From 3 To 4

Today was such a special day and one that Erick and I will never ever forget. This morning we met with Natasha and her mom and our fabulous case worker, Hannah. Natasha signed the adoption paper work and we officially became a family of 4!

There are no words to describe the emotions we felt this morning, watching an incredibly brave and selfless girl take such a giant leap of courage. I just bawled as she signed each line, thinking about how much she loves Pyper and how she wants what is best for her. I can't begin to imagine how hard this day has been for her. Natasha will forever be a hero to our family. She has helped us to grow our family and we love her so so much!

Yesterday was one of our favorite memories with Natasha. We played with Pypers hair and all the bows and flowers I made her, and we took a million pics! These are just a few of my favs.

This one is the perfect expression of love!

Awwww....So Cute!

These are our two KIDDOS today, all buckled up and ready for the drive home.

This was just after our Placement Ceremony.

Hannah, we just love you and are so glad you could be a part of the whole thing. Thanks again for everything!

We love you Natasha!

Our little family has grown so fast! From 2 to 4 in just 7 months!

This is just a cute pic of our little Pyper.

Tonight we took a walk with our DOUBLE STROLLER. It was heaven. It really made me contemplate every tender mercy and blessing from my Heavenly Father. For the last entire year, and even longer, He has been preparing the way for this adoption to take place. He has been intricately involved in the details of our lives. He has blessed us and shown us in so many ways how He loves us. My heart is full. My prayers have been answered. My testimony has been strengthened. In such sweet ways I understand sacrifice and love in deeper and more personal ways. I have witnessed Charity, the pure love of God, as the sweetest girl chose adoption for her baby girl. The trust I feel in my Father in Heaven is deep and unwavering. So many times in life things don't work out the way we think they should or want them to, but I know, that God has a beautiful plan for each of our lives. We just need to trust in Him, and He will show us the way.

A few more pics...

Awwww. What a cutie pie!

Look at all that fun dark hair!

My two handsomes visiting at the hospital.

LOL! Coop is such a crack up! He has been such a trooper through all our travels!

Ha ha ha! LOL! I can't look at this picture with out laughing. Pyper has some awesome chub already! And we LOVE chubby babies! So fun!

I think she's competing with Coop who has the loudest voice. =0)

Kisses!

I could stare at her all day.

Today we got to hang out with Natasha some more. We just love this girl so much! She is so amazing!

I think Pyper looks so much like her! We love you Natasha!

Lol! You want more kisses?

Such a doll! We love you Pyper!

Say hello to Pyper Jane!!!

March 6th at 1:01 a.m., Pyper came onto the scene. Healthy, Happy (in a newborn baby sort of way), and Beautiful! She weighed 8lbs and was 20 inches long. More details to come, but we wanted to get some pictures out as soon as we could! Great job Natasha! You did great last night and should be so proud!

Fun In The Sun

Let's face it, living in Arizona totally has its payoffs this time of year. This is what me and my two handsomes did today! So fun!

Today was Cooper's very first time swimming. What a cutie.

The water is still a little cold, so we thought we'd start with dipping fingers and toes. That only lasted a second. The splashing began, and Coop was in heaven!

What a happy kid!

As usual, Erick is so much fun! He's just the best dad in the whole world! He makes everything so much fun!

Splish Splash! This is way more fun than the bath!

This is Cooper's typical "Camera Face" when he sees he's in the spot light. The blank stare...gotta love it.

We had such a blast at the pool it was hard to leave. But....the summer is just beginning here and I think we will make great friends with the pool this year.

Ahhhhhh!!!! WE ARE SO STINKIN EXCITED!!!!

We are so excited about this Blog Post that we hardly know where to start.....so, I guess we'll start from the beginning.

At the end of last week we were told finally that the adoption with Charly was not going to go through. We were heartbroken. We did our best to put our lives in God's hands and trust that He truly does have a plan for our family. We knew that somehow, someday, we would understand.

Tuesday rolled around and Erick decided to post our adoption profile back up on parentprofiles.com. LOL! We totally thought it would be months before we heard from anybody. That night, we checked our email, and lo and behold, NATASHA had written us, as well as two other birthmoms! We were so excited we could hardly stand it. From the beginning I just FELL IN LOVE with NATASHA. She was my FAVORITE, if I'm aloud to have favorites =0) Her email was so SWEET and thought out and we were so IMPRESSED with her! She mentioned that the next day she had a meeting with a social worker to look at some other families and would let us know what she thought after the meeting.

I didn't SLEEP A WINK! All I could do was think about this DARLING girl, and I prayed my GUTS out that she would pick us! Wednesday afternoon she emailed us and told us that SHE HAD! You can imagine how EXCITED we were! Now the fun part, is that NATASHA is due on MARCH 10th! That is just days away! We knew we needed to get things rollin!

Tonight we got to meet her and her ADORABLE MOTHER! We went out to Chinese and had a blast. RENEE, Natasha's mother, is so HILARIOUS! She kept us laughing the whole time telling us the CUTEST LITTLE STORIES of what Natasha was like as a little girl.

One of the things I love most about this INCREDIBLE girl, is how STRONG she is! Natasha has an INNER strength beyond her years and her SWEETNESS just GLOWS! She loves playing sports, especially BASKETBALL and FOOTBALL. She is just so GORGEOUS and her BROWN eyes just MELT you when you look at her. She is so so SWEET! She SURPRISED us and gave us some ULTRASOUND pics of our BABY GIRL! In one of them you can see her PERFECT ADORABLE LITTLE LIPS. So So CUTE!

We had a few TENDER moments together talking about ADOPTION and this precious baby GIRL. We admire Natasha for her STRENGTH, her COURAGE, and her CAPACITY to LOVE so much, that she would choose ADOPTION. We can't wait to spend more time with her and get to know her even more.

Here are a few pics from our amazing night!

A Few Random Pics

First, we have my hunk of a hubs up on our roof. This is him putting up our Christmas Lights, which, sadly enough, just came back down on Monday.

Again, my hunk. Isn't he hansome!?!? We LOVED having snow for Christmas! (In Utah of course)

Awwwww. This is me and Coop. I just love him! I think I am totally obsessed with the kid! He is too much fun!

My two handsomes hangin' out.

Now for debut......the many FACES of Cooper Johnson Lund. Enjoy.