b.and.d

i have been soooo anxious to share this news with everyone...

Maybe a lot of people don't know, but Bradley was adopted.. and this past like 6 months have been crazy because we weren't like full heartedly(is that a word), desperately searching to find his birthmother, but it just kind of happened and went more smoothly than finding any birthmother could be. So... I must share how it all began..

brad had only wanted to learn more about his birthmother/family/health history when he got back from his mission when he was 21. he always knew he was adopted and is sooo grateful for his parents and the family that he has. so he registered on the websites where if a match was found each side would be notified, but nothing ever happened. when we met and he told me he was adopted it sparked my curiosity as well. we would talk about it every once in a while and he would always say i feel like i've done what i know i can and she hasn't registered so there's really nothing else we can do.

last year my sister got pregnant and adoption was all that brad and i could think about. both of us thought that she would be better off placing her child for adoption and that way she could finish school and do whatever else her life had in store for her. we talked about this a lot since there was always conversations about her pregnancy. my mom mentioned that a girl that i went to school with was a birthmom and talked to my sister about adoption. this certain girl is amazing in the birthmom "world" she is involved in scholarships for birthmoms and other events to promote adoption. i decided to see if she knew anything about finding a birthmother and what do you know? she sure did! we gave her the information we had and she contacted one of the social workers on brads adoption. this social worker just HAPPENED TO KEEP A JOURNAL.... (taught me the importance of journals...) and read to us the events surrounding the three days between brad's birth and her placing him in his parents loving arms. how amazing was that?... pretty amazing i'd say.. brad didn't say much, but maybe cause i'm such a girl i was freaking out. BAD!!! after that things just happened and within a week or so Brad received a call from his birthmother he wasn't able to answer so she left a message and her name Jodi A. You best believe we were trying to find out anything we could about her and her family until brad was able to talk to her the next day.. that included doing some facebook stalking..... :) it was so wierd! So they talked and we had emailed and facebooked (again a word??) one of her daughters and got to know a little bit about them and made plans to meet a month later during our trip to Utah. sooo the day has come and gone and it was such a neat experience. Brad has had a lot of questions answered and now has this part of his life that he had been wondering about. He spent time alone with her and her husband and daughters, then later on I came and we met their family (aunt, uncle, cousins, grandparents). So sorry for the lengthy post! and now a gazillion pics..

Brad and Jodi

The whole family (- jodi's brother who lives in idaho.) left to right Davis and Kelsi(cousin), Kolton(cousin), Alex(1/2 sister), Me, Sam(1/2 sister), Brad, Jodi, Glade, Julie(aunt) and Bill, Grandpa and Grandma on the floor- Korbin and Kayla(cousins). (hope I got the names right!)

Brad with Grandma-She has dimentia and cant talk and I'm not sure if she understands all that much either, but something was going on that night and brad could not leave her sight or side at times. I really think she knew exactly who he was.