Milo

Milo was born on Aug 21, at 2:17 pm. He was a tiny little guy weighing only 5 lbs 10 oz, but was 18 1/2 inches long. His full name is Milo Hinckley Weight. People have been curious as to how we came up with his name, and really it just came to us. I think he was really supposed to be Milo. I don't know what made me think of the name, but it just entered my mind. This was about a month before we had been matched, we hadn't even had our home study done yet, and definitely didn't know we were getting a boy, so in my mind a baby was still very far away. I wasn't even thinking of baby names, but the name Milo just popped into my head. I immediately thought, "What a cute name, I love it." I wasted very little time in telling Joe. Joe and I don't really have the same taste in names, so I was sure that he would disapprove. When I told him he just kind shrugged his shoulders, so I thought that was the end of that. I wasn't going to push it because I wasn't even going to get a baby anytime soon. Well about a week later, Joe came to me and said, "I looked up what Milo meant today."
 I was like, "Oh yeah and..."
"It means solider."
"That's not bad. I never want him to join the army, but that doesn't have to be the kind of solider that he is. He could be a solider for the Lord. We could tell him it was like the 2,000 stripling warriors."
"That is kind of what I was thinking. Also, it is only 365 on the list of popularity."
"So, does this mean that you like the name?"
"Yeah, I think it does."
When we were waiting to hear back from the agency to see if we had been chosen, I asked Joe, "What if we do get picked, can we name the baby Milo?" He said that we could and that he had already changed his password at work to Milo. That was it, from that point on, the baby was Milo. We didn't know for a fact that we were going to be chosen, but it felt right, and we just felt like that baby was our baby Milo. About a week later we got the phone call that we had been chosen.
His middle name, Hinckley, comes from 2 different places. 1. It was the name of Joe's mission president who passed away a few years ago. 2. It was the name of the prophet of our childhood and youth. Joe has always liked the name Hinckley for a middle name and he asked me years ago if I would be okay using it, and I told him I was completely fine with that. Thus we have Milo Hinckley Weight.


