About Us...Now...

So I realize our blog is a little outdated, so we decided to update a little bit....

This is the bio that we used for our online profile for adoption

 

We are a young energetic family living in a very small town in Utah with a lot of love to share and a great desire to open our home to children through adoption. So far, our family consists of four people: Dad, Tanner, Mom Taylor (that’s me!) and our children; our son Tatem who is 3 and our daughter Emerson who is about 18 months  (give or take a month!)

Tanner and I met when he was 14 and I was 11. Our families were fast friends and even opened a business together and Tanner and I became best friends. We didn’t date until we had known each other for over 5 years, and then 2 years later we were married. Soon after, Tanner left for training with the National Guard and I worked on completing my BA in Family Studies (a degree very similar to Human Development) at Utah State University.

Tanner returned home to get a job with DIRECTV Home Services where he is now working as a supervisor. He loves his job and is great at it! But, he loves coming home to his family even more; there are few men who are as hands on of a dad as he is. For fun, he likes to camp, hike, go to movies and hang out with all of us. Tanner has 3 younger sisters who he helped raise and has worked with children by being a teacher at church and an 11 year old scout leader.

I (Taylor) am a stay at home mom to our children and plan to remain here with the kiddos! I love being with the kids, and completed my degree in August 2012 which has been priceless at times. Being home all day allows me to keep a very structured environment and therefore a lot of consistency. For fun, I like to redo old furniture and decorate on a budget. I have a good background with children through my education, but have also served with children at church for over 6 years.

Together, the four of us love to go on adventures, to the park, the zoo and aquarium, camping, swimming, and visiting Grandma’s! (Both Tanner’s parents as well as my own live within 10 minutes of our home; they are a HUGE support system! We also have cousins, aunts and uncles who live in our town!)

We feel like our family is ready to grow through adoption. We would love to provide a safe, loving, structured environment for a sibling group. We know that family is so important and we hope to be able to keep kids with as many family members as possible and also help them bond with our current children.

So many people ask us why we are trying to adopt, and the answer to that question is what keeps us going through the long waiting and decision process: At infancy, my mother was told that it was likely that I would not be able to have children of my own, most of my life I looked forward to the idea of adoption, I was raised by my birth mother and my adoptive father (both of whom were amazing) and my adoptive father was also adopted so it is near and dear to my heart!   But of course I also prayed to be able to have my own children. You can imagine me and Tanner’s delight when we discovered we were pregnant with Tatem, about 6 months after our wedding. Tatem was born happy and healthy and we were thrilled! Tatem is your typical little boy, he loves playing with friends, trucks, trains, cars and making messes! When he was about 2 we realized very quickly that he had a speech delay. He has been in Speech Therapy for about a year now and is making remarkable progress. In other aspects of his life, he is progressing pretty much on track for his age.

Tatem has taught us what the love of being a parent really is. He has taught us what it means to fight for your kids and their needs, and most of all, he has taught us how amazing life can be when things don’t exactly go as you had planned. Although the unexpected can be hard, it is also where the greatest blessings can lie. There is nothing more wonderful and rewarding than helping a child overcome the things that are hard for them and seeing the smile on their face when the light comes on. We have seen how not every child's journey is easy, but we know that every hurdle is worth it. We intend on putting the same heart, soul and fight into every child that comes into our family.

23 months to the day after Tatem was born, Emerson was born. She is such a tender, sweet little girl! She loves to hug and cuddle just about anyone who will cuddle her back and has brought so much fun into our home! Her big brother Tatem adores her and she him. She is right on track with her speech and development and it has been a delight to see how her presence has helped her brother continue to progress.

We have come to the decision together as a couple that our family is ready to continue to grow through adoption. We were recently considering having a third child; we wanted our children to be close in age. We are people who have a strong belief that we can be lead to make decisions through prayer and careful consideration. As we prayed about the decision to carry and birth another child we both felt strongly that adoption was the course of action we needed to take. In fact, Tanner was praying about it and I was praying about but we didn’t know that the other had taken the thought to heart. I had felt that adoption was our answer, but didn’t know how to approach Tanner about it. Little did I know, he had come to the same conclusion; he came to me and said, ‘don’t think I’m crazy, but I think we need to consider foster care adoption.’ I was shocked because I too had felt the same. Days later, we began the process of becoming approved in Utah, and it has been one of our best decisions.

We truly believe that there are children who are supposed to come into our family in a different way than Tatem and Emerson did, through adoption. So far, this has proven to be a long process but we know that our future children are waiting to come home and we will sacrifice and do what it takes to get them here and provide them with all of the support and help they need once they arrive.

If you'd like to Contact Us with questions, support on your journey or to have us come speak to a group feel free to email us:

tayshay91@hotmail.com



LOTS to report

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY EMERSON!!

Emerson turned one and we can't understand where the year has gone! She is so big and sweet! She is cuddly and loving and this results in her getting away with a lot of naughty stuff... I suppose that is a baby's job though! We LOVE her so much and she is a HUGE part of our family! We love watching her learn new things and play with Tatem! Now we are fresh out of babies and only have toddlers! WOW!

Also, at Emerson's birthday party, we announced some exciting news...

