after.

**

I got home from work and decided to run the curling iron through my hair again.

I re-applied my makeup.

Adam and I sat together and said a prayer of thanks.  

We asked for strength, peace, and for His will to be done in this situation.

We arrived 15 minutes early to our meeting. 

Adam wanted to wait in the car but I couldn't wait another second.

We went inside, and were asked to wait in a small room until our social worker came and got us.

5 minutes later, in walked our social worker.

I was super nervous and Adam was my rock.

The nerves were like "first date" nerves.  

The, "I hope she likes me" nerves 

and the "I want everything to go perfect" nerves.

Our social worker informed us the "E" was upstairs, and very nervous.

So nervous that she felt like she was going to throw up.

Me too!

That made me feel a little better.

We walked upstairs to our meeting room and my heart was beating out of my chest.

The second I saw her, my body was filled with peace :)

We smiled, we hugged, we admitted our nerves and it began.

The birth mother is lovely.

She's an artist.

She likes Sherlock Holmes

She reads the baby Tennyson and Byron.

She's so sweet and soft spoken and we absolutely loved her.

We talked about music, faith, books, pets, everything.

Our birth mother was an adoptee as well so she knows exactly what a gift adoption is.

We talked about her delivery plans and where we would fit into to all of that. 

We talked about how "open" this adoption will be.

After she left, our social worker informed us that "E" loved us so much and is very content knowing that we will be extremely loving parents for her baby; our baby.

After a few questions and answers with the social worker, she explained that the next time we would here from her would be when "E" delivers.

At that point, it hit me, this is FOR REAL.  

I hadn't been sure before if we were the only family that "E" was considering or if she was meeting with other families as well.

No, we are the only ones.

The chosen ones.

The blessed ones.

Meeting "E" was a very special gift, one that I will treasure forever.

I am excited that I may be able to tell our baby that she "has her mother's eyes." 

I am excited to share with her that I met her birth mother and that she loved her so very much.  I can't wait to share with her how smart, and lovely, and courageous, and loving her birth mother is.  

"E" is the women who will give us our heart's desire.

"E" is scheduled to be induced on the 29th of February, if she doesn't have the baby before that.

She is already dilated though and can literally go into labor any day.

It's happening :)

In the back of my mind, I know that things aren't done until they are done and that there is still a potential for things to go wrong.  Right now though, I am only allowing myself to focus on the positive and the excitement of the moment!!

God is good.

xo

janel

P.S.  My sister is having a baby boy!!!  She found out yesterday! (This has been an exciting week for baby news).

Double P.S.  The reset the votes over at Top Baby Blogs. We would really appreciate your votes to help us get back on top :)  We ended the last round at #4 out of over 3,000 blogs which is so amazing and 100% because all of our awesome readers. 

All you have to do is click on this link

http://www.topbabyblogs.com/cgi-bin/topblogs/in.cgi?id=jmaclean

and then click on the owl on the left.

That is it, two little clicks.

Also remember that you can vote every single day. 

Thank you so much!!!

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

before.

Well, today is the BIG day, one of the big days at least.

A huge day for us.

Today we meet the woman who may possibly be making our dreams come true.

I'm not as nervous as I thought I would be although it's seriously all I can think about.

I went to bed with a huge headache and woke up with it this morning too.

I curled my hair cute.

I'm wearing my black pants, black sparkle TOMS and a cute shirt.

I have to go to work all day which is good because it will keep my mind off of our meeting.

I really hope everything goes perfectly and by the end of this meeting "E" is sure she wants us to adopt her baby.

This could be it!

Check back later for my after :)

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

meeting

**

Tomorrow afternoon, at 4:30 pm CST will be meeting the birth mother of a baby.

I am soooo excited.

I am full of nerves.

I am ready.

I would appreciate any prayers or happy thoughts sent our way tomorrow.

Thank you!

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

Project Life Week 4

This week was so monumental in our lives!

It was such a perfect example as to why a project like this is so important right now :)

I will always be so blessed to have all of this recorded for the future!!

