Newborn Photo Shoot!

So I met Julie Paisely back when I went to an Uppercase Living party that she was doing a couple of years ago. We have just kept in touch over the years through facebook. Within this past year she has started doing photography and God has just blown her business out of the water! She adopted her daughter too and totally has a heart for adoption. When she found out that we were adopting Josiah she offered to do a free newborn shoot for us! Here are a few of the pictures that she captured. I am so in love with them!



















Aren't they amazing!?!?!

The First Week - Part 2

Josiah had his first doctor's appointment after leaving the hospital that first week. I love love love his pediatrician! *She totally reminds me of Claire Huckstable from the Cosby show!* Josiah was still 19 1/2 long and was back at his birth weight. The doctor said that he was a beautiful healthy baby boy. *I'd have to agree with her :0) * Here's an awful picture of me but cute one of Josiah at the doctor's office.



His umbilical cord fell off on day 5! I was so surprised that it fell off that early ... but I was glad that we could finally give him a real bath! He hated it with everything inside of him lol. He screamed bloody murder the whole time! I later learned that he likes his bath water to be super warm. The water that day was warm ... but he likes it almost as hot as I take my showers. Each baby is different so we are just learning as we go. :0) Now he likes his baths so much that he practically falls asleep during them because he's so relaxed. Sweet boy.



We went to church for the very first time since coming home with Josiah. Worship at our church is almost like being at a concert ... so it's very loud and has lights going and everything ... we were on the third row and Josiah slept through the WHOLE thing! He's such a good baby. Here is a good friend of ours, crazy Dave holding Josiah at church that morning. :0)



We took lots of cute pictures of Josiah during his first week ... what am I talking about we take cute pictures pretty much every day!










We also went to St. Augustine to visit some friends they are more like a bunch of momma's to me that I worked with while I was in college. Alya and I try to go down every other month because they have the most AMAZING chicken wraps ever!


My mom "mamaw" and Josiah in St. Augustine


First family photo in St. Auggie

We also had a bunch more visitors come.


The Walton's from church (they also brought us food!)


Ashley who I work with


And the sweet Hemming family. :0)

Josiah has been one loved little man since we have been home. It's been so great to FINALLY be able to share our blessing with all of our sweet friends that have traveled through our adoption journey with us.

The First Week - Part 1

I didn't show these pictures in my last post because when we finally got home it was SO late and dark outside that I didn't really get a good look at what our sweet Journey Group (church small group) friends did for us while we were away. So the next morning I ran outside in my pj's to take pictures of our sweet little decorated house announcing the arrival of our SON! I have to tell you that I've always dreamed of having this done to our home ... but I never thought that it would be possible since we were adopting. Yay for that silly little dream coming true. God cares about even those silly little secret dreams. It made me smile! :0)






So my bff doesn't know how to spell her "nephew's" middle name ;0)




Another friend brought the giant blow up stork for us. :0)

The first night home with Josiah was like living a dream. He woke up every 3-4 hours and did just perfect for being a brand new baby. :0) Waking up with him each time during the night was the best feeling in the world. Of course I was exhausted *especially from the stupid Tylenol PM that I took the night before* but being exhausted felt like such a blessing because I had the most perfect, precious little reason to be so tired. :0)

Alya and I got to spend our first full day home with Josiah all by ourselves. It was so nice to finally be alone with him and just be a family for the first time. Our sweet Journey Group family scheduled dinners for us for two weeks straight! Not having to cook was such an amazing blessing! It allowed me to concentrate on being home and being a mommy. It also helped out a lot when I was feeling so sick those first few days. We had TONS of visitors that first week. There have been so many people praying for this guy that everyone wanted to come and shower him with love.


"Aunt" Sarah was his very first visitor :0)


#2 The Haugh family brought us our first dinner ... steak! :0)


#3 The Avila's have become great friends through being foster parents together.


Daddy sneaking in some cuddle time with his boy


#4 "Aunt" Kacie and his cousin Gracelynn ... she loves "baby JoJo"


#5 The Stewart's (Mindy and I were college roommies)


Daddy cheesin


My sweet sweet boy


#6 Candice (my newest crafty friend ... wait until you see what she made for Josiah at his shower!)


#7 The Ott's (Journey Group family)


#8 Julia (co-teacher)


#9 Danielle (another college friend and now neighbor ... Alya and I met at her and her husbands wedding)


#10 The Foster's (church friends who also have a huge heart for the orphan!)


#11 Ms. Vivian (our neighbor)


#12 Rhodes' (old neighbors and Alya and Jason work together)


#13 Melissa (Journey Group family member and Josiah's babysitter)


#14 Heather (my first official college roommate :0) She made the most amazing artwork for Josiah's wall! Pics soon!)


#15 Sellek's (church friends)

Fifteen visitors just in the FIRST week! Lots of friends have been praying and waiting for Josiah to come! We were so blessed by so much love. :0)

My mom was able to come and visit on Sunday evening and stayed for two full weeks. I HATED seeing her go and I know that Josiah misses being spoiled by his Mamaw. Having my mom be here those first two weeks of being a new mom was so amazing. I didn't have the physical pain that most new moms have to deal with after having their baby but I did have TONS AND TONS of re-cooperating to do from being so emotionally drained. It was such a blessing to have someone take care of all the little house things that need to be done but you just don't have the time to get to them when you have a brand new baby and you are so exhausted. She was my official bottle washer, laundry doer and cat litter scooper those first two weeks. I think though that I was more blessed by her just being there with me ... there's nothing like having your mom be there when you are experiencing crazy huge and exciting moments in your life. I'm so glad that she got to experience those first few moments with me being a new mom. I'll cherish those moments forever. I hate that we live so far away from each other and I miss her being here like crazy. *love you momma*


Mamaw meeting her grandson for the very first time after a long 10 hour drive to Florida.

