our curveball

it’s one of the scariest things to have gone through the loss of two babies and then right on the heels of that be faced with a baby that we were already in love with born at 28 weeks. while the NICU life is intense (right after another incredibly intense unfortunate journey), it really is one of the coolest experiences to watch a baby develop right before your eyes as they would in the womb. this is a bit of the story of our miracle.

March 23, 2017 two weeks after we had Tahlia, we filled out the paperwork for the adoption agency.  after Tahlia’s heart diagnosis we decided that no matter what happened with Tahlia, we were going to pursue adoption next to allow for some continued physical healing as well as emotional healing.  while we know adoption isn’t all unemotional, it’s not to the same degree as what we just experienced.

April 17, 2017 one of my friends calls me and tells me she knows of someone who is looking to make an adoption plan for her current pregnancy, and that she thought of us as possibly being interested.  we said that of course we are.  after a few more details that she told us we felt like it was helpful for us and the birthmom to have some counseling, so we referred her to an agency that we had started to work with.

April 29, 2017 we met the birthmom.  she cried.  I cried.  Clayton cried.  we left overwhelmed at what this could possibly mean for our family.

May 12-13, 2017 we did the orientation and training class for the adoption agency. again, overwhelmed by the information and the amount of paperwork that we need to complete.

June 2, 2017 we left on our typical summer roadtrip to see family and get a few more high points, and finally make it to a St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball game!

June 7, 2017 we got a phone call from our agency saying that the birth mom is going to be in the hospital on bed rest for a little while, just to monitor things.  we asked if we needed to come home, we were in Minnesota and headed to one of the most northern points in MN the next day.  she said that she didn’t think we needed to worry, it didn’t seem like the doctors were that concerned, just wanted to monitor things.

June 12, 2017 my heart truly deeply hurt this day missing Tahlia so much.  a good friend of mine texted me that morning and told me that I was on her heart and that she was praying for me.  around 2pm, we got a phone call saying that birth mom’s water broke.  Okay… deep breaths.  and break down. deep breaths. cry.  we already loved this little boy so much, but there is so much fear when we have already had horrible things happen with our two children so far. we started our journey back to Texas.

June 13- Aug 23, 2017 we drove straight through the night. we stopped in Austin on our way to San Antonio to shower, drop some things off, pick a few things up. we had no idea how long we would be in San Antonio.  but it ended up being 10 weeks.

and now for long awaited pictures:

first picture I got of Mr. Peanut.

to show you the scale of how tiny he was: 

lots and lots of kangaroo time

a friend of a friend of ours offered to give us a free photo shoot.  it was AMAZING! she caught some sweet priceless pictures that I am so thankful that we have.  this photo also has all my babies’ colors: purple, teal and green.  so special (and surprisingly enough it wasn’t exactly planned)  *purple earrings, if you’re looking for it*

a head full of hair that you just have to play with! here’s Flock of Seagulls hairstyle!

as you can see by the lack of nasal cannula, we’re getting pretty close to busting out of here!

“what?! home? what’s that mean?”

cutest little Rookie celebrating being out of the NICU!

can you say “milk drunk”?

notice those legs chunking up compared to a few of the last photos!

our chili pepper for Halloween



cheeks!!

sweet little man.

when we brought him home from the hospital, he didn’t even fill out the outfit on the left!

NO LIE!

such a happy sweet peanut and we are so thankful for our curveball!

Axel’s first snow!

welcome to legally being ours, Axel Piehl!!!!!