The Holidays With Daniel

We spent the holidays with Daniel which meant there were firsts for him. Halloween came and we had a family Halloween party at Nathan's parents' church. Daniel dressed up as Curious George, Nathan as The Man In The Yellow Hat (a.k.a Ted), and Sarah as a Ladybug. It was a lot of fun at the Halloween Party. Nathan won third place (20 dollars) in the costume contest. Think it helped that Daniel was dressed up as Curious George.Nathan and Daniel also dressed up for Halloween and went to our wards trunk or treat. It was a lot of fun seeing other kids dressed up too. We didn't get much candy but that's ok since Daniel could not each much anyways.

Thanksgiving.

We spent Thanksgiving with Nathan's family at his parents house for lunch. We brought some pie along. It was a lot of fun getting caught with everyone on what's going on in there lives. It was also a blessing to spend time together and just be thanful for all we have especially Daniel in our lives. After lunch we hurried home and had dinner at our house with Sarah's family. We invited Jesse Foote over for dinner too seeing as he would have been alone. We enjoyed each others company and played some games after dinner. Nathan made a turkey cake for Thanksgiving. He really enjoyed making i and how it turned out.

Christmas

Christmas was fun but not at the same time. We all spent the first two weeks really sick. We all spent a visit at the doctors office and put on an antibotic. After we were well we tried to get in the Christmas spirit. Our Christmas Tree was up in the front room. Other than that we didn't do much to celebrate. We had planned to look at Christmas lights in Ogden but for some reason that never happened Our ward did have a party and Sarah was still sick so Nathan and Daniel went. We had a potluck dinner and Santa came by. Daniel sat on his lap and didn't know what to think of Santa. On Christmas Eve we spent at Nathan's parents with the family. We played a game called the left right game. You pick a candy and read a story about how a boy choose the right or left. It was fun. We also played a game where you try to open a package with gloves on. First you roll a dice and try to get a certain number and if you do you open the package and once someone else rolls that number it's there turn. Everyone had a turn but Nathan. In the end Nathan finally got a turn and won the prize. It was five dollars! We also played a white elephant game. Nathan ended up winning a toilet plunger and Sarah won hot chocolate. Daniel loved the toilet plunger. Maybe we will have another custodian in the family. LOL! On Christmas Day we opened present with Daniel at our house. Daniel got a and some books.

Saturday October 15th, 2011....Our Temple Sealing

WOW! It was been over 8 years since Sarah and I were sealed to each other in the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

During that time we have both had our struggles with each other and in how we were going to add children to our family. We tried foster care which was not the best match for us. We tried LDS Family Services for a number of years but they hardly place children anymore and they have so many couples waiting for a baby. It seemed impossible with them too. Nathan's mom had known a couple of people from work who adopted through Heart and Soul Adoptions. That agency was for us! Daniel was placed with us on April 10, 2011. Today Saturday October, 15th, 2011 he was to be sealed to us for Time and all Eternity.
The time we were to be at the Bountiful Temple was 2:00 P.M. We were a little stressed seeing as we had to bring family members along with us and knowing how they run LATE!
So we get to the temple about 15 minutes before we are suppose to. It's better to arrive early than late. So we go drop Daniel off in the nursery and go hand in our paperwork so we can have Daniel sealed to us.
We then go to get changed and wait in the Celestial room for a bit and then are brought to a sealing room where Daniel was brought in a few minutes later. He was so quite and nice during the ceremony. It was like he could feel and see the spirits all around him. It was awesome to have Daniel sealed to us. We will never forget this day and the promise that is ours if we live worthy of it. After the sealing we had family pictures outside the temple. It was a lot of fun. I LOVE THE PICTURES of just us three! We are a FOREVER FAMILY!

Later that night we had an open house at our church. We had a potluck dinner and showed a slide show of Daniel the past six months of him with us. It was a lot of fun making the slide show. We also asked everyone to write down there thoughts of what they felt that day about the temple sealing or just Daniel joining our family in general. We received so many. We decided to make a Temple Book for Daniel. It is a very nice book we made on Heritage Makers. I think he will enjoy it while he grows up and knowing that the temple is important.
Once again we are thankful for Daniel's birth mom who placed Daniel with us and to allow us to be parents to him. What a sacrifice she made for him and a blessing for us. We will be forever thankful. We are also thankful so our Heavenly Father for hearing and answering our prayers. Thanks to our family and friends who helped us by donating money to help us adopt Daniel. Thank you all!

Everyone that came to support us on our big day.

