Rileigh Nicole Page

Photo Captured by Valerie Fisher Photography

Rileigh Nicole Page
November 2, 2015

6 pounds 14 ounces 18 ¾ inches long

Dakota and I have been parents for two weeks. I cannot begin to explain the miracle it took to make that sentence true. The story of bringing Rileigh into our lives is so special to us. We know many of you have questions regarding our story and I hope we can answer most of them. Dakota and I want to show you how incredible this adoption story is, but at the same time we want to respect the privacy of Rileigh. This is her story and we want to keep some things private. With all of that said, here goes the best story in the entire world! (I might be biased!)

Now, where to begin…the only date that comes to mind is November 4, 2014. On that day, Dakota and I received the news that would change our hearts forever. Our babies that we tried so hard to know were now with God and we were broken hearted. We wanted to know them first; we wanted to be parents! Fast forward to January 2015. We attended an adoption meeting and knew instantly that God wanted us to adopt through Bethany Christian Services. We just knew! God made His plan so clear, so we started this blog and the process to build our family through adoption. This year has been incredible. We have been blessed by prayers, financial support and encouraging words more than we every thought possible. We were able to save and raise 90% of our adoption goal before we were matched! That is so amazing!

Now we will fast forward one more time. October 25, 2015. On this day I announced to my parents that we would not have a baby by Christmas this year. Shame on me for thinking I knew anything about the plan that God was laying before us! The next day Dakota and I received a text from our adoption specialist asking if we could call her. Dakota was in a meeting so we had to wait. I thought the call was regarding paperwork so I tried to be patient. Finally, Dakota was out of his meeting and we conference called in. When she said that we were matched, I almost dropped the phone. She gave us a minute to talk to each other without her on the line and that was the moment Dakota and I screamed and couldn’t believe it. We didn’t know ANY details at this point. Nothing. Just that we were matched, but we were so overjoyed.  We called back and we were shocked again because this baby was due October 28^th! Two days. Two days! Oh my goodness. Dakota left work and headed home. We talked about the details that we knew until he walked through the door. We were in shock, hugging and just standing in the kitchen. We didn’t know what to do next!

We decided to face-time our parents and surprise them. Dakota and I will never forget the shock and emotion that went into those phone calls. As I write this blog I can’t believe it was less than a month ago!

One of the details we didn’t know at this point was if we would be parents to a boy or a girl. We had previously decided on a name for each.  We were on pins and needles all night thinking that we might get a call that baby was born early. Tuesday went by and we didn’t hear anything. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday still no baby! Birthmom, who we will refer to as “K”,  was in labor from Wednesday October 28^th until Monday, November 2^nd! Please take a moment to think about that. Wow, we have an incredible birthmother for our baby! Monday, November 2, 2015 we got a call saying that baby was born and they asked us to guess if it was a girl or a boy. We both said we thought it was a girl and when they said we were right we literally ran laps around our house with the ugliest cry faces possible. Dakota and I were so thrilled!!

A short time later we were told that K asked what we wanted to name this precious little girl. (This part of the story gives me chills every time I talk about it). When we came up with names for our girl, we always thought it would be Harper. We had been set on that name for years, but about a week before our little girl was born the name Rileigh popped into our hearts. We told K that we liked the name Rileigh Nicole and she said that God confirmed her adoption plan again when she heard the name we picked. A close friend of hers referred to the baby she was carrying as Rileigh Jr when K was pregnant. She couldn’t believe that of all the names in the world Rileigh was the one we chose. Dakota and I believe that God placed that name on our hearts for a reason and we wanted K to be apart in choosing the spelling of Rileigh’s name. We love the way she chose to spell it and can’t think of a more perfect name for our girl!

The next day, Tuesday November 3, 2015 is when we met K and Rileigh for the first time. Going to the hospital was scary. We didn’t know what to say or how to act, but as soon as we walked into the hospital room God filled it with His presence. There wasn’t a single moment of awkwardness or any uncomfortable conversations. We loved K from the moment we met her and think so highly of her! She is funny, smart and very kind. We talked with K, her sister and her mother for two hours. It was so wonderful and we cherish those first moments with them. Holding Rileigh for the first time was different than I expected. I thought there would be tears flowing and I would be scared. Instead I felt a comfort so strong that I just knew instantly I was changed forever. Rileigh was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. The instant love you have for such a little person is overwhelming. Watching Dakota hold his daughter for the first time was the BEST thing EVER. I want to relive that moment over and over. He is a natural daddy and is already so protective. My love for him has grown so much by watching him love Rileigh.

