Baby Update

Baby X Update

Gestational Age: 18+ weeks

Measuring: Right on Target :D

Status: Healthy and Growing!

Baby Bump Watch

Latest happenings:
During Carolyn's last check up, not all the news was good,, unfortunately.  It was discovered through some blood work that Carolyn was showing results for an antigen called Anti-Kell. Its similar to the Rh factor in how the mothers body detects a foreign substance in the baby and attacks the baby's red blood cells.  This can be incredibly dangerous for the baby and in severe cases can be fatal.  Unlike the Rh factor, however is that there is no preventative measure to take like a shot.  It is incredibly rare and there are only treatments of blood transfusions in utero to assist the affected baby.  After everything we have already been through in our desire to have a family, this was the last thing we wanted to hear.  We asked some of our dear friends and family members to remember this sweet baby in their prayers and fasting.  While we prayed and patiently waited, Carolyn went to see a specialist and our sweet little baby was thoroughly checked.  There are specific checks that can be done to monitor the baby and see if he is affected.  During this appointment, it was determined that so far, he is perfectly healthy and measuring right on target.  More tests were done on the birth father to determine if he was the cause of this, and his tests showed negative meaning, this antigen resulted from a blood transfusion Carolyn had about a year ago.  This was actually exactly the news we wanted to hear, as it would mean the chances of this sweet baby being affected were lessened from this cause.  At this point, because baby X is doing well,  he will just be regularly monitored to ensure that he does not show any signs of being affected, but so far, he is doing great and hopefully will continue to do so!  It is absolutely the best result we could ask for.  I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for answering prayers and protecting this sweet little baby.  I am also so incredibly grateful to Carolyn, first for being honest with us, even when it wasnt good news.  That is so important to me.  Second, for being willing to do what was necessary, tests, monitoring, etc to help to save this baby.  That is so important to me as well.  We still have quite a journey Im a sure, even if it is just waiting for February to get here. hehehe.  We ask that you continue to pray for our wonderful birth parents, and especially for our sweet baby boy, Xander, that he will have the strength to grow strong and to be safe and healthy!  Thank you to everyone for your love, for your support, and for your prayers.  We know that Heavenly Father has a plan for all us, we just hope that his plan includes us bringing this sweet baby home.

Baby X....He's a boy!!!

Even though I was thinking pink, our sweet little baby had something else in mind.  He is all boy and wasnt afraid to make that known in his last little photo shoot.  We are grateful for our little exhibitionist, and are just happy to know the gender so the few things I can plan for, can be started! YEAH!!  We hope you enjoy these beautiful photos as much as we did!  And to keep with his nick name of baby X, and a middle name for his birth father, our sweet little one will be named....

Xander James Larson. 

Profile

He is sucking his thumb, so cute

Silhouette

love this, sucking his thumb and grabbing his ear

Thumbs Up, all is well!

So shy and sleeepy

Too many pictures.lol

100% no doubt

Perfect little feet

These last ones are our favorites.  Our birth mom has the best sense of humor and sent these ones special... In this order, it shows the little one's sense of humor (which we learned with his last little joke).  This one is better....

 Baby X says... "That's right.... Im a man!"

"Hahahahahahahah, just kidding! That was my cord, hahahahaha!" As he slaps his knee in laughter.

"But.... I am a boy :D"

He he, i love it and am so excited to see his little personality in person!  February needs to hurry up and get here soon!!

Pink or Blue????

In anticipation of Carolyn's upcoming appointment, we are taking guesses on the gender of our sweet Baby X.  If you want to get in on this simply click here and make your guess.  Honestly we want a healthy baby that we can take home and love and cherish, but I am just dying to know whether its a boy or a girl, so I am hoping this little one isnt shy!!  Take a guess, and Ill let you know in just a few days!  Eeek! (imagine a squeal of delight!)

