Sunday, April 19, 2015

Here we go...

Quick arrival...loved all the same.

It has been quite whirlwind of the last few days.  We've known we were going to adopt for quite some time and knew it would take some money to be able to make everything happen.  We have been so so appreciative of everyone and their help in helping us to earn as much as we were able to to make that dream a reality.  We were in a position that we felt we could officially get in the adoption agencies books and start to be considered as adoptive parents.  We finished filling out all our adoption application, got our home study, background checks, and everything else done so we were officially in the running.  We didn't expect anything really to happen for some time, but wanted to get the ball rolling.

At the beginning of April we were presented with a profile of a birth mother that was 15 and due June 5th, 2015.  We didn't know much about her other than that but felt like this could be one to pursue.  The way the adoptions work is that it is a birth mother's choice as to who she wants to adopt her child.  Each adopting family creates a profile book of themselves that is presented to the birth mother for her to choose the family for her child.  After getting this profile, we decided to let our family be presented to the birth mother.  We got a call from the adoption agency April 6th, 2015 saying that a birth mother was trying to decide between us and another family for the adoption of her little girl and wanted to have a phone conversation with each family to help her to make her final decision. Mike was in night classes but left early so we could have a conversation with the birth mother.

At 9:30pm we received a call from the birth mother named Morgan.  After talking with her for several minutes we learned she is a fun girl, full of life, loves to laugh, and knows the baby she is carrying was meant for someone else.  Her mother, is adopted herself and the whole family is extremely supportive of the decision that Morgan has made to place her daughter for adoption.  We hung up the phone, of course hopeful of the possible outcome, but not wanting to get our hopes up.  We received word from the agency just 5 minutes later that Morgan had chosen us to adopt her daughter!!!  Woo Hoo!!!

The next day, we announced the arrival of a little girl in June and stayed up late finishing the remodel of the nursery that we had begun weeks earlier.  Mike placed Krystle's phone on silent at night because of the many notifications that were coming from social media of people offering their congratulation.  We went to bed, tired from working on the nursery and were in a dead sleep.  Krystle got up about a quarter to three to use the bathroom and looked at her phone once she got up.  On there, among all the Facebook notifications, was a notification of a missed phone call and a missed text message from the adoption agency.  The agency was calling to let us know that Morgan had gone into labor at around 11:30pm and that she wanted us to drive down to St. George, UT (about 5 hours away) to meet her in the hospital.

WHAT!? This is a joke, right?  We just barely found our we were chosen to be parents but we've got another 9 weeks to prepare for this baby.  So we pack a suitcase with some clothes, gas up the car, and drive on down in disbelief, fear of the unknown, and entire shock of what was going on. We were still a few hours our from St. George when we were told that Morgan had given birth to a little girl at 5:12 that morning.  6lbs 3oz 19.5".

So many things were going through our heads... What are we going to do with a baby that is two month's premature?  How are we going to work it with Mike still working and taking 20 credits of school as well?  How are we going to pay for the medical expenses, let alone get the remaining money we needed to finalize the adoption?

Once we got there, we walked into the hospital, running on nothing but adrenaline, and located the room where Morgan was being held.  We walked in and were immediately greeted with hugs and a feeling like we had known this family for years.  We were introduced to this pink little girl and asked if we had chosen a name for her.  We had, but didn't know if Morgan had already chosen a name for her.  Morgan wanted us to name her so we chose the name Quinn Morgan Larsen.

While talking with Morgan and her family, we found out that the agency had actually given us the wrong due date.  She was supposed to be due May 5th, not June 5th. We were grateful she was only one month early and not two.  The doctors said she is very healthy and would not have to spend any time in the NICU. We spent the rest of the day sitting in the hospital room, talking with Morgan and her family, getting to know them a little more.  What an amazing family.  They are so full of life and love!  We are so grateful and blessed to be forever connected to this wonderful family. They have made such a huge impact on our lives.

We left in the afternoon to go pick up some things that we still didn't have, like a diaper bag, car seat, and other baby essentials. We got ourselves a hotel and basically both laid there all night, too in shock to sleep.  The next morning the hospital had a few more checks to do on Quinn before she could be discharged, which she passed with flying colors.  We brought her home the day after she was born. Happy, scared, and clueless parents.











Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Selling a baby to get a baby

     This journey has been an emotional one.  Emotional with some of the feelings that come with the situation, the financial costs that seem impossible, and some of the sacrifices for a greater cause.

