Matthews first Halloween

We have had a good month with Matthew and are grateful to you and our Heavenly Father for this gift we have been given.  We had a hard time deciding what to be.  We tried the Dinosaur costume which was very cute, but then decided it would be fun to be cavemen.   It turned out really cute and we had fun with it.  We even won the best costume award at a friends Halloween party the other night.  I know it was because Eric and I were so cute ;)!  He loves sleeping with his arm out waving.  We just laugh and wave back!
 
 

Our Gift!

Our Gift from Heavenly Father

Matthew’s story starts 5 years ago with Eric and Jenni getting married in the Bountiful Utah Temple.  They really wanted to have kids and build their eternal family.  After years of heart ache and tears, with many treatment options not working, we finally decided to start the adoption process.

We met with Julie at LDS Family Services in January of 2007.  Although we felt this was the right path for us, we didn’t feel quite ready.   We got all the paperwork and started some but didn’t really start to fill it out until the end of June.  Jenni felt that we really needed to get the paperwork to Julie by the beginning of August and wanted all of our stuff to be turned in and done.  It took us a little longer and we ended up turning in our paperwork to Julie on our five year anniversary, August 17^th.   Many events helped to bring our little Matthew to our home a little over 6 weeks later. 

The first

• Julie working with us and getting our stuff finished quickly like amazingly quick. 
• The other couple that wanted to view our profile which helped us get it done in about 3 days

Finding out

• Well it was just over two weeks since being approved that we received a phone call
• Monday: October 1, 2007.  That evening around 6:30 our lives changed forever.  Eric and I were just getting ready to sit down to dinner when Julie called our house.  She asked to talk to both of us, and Jen put the call on speaker.  What she said next completely left us speechless and trying really hard not to get our hopes up and excited.  She said that there was a little boy already here and the birth mom Jennifer was deciding that night who he needed to be with.  Julie said that she would let us know on Tuesday the final decision.  So needless to say, Jen didn’t sleep much that night.  We didn’t want to tell anyone
• Tuesday, October 2^nd.  – Jen and Eric went to work “as usual”.  We kept calling each other and had a really really hard time focusing.  Around 11:15 Julie called Jen on the cell phone and casually asked if she had slept well.  Jen answered honestly, not well.  Julie then told her that she better take advantage of her last good nights sleep because tomorrow we would have our son!  Jen just was screaming and so happy!  She immediately tried to call Eric and couldn’t get a hold of him.  She was trying really hard to contain herself and to stay calm while wanting to just scream with happiness!  When Jen couldn’t get Eric on the phone, she decided that she would drive to his office and surprise him.  On the way down, she realized she wanted to do it in a cool way.  She decided to get balloons at the store next to his office and had to track down someone in the office to let her in.   It just so happens that the Stake President works with Eric.  She got his number and called him.  He came down and let her into the building and up to Eric’s floor.  While Jen was in the elevator, Eric called her cell phone and she of course ignored it because she was almost to his door.  When she got to his office, the door was closed and she knocked with her big balloons and waited for Eric to open the door.  When he did, she said “You’re going to be a daddy!” and then cried with happiness.  It was so cool!   We immediately called Jen’s parents who of course cried some more.  We called all of our family members and everyone was so excited for us!  It was a very cool afternoon!   
• Of course we didn’t have any baby stuff.  When Eric told his boss, she immediately started writing a list of things that we would need and came up with two pages full of stuff. 
• Both Eric and Jen had a few things to wrap up at work then off to Babies R Us to buy a ton of baby stuff.   How Fun!!!  They decided to just get the basics Car Seat, diapers, bottles, and a few other cute things they found.    
• We had some friends help us pick up a few things for the gifts for the next day
• We finally went to bed around 1 am.   

Things we felt throughout the process

• Needed to get the paperwork done and turned in quickly
• Jen had feelings of someone in the house and would turn around expecting Eric and find nothing
• Jen had a dream on the night that Matthew was born, that she was in the hospital giving birth to a baby but that she wasn’t really pregnant but it was her baby.  At the time she really just blew off the dream and didn’t think much of it. 
• Grandma Jean kept feeling that someone was with her and that there was a special spirit coming to our family soon.

