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!!

Sam's First Day of School

Today was Sam's first day of preschool. We have been talking about it forever so it didn't really hit me until today. I think like all mom's I cried all the way home from dropping him off. His teacher said he did really good, although he wanted to eat his lunch about 9:00. Somehow he knew that I had put peaches in there and talked about them all the way until it was time to eat lunch.

Here he is ready to go.

This would be Sam's lunch bag, not his back pack, just to bring things to scale.

Ready or not, here we go.....

Sam is picking out some sandpaper letters with Ms. Janelle.

Ms. Janelle is showing Sam how to wet his sponge.

(Ok. I have to make one small comment on how I posted something the actual day that it happened. Yeah me, maybe there is something to this having a child go to school.)

Yellowstone

This year we went to Utah for a couple of weeks. BJ had a business trip a week before a family reunion (amazing how it happened that way since he was the one who scheduled the meeting). Sam and I decided that we wanted to get out of the heat a week earlier so we traveled to Utah with BJ and hung out that week while BJ worked. The next week we met BJ's family for a family reunion to Yellowstone. It was so great to be with family and had such a great time. Living in the desert we forget how green some places in the US are.

Sam was such a trooper through out the whole trip. Yellowstone is kind of hard for a little guy where everything is so spread apart. There were a lot of naps in the car that week. Here are BJ and Sam after a long car ride.

Here are BJ and Sam at Lake Yellowstone.

Here is Sam killing time waiting for Old Faithful to do it's thing.

Here we are in our yellow shirts for "Yellow"stone. BJ absolutely insisted that the entire family wear matching shirts. He just wouldn't take no for an answer, so here we are in our yellow shirts. (Just kidding, but he was a very good sport about matching with everyone.)

We saw so many bison in the park. These were probably only about a 100 feet from the road.

Would a trip to Yellowstone be the same without posing with a gigantic stuffed teddy bear?

Sam will not pose for pictures right now. Here he is absolutely enthralled by the zipper on my jacket. No time for pictures.

A rare smile caught on film at the Grizzly and Wolf Encounter.

Sam got to go to the Airplane museum with his cousins. He also developed a love for puzzles on this trip. He can put together a 25 piece puzzle almost by himself. Here he is posing with a numbers puzzle.

BJ and Sam at the Bear and Wolf Encounter.

Sam at the Airplane museum. Again not much for posing in front of the camera, even with such a fantastic photo opportunity.

Sam digging for bones at the Dinosaur museum.

I love this picture of Sam walking innocently by as a big dinosaur shadow looms overhead.

Sam at the Imax theater. Sometimes it's hard being small,but he insisted on sitting in his own chair.

I am a child of God.

The cutest thing happened when we put Sam to bed last night. Since Sam was a newborn we have had the same bedtime routine. We read him a scripture story, say prayers and then sing "I am a child of God". Tonight we asked if he wanted to sing with us. He sang all 3 verses of the song with us even getting a few of the words right. I showed him some sing language for the chorus and he did that as well. He was so darn proud of himself at the end of the song. If only we could have caught it on camera, but then again it has been impossible to take pictures of him lately because as soon as I pull out the camera, he wants to look at the pictures that are already on it and won't stay posed. It has occurred to me more and more that Sam is really paying attention to what we do. That is pretty scary.

Talking

We are so proud of Sam in the last month Sam has started using so many new words. He will use at least one new word a day it seems. We have been keeping a list on the fridge of the words he is using and in one month has doubled what he was using before. He is also using mostly 2 word phrases, his SLP mom is so proud.

BJ and I have enrolled Sam into preschool for the fall. So crazy. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. We really researched it a lot. I never thought I would be the type of person that would care about her preschooler education, but I have to admit I toured 4 different preschools before we decided on one. With Sam's learning style (how he will totally focus on learning his ABC or numbers until he has mastered them etc) that we decided that he would really fit into a Montessori preschool. While touring the schools Sam would walk into the classrooms in utter amazement at how they have letters on the wall that you can trace with your finger. This kid loves the alphabet and numbers so much. He would actually cry when it was time for him to go, that's a good sign right. He is going to go to school for 3 mornings a week. With strict Montessori they are suppose to attend 5 days a week, but we just don't think we are ready to send him off to school for that long. He will only be 2 1/2. He is enrolled at Montessori Children's Garden (http://www.montessorichildrensgarden.blogspot.com/). It is run out of the owners basement. We thought that would be more of an intimate group. He starts on Aug 12. So crazy, my baby's going to school!!

