How Deilen Came to Be

Okay, since this is the first time since I was 16 that I have somewhat kept a record of my life, I am going to write about things in the past so I have it written down. I decided to write about how Deilen came to be in our family since it was just his birthday. After we had Kaymin we tried for about 4 1/2 years to get pregnant again. During this time I was praying really hard to find out if we should adopt (Blake has always felt that we were suppose to) or if we were suppose to do infertility. We received Blake's insurance papers in November 2002 and our insurance would now cover infertility 50%. I thought it was an answer to our prayers. The next month I was pregnant and we didn't even have to do infertility. I went in for my doctor's visit in January only to find out that there was a sac and no baby but it didn't look like I was miscarrying. My doctor sent me to do blood work at the hospital for the next 2 weeks. It was determined that I was going to miscarry, but it was happening so slowly it would probably take about 6 more weeks. I was already 10 weeks and the sac was continuing to grow. I decided to have a DNC. In July we were coming home from my parents one night and Blake said to me, "we need to set a date and if we are not pregnant by then lets begin the adoption process." I asked him if he still felt like we were suppose to adopt and of course, I already knew the answer. For a couple of days before that I couldn't get adoption off of my mind. The next day I called LDS Family Services to see what needed to happen. I can not believe everything that needs to be done in order to adopt. They told me that a lot of times insurance will help cover the costs of adoption. So I pulled out the insurance papers and sure enough right under infertility our insurance will reimburse us up to $2,000. I called them to find out the specifics and since Blake was working for IHC at the time, they matched the $2,000 and the state also reimbursed you $1,200. So all in all we would be able to be reimbursed $5,200 of our adoption expenses. The next adoption classes started in two weeks and they asked us if we would like to do it. In order for us to do it, all of us had to have a physical, meet with the bishop to have him fill out a financial paper, have 3 friends write letters of reference, fill out TONS of paperwork, do background checks, get fingerprints, and meet with a caseworker to begin the process. This is a picture of our casework, Paul. He was the best caseworker EVER! Believe it or not, we were able to get everything done. BUT...that was just the beginning. In October we were finalized and ready. In March 2004 I had a dream about a baby boy. It was clear as day and I could even see his face. He had tons of dark hair and dark skin. I have never had a dream about my kids before. A couple weeks later I had a dream about placement day and saw a girl's face in my dream that I did not know. It felt so real that I woke up crying. On July 21, 2004 our caseworker called us and told us he had something for us. It was a letter from our birthmom, Mandi, who found us on the Internet and chose to place her baby boy with us. She was currently 15 weeks along and it included a picture of her. She was the girl from my dream. I couldn't believe it. On September 21st I found out I was pregnant with Kameni. We told Mandi after I went to the doctor and found out that everything looked good so far. She wanted some time to look at other couples, which we understood. I had a really hard time, but Blake kept reassuring me that Deilen was meant to come to us and he would. In December we met with her again and she said that the other families she looked out were great, but they weren't us. He was born on January 3, 2005 and weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces. We were so excited. The next couple of days were the longest days EVER! On January 6th he was placed in our family. We were really lucky because his birthfather, Shane, was involved and we were able to meet him and get some pictures of him. During birth his eyelid was stretched out and his eye was swollen shut. He still was the cutest little baby boy. My mom took Kaymin over night so just the three us spent the night together. We love you, Deilen!!!