Life Is A Gift

I told y'all on my blog last night about the baby boy that my Brother and Sister-in-law were adopting. Well, it's official! Here he is...

Brayden Bailey-born January 28. 2009...with his favorite Aunt Haley :-)

Isn't he precious? He's just the tiniest, cutest little thing! I could just eat him up!

Today was such a special day. My cup runeth over. I wish that I could remember everything that was said at Brayden's placement ceremony.

First of all, I want all of you reading to take a moment to thank the Lord for the precious woman who carried this baby. She went against the odds and chose life. That in and of itself is means for applause considering the statistics. I believe that the speaker at the ceremony said that last year 14,000 children were adopted and 1.7 MILLION children were aborted. THAT TOOK MY BREATH AWAY! Thank you, Lord, for Brayden's birth-mom and the first selfless decision she made. Secondly, thank you, Lord, that you laid it on her heart to let her baby have a better life and be adopted by a wonderful couple who will love this little boy to no end. I know what it feels like to have a baby inside of you for nine months. You love them immediately. She loved him so much, that she did the most selfless thing of all and chose to give him a life that she could not.

The counselors at the agency made this day so special for everyone. Andrew and Valerie came in and presented Brayden to us, then told us his name. Brayden is just a name that they like (and the name we had for Addy if she was a boy! ha!) and Bailey is what the birth-mom was calling him. How cool is that? They talked about how Andrew and Valerie were one of the most "popular" couples of women considering adoption. Their story of disappointment was shared with a few stories that I didn't even know about. We all prayed over, loved on, and thanked God for this baby while there. It was awesome! When we left, I told Tim that I wanted to adopt someday. It was such a cool experience... I will try to write more when I feel like I can do this all justice.

Andrew, Valerie and Brayden when they walked in.

We all went to dinner afterward and Tim finally got to hold him.

Emmy kept saying at the ceremony "Where's my baby?" and "I want to see my baby!". It was so cute to see her so excited about him.

I think it's so cool how much I love my niece and nephews. Even the one's on Tim's side, I never knew I would love this much. (No offense, guys! I just thought with my siblings it would be different, but it's not!) I think it must be kind of like being a grandparent-you get to love on them, spoil them rotten, but give them back and not feel like a failure if they don't turn out perfect! Ha! I think that I would do ANYTHING for them. I love them all about as much as I love my own. Gabbie, Zachary, Luke, and Brayden-I love you! You are all so very special to me and your Uncle Tim!

Congratulations Andrew and Valerie! Y'all are going to be awesome parents! I'm already amazed at how calm and cool y'all are with him.

Goodnight!

Haley