ADOPTION

On Super Bowl Sunday, 2011, my inbox showed an e-mail that changed our lives forever. Makenzie was 6 months pregnant with a baby boy and she was interested in getting to know us better, to see if we might be his parents. A few late night chats, and a whole bunch of e-mails later, she decided we were the ones. We drove from AZ to Idaho to meet her and fell in love with her right away. We decided we couldn’t stand to leave each other so Kenz came back to AZ to live with us for a while. We watched her tummy grow and talked to baby boy and got to know this woman who became our hero. Fast forward 2 months and Collin, Makenzie and I found ourselves in a delivery room in Idaho with Nolan Blake Smith just minutes away. Makenzie was brave and strong and Nolan entered this world via the most beautiful woman we could have imagined, and he was as perfect as she was in that moment. We brought Nolan home to Arizona where we had his adoption finalized and where we took him to the temple to make him ours for eternity, and then we moved to Chicago, the only home Nolan has known. We stay in contact with Makenzie because, we couldn’t live without her, and Nolan hears his adoption story every day. She’s Aunt Makenzie to him, but she’s so much more than that to us. She’s our hero, she’s our example of bravery, and she’s the woman who made Collin a daddy, and me a mommy. There will never be words to express all that adoption means to us!