The Best Surprise Ever | Utah Documentary Newborn Photography
Part 1 Adoption Video, Click to Watch
Part 2, Second Adoption Video, Click to Watch
Meeting these two babies was easily one of the best days of my life. And came at a time that I really needed a day like that. A couple of months ago my husband’s sister and her family decided to make a trip out from Oregon. They said they were coming to Utah because something came up with her in-laws family and wanted to plan a get together while they were out here. Now you have to realize my husband’s family is a family with 9 siblings, so you can only imagine how difficult it can be to get all nine + spouses, kids, etc. in the same place at the same time. About half of us showed up. I was definitely suspicious because there was a lot of emphasis placed on as many of us being there as possible which in a family of 9 people, we all know that is basically impossible. So I was already suspicious, and then a certain someone let me onto a little secret and let me know that the reason my sister-in-law and brother-in-law came out here had to do with our family. Which—due to the course of the events of my life over the past 8 months—was a relief because I was super worried maybe something serious was happening that wasn’t good. So I knew something was up, and that it was a good surprise, but I literally had no idea what it could be. We headed to Duchesne to the designated hangout location and I wandered around patiently waiting to find out the big secret. I’m the type of person that doesn’t really like to beat around the bush and like to just get to the point. So I suspiciously stared at each family member to see who looked like they knew something and it seemed like the people to be suspicious of were the twins and their husbands. Finally, after anxiously awaiting something, the doorbell rang. There was a giant box in wrapping paper sitting on the front porch that said to Daryl and Valenna (my husband’s parents). So they opened the box and out floated a bunch of blue balloons. There was no card, no note, no nothing. Everybody starts looking at each other to figure out who sent the package. And also, who dropped the package off, because no one was missing from our group. We start looking for clues in the box, I wondered if we needed to pop the balloons to see if there was a note inside. Nobody seemed to hear my suggestion. We start wondering who is pregnant. We all tentatively ask LaCol (one of the twins who hasn’t had kids yet and has had some fertility challenges). She adamantly replies that she is not pregnant. So then we all back off there, all the while hoping she isn’t going to be too sad and feel bad since someone seems to be announcing a pregnancy even though we can’t figure out who the heck it would be. This goes on for like 5-10 minutes, which feels like a long time when a bunch of clueless people are trying to figure out a puzzle. I give up and decide to head to the bathroom. I hear the doorbell ring and when I come out someone is holding a baby boy who apparently got left on the porch in a basket. My sister in law was holding him, and I had no clue whose baby he was but I threw a couple elbows and stole him from her because he was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen wearing the cutest little button up shirt and suspenders. Still clueless, we all try to figure out whose baby this is. One of the siblings lives in Georgia and just had a baby boy so we thought maybe he was their baby and they stopped by for a surprise visit. But he looked too little to be the age their baby was. Eventually, we start to timidly look at LaCol and her husband Ben. We didn’t want to offend them or make them feel bad but one of us (could have been me, can’t remember) looked at them and asked if they adopted a baby. They are standing over there just beaming and LaCol walks over and grabs her little guy and introduces their new baby to us. We all start crying and they proceed to talk with us about their struggles with infertility, part of which has involved IVF, miscarriage, and two adoptions that fell through. They pass around a cute little card that the nurses had made that had some cute little footprints on it and rambled on about two to love, two to something or other, and so on. There were two different names and birth times and I saw it and didn’t even think twice about it other than it was weird that there were two birth times and I wondered if the birth mom had chosen a certain name and then my brother-in-law and sister-in-law had chosen a different name or something. Nevermind that both of the baby names that were on the card had different birth dates, times, and weights. I looked right over it and tossed the card aside so I could hear more of the story. Well, we’re all chatting, and the doorbell rings again. Someone opens the door and in walks my niece holding another baby!!! But this one was a girl! So we’re all freaking out that there are two babies (hello, if we had paid any attention to the card we would have figured that out) and blown away that they adopted twins. Then they proceed to tell us that they are artificial twins. They had gone down to adopt one baby and there was another baby needing a family and they came back with two. Pretty awesome. So that’s my wild story. I could not be more happy for these two to have these babies and I loved every minute spent photographing these cute little newborns. Side note, my brother in law Ben Kjar is a motivational speaker and has had his own unique life journey that he shares with others. So if you want to follow along and learn more about him, I’ll link his facebook page HERE. Thanks for reading along. Enjoy the photos!
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