The First Meet...love at first sight



Walking down the hospital hall to the room...we don't look excited do we?!

hugging sweet Alyssa :)

Alyssa introducing us to sweet little Mason

LOVE

Can't stop looking at him...

So precious...

not sure we have ever cried and smiled this much... it was surreal

 I'm not sure words can describe this moment for us... we stayed at the hospital for a couple of hours to hold Mason and to be with Alyssa and her family. Did I not mention that when we walked in to her room, there were at least 10 of her family members in there! They all wanted to be there when we saw him :) It was so great to share that with all of them. It was an incredible feeling there in the hospital room and I'm not sure there was a dry eye. She has the greatest family...we consider them part of our family now so I guess WE have the greatest family! It was so neat to hear everyone express their love and admiration for Alyssa. Everyone was just so proud of her.

Alyssa, Brayden and Mason

Alyssa's love for Mason is...unconditional. It was love at first sight for her too. I remember her telling us that when she saw us holding Mason, she knew it was right. She knew we were his Mom & Dad. She loved him that much that she wanted him to have a Mom & Dad. Mason is sooo lucky to have Alyssa in his life...WE'RE so lucky to have Alyssa in our lives. Mason is just so loved. He's so sweet and has the sweetest spirit about him. We all know how special he is!

So the next day, we were able to go down to the hospital again for a couple of hours, which we loved every second. We wanted to make sure Lyss had her time with him. She had a lot of visitors that day and didn't actually get a lot of time with just him so we didn't want to stay too long. It was hard to only get to see him for a couple of hours at a time...but I had to remind myself that he was eventually coming home with us and we then would see him all the time and that Alyssa really needed this time with him. How great is that...that we get to tell Mason how much his birthmom loves him...so much!

1day old Mason & Dad

Saturday morning came with giddy feelings because Mason was going to come back to the hotel with us that night...then Alyssa called that morning and told us that she was going to keep Mason until Monday. She made it clear that she still hadn't changed her mind about placing him with us but that she needed more time with him. She didn't want him to feel like she was in a hurry to place him with us...she wanted him to know that she kept him as long as she could. My heart was broken. A little fear came over me wondering if spending that much time alone with Mason would change her mind. I just remember sobbing. Chris and I just knelt down in prayer and prayed that everything would go according to the Lord's plan. And I had Chris give me a blessing and it was so powerful. He blessed me that I would be filled with faith & hope instead of fear. Our whole family was praying for Lyss...that she would be given strength during this hard time. Chris and I went over to Alyssa's home around 4pm and at that point Alyssa told us that she had changed her mind and that Mason needed to start bonding with us so she decided that he should go home with us that night. We knew how hard it was for her to come to that decision...we knew how badly she wished the answer was to keep him a little longer. And we were just so grateful for her and for her closeness to the Spirit :) 


That was Saturday, June 25th. That night...leaving the Jamison's home around 11:30...was the hardest thing. Knowing how hard it was for Alyssa and her whole family. We knew that we would be back probably the next day to be with them but it was still hard. I can't imagine their feelings...I know Lyss never wants another girl to go through what she had to go through. One of the hardest things of her life, for sure. Which makes us love and appreciate her even more!

We didn't leave WA until Friday, July 1st and we were with the Jamison's every day until then. It was SO neat to be able to spend so much time with them. We truly love them. They are some of the neatest people we know and we feel blessed to have them be a part of our lives forever. Here are some pictures of that week. We were at their house a lot and just had so many great conversations and laughed a lot! They know how to laugh! And their home is filled with love and the Spirit... we hope to always have a home like that for sweet Mason Jamison Horne to grow up in!

we both couldn't get enough of his cuteness! Lyss did such a good job :)

all clean after a bath!

 showing us his strong neck!

So comfy on Grandma Trisha

Grandpa Jeff

Capri LOVED Mason :) She was so sweet with him!

Makayla :)

Chelsey :)

This was our last night together...they came back to the Hotel with us to see where we had been staying

From God's Arms, To Her Arms, To Ours...

Just writing this title makes me tear up... I think I've been procrastinating this post for a couple of reasons. Reason #1- my fear of not being able to express all of our feelings to the "T". Reason #2- just sat down to write, and It's time to feed little Mason again :) But mostly it's reason #1...this has been such a neat experience and there's just so much to say...

Wednesday June 22nd 10:30pm...

Alyssa's mom began trying to get a hold of us around 8pm to let us know that we might want to start heading up ... Chris hurried and packed the truck while I hurried home from the massage I was giving. And by the time I got home, we were ready to go and off we went. I can't even tell you how exciting it all was! And weird!! We couldn't believe that the time was finally here. It felt surreal that we were about to be a Mom & Dad...

We were texting Alyssa and her mom through out the entire 22hr car ride... it was fun to hear constant updates on her progress. None of us knew what to expect but that whole night, Chris and I just kept saying that her contractions would probably slow down and that we would get there with plenty of time to spare...BUT that wasn't the case! Her contractions only got closer and stronger throughout the night. By the next morning (Thursday), she thought it would be best to go see her doctor to get checked. Chris and I made it to Provo by this point. We made a quick stop to see Chris' sister Annie and then we took off to Bountiful to stop and see my parents, who were actually on their trek home from their mission... we hadn't seen them in 18months! So, even though we were in a race to hopefully be at the hospital when our baby was born, we just had to stop and visit with them :) It was so neat to be able to see them...and it was fun to send this picture to all my siblings! You better believe that they were all SUPER jealous.

We actually used their hotel room to shower and change. We visited for a bit but had to get on the road again! At this point, I had about 2hrs of sleep and Chris had 0...I guess our adrenaline was just too high for sleep! Alyssa checked in to the hospital around 11am, Thursday morning, and we still had more than 9hrs of driving ahead of us... then a little while later we received this picture and couldn't hold back the tears...

Look how beautiful she is :) Alyssa was our brave angel ... we knew her strength was coming from our loving Heavenly Father! We cried because we were that much closer to meeting our son. We cried because we were so extremely grateful for Alyssa and her strength and we cried because we knew that this wasn't going to be easy for her. From that point on...the tears came to us freely! There was absolutely no way of holding them back! We knew that it was going to be any moment now... The doctor came in to Alyssa's room a handful of times to break her water and she would just say "nope! not yet!" She wanted so badly for us to be there and delayed as long as she could :) How sweet is that?! She's truly amazing. She continues to amaze us on a daily basis...she's just so special :)

It was such a peaceful drive, Chris and I were still a little over 2 hours away and driving through the prettiest mountain passes in Montana and Idaho. And then we received the news that he was here! Our son was here...

And at that point, we just cried some more ... our hearts were so full! And we knew none of this could be possible with out our sweet angel, Alyssa. Our love for her is indescribable. And then we really cried! We just sat in silence with huge grins across our faces and tears that couldn't stop! We'll never forget that moment...even though we weren't there in that room to experience the sweet tender spirit that Mason brought, we felt a peace of heaven in our car :) I think any time we drive through a beautiful canyon, we'll think about that moment! So there we were...we had 2 hours to think about everything and we just couldn't wait for that first look at our son and that embrace with Alyssa...