Here are my pages for this week:

and here is a bit of a closer view for you all...

* I absolutely loved these journal cards that were a free download.

I started the week with just little photos on them for representation but then with all of the excitement during the latter part of the week, i journaled on them.

*  I made some instagram photo strips from my photos this week.

*  a screen shot of the blog post I wrote as soon as I got THE CALL.

*  Lol, Adam is still wearing sunglasses in all photos to hide his red eyes from LASIK :)

*  I added a little confetti pocket to symbolize all of the celebrating we have been doing over here.

*  I also got my hair done this week so I did a little "before" shoot and an after photo.

*  Adam and I have also been having wii tennis tournaments over here lately.

When i purchased all of my Project Life pages, I ordered a pack of these cute 12x12 envelopes to store special treasures in from weeks where I would need them.

This was one of those weeks :)

I have printouts of the blog posts and comments about the "the call."  I also took a screen shot of all of the Facebook comments that I received and twitter comments that I received about it.

Also inside is a list of everything I wrote down that I learned about the birth mother and a sweet letter to our baby from a dear friend.

Obviously, this week has been such a blessing to us and I absolutely love how it all folded out in my Project Life album.  

Im sure this whole next month will be filled with exciting pages to come.

xo

janel

Would you like to know more about Project Life? You can read all about it here. You can also check out more of my Project Life pages right here!

January Sponsor Spotlight

I am so excited to share my amazing January Partners with you all tonight!

 Their blogs and shops are absolutely perfect.

 Take some time today to search through the links below :)

Enjoy!

Shop

Blog, Twitter, Facebook

Twitter, Blog, Shop, Pinterest

Olive Bungalow

Blog, Facebook, Twitter

Blog, Facebook, Twitter

Yay!! Enjoy all of the inspiration and the wonderful deals this month!!!! February ad spaces are already filling up so be sure to email me if you are interested!!! Thanks so much!!

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

cloud nine

This  is Adam and I, pretty much 98% of the time these days :)

The other 2% of the time we are worried that it won't work out.

Lately I have been:

* crocheting a baby blanket

* reading Disengaged

*  working on Project Life

*  making decorations for my sister's baby shower

*  anxiously awaiting Monday when she may find out the gender

*  anxiously awaiting Tuesday, when we meet with the birth mother.

*  taking walks

* loving life

*  making decorations for The Pinterest Party this weekend

*  loving my friends and family so much

* praying praying praying.

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

the story.

**

I can't believe how long it has taken me to write this post.  

On one hand, I want to scream everything across the rooftops and another part of me is too overwhelmed, and another part of me is emotionally exhausted from all of the excitement and another part of me is feeling so completely loved it's unreal.

Yesterday, our secretary called over my intercom to tell me that I had a phone call and could I pick up. 

In the 9 years that I have been a teacher I have had maybe two calls at school, everyone calls my cell phone if they need me.

It was Adam.

That freaked me out a little bit :)

He asked if I was sitting down and again, freaking out, it could only be something really bad right?

It was the complete opposite of bad.  

It was amazing, it was happiness, it was love, it was answered prayer, and it was my dream come true all wrapped into one little phone call.

I'm going to make a really long story short.

1.  Because Im not sure what I am technically able to share just yet.

2.  Because if I wrote everything I felt I would be writing forever :)

Here it is:

A birth mother chose us.

She saw our profile book, and loved us.

She loved Catalina's suitcase bed a lot.

We have heard a lot about the birth mother and from what we know of her, we already love her so much too.

We get to meet her next Thursday!!

She is due in February which is so crazy.

The pregnancy is considered high risk due to the birth mother having a pulmonary embolism right now and being on blood thinners.

With that being said, she can go into labor ANY DAY NOW.

Our case worker is almost positive the baby is a girl, but since she didn't write it down, she wants to double check :)

In a perfect world, Adam and I will have a baby next month.  We can start our little family and live happily ever after.

In reality, this adoption is "a legal risk"

There are some issues pending with the birth father that need to get resolved before things can legally move forward.

