Mirian's Story Part IV (4 of 5)

The email that arrived on March 19 was the answer to our MANY prayers and fasts. We had been waiting for this opportunity for about 2 1/2 years. The email was from Kristine. The email started as follows:

"I viewed your profile on the LDS Family Services site. I just recently started attending the LDS church in Othello, where I live with my boyfriend and my 4-year old daughter. I'm not a member of the church, but my boyfriend is and I really enjoy the church. We've met so many wonderful people and I love so much the focus on the family that the church provides. I've been talking with Carlos at the LDS Family Services, who told me he knows of you two."

So far so good right????

Kristine then told us in the email that she was 8 months pregnant with a baby girl who would be born soon via C-Section and was considering adoption. Before getting back together with her current boyfriend, Kristine was with another man (who was the father of her baby). Long story short, it would not have been good to have the baby's father in the baby's life. Kristine also mentioned in the email that she had been considering adoption since she found out she was pregnant.

Kristine mentioned that she was 39, and that she had a Bachelor's degree in Microbiology and also a Bachelor's degree in French. In addition to that, she also has a Master's degree in Food Science. She also mentioned that she had two children, an 18 year old boy Michael and a 4 year old girl Nicole. Not your typical birth mother right? Kristine was 150% honest and up front with all the details.

Finally in the email, Kristine wrote, "You seem like such a loving couple and one in which spirituality and the Lord is an important part of your life. I don't think I could ask for more from a set of prospective adoptive parents."
These two sentences meant the world to us!!!

Kristine wanted to meet and boy oh boy, so did we. We informed her that we could meet on the following Saturday, Sunday, or Wednesday. Kristine lived in Othello, WA (about 2 hours away from us) and offered to meet half way. She didn't know that we lived in Yakima. We received an email Saturday morning the 21st of March from Kristine letting us know we could meet that day. We quickly packed up enough stuff to go meet Kristine and then head to Spokane afterward and stay with our friends the Divis' (Audra Divis was adopted and has been helpful to us in understanding what things she has experienced in her life). We left as soon as we could. As you can imagine, we were a little excited . . . and nervous.

It was very difficult not to speed on the way to meet Kristine. We were so excited. We used my father's GPS (the GPS' name is Gracie). A couple of times, we had to decide if we believed Gracie.

We finally arrived at Kristine's home. We were VERY warmly greeted by Kristine and her boyfriend Dennis. Then came in Kristine's daughter Nicole, what a sweetheart. They welcomed us into their home. Our visit was wonderful. We talked about our families, our testimonies of the church, our jobs, our schooling, what we wanted for our children, etc. The spirit was present during our entire visit, we felt so good and comforted. We visited for a couple of hours. Towards the end of the visit, Kristine told us that she wanted to go ahead with the adoption with us as the birth parents. The answer to our prayers!!!!!!!!!!

Kristine told us she would like an open adoption. Throughout the adoption process, Emily and I had decided that we would prefer an open relationship with the birth mother for the first year and that then it would be closed. However, after meeting Kristine, and feeling the spirit during our visit, we felt it would be best for the baby to have Kristine in her life. We felt a trust with Kristine and knew that it would be best for everyone to have an open adoption.

As we mentioned previously, Kristine was 8 months pregnant. Since Russell was raised in a family of all boys and has no clue about pregnancy, birth, or girls, he assumed that there was one month left before the C-Section. However as Emily continues to remind him, when you are having a C-Section, things go by the doctor's judgment.

A week after receiving the first email from Kristine, we received another email from her that she was going to have the baby the following Thursday. Yep, we had a week to prepare (two weeks total from the first communication with Kristine).

To spare your eyes after reading this long story, Mirian's story has now become a five part story.