We oficially signed the paperwork six days after meeting Cole for the first time. Two months later we found out we were expecting twin girls.
I am so excited to write about our little miracle. Here is the story of our little boy Cole David Carroll. Dave and I had been trying to have kids pretty much since we got married. In September, 2008 I had a D&C miscarriage at 10 weeks and Dave and I both were devastated. I was bitter, mad, and did not understand how this could happen to us. Looking back, it all makes sense now, and I do have a firm conviction that if you put your trust in the Lord everything will work out the way it is intended to.
On a Saturday in November we went to my little brother’s state football game with my entire family. Before the game Dave and I were starving and so we stopped to get some food to bring to the game. After the game my sister was really wanting to get pizza, but Dave and I decided we would go even though we had ate before. My little brother’s game was clear far from the pizza place, but we made the trek for some reason. We got there they sat us in the back room and enjoyed some dinner. This cute family was seated next to us with a brand new baby and of course my entire family was talking about him the whole time. My sister overheard the foster mom, Toni, talking on her phone that there was a little boy up for adoption. We didn’t think twice about it, just thought how cute the family was.
Everyone was ready to go and everyone except my mom, dad, and I stayed back to pick up the leftovers to take home. We started walking out and stopped by this family to look at this little boy. My dad asked the foster mother Toni if the baby was A Act of Love baby and Toni replied yes he is. I suddenly saw another car seat and asked Toni if there was another baby in there. She replied yes. I took off the blanket and this little boy was 3 days old. Tears filled my eyes. I knew instantly that he was my little boy. She explained to us that she had adopted this little boy she was holding and that this 3 day old little boy in the carseat got pulled from his family that was going to adopt him. We left and I went and got in my car with Dave and told him about this little boy. I started crying and told Dave that I wanted him and I felt that he was ours. Dave thought I was crazy.
In the car my dad called me next and asked me what I thought of this little boy and I couldn’t even talk because the tears were streaming down my face. I knew that this little boy was meant to be ours. My dad had a friend who worked for the agency and he drove right to her house. She happened to be doing yard work outside (in the dark) when my dad pulled up. He got the number of the founder and my dad called her. She told him how this little boy had a home and that she pulled him from this family because she knew it wasn’t right and that there was a “special” family for him. She told us to drive to Toni’s house and she would meet us there.
Dave was unsure about this, but I told him to trust me and if he didn’t feel right about it, it just wasn’t meant to be. We soon found out that Toni’s family wasn’t even a foster family, but the founder felt that this family needed to foster this baby, even though she had just adopted a 5 week old. Toni, the foster mom, and her family went to Salt Lake that day to check on a couple of things and had not eaten at that resturant for years and decided to eat there. They almost left because the service was poor, but ended up staying, even though they are not sure why they stayed or even decided to go there.
We went to Toni’s house that night to see this little guy. I held him and was 100% sure he was ours. Dave held him next and tears rolled down his face as soon as he touched him. At this point, adoption, had not even been talked about on a serious level and was still quite overwhelming. While we were there three other couples came over to see “our” baby. While Dave was holding him a couple was standing behind the couch where we were sitting and she whispered to her husband something, after she said that she had to tell us something and she said that this baby looked exactly like my husband. Another couple came over and when he was ready to feed she handed him to me and said, “he wants his mommy to feed him.” The last couple that came to see if they were a match for this baby, simply just said ”this baby is an answer to prayers, just not our prayers” and handed him back to me. I was shocked since like us, they were also desperate for a baby. To say this was one of the most emotional days of my life is an understatement.
We came home and just hugged, and cried. The next morning we talked and decided that we would do whatever we needed to do so that if this was meant to be everything would fall into place. That day, the owner of A Act of Love, said she was meeting with the birth mother and told us to bring a letter and photos and she was going to present us to the birth mother since she had no idea that we were there. We were upstairs while the birth mother was downstairs, when the owner came up and told us that she wanted to meet us. We met her for about 5-10 minutes and came back upstairs to fill out paperwork. The Birth Mom had still not seen the Birth Father and gave him one week to show up. We went over everynight to see this sweet baby, and held onto the hope that if it was meant to be, it would happen.
We got all the paperwork and homestudy done and recommedation letters from friends and family so fast it was unreal. On Wednesday, I got the call that she had chosen us officially, and that we would meet with her on Thursday morning. Thursday morning we went to breakfast with her and the agency and got to know her better. She told us how she knew that we were the ones to adopt this baby and she thanked us. The Birth Father never showed up and we were certain we would get this baby that night. A couple hours later the owner told us that the birth mom wanted to hold him for 2 hours tomorrow but he was for sure ours. I got a call a couple hours later and they told us to go and get the baby because when we had left our Cole had started spitting up and knew that we weren’t there and had done this everyday we left the foster parents house. We got him that night and it was so nice to have him home. The next day, Friday, we went and signed the paperwork and right before we got there the birth father had come and signed over all of his rights.
We oficially signed the paperwork six days after meeting Cole for the first time. Two months later we found out we were expecting twin girls. Cole and our girls are ten months apart. After thinking we were completely done having kids, we got another surprise, and Cruz was born when Cole was just 28 months. 4 kids 2 and under! Our lives are crazy, but we would never want it any other way.
Sincerely-
Danielle
It all started over 7 years ago. A girl was sitting in the living room of an apartment in a little college town waiting for the brother-in-law of her best friend to show up for a blind date. Finally – almost 45 minutes late – he walked through the door, looked at the girl and never looked away.
