Our Little Boy

In my last two posts I posted about my experiences with the birth of my children.  In this post I will talk about my youngest.  Michal.

God gives us many blessings in life.  Some we can see and touch and some we do not see, some we do not even comprehend that it is a gift from our Father in Heaven.  I am among the ones that have been given so many gifts and sometimes I forget to go on my knees and thank Heavenly Father for those blessings.

My blessings are my children.  Stephen, Nicole, and Michal I will always consider them the greatest gifts and greatest blessings I have here on earth.

I to this day feel I blew it big time with Stephen and Nicole.  I was not there all the time for them.  I was so involved with my military career.  Then when I was home, I was not a good father that I really wanted to be.  There are reasons for this that the three of us know.  I do not offer excuses as there are none that will make it better.  I have since made things right and make sure my children know the love I have for them and have always had for them.

I have been blessed by having a second chance at fatherhood.  This is truly a wonderful gift from Heavenly Father.

I met Susie Lee Rice when I came home on leave and visited my mother with my family.  Every time I was there to visit my mother Susie would be there.  She became a huge friend to my family and me.  Her friendship meant the world to me and my children.

When I went through my divorce Susie was there.  Susie's first concern were my children.  She would take Stephen and Nicole and do things with them and just listen to them.  She was awesome.

Susie and I realized that our friendship was deeper than that.  I knew that Susie meant more to me.  Soon we started dating.  One day Stephen came to me and said we had to have a man to man talk and that Nicole wanted to be there with us.  I agreed.  They advised me to give up on their mother.  They then blew me out of the water by saying they thought Susie would make a great Step-Mother and wanted me to marry her.  Little did they know we were dating.

When things became more serious and I knew I could not live without Susie and I knew she could not live without me, I surprised her at a surprise birthday party for her and proposed to her.  She accepted.  I was saddened to think I had a vasectomy  and could never give Susie children.  Susie never had children of her own.  Susie was ok with this situation because she loved Stephen and Nicole as her own and would lay her life down for them.

Stephen and Nicole grew up and went out on their own.  Stephen joined the Marines and Nicole was with her mother and later got married and lived in California.  Susie and I moved away.  I missed my children so very much.  I would go into the bedrooms and just cry.  I imagined them with us and the fun we had, the tears we shared, the way we bonded and healed.

A year after Susie and I were married I converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Mormon).  This was a turning point in my life.  In the Mormon faith we are assigned families to preside over as Home Teachers.  Our duties as home teachers are to visit the families once a month and determine if there are any needs and to offer service to them in any way or fashion.  My very first home teaching family was The Beechers.  Sandy the Dad, Deniece the mom, and their daughter Crystal.   Sandy was in the Navy and away at sea, so I did not get to know him as much as Crystal and Deniece.  I did what I could to help out.  We became close friends.  When they closed down Alameda Naval Air Station the Beechers were transfered to Washington State.  Shortly after that Susie and I moved to Utah.

The Beechers and Susie and I still remained close even while we were so far apart.  Phone calls and the internet helped out a lot.  Eventually Sandy and Denice divorced and Denice and Crystal moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho.  They were a little closer and we would go see them and they would come to Utah to see us.  This whole time I prayed for a way to have children back in my life.  Susie and I had exchange students in our home as well as filed to become foster/adopt parents.

Susie and I moved to Marsing, Idaho a few years later.   Denice and Crystal and us still visited back and forth and we were like family. 

When Crystal was 16, she became pregnant.  They called us and asked us if we would consider adoption as we had offered when they first told us Crystal was pregnant.  We agreed and told them it would be an open adoption.  We wanted desperately to have the baby know just how much love they had.  The sacrifice that was made and to be able to have some type of relationship with Crystal.

My prayers had been answered.  From that moment Crystal and Denice shared everything with us.  The first time the baby kicked, the doctor visits and what was said.  We found out the Crystal was having a boy.  I was really excited.  Susie was besides herself with excitement.

Adoption for both parties is such a roller coaster ride of emotions.  There is fear, there is happiness, their is sadness, their probably is every emotion you can think of.  We all had it.

As the months progressed the excitement grew and grew.  I could not believe how blessed I was to have a second chance.  I could not believe that I would soon hold another little one in my arms and cuddle and coo with,  I could not wait to change diapers, I could not wait for the sleepless nights, I could not wait for all that a little baby can give.