Milo's birth mom spent the whole first day with him, and that was hard for me-  just to be at home knowing that my baby was born and that I couldn' t see him. I prayed all day long to be able to go up and see him. However, we did not get to see him the first day, to which I am now very thankful. As I discovered the next day, the Lord knows what He is doing. As I talked with our birth mom, I realized that she needed alone time with Milo for her own healing and I was so grateful that the Lord is smarter than I am and didn't answer my prayers in the way that I wanted him to.
 We met our son at noon the next day. I was so excited and nervous and I almost broke down in tears before we even walked into the hospital room. Our beautiful birth mom, handed me Milo, and I just like that-I was in love. He was so beautiful, small and sweet. He looks so much like his birth mom and she was so beautiful that I have no problems whatsoever with Milo resembling her. I held him for probably 45 minutes before I even let Joe hold him. I told Joe that he would just have to wait, because I wasn't finished with him yet.  As I was in the room with Milo and his birth mom, she asked us if we were happy. I told her that I was so happy I couldn't even put it into words. Joe said that he has never seen me so excited, not even on our wedding day. It was so touching to see how much she loved Milo and wanted to make sure that he was going to parents who loved him and were excited that he was a part of their lives.  I was a little taken back by the strong feelings of love and gratitude that I had for our birth mother. I wanted so badly to just hold her and tell her how much she means to me and how I feel so inadequate to express my gratitude for her selfless sacrifice. I didn't know how to thank her, or express my feelings to her. She is such a very private person, and is not really one for conversation, so I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable, but I just wanted to hold her hand and tell her that I would do everything within my power to raise this little boy right. I wanted her to know that we would love, care, provide, teach, and give this child everything we could. We owe that to her, and I will try my hardest to be the best parent possible to this amazing little boy. However bad I was at expressing myself at the hospital, I hope she knows how much we care for her and how she will always be in our hearts and prayers.
We had a little miracle happen in the hospital, it seems like a small thing, but I know how important it really was and how the Lord planned it to ease some of our birth mother's suffering. Her nurse, was a wonderful woman named Shandy. Shandy had a daughter that had placed a baby for adoption last December. Shandy was a huge part of the adoption process, she helped her daughter pick out the family the baby went to, she was there at the hospital with her daughter when she gave birth and she was there when her daughter relinquished rights and had to watch her baby leave with the family. Because of all this, Shandy really understood what our birth mom was going through and was able to give her the love, understanding, and support that she so desperately needed. She was the best thing for our birth mom and we are so grateful that she was there for her in a way that we couldn't be.
 Our birth mom requested to leave the hospital after 24 hours, because, I believe, she wanted to make a clean break and because she is a private person, she just wanted to be at home alone in her bed.  Because she was leaving early and Milo had to stay for 48 hours, the hospital staff got me my own room where I could stay with him for the night. Our birth mom left the hospital that day at around 6:00 pm. She had Milo in her room until she left. We wanted her to be able to spend as much time with him as she needed/wanted. As she was leaving, we gave her a hug, and told her thank you, and felt at a loss to help her, although we desperately wanted to do ease her pain somehow. It was one of the hardest things watching her walk away with tears in her eyes. I felt my heart break for her. I went into our room with Milo and just cried for her. I wanted Milo so much, but I couldn't help but feel some of her loss and heartbreak. I will be eternally indebted to her, as she gave me something that I could never get myself. I love her. She flew home to Iowa the next day. We pray that she is healing both physically and emotionally and that things will work out for her and that she will be able to find happiness.
I spent the night with Milo in the hospital and it was so fun for me. I slept in the mother's bed, which I have to say was pretty comfortable, I kept Milo in the room with me all night and was so excited to be doing mom things-like feeding him and changing his diaper. I had some funny looks from the newly on shift nurses that came into the room. They were taken back to see me sitting in the bed holding a new born. I think they were thinking that I didn't look much like I had just had a baby. Joe would just laugh and say, "We're adopting this baby." Then a look of comprehension would dawn on their faces and they would say something like," Ok, that makes sense. I was going say she looked too put together..." Joe went home around 11 to set up Milo's dresser that we had just picked up earlier that morning and to get some other last minute things done. He came back the next morning to pick us up. Milo was released from the hospital at 102% of his birth weight. (That's right, he gained weight in the hospital.) However, his newborn outfit, we had brought for him, was still way too big, and he looked like a peanut in his car seat. We drove him home and then the family started pouring in. We had so many visitors the first few days home. It was wonderful to see so many people and show them our cute baby. Everyone was shocked at how small he was, but said that he was pretty adorable. (To which Joe and I agree whole heartedly.)
Milo is a good baby, he is mostly happy and mild tempered. At the hospital, when we first met him, his birth mom said, "He's a good baby, he just be chillin'."And that is totally what he does. He was smiling at like day 2 and I swear, although my mom doesn't believe me, that he laughed for the first time a few days ago. He sleeps around 4 hours at a time at night and Joe and I trade off shifts with who gets up with him. We went to his 2 week appointment on Wed and he was already 6.5 lbs and had grown an inch. He almost fits into all of his newborn clothes now-not the pants yet, he has a small waist and tiny legs, so we are still working on those, but he sure is growing. He's growing way too fast for me. I feel like I am going to blink and he'll be on his first date.
Milo and I just be chillin' at home together. I am a stay at home mom now, and I am loving it. It is funny because I never thought that I would be a stay at home mom, I thought that I would get bored and that I would need to get out. In our nine years of marriage, I have usually had between 2-3 jobs at a time, I went to school, I have been on dance companies, and I have spent very little time just being at home, so the thought of it kind of scared me to be honest. However, before Milo came, I realized that I was ready for my life to slow down. The thought of me leaving my baby hurt. I wanted to see all his of his first's, and be there for him when he cried. I wanted to be a mom, and that was a shocking revelation for me. Milo and I fill our days up quite well. We do the usual things like eat, change diapers, burp, and sleep, but we also like to go on walks, listen to music (I think the Jackson 5 is his current favorite), and read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We are already over 200 pages in. I love reading so much, that I wanted to share it with my son, and why not start him on my favorite book? I read it out loud to him & I just know that his little mind is captivated by the story. :) I love laying down beside him and just looking into his eyes when he is awake and talking to him. I am often rewarded by a smile.