     This last week was an emotional one but is really kind of silly when you think about it.  We got Krystle's dream car, a bright yellow mustang, last February while we were in the process of looking into options for fertility treatments.  We thought we would have a little fun for a year or so before the kids started popping out, but much to our surprise we found out we would not be able to have kids of our own and that our plans had changed.  That car was awesome!!! It was fast, obnoxiously loud, and tons of fun to drive.  We came to feel it was time to get rid of it and get something a little less expensive to help save for our adoption more and something that has a little more room for a car seat.  After a few nights of tears and emotions we put the car up for sale.  We prayed we would be able to sell the car quickly and to be able to sell it for enough to help ease the burden of getting another car.  Within 24 hours we had someone look at the car and want to immediately go to the bank to complete the purchase.  Our prayers were answered VERY quickly.  


     After selling the mustang and talking about how quickly the sale happened, we've come to the conclusion that for our family when something is right, it happens very quickly.  We got married in under 2 month's time, bought our house in very short time, planned and started an adoption in a very short time... Everything that we've felt was right and we've started, it has always moved in the right direction quickly.  We are grateful that the Lord is so mindful of us and feel blessed He is helping us in this journey.

PS- We will be getting another mustang...one day.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Golden Corral Fundraiser!


        Yet another successful fundraiser.  Krystle has worked for Golden Corral for seven and a half years and they were gracious enough to host a celebrity server fundraiser.  What happened is friends and family came and became the servers at Golden Corral.  Any of the tips that were earned for the night, and it was a miracle we earned any with our family's inexperience in serving, went to help fund our adoption.  There were a lot of other friends and family that came out to support us and enjoy a good meal.  We wanted to thank everyone once again for opening up your hearts and your wallets to us and helping us get that much closer to our goal.  Every little bit helped.  We were able to raise..... $956!!  We ran into a lot of people who had a personal experience with adoption, whether they adopted someone or someone they knew had adopted as well.  It gets us even more excited to grow our little family.  Thank you all for your love and support.  We love you all!





Friday, July 18, 2014

Yard sale thank you video!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

To our future baby...

We got some really good advice from a family member. Today, we started a journal for our future Larsen to love. We are excited to document and write to our future baby. We can't wait for the day to share this journal will him or her. :)



Sunday, June 15, 2014

Fun with the Maxfield side of the family!

With Krystle's parents and brothers, we took an Alaskan cruise (Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us!! :))We drove out on June 4th, visited some family in Oregon, drove to Washington and headed out on June 6th. We were pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the scenery in Alaska and had a TON of fun with family.
 
Our first stop was Juneau, Alaska. We went to a Salmon Hatchery and on a hike to the Mendenhall Glacier. It was beautiful, but cold and wet. By the time we hiked 20 minutes, we were soaked to the bone!




Our second stop was in Skagway, Alaska a small town of 800 people.  When our ship came in, we tripled the population of the city!  It was a nice clear day and the surrounding mountains were stunning to see.


Our last stop was in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  What an amazing coastal city.  It has an old European feel with the vintage style architecture. 


In true Maxfield/Larsen style, we can't skip an interesting museum in a new city. There were a lot of cool exhibits, especially about the history and people of British Columbia. There was an section that had animals from mammoths to crabs.  We had a lot of fun taking turns mimicking the animals the best was Kelson and John (Krystle's younger brothers) mimicking an elephant seal, but the most fascinating exhibit was one on the Vikings.

 


 While on the cruise, every night we were able to take pictures with photographers on the ship. Here are a couple of our favorites: 





Out of all the things that we got to do on this trip, the best was spending time with family. We played a lot of games, shared a lot of stories, but most of all laughed and enjoyed each other's company. We are so grateful for amazing families that support us in all we do and make us laugh. More to come on Mike's family! 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Color Vibe 5K

We had a BLAST running our first 5K. We went with some of Krystle's coworkers. Who knew that it would be fun to run and have people throw colored chalk at you?! :) One of Krystle's favorite things was seeing Mike running with the little boy in this picture: 

 Mike kept this boy entertained the whole time by giving him a piggy back ride or even running away from the zombies (aka his mom and all of the girls). Then to top it off Mike was demonstrating to the same kiddo his Batman and Kermit the Frog voice on the car ride home. He was laughing so hard and trying his best to do a Batman voice. So cute! Mike is going to be an awesome dad one day! 


We were quite a mess in the end, but had a huge amount of fun. We can't wait to do another. On the docket: THE DIRTY DASH in September. Woo Hoo!