Susie and I were at work when I received a call from Denice.  I knew it was Dencie but it took me by surprise.  She said "Your son is on his way"  I could not grasp what she was saying.  My mind went to Stephen.  I could not know why Stephen would be coming all the way from North Carolina and why would he call her to let her know and not me?  and how did he get her number? Denice laughed and said " No your baby, you better get down here as Crystal is in labor"  I was so excited I mumbled something I am sure to this day was not even intelligent.  I called Susie at work and told her what was said and I drove to pick her up and we went to pack and drive down to Idaho Falls.  Idaho Falls is a 6 hour drive.  It was about a 20 30 minute drive to get to our house from work.  I just wanted to get there fast.  It took forever for Susie to pack and get things she wanted and in the car.  I believe it was like 3 hours before we got on the road.  I did my very best to keep the speed limit.  I must be honest, I toyed with the idea of going as fast as I could but I did not want to have to one be pulled over and waste time with getting a ticket and two, did not want to have to pay a ticket.  So I kept it about 5 miles over the speed limit.

We finally arrived at the hospital.  Susie and I rushed in and were escorted to the waiting room for delivery.  They had Crystals door shut a little.  So, I stood by the door.  About 10 minutes latter, Crystal delivered a little baby boy.  I heard him cry.  Yep, you guessed it, I was a blubbering idiot.

Logan Blair Michal Beecher was born 16 October 2002.

They allowed us in Crystal's room about 10 minutes latter.  There we saw our son for the very first time.  I swear to you, he was made just for Susie and me.  We bonded right away.  As I remember it, Crystal asked that we be the first ones to hold him.  Soon Susie and I were given a bracelet to identify us as the parents.  For the next couple of days we were at the hospital every waking hour.  Crystal would let us hold him.  She would let us bath him and she would let us change his diapers.  It was such a wonderful experience.  Crystal and Deniece were such troopers.  They allowed us the opportunity to bond with him.

We were able to bring Crystal and the baby home from the hospital.  Susie and I hung around so that Crystal and Denice could stay good bye.  It was very hard for Susie and I to walk out the door with our brand new baby.  We knew deep in our hearts that our joy was their pain.  We stayed as late as we could.  When it was time we all walked out the door to our car.  We gave Crystal and Denice one more time to say goodbye before we strapped him in the car seat.  Then we turned and gave them a great big hug and said thank you.  Poor Crystal was crying.  Susie and I felt so bad.  I was tempted for a brief second to say wait.  I changed my mind you keep him.  But I knew this was the right thing.  Crystal went into the house.  It was time to say good bye to Denice.  She was crying too and she gave me the biggest hug and said "Thank you"  This put me back for a second.  I told her no, we need to thank her and Crystal for such a precious gift.

The adoption process took awhile to go through.  We were there when Crystal gave up her rights as a mother.  In the state of Idaho once the gavel is slammed down by the judge you can never change your mind.  He was so great to Crystal.  He explained everything to her and allowed her a few minutes to make a decision.  She said she wanted to continue with the adoption process and give up her rights.  With that the Judge declared her rights had been terminated.

When we filed the paper work we decided to change his name to Michal Logan Blair Root.  On 31, October 2003 I received a phone call from my lawyer's office to come get some final paper work and take it to the court house.  When we got there Susie and I thought we just had to turn them in and wait once again for the next step.  The court clerk said just a minute.  When she came back she had the finalized adoption paper work signed by the Judge.  She said "OK here you go, you are finished"  Susie and I were like that's it?  There is no more hoops to jump through?  He is officially ours? She said yes.  So a year after his birth we were able to have Michal as our son.

Michal is now 7 years old and is truly a blessing to Susie and myself.  He is in first grade and doing well.  He is a "high" yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do.  We are now back in Utah and enjoying ourselves as a little family.  Stephen and Nicole adores Michal and call and ask about him all the time.  Michal adores them and loves to talk about his "brudder" and sister.  Michal is an uncle to my 3 grandchildren.  As a matter of fact my oldest grandson Aaron was born a month after Michal was born.  Denice and Crystal call Michal and check in.  Michal still dose not comprehend that he is adopted.  But Susie and I do not hide it from him.  We are always talking about it.  I continue to tell him just how lucky he is.  I explain how he is such a gift to Susie, me, Stephen and Nicole.

Michal, I love you and still believe you are a treasured gift from above to all of us.