The Newest Watkins

We have had the greatest news this week. We were given the opportunity on Thursday night to adopt a beautiful 11 month old girl. All adoption stories are amazing and Brodi’s story is no exception, in fact it has been a year in the making.

About a year ago BJ’s mom Karen, who we lovingly call our baby broker (almost every opportunity that we have had to adopt a child comes through her), found out about a girl in her ward who was considering placing her child for adoption. We passed on a copy of our birthparent letter and hoped and prayed that Heavenly Father would help guide this birthmom to know what would be the best place for her unborn child. Brodi was born on Sept 24th, her birthmom chose to keep her rather than place her for adoption. We of course were heart broken. Adoption can be very hard; it’s definitely not the easy way to have a baby come into your family. With every opportunity people tell you not to get your hopes up, but come on, that is an impossible thing to do. When it doesn’t happen it is heart breaking to know that a child that could potentially be your child is not going to be. We call these our adoption miscarriages. We allow ourselves a few days to mope around the house eat ice cream and chocolate and then pick ourselves up and move on. The past year we have had several adoption miscarriages. However, there was a difference with Brodi. We couldn't seem to get this little girl out of our heads. We thought about her, worried about her, prayed and fasted for her, and quite frankly in doing all this fell in love with her.

Last May BJ’s mom let us know that Brodi had been living with her grandparents for the past month and there was a possibility that she would be placed for adoption and wanted to know if we would still be interested in adopting her. Brodi?! Are you kidding, of course we would be interested in adopting her. The first Sunday of May, we had a special family fast for her and her family as they faced some very difficult decisions.

Last Saturday night we got a call from BJ’s mom. Brodi’s grandma had just called her and told her that Brodi’s birthmom had made the incredibly difficult, painful and most unselfish decision possible and signed the adoption papers. The grandparents asked if they could meet with us the next day. We were absolutely stunned. This was such a miracle. We knew after all our prayers and fasting that Brodi might finally be able to come and be in our family. There were a couple of other families that they were thinking about as well, so we were once again told not to get our hopes up.

Last Sunday we finally got to meet her. She is so beautiful. In talking to her grandparents they told us that ever since they had first seen our birthparent letter a year ago they felt a connection to us. We told them that we felt the same way. There was still however some things that they needed to talk to their adoption lawyer about. We left their house feeling fairly confident that we would be able to adopt her but knew that we were going to be facing a few more days of agony because we were so close to finally bringing her home but there was no decision yet. Thursday night her grandparents came to our house and told us what we had been hoping to hear for a year. They wanted us to be Brodi’s parents! There are no words to express our happiness. We have learned so much about patience and faith and knowing that even though the answers to our prayers may not come the way we want, we have a loving Father in Heaven who is looking out for us and has his own time table. Brodi is truly a miracle.

Since Brodi is older and her adoption is a bit more complicated it will be a few months until she is able to live with us permanently. This is ok (although heart wrenching) because she is now attached to her birth family and we all want to make her transition into our family smoothly. It would be hard for her (and Sam too for that matter) to suddenly be removed from her home and come and live with people she barely knows. So if you don’t see her with us, we really aren’t making this up. We promise we will have several pictures nearby that we will be more than happy to show off to you if you like it or not.

We are so THRILLED that we will finally be able to bring our Brodi home!!!

Our first family picture with Brodi.

Beautiful Brodi.

A snap shot Brodi's grandma gave us after Auntie Meggie did her magic to it.

Watch out Brodi, we can't wait to just pinch those cute cheeks!!