A Voicemail, a Facebook Message, a Meeting.

Kristin, along with her husband and children, moved into our neighborhood shortly after I came home from filming the show in the beginning of 2011. We met at church and connected right away. Our friendship quickly became one of those that can't be created but just is. I could stop by her house in sweats and no make-up on just to quickly drop something off and leave six hours later fully fed, cheeks tired from laughing and eyes red from tears. I just love this friend of mine and was sad to say goodbye when my husband and I moved away last December.

I was working for The Biggest Loser Resort in St. George, UT., which is about 2 hours north of Las Vegas and I was commuting there once a week. The commuting had to stop after I overcorrected and rolled my car four times before landing upside down on my way to work one afternoon. I walked away without injury and I know I was blessed that day, but it gave my work reason to say "no more" to the commuting. If I wanted to continue working at the resort, which I LOVED, then we'd have to move there, so we did.

Kristin and I kept in touch and it wasn't out of the ordinary to have a missed call from her. I came back to my office after lunch one day to voicemail from her that said nothing more than, "Hi Sarah, it's Kristin. Call me back as soon as you can because I have something I really need to talk to you about. Call me back. Bye." I listened to her voicemail and my stomach dropped. I had the strongest feeling that this had to do with a baby. I have NO idea why I thought that because, as you can see from her message, there was nothing indicating such a thing. But it was a powerful feeling that came out of nowhere.

I called her back and my feelings were confirmed. She had just come from gymnastics where her daughter goes every day. She and another mom, Michelle, who she had become good friends with over the years, were talking and Michelle told her that her 19 year old daughter, Bailey, was 15 weeks pregnant. She was planning on placing the baby for adoption and was in the process of finding a family. Kristin immediately felt like this was going to be mine and Jason's baby! She told Michelle about us and asked if she thought Bailey would be open to at least talking to us. She gave her our information and Michelle said she'd for sure have her call us. So here I am listening to Kristin tell me what just happened with so much excitement in her voice she might burst, but I didn't feel that same excitement. I guess I was a little emotionally beaten and I felt scared that another disappointment was on it's way. I was afraid I'd get my hopes up, but I thanked Kristin for giving her our info and said I hoped she'd call. She replied, "oh she'll call, I just know it! I know that this is your baby! I can feel it so strong!! Stay close to your phone." Her surety was so sweet but I couldn't feel the same, not after what had just happened. I wasn't lying though, I really did hope she'd call. And again as much as I tried not to, I thought about it non-stop. But she didn't call and after a week of waiting I knew I needed to let it go.

I texted Kristin to let her know that she never called. She was not as quick to let it go and called Michelle to follow up. She found out that Bailey had looked us up on Facebook, our great little stalking tool, and had wanted to call but she didn't know what to say. Well I can understand that, I wouldn't know what to say either! I decided that I had nothing to lose and sent Bailey a message on Facebook. We had been told about each other and I felt the best thing would be to make contact and cut out the middle man. I was my dorky self in my message and hoped that would ease the awkwardness of the situation, then I told her a little more about us and even was as bold to tell her that we'd be in Vegas that weekend and would love to meet her in person. I closed my eyes and pushed send.

I checked my Facebook every ten minutes for the remainder of the day. I felt like a teenage girl waiting for a boy that I liked to text me back. Throughout the day I re-thought my message over and over and interpreted how she might receive it a billion different ways. The later it got the worse my scenario became, but she finally wrote back late that night and said she was thrilled to hear from me! I was giddy reading her message and relieved to hear that she would love to meet us. We made plans to meet two days later.

It was Saturday, January 28th, 2012. I was SO nervous! Jason, on the other hand, was not nervous and laughed at me for texting my little sister pictures of different outfits I should wear as if that was going to make a difference in Bailey's decision. He comforted me the whole drive down to Vegas but when we walked up to her parents house and knocked on the door, Jason's  heart was pounding just as hard as mine. This could possibly change our lives forever and we were about to meet the girl who could make us a family.