The birth mother has 48 hours after the baby is born to change her mind.

Anything can happen.

In the meantime all we can do is pray and love this baby and her birth mother.

Prayers and happy thoughts are very much appreciated right now. 

You all have been beyond amazing throughout this entire journey with us and I truly feel like you are all part of our little family.

Your texts, calls, emails, and comments this past couple of days has been such a blessing for us and something that I am quietly treasuring during this time.

I love you

Adam loves you 

and this baby is going to love you all too.

Thanks for sharing in our excitement.

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

THE CALL!!!

**

It came!!!

We got THE call.

I will share more details tonight but this girl might be a mama soon!!!!

If you pray, please pray for everything to go well 

because in adoption situations, a million things can go wrong.

Eeeeek!!!!

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

insta-life

Here are a few peeks into my week so far via instagram.

I love Instagram because the photos are just of every day random things but it's a perfect little glance to into the realness :)

1.  I tried out those Sally Hansen nail decals out of pure curiosity.  Not only do they work really well, they make my usually weak nails feel super strong.  I'm a fan.

2. Although my sisters baby shower isn't until March, I have jumped in, full force, into getting ready for it. I am almost done making all of the decorations, invitations, and other fun things.

3.  I got some cute new paper goodies for my Project Life.

4.  I began painting some of my drift wood pieces to create a mobile.

5.  Ive fallen more in love with this project.

6.  My honey got Lasik.

7.  I added some sparkle to my house key :)

8.  I sent in my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project.

This is, hands down, my most favorite iPhone app ever.  I love it.

I'm also participating in the #janphotoaday challenge using instagram too.

I'll post a recap of that at the end of the month :)

Have a great night!!

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

harajuku mini

So, I know that Gwen Stefani's Mini line for Target is old news but I have to talk about it real quick :)

Since it's old news, it is also finally on clearance over here which means, time for me to stock up a bit. 

My sister totally hooked me up with the CUTEST little outfits for our soon to be from the Harajuku Mini collection at her Target.  None of the outfits were over $6.00 when she bought them.

Here the cuties that are part of the little wardrobe now...

And here are a couple from the more current collection that I am adding to my baby registry ASAP...

Dear Gwen,

Keep up the good work.

My kiddo will be extra stylin because of you.

Thanks so much,

janel and baby.

I better start hanging them up!!

Now, we just need a baby :)

xo

janel 

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

Project Life Week 3

Still.in.love.

There is not one negative thing that I can say about this project. 

I am having so much fun with it.

Here is my week three:

And here is a little bit of a closer view with explanations for each piece:

If you are participating in Project Life, please leave me a comment and link your pages so that I can see it!!

On to week four.

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.

Things I "Pin"

Usually I like to share all of my "little love" pins with you all. Lately though, I have been "pinning" so many lovely ideas in my "For the Home" pinboard. I know we will be living in our tiny home for at least another year, but a girl can dream of a bigger space and more room to decorate right?

All of these things are elements that I would LOVE to have in our home some day.  They all seem easy enough to make happen too, which is a plus.

1. The polaroid wall paired with the house plants is perfection.

**

2.  This is so much what I want my future kitchen to based around.

**

3.  Upcycling old lightbulbs into vases is so fresh and lovely and I will have to make some this summer for our balcony.

**

4.  As if this needs an explanation...adorable!

**

5.  I need another collection like I need a hole in the head but I just ADORE the look of all of these bouncy balls in this jar.  My goal is to have a lot of gorgeous, unique containers to showcase all of my little collections around our home.

**

6.  this door...*swoon*

**

7.  The Native American/southwest motif of this room is lovely and I would love a bedroom based around my Hudson Bay Blanket.

**

8.  And finally, this little reading nook is something that I would love to have so so much.  In fact, I don't think it would be hard to do, if I had the space to build it.  This is a must have for our next home.

**

Dreaming is fun.  

In the meantime, I'll just continue to work on making our little home a cozy, and meaningful place to live.

xo

janel

P.S. Don't forget to vote :) All it takes it two little clicks.