Our journey to & now through parenthood

Things I love

Being a SAHM
Being organized
Chocolate
Cooking & Baking, mmm!
Country music
DH's pancakes
Diet coke with fresh lime, mmm!
Drinking an Ice cold frozen water
eBay
Getting a bargain ;o)
Hanging out in the sun on our boat, Ahhh!
Ice coffee
Ice cream (any kind with peanut butter)
Lemons & Limes, especially limes
Luvs diapers, cheaper & they do their job
My 2 fun loving & spoiled Golden Retrievers
My adorable, precious son
My sweet, helpful, handsome & hilarious husband
My wonderful supportive family
Netflix
Our son's precious smile & laughter
Shopping
Swimming in our pool or lake
The miracle of adoption

Welcome to our ttc, infertility, waiting to adopt and now baby's here blog

We couldn't have begun to imagine what this journey would be like. With years behind us...wonder goes through our minds everyday.
We both can't wait to have children...I want to be a Mommy, he a Daddy.
Life would be so much easier to know when, where, how, why, but these things we aren't always able to know.
I pray to GOD above and know that when it is time, he will help us to create our miracle.
Thanks for reading our blog and following our journey, though we both hope it is not that long of a journey after all. Please help us pray that we receive our miracle, our blessing.
Thank you,
Jill & Josh

Always remembering (Peanut) our Angel Baby who grew wings on 1-22-08.

From TTC to Domestic Infant Adoption...Follow us down the path...
7-14-08 Application mailed to agency ~
7-15-08 Application received by agency & got call from SW ~
7-17-08 spoke to SW & scheduled our 1st (of 5) homestudies (HS)
7-22-08 1st couple HS ~
7-28-08 Adoptive Parent classes begin (held monthly) ~
We both right up our biographies for our individual HS
7-31-08 Josh's HS ~
8-4-08 Jill's HS ~
Completed CORI checks, sex offender registry check, fingerprints done ~
8-11-08 received facilitator paperwork ~ Worked diligently on our profile book & finally completed (many hours & copies later)
8-25-08 our 2nd couple HS, approved for 50% reduction in some of the agencies adoption fees ~ 9-3-08 Jill's PE & TB test ~
9-3-08 Mailed completed packet including profiles/cd to Facilitator ~
9-4-08 Josh's PE & TB test ~
9-8-08 Facilitator received packet ~
9-12-08 Both got our blood work done ~
9-15-08 we have our Home Visit with SW & got verbal approval. Later that afternoon our profile was posted on Facilitators site as waiting family ~ We begin waiting ~
9-17-08 registered at Babies R Us ~
10-13-08 One month waiting ~ Spoke to Facilitator, things have been slow ~
10-22-08 received our official approval letter in the mail ~
11-10-08 Two months waiting & received a message from facilitator of a possible situation, we decide to move forward...
~11-12-08 Facilitator tells us we have been officially chosen :o) Baby due 12-22-08
11-13-08 and onward, many phone calls with our SW 11-15-08 1st phone call to J (Birth Mother), called J a few times per week after that to see how she was doing ~
11-18-08 spoke with J's mother on phone for 1st time 11-29-08 Josh 1st spoke to J ~
12-8-08 Mailed J care package (gown, etc... for hospital) ~
12-10-08 called to see how J was, she was upset, she said she changed her mind & was going to keep the baby...we are devastated. Later that night J calls us back & apologizes, says she is going through with the adoption ~
12-11-08 J called to thank us for the care package ~ 12-27-08 J called us at 8 am (MA time) she was heading to the hospital, she thinks she's in labor. J's Mother calls us around 9:30/10 am, she will be induced ~ We schedule our flight to NV (earliest 7 pm from Boston). We visit my Grammy in rehab & got to Panera for lunch. I check my phone and have around 6 messages. One is our SW saying it'll be another 5 hours or so before baby is born. One of the next ones was our SW again saying "it's a boy". Then one from J's Mom. I call J to see how she is & ask her if she still wants us to come? We tell her we'll be on our way! We go home & order her flowers, take out any girl stuff from the babies luggage & add more boy stuff.
Our son was born on 12-27-08 at 9:40 am (NV time) at 6 pounds, 3 oz, 19 1/4 long & healthy ~ We arrive in NV at midnight. Call J & her Mother to let them know we are there ~
12-28-08 We get a call from J's Mom at 5 am that the baby (named Bryan by J) was transfered to another local hospital with a level 3 NICU, he was having heart problems. We later found out he has a partial heart block, was being monitored & doing well, he didn't have any abnormalities of the heart itself ~
12-28-08 We meet J & her Mom at 10 am at the hospital. She's discharged & we all go see the baby in the NICU.
We fall in love with our little man!
Over the next few day we visit with him morning, noon & night. We buy him a NICU outfit & little stuffed Golden Retriever ~
12-30-08 J signed TPR ~ We room in with Joel that night ~
12-31-08 Joel is D/C from NICU & with us in the hotel on New Years Eve ~
1-5-09 Joel has follow up Pedi appt. he is doing well, his heart sounds great, had a normal EKG ~
1-5-09 Grammy passes away :o(~
1-7-09 Joel sees his Cardiologist, again normal EKG & ECHO, we are told he has most likely outgrown his heart block, but keep him monitored, strong boy! ~
We remain in NV till 1-8-09 (ICPC is all set)~ while in NV we visited J, her Mom & Joel's older sister ~
1-9-09 It's great to be home! ~
Delay in TPR of BFather ~ He shows at agency a few days shy of Joel turning 6 months & says he wants custody. He is served to appear in court on 7-15-09...we are terrified to loose our boy ~
7-15-09 Birth Father's rights were legally terminated (he didn't show) ~
8-19-09 Hearing for TPR of Legal Father (Birth Mother's now ex-husband)
End of 9/09 Our SW receives all necessary legal paperwork and we retain our attorney for finalization (mailed retainer on 10/8/09)
Now we await finalization in our state (paperwork mailed to attorney on 10-26-09) ~ 11-16-09 attorney calls with date for finalization, set for morning of December 9, 2009
~ 12-9-09 We went to court and Joel's adoption is final...YAY!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Joel's finally home

Joel 1 to 1.5 weeks old

A few Misc... pics of Joel while in Vegas

We're home (to our hotel anyway) 12-31-08

Rooming in, car seat test and discharge :O)

The papers are signed (12-30-08)

First time we got to hold Joel (Eve of 12-28-08)

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Joel~18 months old

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Welcome to our ttc, infertility, waiting to adopt and now baby's here blog