Littles

Today, June 29, is the year mark from the day I became a mom.

My entire life has been a series of tender mercies. I am still convinced that I was given my scholarship to Westminster simply because Heavenly Father knew that as a teenager, my tendency was to give up if things were too hard, and He knew I needed to be a teacher.

When I moved to Nephi, I was given a great job simply because the Lord knew that I needed to be HOME in order to sort out the mess I was making of my life. It worked.

Shortly after falling in love with Blaine, I became his Mrs. without hesitation. Our relationship is now and always has been EASY. We knew that we could build a happy life, that we could build a beautiful forever and so we did. We are.

We found an incredible home with room to grow. Purchased at auction, we marveled at the home and tried to think of how we could possibly fill five bedrooms. A tender mercy.

In February of last year, my sister called and talked to me about a possible adoption. There were four siblings, three boys and a girl, who needed a place to land. They were young: 3, 4, 6, 7 and living with an aunt in Wyoming. Originally, their aunt (who is a saint in her own right) hoped to keep at least two children together. At the same time, LDS Family Services began to pull back from adoption. We found out that services would end in January 2015.

We began the process of becoming foster certified. Our foster care licenser is the very same woman who completed our LDS Family Services intake three years ago. She was able to streamline our foster care licensing, making it a quick task instead of an arduous one. A tender mercy.

One signed paper allowed Montana to access our Utah files. This streamlined a two-state adoption and the littles were able to move directly into our home from their aunt's without having to wait in a group home for paperwork to go through. A tender mercy. 

On June 29, Blaine and  I drove to Wyoming to load up 2 bunk beds, 8 boxes, and 4 little people. They ran out of their aunt's house and one of them shouted: "We're moving to Utah!" And so it began.

As we drove home, Blaine and I were in different cars. I was in our car with my little brother, two little boys, and my mother in law. Blaine was in another car with my parents, and the other two littles. Jace (my little brother) drove the entire way from there to home and I sat in the back seat. As soon as the sun went down I started sobbing and couldn't stop. I was so overwhelmed at the gravity of what we had done. I felt in some way that we were kidnapping the kids, that there was no real way that we should be able to take them out of state to our home. I was terrified, and all I wanted in the world was to hold Blaine's hand and tell him so.

We've spent the last year figuring out how to survive as new parents. Blaine is and always will be a champ. He is better at discipline and routine and teaching. He is our stay at home parent and has committed his full energies to these little souls. It is so incredible to watch him become a dad. It's a chance I wasn't sure I would ever get, and I value it beyond words.

Last week, we received an email asking for our lawyer's name. And would we be keeping the littles' names? This is the most official correspondence I have received since the little people moved in, and it feels more real somehow than anything we have done so far. They are soon-to-be Bassetts. They will be the first grandchildren on Blaine's side of the family to carry that name.

Wait. Watch. Beautiful things will happen. God is in the mix. I think He finds joy in watching his children sort through this life. All good decisions and tender mercies and a whole lot of love.