Court Date....October 12, 2011

This was a very stressful week! First our caseworker calls and says our back ground check/finger prints are out dated. I (Nathan) tell her I don't think LDS Family Services updated them. So our caseworker says call them and find out if not we will hurry and redo one. I (Nathan) am so STRESSED out that we will have to cancel everything because of this, reschedule

our temple sealing and court date. Well we all ready have had a ton of problems with LDS Family Services and this only adds to more problems. We head down to there office that Monday demanding we need all our paperwork so we can give it to our caseworker. It only took them two hours to find it. Then they say it is past its date. It is over a year old. We talked to our caseworker before who said the paperwork is good for 18 months not 12. That was a sigh of relief. So we head down to heart and souls office and hand in our paperwork. What a relief nothing had to be canceled.
So this day October 12, 2011 we both ask for it off from work and our bosses let us. Which was a blessing within it's self. It's hard to get time off from work especially for Sarah. Today was the day Daniel was going to be adopted into our family. We were so nervous and excited all at the same time. Sarah drove us to Nathan's parents. They were invited to be part of our big day as well as other family members but none we able to attend because of work. So as we are on our way to Nathan's parents the road is closed so we have to go all the way around another road to get to his parents. We are all ready running late and this only adds to the problem. We are both stressing out thinking we will be late and not be there on time. We finally make it to Nathan's parents and jump into the van and are on our way. We get down the the court house and then stress out because we are not sure if it's the old court house or the new one. We call our caseworker and she says the new one while we are at the old one. The new one was hard to find and get too. We finally get there and had a couple minutes to spare which was nice since I thought we would be late. We have to go through a metal detector once we enter the building. It beeps off on me. I go through a couple times and it still beeps. I then show them my shoes and belt and then they let me (Nathan) go through. Everyone else went thought OK. We make it into the court building and then find out the judge never received our paperwork. More stress and the devil was really trying everything he could to not make this adoption go through. Seeing as he does not like the family unit. Our case worker shows up and says I brought an extra set of the paperwork. She hands it to our attorney who goes and gives it to the judge. We sit and wait for like fifteen minutes before we go in the court room. During that time Daniel is having so much fun with his Grandma he spits up all over her. Oh no! I, Nathan take Daniel from my mom while she goes and cleans herself off in the bathroom. After she comes back we go in the court room before the judge. We are swore in by the judge and sit down. He asks our caseworker to come and asks her some questions. He then asks Sarah to stand up and he asks her some questions. The one that stood out the most between us was why we want to adopt Daniel. We said because we love this little guy. He fits in our family so w

ell. Life would be empty with out him. Then Daniel gets really loud and starts blabbering away. It was as if he was telling the judge why he wanted to be adopted! It was so cute!!!! Then the judge grants our request and says Daniel is our son and is adopted.

We go fill out a couple more papers and get our Decree of Adoption.

After that we go to Chuck-A-Rama to celebrate.

While we are there we give Daniel a

scone to try. It was pretty funny! He tried to stuff the whole thing in his mouth!!! Dinner was delicious. After dinner we went home and called a couple friends and said lets go out for ice cream to celebrate as well. We went to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream which was pretty yummy! We are so thankful for our family and friends who supported us in our decision to adopt Daniel. What a wonderful day even though it was very stressful.

Daniel Isaac Teasdale

Daniel joined our family on April 10, 2011. It was a cool, wet spring this year, but the clouds parted a bit that morning. We had been told about him a week ago, but found out that his mother chose another family. But this morning, as we were getting ready for church, Taanya from Heart Adoptions called us. This confused both of us since we had been told he would not be ours. We were suprised to hear her ask if we would still like to adopt this little boy. Of course we did! We had been waiting for this day for several years. Then we were told we needed to pick him up in TWO hours! We did not have a crib or a car seat. So we called Nathan's parents who offered to take us to Walmart to buy the crib and car seat. After we dropped the crib off at the house, we headed off to West Valley City to sign the papers and pick up our son. As Dean (Nathan's father) drove, Elaine (Nathan's mother) was calling Nathan's siblings and giving them the good news. While she was talking to Doris (Nathan's sister in law) , it was plain from Elaine's reaction that Doris was very excited! Apparently, Doris started screaming and speaking in Spanish (her native language). Meanwhile, Tami (Nathan's sister) had contacted a ward member who had been a foster parent, and gathered bags and bags of clothes for our little bundle of joy. We finally arrived in West Valley City to discover we gad forgotten a blanket. We found a store and purchased two blankets. Then we arrived at the hospital and signed the paperwork as they prepared to bring the baby down to us. The ladies from the agency then told us about how the other family really did not feel that this baby was theirs, and had called late the night before and backed out. They also metioned how they had felt from the beginning that he was meant to be ours. That still gives me goose bumps! At long last our baby arrived! He did not look like what I thought ten pounds look like, He did not even feel like ten pounds! And so beautiful! We then got to take him home (or rather, to Grandma T.'s house). The whole rest of the day was spent letting Nathan's immediate family meet the baby. Over twelve hours later we were dropped off at the house. What a way to spend a Sunday!