Steve, Laura & Me
Steve & Laura hugging goodbye
Our five kids! I love them.
Isn't she pretty?
This is right after they hugged for the first time in 18 years. Look at Steve's teary face... cute huh? It really was one of the sweetest days.
Life is GREAT!
So I will start from the beginning... so you are aren't lost. About 18 1/2 years ago Steve and Rachel (His high school girlfriend) placed a baby girl that they named "Sydney" up for adoption with LDS Social Services. They held her, talked to her, fed her, cried, laughed, smiled, cried again for 3 short days. Then they watched as they put her little car seat inside the van and drove away. And then they thought about her, and thought about her, and thought about her. They thought about the amazing parents that had adopted her. And they cried some more.
Now fast forward two and a half years. Steve and I met and became friends and one day he was talking about "Sydney". I asked him "Who is Sydney?". And he told me the story. I loved her from the beginning. Her little pictures... she was so cute. The story was so amazing. We talked about her all of the time. We became best friends, then started dating, then married. We still talked about her all of the time. All of the time we would talk about when to tell my parents. Never was a great time. We almost brought it up A LOT. But we didn't. I always felt like they would hate him. I wanted to protect him. (Looking back we did the wrong thing by not but hind sight is always 20/20). We waited, and then waited, and then waited some more.
Now fast forward 14 years ("Sydney" was 16) We were over at Rachel and Aaron's (Rachel's Husband) House. Rachel said "I have a surprise for you... come see this". We went into her bedroom and she had some updated pictures of "Sydney"... and her name... it was now Laura. WOW! She was beautiful, and old, and 16, and not a baby anymore. WOW!!!
Now fast forward 2 more years. Laura was now 18. I got on facebook one day (May 17th) and saw a post from Rachel about how her daughters were some of the greatest things that she ever made. She has some pretty great daughters (Leah-13 & Lucy-10). But I knew some how that she was talking about all three of her daughters. I started looking at her posts... and oh my gosh she met Laura... WOW!!!! What a great, amazing, beautiful story! I just sat there and cried and of course what the luck - I couldn't get a hold of Steve to tell him. I cried. She is BEAUTIFUL. I love her... of course we love her. He finally came home to see all of her pictures.
A couple of days later we had the kids get into the hot tub (our family meeting place). We talked to them about the atonement, forgiveness, repentance, love and "Sydney" or now as we know her as Laura. We told them they have a big sister that is 18 and she amazing and beautiful. They jumped out of the hot tub... they wanted to see pictures. We sat there on the computer and looked at all of her pictures with them. And we waited patiently to meet her.
A couple of days later we sat down with my family and told all of them... we waited too long. I know that. We felt bad. They were surprised. We showed them all of her pictures. We said we were sorry for waiting. We wished that we could take that part away.
But now to move forward... we were so excited. We counted down days, minutes and more days... she consumed us. The kids couldn't wait, Steve couldn't wait, I couldn't wait. But we waited. We at least had her pictures to look at and we talked to Rachel to see what she was like. She is a pretty cool girl.
So Steve hoped for Fathers Day... she didn't contact, any day at this point... we were so excited. Finally, while Steve was on scout camp (of course we had to wait some more) we both received a friend request from a Laura Sowell. We made a meeting time. Then Tuesday August 3, 2010 we were able to finally meet her. Steve and I met with Her Mom and Dad (Debra & Madison) and Rachel and Aaron at Cafe Rio. We weren't at all nervous but when we got out of the car all of the sudden we were nervous. I said to Steve "what if she hates us". He laughed.
We walked into Cafe Rio. We saw her Mom and Dad but not her. We finally saw her. Steve and her went to each other and hugged and hugged and hugged. I was in awe of the moment and forgot to take my camera out. When they were done I got a picture of them together. The first since she was a baby. It really was so cute. Then I got to hug her. I was so happy to finally meet this little girl (who was now not a little girl) and hold her in my arms.
We sat and talked with her Mom & Dad and Rachel & Aaron for about an hour and a half. Then Madison her dad said that they would like to all come over and meet our kids. When we got to our house our kids were so excited to see her. They all hugged her. They just kept looking at her and talking to her. They couldn't wait to show their big sister their bedrooms. Her Mom and Dad were so sweet - they asked all of our kids about them, about their likes, favorite subjects, friends etc. They are really great people who have raised a really great daughter.
Since that day we have had a swimming day with Laura, a sleepover with Laura, FHE with her and her parents and then we went to her ward and had Sunday Dinner with them.
We are excited everyday to find out more about Laura and the first 18 years of her life. We can't wait to see what the future brings and to get to know her better. She adds a lot to our family. Our kids absolutely adore her. We appreciate her parents and all of the time that they share her with us.
We love you Laura!