Its a Girl!!

Olivia Dawn came into this world yesterday morning around 7:45 a.m. in New Orleans. She weighs 6 pounds 5 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. She has a ton of black hair and beautiful brown eyes. She has really long fingers so I immediately thought she is going to be a piano player but Scott has decided that she is going to be a basketball star. I forgot my USB cord in Utah so I can't post pictures right now, but will be adding some later today.

The Call

My phone rang at 4:17 a.m. this morning- our baby is on its way today. We are headed to New Orleans this afternoon at 2:35. Stay tuned for updates.

A Month in the Life

One of my scrapbook magazines had a really fun idea of taking a picture each day for a month to show what happens in day to day life. Last month I decided I was going to take this challenge and instead of doing a scrapbook I would do it for my blog. So bear with me for the next month as I give you a glimpse in the day to day life of the Magleby's.

Tonight Scott and I got to talk to our birth mom, Janel, on the phone. I am so grateful for this amazing woman that I have never met. We then went to Babies R Us and walked around looking at all of the stuff we are going to need to take care of this baby- a little overwhelming, but definitely very fun. The only thing I bought tonight was a cute yellow giraffe and some baby laundry soap. Its a start...

An Answer to Prayers

Scott and I tried for over three years on our own to have a baby before we started the adoption process a little over a year ago. In some ways those three years were really tough. On the outside and for those who don't know us well, it probably seemed that we had the perfect life- We had each other, we had a beautiful new home, two great jobs and we traveled and played constantly. But what many people didn't see was the strain that not getting pregnant was putting on both of us and how it was affecting our marriage and our relationship. We did (and do) have a great life, but we both knew something was missing.

In January last year we made the decision to start the adoption process. I don't think either of us realized what a process it would be. It took months of paperwork, background checks, and interviews before we were finally approved to be adoptive parents. It then took a couple more months for our on-line profile to be published. We were then told the agency was doing a new website and that we would have to redo our online profile that just took us two months to get published. You get the picture.

It seemed to me about once a week I would hear of a child abuse case (either locally or nationally) of a child who was beaten, killed, starved, or sexually assaulted and I would get so angry. Why couldn't one of those babies come to our family where I knew they could be loved and taken care of? I would say to myself we are trying to do everything that we are supposed so why can't we get the one thing that we so desire? Why are my prayers not being answered? I don't know that my little human mind will ever understand all of the whys.

About a month ago a friend from high school (who I haven't seen since I graduated 13 years ago) found me on Facebook sent me an e-mail that said something like this: "I know this is totally random, but I saw on your blog that you were trying to adopt. I follow another blog and there is a set of African American twins (a bog and a girl) that need a good home. I thought of you." I immediately went to the agency's website and saw that they had seven babies that were in need of families and that the average wait time for placement was 1-3 months. That night Scott and I decided we needed to work with this agency. We turned in our paperwork and our new profile about three weeks ago on a Wednesday. The following Friday, I received a call from the agency asking if we were ready to be included in a matching. I was completely amazed. About the same time, my sweet husband changed our normal prayer to the following: Heavenly Father-we really want to have a baby in our family, but if we are not supposed to please help us understand why. We found out why on Friday.

Our baby will born in Louisiana around February 25 to an amazing young woman named Janell who knew that she would not be able to give this baby the life it deserved. She is unselfishly giving us something that we can not do our our own- a Family. We don't know at this point if it will Nathan Scott or Oliva Dawn, but we couldn't be more excited.

I have decided...

Tonight I decided two things:

• I am not going to put my life on hold waiting for a baby to join our family. I had planned to go to Cincinnati to visit my sister in March, but since we enlisted this new adoption agency I have been a little hesitant to plan anything. Tonight I decided I am going to buy a ticket and go with my sister and my mom. If we get a baby then great- we will make plans when it happens.
• I am going to run in the Provo 5K over conference weekend. I have been really really bad about working out since the holidays and I need something to motivate me. I decided if I say it out loud and post it on my blog I will have a better chance of following through. I also think I am going to register tomorrow so I will be monetarily invested as well. I am not a super star runner like my sister,Becky, but I am up to two miles so that extra 1.1 miles should be do able in two months. I need a running buddy- anyone interested? Also I need some new running music- I usually listen to Def Leopard's Greatest Hits but it is getting old. Does anyone have suggestions for good running songs I can put on my Ipod?

More Pics from Cali

I took two cameras to California last weekend. All of the pictures from Knott's Berry Farm and the beach were on a little handheld camera that I thought I had lost, but Scott found it under the seat today. Here is a little more California fun:

Picture 1: Scott having way to much fun on the carousel.

Picture 2: View from our spot on the beach.

Picture 3: Amy on the second roller coaster. (what was I thinking after getting sick on the first one?).

Sunny California

We just got back from our annual "orange picking" California trip. Each year in January over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend (to capitalize on my three day weekend at the bank), Scott and I try to make a trip to visit his Grandma Magleby who lives in Riverside California. Grandma Magleby has two very large orange trees, a grapefruit tree, and a Mandarin orange tree in her back yard. The orange trees were planted in 1955 when the Magleby's moved into their house in Riverside, so they have had a few years to mature. Depending on the year, the trees are either loaded or there are only a few oranges. This year it was loaded... we spent part of Saturday morning picking eight big boxes to bring back to Utah.

While in California we also went to Knott's Berry Farm. It was fun until I went on my first ride,Montezuma's Revenge, (only ten minutes into the day) and knew I was going to be sick. I have never been able to ride the scrambler or the tea cups at Disneyland, due to the spinning; however, I have never gotten sick on a roller coaster before. Until Knott's Berry Farm.... Scott went on a couple of the big roller coasters and I went on the little kids rides like the carousel, bumper cars, etc.

We also spent an afternoon at Newport Beach. It was fabulous...80 degrees,ice cream, sun, sand, and a good book.

It was pretty tough coming back to Utah. When we left Riverside it was 75 degrees when we got back to Utah last night it was 19 degrees.