We had to take out a really big loan to pay for all the adoption expenses, and things are going to be so tight for the next little while, but it is worth it for me to stay home with him. Plus miracles have happened. After the original jubilation of finding out we had been matched, came the worrying of how we were going to find $25,000 in a month's time. I got really stressed about it (stress and anxiety runs in my genes) and I was loosing sleep over it and it was constantly on my waking mind. I was literally worrying myself sick. I had been praying for help and faith, but it just didn't seem to be working for me. That is until I talked with the lady that I teach dance for. In early August the dance year was starting up again and she called me just to go over my classes and what not. In the course of the conversation, she asked how things were going with the adoption, I told her that we were so excited, but that I was stressed out about the money. She told me, "Shanna, $25,000 is a lot of money to you, but it is not a lot of money to the Lord. It is like the time Christ fed the 4,000 with a few fishes and 7 loaves of bread. Then after performing that miracle, the very next day the disciples had1 loaf of bread and worried that they would have nothing to eat. Christ essentially says to them, "How can you worry, did you not just see what I have done?" This is exactly what I was doing. I had seen so many miracles happen up to that point to get Milo here, but then as soon as it comes down to money, I stress out and loose my faith. This gave me a totally new perspective on things. Then that night, as Joe and I sit down to do scripture study, it  just happens to be my turn to read and we just happened to have left off at Mark 8 where it tells that exact story. After I finished reading it, I turned to Joe and said, "I cannot believe I just read that scripture." He said, "You needed to hear it,  and you needed to hear it twice." Since that point I have been trying my hardest to be faithful and just allow the Lord to provide for us. Thus far, money just keeps coming in from all kinds of places, some of it from the least expected places. People have been incredibly generous and I have truly been humbled at the generosity and kindness of others. I often sit and cry with gratitude. Without the support of so many people, I would not have my son here today. If you were one of those people, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really don't have the words to express how grateful I am to you. I literally didn't know where the money was going to come from in order for us to meet our financial demands, but somehow we have gotten by. The Lord has really looked out for us, and he has done so through people like you. Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times.
I don't have enough time or space to tell you of all the miracles that I have seen happen throughout our adoption process. All I can say is that my faith, gratitude, and understanding of the Lord's plan have all been greatly strengthened. My testimony has truly grown. I have never before felt so loved, both by the Savior and by the people in my life. I can't believe the Lord would intrust me with such a precious and sweet spirit. I know that Milo was supposed to come into the gospel. I have had that revealed to me many times in the last few weeks. I am truly humbled that I get to be the one who will teach him the gospel and raise him. I can't believe the ease in which this adoption came about, and I know that it happened that way because Milo was supposed to be in my family. I have no doubts that he is my son, and that all of this was preordained. I can't wait until all the state paper work is finalized and we get to take our sweet baby to the temple and seal him to us. It is a day that I looked forward with great anxiety. Once again I just want to thank everyone for their well wishes, support, and kindness. Milo wouldn't be here without you. I love you, I hope you really know that. My heart has never been so full and I hope that one day, I can in some small way, repay all the kindnesses that have been done to Joe and I over these last 7 months. I will do my best to keep everyone updated on the goings ons at the Weight household. With all my love, Shanna.
Here are some pictures of Milo. I don't think they quite do him justice, he is just absolutely adorable, but at least you can see him.

This is one of the first pictures the social worker sent of us Milo. We hadn't even seen him yet. 

This is the first day we met Milo. 

I'm a Mommy! 

Nothing like new born baby smell. 

Look who's a daddy, and a good one too! 

Daddy's first burping. 

I"m a great sleeper. 

Mommies are the only ones that get tired. 

Already practicing his smile. 

Milo meeting Grandma

Oh hello Uncle, you're big. 

Hi cousin, who has lots of hair like me.
 Some day soon, I may fill out this preemie outfit I'm wearing.

I am still working on fitting into these cute newborn jammies. 

I love to chill with daddy. 

I'm 2 days old and already watching a Real game! 

Another uncle and cousin for me to meet. 

Wow, I have a big family. The cousins just keep coming. 

Showing off my smile for mommy. 

I am already reverent. I folded my hands before mommy and daddy said prayer for lunch. 

My dimples are to die for. 

This is what melts mommy's heart. 

This is one of mommy's favorite outfits. 

My first bath. I didn't like it very much, but I really liked my second bath. 

I felt better after getting snuggled in my towel. I look like a pharaoh though. 

My first day of church. 

Daddy with his siblings that also had boys this year.
Would you believe we're only just 3 months apart? 

Little, Medium, and Big.
 Oh the fun we're going to have together in a few years. 

Reugar is starting to like me now.
We get a little cuddling in every now and then. 

This was Mommy's and I's first adventure. 

I'm just so sweet. 

Hey everyone, I'm 2 weeks old already.