friday and were discharged on Saturday. They stayed in a hotel Saturday night to have a little extra time with the baby away from the doctors and nurses. The placement took place Sunday at noon at LDS Family Services in Centerville. What an incredible experience! At the time of the actual placement the case workers asked Katie if she was ready. Katie held the baby so close and kissed him on the head. Tears fell from her eyes onto the baby's head. She stood and carefully placed the baby into Allyson's arms and told him how much she loved him. She kissed him on the head once more and then, with her parents, had to leave. We felt so much for Katie and her parents. We know this was not an easy thing for them and continue to pray for them. On the other hand, we are absolutely thrilled to have Brigham in our home! We have felt an instant love for him and just can't get enough!

The last week has flown by. Every moment has been so precious, and man, is this baby loved!

Brigham is an absolute angel! He wakes up once or twice a night, takes a bottle and goes back to sleep. He hardly fusses at all when we change him, burp him, or even bathe him. Allyson and I have been on cloud nine! Can life get better than this? What a blessing!