Baby Elsie!

This is my beautiful older sister Melissa and her beautiful brand new baby girl.

Elsie Rae

Born April 25th at 12:13 a.m.

7 lbs. 15 oz., 19 inches

 After a long, hard road, she and her husband Mike were finally able to adopt this perfect little angel and give my kids a Madsen cousin! My heart is just bursting for them!! Be careful -- this post might contain an excessive amount of exclamation points!!! But they're all entirely necessary!!!!

Here are the very happy parents...

They were able to stay in a hospital room together with the baby while they waited for some test results for a couple days. Elsie's amazing birth-mother Jenna had a c-section after baby wasn't coming down during labor.

Fortunately, everyone got to go home healthy and happy! And dressed like a strawberry!

My mom's friend Heidi introduced Jenna to our family in February. In no time they had her signed up with the adoption agency, and suddenly there was a baby on the way, due in late April! 

Melissa and Mike stayed at my parents' house in California for a couple of weeks while they waited for Jenna to go into labor. Melissa said it was a really good chance to get to know Jenna, and to make her feel more comfortable with the family she'd be giving the baby to. They have an open adoption arrangement. It's just impossible to express how grateful we all are that she made that difficult choice to give her baby and bless our family! Adoption is beautiful!

We have some amazing cousins who pumped and gave a TON of breast milk to Melissa for the baby. Amazing, amazing, AMAZING! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Here's baby Elsie with Aunt Julia, Grandma Sara, and Grandpa Steve during her first week in Redding.

After some paperwork cleared, Melissa and Mike took Elsie back to their home in Lehi, Utah. There she met her Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Steven, Teague, and cousin Buck (Steven's dog child).

Everyone has met her but ME and it's absolutely infuriating!!

I mean just LOOK at those LIPS!!!

I have to wait exactly 42.5 more days to meet her and I'm pretty sure it's going to KILL me!!