1 Month Old

I'm a little late on posting about Josiah being a month old...We took him to the doctor on Tuesday August 18th.

Weight: 9 lbs 10 oz
Height: 21 3/4 inches long

The doctor said everything looked great! He had to get his 2nd Hepatitis shot, which was so sad! We also took him that day because his belly was still hurting. They told us since he wasn't acting much different on the Alimentum then we could go back to Similac Advanced. So I decided to switch to the Similac Advanced and man was that a mistake! He cried and cried and cried...so needless to say we are back on the Similac Alimentum and he is doing much better!!!! WE will be broke from purchasing it, but it is well worth it if he feels better!

Anyway, on a fun note...Josiah has started smiling and he has even been rolling over when we put him on his tummy! He is growing so fast!

Isn't he just the cutest!!! WE love him SOOO much!

Placement Cermony

August 10th we had Josiah's Placement Ceremony! This is where you sign tons of paperwork and write a huge check! (He is SO worth it!!!) We were surrounded by the best friends and family! It is so awesome to know that the people that love us, also love him so much! Thank you to everyone who made it so special! Another thing that we learned is that the agency still cannot find Josiah's birthfather, so they are going to terminate his rights! This is a long drawn out process but we found out that even if the birthfather were to come back for him, he most likely could not take him back because he neglected the birthmother during her pregnancy! This was such a relief to hear...Enough about that, here are some pictures....

Lil man getting ready for his big day!

~Proud parents~

Auntie Rachel and Auntie Ambo

The girls from our adoption class (and Tyson and Josiah)! It has been a blessing to go through our adoption process with them and their families.

3 Weeks Old!

I can't believe that Josiah will be 3 weeks old tomorrow! Everyone always says time flies by, but I never believed it till now!

Born:

7 pounds 1.5 oz

19 3/4 inches

Dr. Appt - 5 days old:

7 pounds 6 oz

20 inches

Dr. Appt - 2 weeks and 5 days

8 pounds 14 oz

21 1/2 inches

He is growing like a weed! He is eating every 2-3 hours and eating up to 3 oz of formula!! He has been doing good, but has been having a little bit of tummy (grunting a lot in his sleep) issues so we talked to the doctor yesterday and she switched him to Similac Sensitive.....man he is already high maintenance!!! HAHA. The doc said that we should see a difference within 5 days, but we saw a difference last night! He is PERFECT! Hopefully he will start sleeping for 4 hours through the night! That would be so nice of him!

We have his placement ceremony on Monday and we can't wait for friends and family to meet him!

***Our Baby BoY!***

Josiah Bryden McClelland

7/15/09 3:04 p.m.

7 pounds 1.5 ounces 19 3/4 inches

I'm a little late on this post I know!! We have been super busy...but I wanted to tell you about the day that Josiah was born. It was on a Wednesday and Josh and I were both at work. I had taken a break from work to call our adoption specialist at 9:00 to see if she had heard from Jessica, to see if she had gone back to the doctor. She said that they had not heard anything but she would let me know as soon as she knew something. At 10:45 my phone rang and I notice it was Bethany's office number. I picked up the phone and Melinda said she had some good news. (I was thinking maybe Jessica had gone to the doc and they said she would deliver any moment) But Melinda said that Jessica had been in labor since 8:00 a.m. and that Jessica wanted us to come up to the hospital!!!!!!!!! (She was 2 cm dilated) I left everything at work just like it was...called Josh in a panic and told him to meet me at the house...he was like why?? I said JESSICA IS IN LABOR!!!!!!! I had to stop and get some gas and then I met Josh at the hospital where we grabbed some cold pizza out of the fridge, grabbed the diaper bag and headed out the door. On our way to the hospital I called Jessica's mom and she said that she was 4 cm dilated. It took us almost 45 minutes to get to the hospital in Canton. We were pulling in the parking lot at the hospital and Jessica's mom called and said she was already 7 cm dilated!!!! I thought, man this is going quickly!!! So we got up to the hospital, went in the room and said hi to Jessica and Connie and sat patiently in the waiting room...OKAY well not patiently!!!!!!!! We couldn't contain ourselves! Thirty minutes after we were there her mom came out and said that she was 10 cm dilated at that she would have him in 30 minutes to an hour! At 3:04 p.m. we heard a little chime go off on the load speakers and just knew that meant our little boy was just born! The nurse then came out a minute later and told us we could come back! We got to see him before they bathed him and I was the first one to hold him. He was soooo tiny and sooo sweet!

God has truly blessed us with not only the most precious baby boy, but an awesome birthmom! She let us stay in the room with her until 10:00 that night. Jessica was starving after giving birth so Josh went and got her a big ol' steak from Longhorns. We just hung out and talked and loved on baby Josiah together. Leaving that night was so tough. We didn't have doubts that he wouldn't be going home with us the next day, but it was just hard to know we weren't with him!

The next day we woke up at 5 o'clock and got ready to be back up there at 7:00 like Jessica had asked! We were very excited about taking our baby boy home, but we knew it was also going to be a hard day. On the way to the hospital we heard a loud noise......WE got a nail in our tire!!!! What the heck? Well, we made it to the hops ital and then Josh changed our tire. We got up there and they said that Josiah didn't sleep very well. So Jessica's mom went home to take a nap and Jessica napped while Josh and I took care of our son! Everything went so perfectly!