Good DNA

We are very grateful for the gift of Baby X.  If you cant tell, we are really beginning to get excited.  A baby is such a precious gift, especially for us.  But we are not just grateful for any baby.  This baby is going to be special and absolutely just wonderful.  How do we know, you ask????  Because Baby X has good DNA!!!  It is very obvious to us that Carolyn has good DNA to pass on.  Besides being quite lovely herself, she has 3 great children to prove her baby making ability :)  Stetson is beautiful, super smart and quite talented from what we hear.  Natalie is following in her big sisters footsteps and has quite the sense of humor to boot.  Austin has a personality all his own and is quite the handsome little man.  But Carolyn is only part of the make up of our sweet baby to be.  The other half comes from Chris.  While he doesnt have any other children for comparison, he is pretty handsome himself and also has You Tube to show off his talents and skills.   Chris actually is quite talented, especially in one particular area.  He has quite a unique talent for Yo-Yo-ing.  With his permission, I am posting this to show some of the uniquely talented DNA our baby will be inheriting and because I think its pretty dang awesome to see!!!  Click the link below and Check it out! 

Chris's Skills

The best Anniversary Gift

This year for our 5 year anniversary we took an amazing trip to Florida.  For the fun Disney Part, see the next post, for the amazing gift part....keep reading!  :)  One of the main reasons we chose Florida was because there are some very special people we have been wanting to meet in person who happen to reside in Florida.  For our anniversary, we got the chance to meet the amazing individuals who are making our dream of parenthood finally come true!  Over the past couple of months, we have grown to love and admire Carolyn and Chris and it was a wonderful experience to meet them, Carolyn's two youngest kiddos and one of her best friends Kasey.  We had a wonderful day talking, seeing the "Worlds most famous beach". sharing stories and giggling with her cute kiddos.  It was a wonderful gift to meet them and I am so grateful we were able to take this trip.  I think it helped us all to bond and feel more comfortable with each other which I think is so important in an open adoption. It was a great day in Daytona Beach!!

Natalie wanted a pic and Austin just had to get in on the action.

Carolyn and her cute kiddos

Look theres a baby in there!!!

One big happy adoption family!

The best 5 years of my life

We have been married for 5 amazing years!  It is crazy to me how quickly time goes by!!  Not everything that has happened during the past 5 years has been happy and wonderful (although most truly was) but I cannot imagine going through both the most joyous and the most painful experiences in my life without the most amazing man by my side.  Being lucky enough to have Eldon as my Eternal Companion is truly the greatest blessing and treasure.  We have been through quite a bit over the past few years, and I am ever so grateful for him as an amazing husband, a caring man, and as my best friend.  

To celebrate our union, we decided to take a fun little trip to FLORIDA!!!!

Our First day in Florida started out at Disney's Magic Kingdom.  It was similar to Disneyland in California, but still quite different.  It was interesting to think you know where things are and to head in that direction and then find that it doesnt look the same at all.  For those of you who know me well, you know that I love Pirates.  The Pirates ride here was definitely different.  The entrance is totally different and the ride is similar but shorter.  The best part that was different, was they had a Captain Jack Sparrow show and he let me up on stage to become part of his pirate crew.  It was AWESOME!!!!!  he he. 

Day 2 was the Epcot Adventure.  We went on a ride that took us on banked curves at 65 mph, soared over California, talked with a turtle and toured the world all in one day.  You cant beat that!  One of the funnest parts was in Japan where I got to pick an Oyster and found a pearl!  Oh and in France we had yummy treats including something similar to what Eldon had on his mission called Napolitanas.  He put it on facebook to tease his mission buddies and ended up finding out that one of his mission buddies lived in Florida, and the best part, he buddy and his family was able to join us for Day 4 of our adventure.

Day 3 was a break from Disney for the best Anniversary gift ever. (see post above)

Day 4 was Hollywood Studios.  This park was crazy busy!!! But had a lot of things we had never done before.  The Rockin Roller Coaster was pretty dang fun.  We also went on a backstage tour, saw a car stunt show, and Indiana Jones Stunt show, watched Beauty and the Beast as well as saw a Jedi Training sessions.  It was quite a day full of fun!