Rileigh was scheduled to go home on Thursday November 3^rd, but from the day we found out we were matched I kept bringing up how crazy awesome it would be if we brought our baby home on November 4^th. I didn’t really think it would happen because she was due on October 28^th, but it was just pressed on my heart. At this point I had never told Dakota that I prayed that God would allow us to be parents by that specific day. That had been my silent prayer between me and God for a long time. When we got the call on Wednesday morning that Rileigh was getting discharged, I could not believe it. God granted my hearts desire in such a powerful way. A day that would otherwise be filled with so much sadness was now filled with bringing home our healthy baby girl! How incredible is our God?! Our adoption verse has been Hebrews 11:1 since January and it has never been more true to us. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We have seen God build our faith so abundantly by granting us our deepest hope!

Our first night as a family at home was perfect. We were surprised with decorations and cute outfits for Rileigh and the next day we had family over to meet her! The past two weeks have been wonderful!

A Waiting Family

This morning I woke up, went to my Keurig and made myself some coffee. I looked over at my desk and noticed that one of my memory verses had fallen. The verse was 1 Peter 1:6  “There is wonderful joy ahead.”. This passage is about the joy that comes from our salvation and the eternity believers will spend with our loving God after the trials of this earth.  When I saw that verse it spoke to me about adoption. I know that is taking it out of contexts a little, but adoption was on my mind because we had just received the news that we are on the waiting list! Dakota and I have WONDERFUL JOY ahead of us in the form of family! We are growing our family through adoption and with that comes so much happiness.

We are excited to be on the official waiting list! Our profile book will now be shown to expectant birth parents. This is another step that involves waiting and with that comes a practice of patience!

During our wait, we ask that you keep our child, their birth-parents and Dakota and I in your prayers. 

We have specific prayers that we are lifting up:

~For God to protect the expectant birth-mother and child from any harm

~For our birth-mother to have comfort during her pregnancy and with the upcoming decisions she   will be making

~For the salvation of our child’s birth-parents if they do not know the Lord already

~For the Lord to give us patience during this process

We also wanted to keep you updated on how close we are to completing our financial goal! We hit 83% this week! 

Thank you for following along with this journey. We have the best support system!                                 

Bekah and Dakota

Nursery sneak peak ~ Fundraising update

After a month long break from the blog, we have some catching up to do! I am so sorry for not posting updates. When I last wrote a blog post I was telling you that we had completed our required training/classes and we were about to complete the profile book. We poured so many hours into this book and we think it turned out fantastic! Seeing our life in book form shows us once again that the Lord has blessed Dakota and I in so many ways. Our book is now at the adoption agency and will be shown to expectant birth mothers as soon as our home study has been approved! We have high hopes that we will be on the waiting list by next week, but we know that God has perfect timing.

This month we started to put together some items for the baby nursery. We don’t know if we will be blessed with a boy or a girl so it has to stay pretty gender neutral. We have loved dreaming about our baby in this room and although there is still a lot of work to be done, this room is our favorite! It is so fun to receive fun gifts in the mail and we have worked very hard to keep our parents from buying every baby item they come across! haha This baby is BLESSED! 

Here is a little preview of what we have done so far! Dakota built that changing table! Isn't he so talented! He is such a hard worker. 

Here is a little preview of what we have done so far!

Our fundraising meter is at 81%! If you have any fundraising ideas we would love to hear them!

Please continue to pray for patience with this process. There are days when it feels like eveyrthing is working out perfectly and there are days when it feels like we will never be on that waiting list! We need patience! Please also join us in praying for our child and his or her birth parents. We pray for their safety and comfort during this time. We know that God is using them in BIG ways and we want them to get their strength from the Lord. 

Great is Thy Faithfulness

~We praise God for His faithfulness to provide continually for us~

Dakota and I want to thank everyone that purchased a fundraising t-shirt! We really appreciate all the support and cannot wait until they come in! You should receive your shirt by June 8^th! Also, we are so incredibly blessed that we not only met our goal of selling 50 shirts, but y’all helped us pass another goal by purchasing 8 more shirts! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We feel so loved by you.

