Sunday, November 22, 2009

Tailee Laurel Followell Is Here!





































I can"t believe our long wait is finally over, and I can"t believe I have 3 kids. Tailee (pronounced Ty-lee) was brought into this world on November 10, 2009 at 5:23pm. She weighed 8lbs 30z and was 20.5 inches long. My mom told me that when I was born I weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 20.5 inches long, funny huh. We didn't actually leave for Kansas City until early Wednesday morning. Our flight was delayed 2 hours but we finally got there. Since the new rules with swine flu say little kids cannot come to the hospital, my sister in law Haley came down at the last minute to get Kadrie. What a lifesaver. Then Nolan and I went to the hospital to see our new baby girl. The instant we held her we knew she was meant to be ours. She was absolutely beautiful and did not look only 1 day old. All that hair does tend to add some age:). We didn't actually get to stay with her until the next day. Finally on Friday we went to court. Unfortunately, our hopes of an easy smooth adoption did not come true. Tailee's birthfather did not want to consent to the adoption, eventhough her birthmom did. Our lawyer advised us to wait until Monday and we would go to court again. Talk about an agonizing weekend. It was seriously probably the worst emotional hell I have ever been through. Eventhough I knew there was a chance we might not get to take her home, I didn't feel comfortable just leaving her for the nurses to care for until Monday. I felt she needed to feel a warm body next to her. My brother and his wife had come for the weekend with Kadrie and their two boys so Haley and I stayed the nights at the hospital and then Nolan and I went for a few hours each day to spend time just holding her. Finally Monday came and we went to court. Again the birthfather refused to sign, but after some talking with our lawyer he did agree to sign and at 5:00pm we left for the hospital for the last time to finally pick up our daughter. We could finally call her Tailee. It felt great. Her birthmother, Hannah, is such an amazing woman. I know that what she did for Tailee was out of the most selfless love for her daughter and she wanted her to have so much more than she could give her. She stayed strong through all of this and we can never thank her enough. I feel so honored that she chose me to be Tailee's mom and what a great responsibility I have to make sure she grows up to be a great person. Tailee has been seriously the best baby I have ever been around, and I really thought Kadrie was an easy baby. She only cries when she is hungry and most of the time she just is looking around checking everything out. Everytime Nolan and I look at her we fall more in love with her. She is so beautiful and I am so glad she is here and finally ours. I want to say Thank You to all of our family and friends who fasted and prayed so hard for our family so that this little miracle could be ours forever.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2009











This year we got to actually pick pumpkins from a pumpkin patch. We went with our good friends Will and Tia and their families to pick out our own pumpkins. The kids had a lot of fun picking out their own and even picked out a baby one for Tailee. This Halloween Caden was an army guy. When he would go up to each house the people would say "oh a GI Joe guy". Caden was getting so mad and told me "Everyone keeps saying I"m a GI Joe guy". We had to explain to him what that was. Kadrie was a pretty kitty. She looked so dang cute and had to constantly point out to everyone her pink tail. Having kids has sure brought back the fun in Halloween.