Day 5 was Animal Kingdom.  This was our final day, so it was only a half day because we were flying home.  We started out the day on an African Safari.  It was pretty entertaining.  Our guide was hilarious.  We saw some cool animals.  Next we ventured over to Asia and took a trip to Mount Everest to see the Yeti.  The ride was pretty good, but it was pretty funky to go backwards and loop in the dark when you cant tell which direction you are headed.  We saw a few more animals, including a bugs life show before the heavens opened up and it poured on us.  We were absolutely soaked by the time we got to our car to head to the airport.  I didnt get a pic cuz Eldon wasnt too thrilled at this point.  I thought it was pretty funny though.

All in all, we had a wonderful trip to Florida.  It was pretty hot, definitely humid, full of great memories to cherish and a wonderful way to celebrate the best decision we made... our marriage.

Meet the Parents....The Birth Parents that is

I asked our amazing birth parents if they minded if I shared a few facts and stats about them, so that others could learn a little about the people that our changing our lives.  So it is our pleasure to introduce you to our amazingly giving new friends....

Our Baby's Birth Dad                               Our Baby's Birth Mom
Name: Chris                                                Name: Carolyn
Age: 25                                                       Age: 32
Height: 5'10"                                               Height: 5'8"
Hair Color: Brownish Red                           Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel                                         Eye Color: Brown
Religion: Catholic                                        Religion: Christian
# of Siblings: 2 half siblings                          # of Siblings: 6
Birth Order: Youngest                                 Birth Order: Youngest
Children: None                                            Children: 3- Stetson (17) Natalie (7) Austin (6)
Job: Food Service                                        Job: Customer Service Rep
Favorite Color: Blue                                    Favorite Color: Yellow
Favorite Food: Steak or Pizza                      Favorite Food: Chicken Gizzards
Hobbies: Weight Training, Running, ,             Hobbies: Going to the beach, fishing,  
              Boxing, Surfing, Cooking                             hanging out with her children
Feelings about Adoption: "Adoption gives   Feelings about Adoption: "My thoughts on
             people who havent had luck               adoption have always been positive. This 
             having a baby, the chance to               is both the hardest and easiest decision I
             experience the miracle of life"             have ever had to make.  Hard because                                                                                  I look at my kids and know that there                                                                          will be a face missing. and easy because                                                                          I know that Stefani and Eldon are going to
                                                                       make great parents and they will raise
                                                                       the baby in a safe and loving home.

We are so incredibly grateful for these two amazing individuals.  It hurts my heart to know the sacrifice they will make, but we are so grateful for their selflessness and positive attitude towards adoption.  We pray that everything continues to move along smoothly over the next several months.  We are so incredibly excited for this opportunity for a chance to finally bring children home. These two courageous and wonderful people will forever hold a special place in our heart.

Already a little Joker

We had a little bit of a scare this past week, and learned that we already have a little joker in the making.  Our beautiful birth mother had her routine appointment this past week.  She wasn't getting an ultrasound or anything, just a typical monthly visit with a heartbeat check.  Unfortunately, the doctor wasnt able to find a heartbeat!  If you know me at all, you know that I was dying for the 20 minutes or so while Carolyn was waiting for an ultrasound to see what the little one was doing.  Eldon tried to keep me sane while I prayed that my text message notification would sound letting me know what was happening. Fortunately, everything was just fine with the baby!  Heartbeat was 164! Not sure why the machine didnt register the heartbeat, but we are so very grateful everything is okay.  And, for all the trouble, we got a new little picture!  Our birth mom added the comment from Baby and said the picture looks like he/she is rolling around laughing.  Very funny Baby X, but lets save the jokes tell you are here in person!