Placement Day

• Jen wanted everything to go well and got a little psycho.  She was really just nervous about it all and wanted to meet our new little boy.
• When we walked in to the home of Jennifer’s parents (birth mom).  We felt immediately at peace.  We met Jennifer and within just a few moments, she introduced us to little Matthew and we felt immediately that he was meant for our family. 
• We talked with Jennifer about who she was and what she wanted us to tell this sweet little boy about her.  She wants him to know how much she loves him and wanted the best for him.  She wants him to know his Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and to have a relationship with them.  Interestingly enough, both of his birth grandparents said that to us separately.  This family had very strong faith and were wonderful people. 
• Jennifer struck us as a very strong, faithful person.  She had great faith and felt the guidance of the Holy Ghost in this decision for Matthew.   She spoke of why she chose us to be his family.  She really liked the energy she felt from us and liked the part in our letter where we say that we know we will make mistakes, but that we will do our best that the children in our home will be safe, loved and happy and they will know their Heavenly Father. 

• Jennifer has brown hair and brown eyes, she was about 5’7.  She had very long fingers and toes and said that Matthew has her chin and mouth.  Jennifer has 4 other children ranging at the time from 5 to 15.  They were not there, but knew the decision their mom was making.  The oldest son is looking forward to seeing pictures of Matthew growing up and wants to see him with his first baseball mitt.    Jennifer’s other children liked music and sports. 
• Karen the nurse was integral in getting Matthew to us.  She shared her story.
• She was on call the on the night shift the day matthew was born.  When she got to work, she was briefed of all of her patients and especially with Jennifer’s situation.  At this time Jennifer was unsure what she wanted to do.  Karen felt very prompted that she needed to leave her room for the last to check on.  When Karen walked into the room, Jennifer must have just felt peaceful with her because she poured her heart out to karen.  At the end of the conversation Jennifer asked Karen to take this sweet boy home.  Karen was super excited and phoned her husband to explain the situation.  However, by the end of her shift, Karen knew that she was not meant to be this sweet boy’s mom but that she was really supposed to help him find us.  Karen did in fact end up bringing Matthew home but also helped Jennifer contact LDS Family Services.  She was our guardian Angel watching over and thankfully listening to the Holy Ghost as she helped our little angel come to our eternal family.
• We changed and fed Matthew for the first time in one of the bedroom’s.  We were just so excited to finally meet this special little spirit and to hold him and love him. 
• Once we left the house, we followed Julie to a nearby parking lot where we signed our paperwork for the adoption.  Once we were finished with that process, both Eric and I got in the backseat of the car and “checked him out”.   We looked at his little fingers and toes and looked into his precious little face.  We loved him so much already, we couldn’t really believe how much and how fast it really came.  Jen says it was before instant!  It really was.    After that, we drove the three hours home to Houston.  Jen sat right next to him the whole way and just watched his funny faces while he slept, and yes, he pretty much slept the entire way home.  He already was such a good little boy. 

At Home

• We got home around 6:30 or so on October 3^rd with our little Matthew in tow.  What an amazing experience to bring this special boy into our home and family that day.  Words don’t really express how much love and joy and deep gratitude we felt for our Heavenly Father for blessing us and for Jennifer and her trust in us to raise this little boy. 
• Grandma Joann and Grandpa Kevin got to the house about 20 minutes or so after we arrived. 

The Next Few Days

• We had a steady and I mean steady stream of visitors coming to see this special little boy.  We were completely surprised at the joy and response we received from friends, neighbors and ward members.  It truly was a miracle for all of us.  It was so much fun to show him off and introduce him to so many of our friends here in Texas that have become like our family.  Jen just wanted to hold him all the time and tried hard to share him.  It just was such a miracle that we just would look at our little Matthew in amazement.  One of Jen’s first very special moments was one night when we had a lot of people around and Matthew got just so upset and no one could calm him down.  She walked over to him and put him in her arms and he immediately calmed down.  She knew that he knew her and would always love and protect him.  It was a sweet tender mercy. 
• We were working on a name for this little boy.  Jennifer and Karen had been calling him Matthew.  Karen, the nurse who had taken care of Matthew for a few days while the adoption process was getting started, and Jennifer had talked about his name and when they found out Matthew meant “Gift from God”.  That is what they decided to call him.  When we heard they were calling him Matthew, we were okay with the name and for sure would keep it as part of his name.  The next few days we discussed lots of names, but never felt very good about any of them.  Matthew just seemed to fit him and the meaning totally fit.  So, finally on Friday the 5^th, we decided his name would be Matthew Eric Detton.

Introducing!

Matthew Eric Detton.  Born September 25, 2007 in Pflugerville (near Austin) TX.  He weighed 6 lb 15 oz and was 19 inches.  We got the call on October 1st and then and he was placed in our arms on October 3rd.  We cannot love him more!!!