So the first week home was jam packed with visitors, me being sick, trying to sneak in naps when ever possible and tons and tons of snuggle time with my little love bug. And that was just the first week - part 1! :0)

Josiah's Birth Story - Day 3

Friday was the day of discharge ... I don't know that I will ever be able to fully explain all the emotions that I was experiencing on this day. We were expecting for Haley and Josiah to be discharged around 1:00 that afternoon. Haley texted me to let me know when Josiah was brought back to the room and as much as I wanted to run up to the hospital to hold our little man my heart was telling me to wait. It was so hard leaving Josiah every evening to go back to my friends house without our child. I wanted more than anything to sleep on the floor of his nursery just so that I could be there every second with him. But I also knew that when we left that was the time that Haley got to spend with him. On Friday when she let us know that we could come up to the hospital I knew in my heart that these last few hours before discharge should be hers. That was my gift to her ... there will never be anything that I could offer her to ever match the sacrifice that she offered to us that day ... so the only thing that I could think of to offer her was more time with our precious baby boy. I knew that I would have a life time of holding him, so I wanted to give her the last few hours just her and him. We ended up going to the hospital around 12:30. Before we went into the hospital I made Alya drive around so that I could take pictures of the place where he was born. *Yes, I'm the sentimental, crazy memory hoarder keeper.*


Josiah was born at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida


Here's the picture of the Woman's Center where he was actually born.

We parked the car and started walking up towards the doors of the hospital for the last time as a family of two. It seemed so surreal ... so crazy that all the waiting was finally going to be over in just a few hours.


Daddy carrying the car seat into the hospital to bring our little man home in. :0)



Our last picture as a family of two!


Josiah's room.

We entered Haley's room for the last time that day and sat and visited until the nurse's started the discharge papers.


Toes!


Chillin


Josiah sporting his going home outfit.

Our social workers from our agency came around that time and started trying to find a room where we could all do the formal adoption paperwork. During that time we realized that Haley didn't have her license with her so she and her friend had to leave the hospital to go get her ID from her house. During this time Alya and I went ahead and signed all of our paper work. Once Haley got back to the hospital we all let her have the last few moments with Josiah by herself before she signed over her rights. While waiting out in the hallway I got text after text after text from family and friends wondering what was going on. There were so many people praying for this moment ... and I can tell you that EACH and EVERY prayer was felt on this day. After a little while Haley was ready to sign her paper work so Alya and I continued to wait in the hallway. I know that this whole process didn't take very long but to me it seemed to be an eternity. This was the last moment ... we made it ... and as amazing as the past two days had been spending with Haley there was still a chance that she could change her mind. I remember on our initial drive over to Pensacola how my mind kept going in a million different directions. There was so much excitement, yet at the same time fear of another let down going through my heart. And I remember as we were driving just feeling like God kept saying over and over ... Lindsay be still. I have this. Trust me. Just be still. Trust me. And so I did ... during those last few moments I just gave them over to God. I trusted Him. I let go for the very last time that day. Haley did sign the paperwork and on top of that we found out that she was able to get in contact with the birth father who had left for California the day of Josiah's birth. He was still willing to sign the paper work and so our agency faxed it to him and he signed and mailed it back to them. Praise God! Once all the paper work was signed we strapped Josiah into his car seat so that the nurse could check to make sure he was in there properly.


In his car seat for the first time getting ready to go home with mommy and daddy!


so tiny!

We all walked out to the front of the hospital. Our social workers said their goodbye's and Haley and I waited for Alya to bring the car around. Haley put Josiah's car seat into the car and told me to enjoy him and then started walking away. I just remember saying "Wait!" and walking over to her and giving her a big hug. I hadn't cried all day until that moment. I just kept thanking her and telling her that she had given us a gift that no one else could ever give to us. That I would be forever grateful to her. She walked away and got into her friends car as I got into the backseat of ours to sit next to my son for the very first time. I was still bawling my eyes out ... I know how much Haley loved Josiah and if the circumstances would have been different that she would have kept him. I know how much of a sacrificial love that she gave to him on that day. I will never ever be able to thank her enough. She gave me the gift of being a mommy ... something that I have waited all my life to become. My life changed FOREVER on that day, and my heart has never felt fuller.


We're in the car heading back towards Jacksonville!

We didn't get home until almost midnight that night. We had to stop a few times to feed Josiah and change him but he was PERFECT the whole ride. He slept the whole time. Besides me coming down with something and feeling physically awful the ride went smoothly. Someone must have slipped me stupid pills because I ended up buying some Tylenol PM to take to make my aches and chills go away and so I felt so drugged our first full day home with him. I think that our bodies had been on an emotional roller coaster for so long and there had been so much tension that had built up over the last couple of days that our bodies were finally allowed to relax for the first time in a really long time and so I ended up getting sick. I told Alya on the way home that for the first time I felt like I could finally breathe again. There was a HUGE weight that had been lifted off my shoulders and had been replaced with a love so deep and so strong that my life would never be the same.


We finally made it home! Here's Josiah sleeping in his bassinet for the very first time.

My heart is so full and content now. :0)