Obviously, the greatest blessing we have received this year is our daughter Riley. Looking back, we only waited about 6 months between the time we were approved for adoption by our agency until the time that we were selected by a birth mom. Riley is an awesome little girl. It helps that she is so good (sleeping through the night at 2 months) and has such a cool personality. She is so much fun and I can’t get enough of her. She makes me laugh. Even when she cries, she’s so cute and I like it because I can hold her more (she’s not very cuddly because she wants to explore her world). Every morning, I hope that she wakes up before I leave so I can get her out of bed and play with her. If she is taking a nap when I come home, I am kind of sad and piddle around the house doing nothing really, waiting for her to wake up. I love being a dad and I love Riley.

Here’s a recap of Riley’s adoption story. To keep a long story short, we worked with an infertility doctor for quite a while to try and conceive. She was always so positive and optimistic. Then after our fourth or fifth attempt, there was a sudden change. No more positive reinforcement. No more, “We’ll get you pregnant, you don’t worry”. Just a, “Well, there’s not much more I can do. I can refer you to some other doctors for more advanced methods.” We were a little surprised by this change. We had always considered adoption as an option, and at that point everything felt right to move forward. Looking back, this was probably about the same time that Riley was conceived. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe not.

Over spring break in March I went on a mountain biking trek with some of the older scouts at church. The first day we arrived the park ranger came driving through our camp and asked to talk to me. I, thinking that we just had paid the wrong fee or one of the boys had done something, was surprised when she told me to phone home immediately because there was a family emergency. I thought, “I hope there hasn’t been death in the family.” I called home and found out from Becca that a birth mother had selected us and that she was due in a month. After I got home we scrambled to get everything ready for an infant, and then Riley was born two weeks early on March 28th.

We had some trials of our faith while the birth mother made the final difficult decision to put the baby up for adoption and the birth father threatened to fight for custody and stop the adoption. But through many prayers, everything worked out and the adoption was finalized on schedule six months after the placement. Riley was then sealed to us in the San Antonio temple two weeks later. It was also a blessing to have Mandy (the birth mother) there when we blessed Riley at church. It helped her get some closure and she told us that she felt as though she attended the baby blessing of a friend’s baby: a child that she cared about, but was not her own.