Samisms

These are just some cute pictures of some of the quirky things Sam does. He is just so darn cute!!!

Sam is getting really good at going to the potty. The funny thing is that before he would always find a corner or go behind a curtain or something while he would go poop. Thank goodness for the shower curtain so he can go poopie on the potty in peace. We all need a little privacy. (I am pretty sure that his shirt is covering his vital parts there, if not I apologize.)

Sam often times does not like to be changed from either his jammies to his clothes or his clothes to his jammies. This is a picture of him rebelling. He put his pants back on but put both feet in the same hole and can't figure out why he can't move. He is just so cute.

Now this is what tells me we need a sibling for Sam. I kept finding his blocks in his chair with the buckles done up when I went to put him in his chair. I finally witnessed one day how they kept showing up. Sam puts them in his seat and does all the buckles. Such a nurturing boy he is just taking care of his blocks.

For Labor Day weekend we went to visit BJ's hometown, Morgan Hill CA. We also got to see some of the surrounding area such as San Fransisco and Monterrey.

This is a picture right before a big wave came out of now where, scrambling out of the say BJ and I bonked heads really hard and Sam got soaked anyways, but here we are happy in our ignorance.

BJ and Sam at a beach in Monterrey

Fisherman's Wharf at Monterrey

Monterrey.

On one of our first dates I remember BJ telling me how he grew up at the mushroom capital of the world and every year they would have a Mushroom Marti Gra. It just happened to be the same weekend we were there so I made BJ go. I later found out that there family never actually went and this was one of the first times that BJ went other than picking up trash afterwards as a scout. There are surprisingly few mushrooms at the festival. The only mushrooms that we could find were some fried mushrooms at a booth.

Sam and Shannon with the sundae we all shared at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory.

BJ and Sam while we were waiting for our sundae to arrive.

As you may have guessed from the pictures. This is the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. well actually not the white and blue building, the brick building a little bit further up the hill.

Here we are at the Aquarium on the Bay in San Fransisco looking at the jellyfish. Sam was more interested in the signs to the exhibits because they had things you could move. He got a little freaked out by fish that were bigger than he is. I think our beta fish is more to his liking.

Nothing like shrimp chowder in a bread bowl at Fisherman's Wharf.

BJ at Fisherman's Wharf in San Fransisco.

On this trip we got to clean up throw up from the car two times. Yuck! BJ was on a business trip in San Jose earlier that week and then Sam and I few out there to meet him for the weekend. When he got to CA he got to choose an upgraded rental car so he chose a really cool yellow jeep. We found out the hard way that these were not meant to be family cars. We think Sam just got moved around in the back seat because he kept on getting car sick. Our mini van may not be cool but it is a much smoother ride.

Sam's Orthopedics

We recently found out that Sam needed to get some orthopedics for his feet. He has very flat feet that aren't developing an arch like they should by this time. This is what gives him his cute little duck foot walk. The poor guy also falls down quite a bit and has started to walk on his toes to compensate for the lack of sensory input that he has while walking flat foot (that is at least what the PT and orthopedic specialists say). They orthopedics are amazing. Within a minutes of having them on his feet are pointed in the right direction and he doesn't fall down nearly as much as he did before. We can tell that he knows they help him because he loves to have them on. He is suppose to wear them for about 5-6 hours a day and he never seems to mind them on or ever tries to take them off. He is suppose to wear them with skater shoes because they are roomier and have a wide bottom. If you ever are in the market for "skater shoes" for toddler's I'll just warn you, don't expect any teddy bears. I had to search far and wide for a pair that didn't have skulls and cross bones all over them. They have helicopters, I can live with that for a two year old. I think that there is one skull and cross bone in the embroidery but you can't really tell unless you look really close. I think that I am officially announcing that I am uncool.


