How it came to be...

Behind every new adventure is a really great story. So let me begin! To break things down - - the adventure is becoming the proud parents of a beautiful little GIRL.

The story is as follows.

There was this darling little couple who met at Southern Utah University and.... not a good place to start we will be here all night.

Let's try again, there was this darling little family who went to school in New York and had a beautiful little boy (not a good place to start either).

There was this cute little family who moved to Colorado (now here is the right place to start). This little family consisted of a smart handsome dad a spunky, talk to much mom and an adorable, feisty little boy. They were happy as any little family could be living in beautiful Colorado. The year mark soon came and with this milestone one would think this little family was starting to settle in, however, just the opposite was happening and this little family started to get antsy. A move closer to home was in the foremost part of their minds and when the opportunity arose this family jumped at the chance to move to the growing metropolis of Mesquite, NV. Formerly known in Shemri's mind as the place to stop and use the little girls room when you were headed to Vegas.

As this little family unit moved ahead many conversations were had about how things would have just been easier if Mesquite would have been the first pit stop out of school rather than detouring and taking the scenic route through Colorado for a year. Little did this family know that the people they would meet in Colorado would become an integral part of adding to their family in the future.

Life in the land of cactus and sand was great and this little family started to grow. First with a beautiful son (Feb 08 post). Husband and wife were making new friends and little boys were happy to play outside 9 months of every year. Wife who had never been good at keeping in contact with anybody missed her friends from Colorado and thought about them often. With that in mind she chose to be a slacker and not call or write for the next three years. There was an occasional "hi" on Facebook or a glance at a blog or two but wifey was shameful about her "keeping up with old friends" skills. Life went on and soon wife found out that she would have a beautiful little baby boy making three kids for a family who could not ever believe they would have more than one. Baby boy entered the world in crazy circumstances and exited to live in Heaven a short four days later. Wife could not believe that she would ever be able to process the thought of even asking Heavenly Father for another child but felt so unsettled and knew deep down that their must be just one more.

Three years after moving from Colorado this little family received an email from a friend who they had met in CO telling them that she too had moved from the Rocky Mountains and had landed in Ogden UT. She did not know that another son had been added to the little family and asked the question if they would even be interested in adoption again. Husband had made it very clear that in order to start the adoption process again "it would take a miracle". He loved his family but was tired of trying to get them all there for the past 10 years. A miracle would have to fall into his lap, wife thought it would have to be a miracle that landed on his head. Everyone got to praying for that miracle to happen and Heavenly Father sent one little family's way.

Friend from CO had met a lovely family in Ogden whose daughter would place her baby for adoption. Although there had not been contact with our family for 3 years...little family's name came to her mind and she knew this was the family for this little girl. (This is where that email came in.) Well little family trekked to Ogden and met with this beautiful birth mother and her mother and knew that this was a relationship meant to be. Instant peace and comfort emerged into a building friendship. Mutual respect for one another and the circumstances at hand made each other feel that this was going to be a positive experience for all involved.

This is how we met our beautiful baby's birth mom. This is how the Lord saw it fit to bring our lives together to complete our little family. This is how the Lord saw it best to help this beautiful birth mother progress and move forward with a life full of meaning and purpose. How thankful this little family was for an "old friend" listening to the spirit connecting a family to child for eternity.

Oh how the Lord works in mysterious ways! Little family is now complete and wife is very confident that all her little children are finally here. She is confident that her little one in Heaven is also very much a part of this little family and may have pulled a few strings to get little Miss Layla here as well.

Rand and I will forever be grateful for the two birth moms who through their selflessness completed our little family!

And as they say....."the rest is history", they all lived happily ever after.... well probably happily until children turned into teenagers and then this little story might have a few tragedies but I am sure in the end we will all live "happily ever after"!

Our first looks at our beautiful baby girl!

Bracken Family "New and Improved"!

Our Angel "Ariel" and also the woman who did all the hard work!

"Friend from Colorado" who put these two families together!