Such a Special Service Project

During Girls Camp, We had the amazing opportunity to work on a service project that has very special significance for us.  All the young women (about 300 plus)  helped to create bereavement boxes to donate to the hospital.  This was not necessarily done in our boys' name, but it was their memory and our birthday project that promoted and gave the example for these special gifts.  We were so very honored to have our sons' memory be the example to promote such love and service for many others who will suffer so greatly. 

 Each of the young women took part in the project.  Some made the scrapbooks.  These books hold very sweet poems that brought peace and love to my heart when it was the most broken.

 My young women were especially sensitive and sweet during this project.  Each came and gave me hugs and showed their love, affection and support and cried sweet tears right along with me.  I have to be honest, I bawled with every hug.  Of course I was sad, I will always be sad and miss my babies, but there was an incredibly sweet spirit there as these Young Women worked to serve others that will have such a difficult road, and it just meant so much that the feelings simply could not be contained.

 They each put so much love into their projects and I am forever grateful for their service.  Even though none of these boxes were for me, I truly felt their love and service towards me as they worked to serve others.

 While some worked on the sweet memory books, Others sewed tiny blankets to wrap those most precious babes for their families to hold and cherish.

 I wish that there was not a need for any of this.  I wish a mother never had to know the pain and heart ache of losing a child.  But because this sadness and tragedy does happen, I am so grateful for people such as these beautiful young women who can give the gift of memories to women who will have only that... memories.

 Other Young Women worked on creating homemade bath salts to help those mothers find some comfort and relax after such a tragic experience.  These gifts, no matter how big or small, truly mean so much!

 Our oldest young women at the camp worked to put together all the items into beautiful boxes.  Within the boxes were the scrapbooks, the blankets, the bath salts, home made beanies (which some girls also worked on sewing) as well as a journal, pen, candy and a sweet, small stuffed animal. 

Together, the Young Women created 48 boxes!  It was amazing the power they held.  In just 2 hours, these amazing young ladies created one of the most memorable gifts that could be given to a grieving mother, and they created enough to touch 48 lives.  What a truly precious blessing.  I am so very grateful for my experiences at camp and this tender experience will forever engrave these wonderful young women to my heart.  Thank you ladies for your love, for your service and for your care.  You are amazing and you have no idea how much of a difference you have just made to so many women, and to so many families.  

I am also grateful that the camp leaders are allowing me to join them when we deliver these boxes to the hospital and that they have chosen to donate these gifts to the same hospital that took such good care of me after losing our sweet babes.  I am still constantly afraid that it will be as if my sweet boys never existed because their time was so short, but I am forever grateful for those that allows us to use their precious memory to serve and show love to others.  We will always remember you Ethan and Tommy and will work to be worthy to be your parents.  All our love to you and these sweet young women.  Such a blessed experience.

Girls Camp Fun

This year, I was privileged to attend Girls Camp with some amazing young women.  For those that do not know, Girls camp is a week long (4 days) church retreat for young women ages 12-18.  It is full of giggles, fun, spiritual experiences, life changing lessons, and dear friendships.  I went as one of the leaders.  Our group had 27 amazing young women.  I learned so much and hopefully taught some things as well.  We played silly games like "Big Booty" and "little Sally Walker" and I learned a new game called Ninja.  Yep, pretty much like it sounds.  You pretend to be a ninja and chop each others arms off.  Even the Bishop played!  lol.  He was actually pretty good at it.  We also went on a long and tough hike, completed the "enchanted race" challenges as a team, told scary stories, went on a snipe hunt, had many spiritual devotionals, shared stories and laughs and learned about our Divine Nature as children of a Heavenly King.  There is just something amazing about being in the woods, away from technology and the distractions of the world, and being surrounded with amazing bright and brilliant young ladies that helps to bring perspective to life, and brings about such a profound feeling of divine love.  I am grateful for the opportunity I had to go and to serve and learn to love these young women.  We had such a great time and I am glad for the new friendships and sweet memories that were made.