Before we post every week we fill out our fundraising meter to see where we are financially and this week we are just shocked. I guess we didn’t realize what was happening before us, but here it is! We are 75% to our goal! Can you believe that in six months God has used family, friends and strangers to help us get to $18,950?! What a HUGE act of God. He is so good! Thank you to everybody who has helped us financially, we could not do this without you! 

We can’t forget to thank everybody who has prayed for us during this process. There have been many wonderful and exciting moments so far, but there are also times when our hearts ache and we just don’t understand certain situations. We know that with the prayers that you are lifting up for us, we are able to keep moving forward with thankful hearts. Your prayers are something we desire more than anything else. We know that God has opened these doors for us to adopt, but it is so wonderful to know that you are speaking to God on our behalf. We are so ready to meet this precious child that God has planned for us, but we have to be patient. Please pray for patience and more patience as we wait!

This week Dakota and I took our baby basics class and learned how to take care of a newborn baby! Last weekend Dakota was officially CPR certified! We are nearly complete with our book and we are eagerly waiting to be on that waiting list! 

Fundraising Friday/T-shirt Reminder

This week was such a joyful week for Dakota and I. We felt encouraged and motivated to keep moving forward after our last home study visit. We have about 6 weeks until we are an official waiting family! I have never been more excited to wait for something!
Our baby basics class is scheduled for the end of the month and we are really looking forward to learning everything we can about taking care of an infant. We are also working hard to finish our profile book. For those of you who do not know what an adoption profile book is, we have a 20 page picture book to tell the story of us. We are able to write a letter to the birth parents and show them things about ourselves, our families and our interests. It is really fun to make! It is a great way to really show the dynamic of who we are, how we would like to raise a family and our faith.

Don’t forget to to purchase a t-shirt! Click here for the website. We are can’t wait to see you in them! The t-shirt sale is only open until May 23 ^rd, so only one more week to order! 

With our t-shirt sales we have moved up to 65% on the fundraising meter! We are so thankful to everyone who has supported us financially, spiritually and with encouraging words!

Family Is More Than Blood (t-shirt fundraiser)

Our t-shirt fundraiser begins today! We are so excited about this fundraiser! My wonderful friend, Irene, used her talents to design these t-shirts. We can’t thank you enough for all of your hard work, Irene! Dakota and I appreciate it very much. Our official adoption shirts are available in five colors for adults and three colors for kids.

Available in adult sizes

Available in adult sizes

Available in youth and adult sizes

Available in youth and adult sizes

Available in youth and adult sizes

Click here if you are interested in purchasing a one of a kind Page family adoption t-shirt! The sale will last until March 23 and the t-shirts should ship out on June 8^th. We can’t wait to see you in one of them!

Our fundraising meter stayed at the 70% mark and we can’t wait to see what happens with this fundraiser! Thank you so much for all of you support. We love you all! 

Thankful

This week has been wonderfully exhausting! We are so thankful to have so many of you along our journey and praying for us daily. Prayer is something we need during this long and emotional journey! 

Thank you so much for reading our blog and for being a part of our adoption story. I am so happy that this child will have you as an aunt, uncle, grandparent, cousin or friend. We are all so blessed by your prayers and encouraging words.

The fundraising this week has blown our minds. Our hearts are overjoyed with the amount of

financial help we have received through all of you. As you can see from our fundraising meter, we have officially hit the 64% mark. Can you believe that we are only $9,000 dollars away from our goal? It is a true blessing and we are so thankful!!

We are working on a t-shirt fundraiser.Hopefully it will be ready by next Friday!

Our last home-study is already marked on our calendars for the second week of May. Thank you for helping us be able to go through this process so quickly. We realize that without your help we would not be at this point! Many of you have asked what else we need to do in order to be on the waiting list. We have our last home-study, a baby-basics class and a doctor appointment! After our last home-study it will typically take about 6 weeks to be approved to go on the waiting list…so we are looking at the end of June! Our goal date was June 30^th and it looks like with your help and God’s provision we will be able to make our goal! Praise the Lord! We cannot WAIT to WAIT for our baby.