LEAVING was tougher than I ever imagined it being. I grew attached to Jessica because she is such an amazing woman. She spent a few minutes alone with Josiah and then she called me in to spend time with both of them. This was tough...very tough. But I know that God has a plan for her and that He is going to bless her with goodness! She will always have a special place in my heart and I can't wait to tell Josiah how great she was! :)

Even though that part was tough, it was awesome to know that we were taking our son home! He slept the whole way home and did so good! He is our lil' angel and we are so thankful for God! Looking back at the whole adoption process it amazes me because I felt God with us through the whole thing. He knows what is best for all of us...we just need to trust him more often!

Sorry for such a long post! I will try to do better!

Answered Prayers

As most of you know.......WE WERE CHOSEN!!!!!!!!!!!! The birthmom picked Josh and I!! We have been praying for this for over 8 months and God has just blessed us in so many ways. I get chill bumps just thinking about all the little things God has shown us to let us know that this is the path He has planned for us! I know I have said this a thousand times before but God is truly amazing! We have 8 days to prepare for our little BOY!

I am going to tell a little about our meeting for those who don't know and maybe for those who are in the adoption process and wondering how things go. Sorry if you have already heard our story this is probably going to be long! The meeting with Jessica, our birthmom was schedule on Thursday, June 2nd. We got to the agency and spoke with the counselors and then Jessica and her mom got there. She was absolutely beautiful! Josh and I wanted to know about her, but we let her ask us some questions first. She had a notepad full of questions. So the first question she asked was, "What was our outlook on life?" Then her mom preceded to say did we have positive attitudes toward the future. Which was a great question, because for the people that know me know that I have a very positive attitude towards life! So we hit it off right away. Her next question was how do we define happiness and I told them that happiness to me = my family and friends. She had a few other questions and then we just sat there and talked, we never had an awkward moment. I was thinking through the whole entire meeting that it just felt right. Jessica also asked us if we would call the baby Josiah (biblical name). Of course we said YES! How could we say no to a woman that is giving us the best gift ever?!?! As we were talking Jessica mentioned that she was meeting with another couple on Friday which kind of shocked Josh and I (because our counselor told us right before that we were the only couple). But Jessica did say that our meeting went really well and that she would rate it a 10 (on a 1-10 scale!) She also asked the counselor if it was common for the birthmom and the adoptive family to have so much in common! When we left out of the meeting Josh and I felt really good about the meeting and felt that God had definitely put Jessica in our lives for a reason, even if it was just to pray for her.

We were hoping to hear something from the agency on Friday about our meeting, but we heard NOTHING!!! The office was close due to the 4th of July. So we had to wait the whole weekend not knowing the outcome of the meeting. While we were waiting I wanted to look up the story of Josiah and get familiar with the story. While I was looking up the story I ran into something that said the name Joshua came from Josiah. Right then and there I had a WOW moment. I thought to myself that God is telling me that this is all going to work out. He was telling me not to stress! After our busy weekend was over, Josh and I drove home from Pensacola. On our drive home we again heard NOTHING! We started to get a little disappointed. FINALLY --- Josh called the agencies office and got ahold of the other counselors who told us that WE WERE CHOSEN!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh! I cannot tell you how happy we were! For the rest of the evening we were on the phone either calling, texting, or emailing friends and family!

{we have 8 days till our little guy is suppose to be born} I have to say thanks to all of our family, friends and people that don't even know us that have just heard about our story for praying for us! God is amazing and is always working behind the scenes even when you don't think He is there He is ALWAYS listening!!!!!! His plan isn't always what you have planned, it is BETTER!

Josh and I some stuff already, but we are fortunate to have tons of loving, caring family and friends that are throwing us showers! We have been going crazy trying to make sure we have stuff, because we could get a call any minute!

WE will keep y'all posted!

Birthmom Meeting!

I know everyone is wondering what has been going on....so I just wanted to do a quick update and let you know that we are meeting with Jessica, the birthmom tomorrow at 2:00. We are very excited! The counselor said that she is going to be bringing us a picture form her sonogram! Can't wait to see it! Maybe she will let us keep it so we can show everyone! Baby is due in 2 weeks! Please keep us all in your prayers!

The last week and a half has been an absolute roller coaster ride for us! These are a few things that have taken place:

Monday June 8th - Went to Tyson's placement party! Congrats David and Stephanie! Your family is beautiful!

Tuesday June 9th - Vicky (or adoption specialist) emailed us saying that there was a potential birthmom and asked if we were interested in her! Of course we said Heck YES!!!!!! We were extremely excited!!! Received very little information about the situation.

Thursday June 11th - Received another email from Vicky saying that the birthmom wanted to meet us sometime following week and she gave us a little bit more information about the birthmom/birthfather.

The weekend went by and we heard nothing! Monday and Tuesday, has come and gone and we still do not know when we will be meeting the birthmom. This has been a very hard time for us, we know it will happen it is just hard not hearing anything back. Maybe today is the day??? I am suppose to be going out of town on Thursday, but it looks like I might be placing that on hold just in case the birthmom wants to meet with us Friday!

I also want to say that our prayers are with Jeremy and Kelly, they received an email saying that they had a birthmom that wanted to meet with them next month! God is Awesome!