Here are his shoes and orthopedics ensamble, they kind of look like high tops.

After looking at all of the samples Sam and I decided to go with the camo style. That's $1600 worth of plastic folks. Luckily (for BJ and I at least) our insurance would pay for them if they go above the ankle.

I just couldn't help myself on this picture. In his defense he is really itching his nose. It's a scratch not a pick.

Happy Mother's Day!!

We have been blessed by so many mother's in our lives and wanted to thank all of you for the blessings that you have been to us. We thank our own mothers and grandmothers for all of the love and sacrifice that you have given us through out the years. Being parents now we are only beginning to understand what that means. We thank all of the women who have been mother's to us in many ways. Isn't a mother some one who loves and nurtures you. We have been loved and nurtured by so many angelic women though out our lives, and we thank all of the women who have been mothers to our little Sam. We love you and think of you often, but and hope that you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Forts and teeth

Sam is usually pretty good about letting us brush his teeth. The other night though he was against the idea. When he saw Shannon coming with the toothbrush he went and made himself a little fort and hid in it. If you look close you can see his little eyes peeping out from the cushions.

In case you are wondering whether or not the teeth got brushed, Dad and Mom are still a lot bigger and won the battle! The teeth are safe this time...

The alphabet according to Sam...

Sam is just growing up so fast. He is really loves the alphabet. He can name, or at least has a name for most of the letters.

a=abapa(apple)

b= b

c=c

d=d

e=e

f=fffff

g= a fish sound (goldfish) it's so very cute.

h= haa

i= i

j=juice

k= nothing yet

l=nothing yet

m= mama (my personal favorite)

n=mmmm or nana (nana's personal favorite)

o=o

p=p

q=nothing yet

r=nothing yet

s=sssss

t=t

u=u

v=v

w=double dee (it kind of sounds like that anyways)

x=nothing yet

y=e-eye

z= z

He is so funny because while we are driving around he will name off the letters of the signs that we see. We drove up to the mall the other day and he say the sign and said "juice, c, p, e, mmm, mmm, e, e-eye." I said "Yes, Sam that says JCPenney." He then turned and said "mama, abapa, c, e-eye, sss" (Macy's). He is just so quick too. He have joked that we need to get him those My Baby can Read videos so that he can learn to talk more.

California Trip

Over Easter Weekend we went to California for the weekend. It was Sam's first time at the beach. All in all it was a great weekend. Sam was awesome through the whole trip.

Here is our attempt at a family photo, but Sam just wanted to play in the sand.

Here is BJ and Sam at the Santa Barbara beach.

Here we are at the LA Zoo.

Sam's 2nd Birthday!!

Sam turned 2 years old on February 27. We can hardly believe it! He has become such a fun kid. He keeps us laughing and entertained all the time. He has become our alphabet fiend. As I have posted before he can identify the entire alphabet and probably knows the names or sounds of at least 1/2 the letters. He is so funny because he will spot letters in the craziest places. For instance he will turn his tent on it's side and tell us "D" because the arch on the door does in fact make a "D". This morning I gave him a graham cracker and he looked at it and told me I. I realized he was looking at the perforation down the middle of it. Os are anything that is a circle. We were getting into the van yesterday and Sam noticed a shrub that had been cut in a circle and pointed out O. I don't know what it is about letters that he loves so much but they almost rival balls, his other great love.

We just love our little Sam so much. We think of the miracle that he is in our lives daily and are so honored to be his Mama and Da. We can hardly believe that it has been 2 years since he came into our lives. We are so grateful for adoption. We so sincerely love the people that have come into our lives through it. I always think if what someone said in a workshop that we attended while be were getting certified to adopt, "Before adoption you underestimate your capacity to love."

First professional haircut.

Ever since Aunt Jen moved away, BJ and I have just used the clippers to cut Sam's hair. I will have to admit we are not great at it and after several attempts we started noticing that his hair was getting pretty uneven. We decided that for his 2nd birthday we would take him to someone who actually knew what they were doing...Great Clips. As you can tell we was not too happy about the situation, but doesn't he look so handsome at the end (and he got a sucker out of the deal so it can't be all that bad).