Oh Baby Baby!

All I can say is that We are so very blessed!  I am so incredibly pleased to share with our family and friends that thanks to the most amazing couple, we have been picked to adopt a BABY!!!!!  Can you tell we are freakin excited! Because we are and that is the understatement of the century!  Our desire for children has been so great and unfortunately we have been left wanting for far too long.  Our journey has been a difficult one to say the least, but we are so grateful for the light at the end of the tunnel.  We began our journey on the adoption road about a year ago, but shortly after beginning, we paused in our tracks.  For many reasons and reasons unknown, we just werent able to move forward with our adoption process and so we paused and waited and attempted a few more fertility rounds.  We just didnt understand why nothing was working, both in adoption or fertility.  Well, we now know.  In 2011, we picked up where we left off and sprinted down the road to complete our paperwork.  We seriously spent every free hour working on our paperwork and our adoption blog, trying to make it just right.  The average wait with our adoption agency is 2 years (pretty standard).  That was just far too long for us, so we felt we needed to help the process along and find our own baby.  We sought the help of family and friends to spread the word.  We also decided to post our adoption profile on a website called www.parentprofiles.com.  This is a website that advertises on the top adoption websites that appear when you google adoption.  One day short of our first month posted on this website, we were matched with the most wonderful couple and given hopes of a miracle.  Before this match, it felt as though the way had been blocked and doors had been closing all around us.  Now, the way has been cleared and everything has been so smooth and easy.  This amazing couple shares many of our feelings and thoughts on adoption.  This adoption is completely based on love and joy and will be a beautiful gift from amazing individuals.  How fast these two strangers have become dear friends and more.  We will share more information as the pregnancy progresses, but for now, things are going well and we couldnt be happier.  This truly is a blessing and we are so excited and grateful. 

Introducing Baby X as it is affectionately called until we learn the sex 

 Baby X is scheduled to join the world on February 9, 2012 in Florida.

Adoption....Its about Love!

Well it is officially official!  We are now certified to adopt!  Now we just need someone to give us the opportunity for the greatest blessing...children.  We are recruiting our family and friends to spread the word.  Our adoption blog can be found at www.larsonfamilyadoptionhope.blogspot.com.  Our profile with LDS Family Services is available at www.itsaboutlove.org and can be found by searching our names: Eldon and Stefani. We are also advertising with parentprofiles.com which is a wonderful website that advertises for adoptive couples on websites such as adoption.com, adoption.org, 123adoption.com, etc (all the ones that pop up when you google adoption) and again, our profile can be found by searching our names.   We also have pass along cards which are like business cards with all this information.  These cards can be given to anyone who may be interested in placing their child for adoption.  This is a non threatening way to help spread the word.  If you would be willing to pass along any cards, please send us an email or message with your address and we would be thrilled to send you some.  You just never know where a connection will come from.  We really appreciate all the support we have been given from all our friends and family.  We truly are blessed!  We know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us and for our family.  We are hopeful that we will be blessed with children soon and in the mean time, we appreciate any help, and support and ask that you keep us in your hearts, in your thoughts, and spread the word!!! XOXOXO

Camping Trip

My family decided it was time to go camping before the woods got too crowded for the summer.  So my Dad, my big bro and his wife and their pup along with Eldon and I and Zeus, headed up to a favorite camping spot that has this beautiful river, clean toilets (an absolute must), tables and camp fire rings so you can actually still have a campfire despite all the fire warnings.  The only problem was, the weather in Arizona right now has not been the usual Arizona weather, so it was actually really chilly!!!!  During the day it did warm up and was quite nice, so we took a little hike.  It was a lot of family fun.  The pups both did an amazing job and didnt even need to be on a leash, which was wonderful!!!  Definitely something we will have to do again soon....as long as it warms up a bit ;)

My brother trying to be Dopey with his hat.