Our family has been praying about expanding and adding giving these two some more siblings. In doing so, we have had some spiritual experiences that have lead us to begin the process of adoption through Utah Foster Care. We have begun the process of taking classes and becoming licensed to be foster parents. We hope to be placed with a child in need of a loving home who feels happy here and fits in with us. We know that this is likely going to be a tough road with a lot of unknowns but we feel very strongly that this is what we are supposed to do at this time. Adoption has always been near and dear to our hearts and something that we have considered, but we never expected it to be at this time in our lives. However, the more we pursue and pray about the decision, we feel peace and great excitement to embark on this adventure!

Also, I am sad to report that my dad's dad, Grandpa Larry Haddon passed away this morning after a short bought with brain cancer. His quirky sense of humor and fun, warming personality will be greatly missed, but we feel blessed to have had the time we did learning, loving and laughing with Grandpa Larry. We hope we can carry on his legacy and what it is to be a Haddon.

We love you Grandpa

A Puppy For A Day

Well, our week has been pretty darn exciting too I must say. So a few weeks ago, I've been thinking of ways and praying for ways to try to help Tatem with his speech and all of that good stuff and I heard on the news that dogs have been shown to help kids feel less anxious because they have a constant companion and dogs are able to sense how your feeling and react so if the child is nervous the dog can sense it and comfort him. So Tanner and I decided we'd look into getting a small dog like Shadow who didn't shed and was potty trained and all of that for Tatem. (and you must know that I DID NOT want a dog, so I must really want to help Tate!) So we found out that all of the Petco's in Utah were doing a pet adoption weekend this weekend so we decided we'd go see what dogs were there. So we loaded up the kids (and Mom) and headed to the first petco and right as we walked in we saw the cutest little gray dog that was about 8" off the ground and super cute. We all were drawn to her right away. She was a Schnouser (like aunt nancy always had, and I've never liked how they look) but this one didn't have a beard and was SUPER cute! So we walked her and Emerson loved her, Tatey loved her and she loved us. She was so sweet and never barked or anything just a really sweet, sweet doggy, even mom yes mom liked her. So we told the lady that we'd like to adopt her and so she said that she was scheduled to be groomed and then we could take her so if we wanted to leave to buy supplies and come back we could. So we left and went to go get things for her. We came back a couple hours later and as Tanner walked in (I was feeding Emy in the car) the lady said, Oh a foster family want to foster care her for a week or so, sorry. they come first. We were so Mad and Tanner was more grumpy than I've ever seen him be before! He was so mad that they promised this dog to us and we really liked her and then they let someone call in and change their minds while we were gone.

So we went to a few more petcos trying to find more dogs and nothing came up so we went home sad about the whole thing. When we got to mom's hunter found this cute little shitzue/poodle dog. It was super cute and potty trained and everything. So tanner called and set up a time to get her. Mom, Raegan, Ry, Hunter and I went and met the people selling her. She was such a nice dog and we really liked her so I bought her and brought her home. When we got home Tate and Emerson LOVED her and she never barked, she was potty trained, the perfect size and everything. Tate started playing with her right away. Then, we noticed his eyes swelled shut and he couldn't breath. Come to find out, he is allergic to all dogs....VERY BADLY ALLERGIC even the dogs that are suppose to be hypoallergenic. So, sadly, Tanner Took her back today after church. Tate cried and said no no daddy while he left with her but the poor little boy can't see, or breath and breaks out in hives around all dogs. :( He did with the first dog at the store too but we thought it was because he had touched other dogs that day. Guess not. So it was sad because she was so sweet and she fit right in. :( but lesson learned I guess.

Pepper



It's finally warm! Thank goodness!

This is the Little Mater Tatem got for Christmas! He loves it but until now he's only been able to ride it in the basement! Here's some footage of our first outdoors adventure!

 

 

Getting Big

All of the children around this house are getting WAY too big! They are so much fun, but they just keep growing! Emerson has two teeth now, and Tatem is finally starting talk a little bit more so it's helped out a lot! Here are some fun pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Happy Easter

Hi, I'm so busy blogging for the Elders and Sisters in the family, I never update my own blog!

Things are going well for this little Ricks family, we're just doing the same old same old.

Tanner was gone for 2 weeks in March for his annual training for the National Guard, he was only in Harriman, but it felt like he was SO FAR away and that he would NEVER be back home! We really missed him! My kiddos are getting SO big and I keep telling them to stop growing because it makes me sad to think that this phase will be over so soon.

Tatem started speech therapy last week and sadly, it didn't go well. He got hysterical and cried his heart out and he is so embarrassed he can't talk. It really breaks my heart and I just wish I could take this trial away from him. He's only 2 and I wish life could just be easy for someone that little. I am just starting to change my prayers from asking Heavenly Father to help him talk, to comforting him and helping to lift the burdon, he'll learn at his own pace. He's very smart, and makes me laugh all of the time. He's my little buddy and I feel VERY lucky and blessed to be his momma. He brings a light to our home no one else could.

Emerson is a big blessing herself. We love her SO MUCH! She is my baby rolling pin, and instead of crawling where she wants to go, she just rolls there. She loves playing with cords, which is dangerous, but it's her one true love. So Daddy provides supervised cord time which is pretty cute. She is 7 months old and so big. It is a lot of fun to watch my blue eyed angel grow.

Other than that, not much is happening in the Ricks home, we're just happy where we are and feel blessed to have so much fun together!