Gotcha Day! Landon officially becomes a "Diehl" November 28th, 2012

The legal aspect of the adoption went so smooth and quick. We were assigned to the judge who doesn't make adoptive parents wait the normal 6-12 month period before an adoption can be finalized. He believes whatever is best for the child, so Landon was born on October 4th and he was officially ours just under 2 months. Here are some pictures of us with our family and the judge.

Thanksgiving 2012

Landon's First Thanksgiving

Pumpkin Patch 2012

Landon went to his first pumpkin patch with family! Nana, Pappy, Aunt Taylor, Uncle Jason, Cousin Max, and Mom and Dad were all there. We had a blast!

Newborn Pictures by Ashley Tremaine

Part of a baby shower gift was a newborn photo session of Landon by the fabulous Ashley Tremaine. Landon was just 10 days old and did great! Here are a few of my favorites! 

Bringing Landon Home

Landon was born on October 4th at 7:35 p.m. and weighed 8 lbs 5 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. We went back to the hospital on Friday for a little bit and the nurses said we could come to the new baby orientation the following day before he was discharged. We came up to the hospital on Saturday for the orientation and then waited in the waiting room until she was ready for us to come in. The nurses were getting ready to discharge Ashley, so she spent her last few moments with him before we came back in. When we came back in, she handed him to me and said, "Take good care of him." We both were extremely emotional and I just can't imagine how hard that was for her to do. Her friend and her left the hospital and we stayed and waited because he was getting circumcised. Finally, we were on our way home with our brand new baby boy, Landon!

Adoption Opportunity and Landon's Birth

After posting about our fifth loss and people reading our post (Tuesday), we got word that there was a birth mom (Ashley) who was looking for someone to adopt her baby boy who was due in September. The connection was through the dance studio that my sister used to dance at. We talked with Jennifer for a while that evening and she gave us the birth mom's aunt's contact number. We contacted her and set up lunch for that following Friday. JJ and I had lunch with both Ashley and her aunt on Friday in Coppell. We were leaving to celebrate our 3rd anniversary on the West Coast the following week, so we told them we were going to pray about it and get back with them soon. We contacted a private adoption attorney while we were traveling and began the process. I went with Ashley to a few of her appointments during the summer prior to starting back at work. We quickly got a nursery ready and began waiting. Ashley went past her due date and it seemed like forever waiting. She informed me that they would induce her on the 4th and she would let me know when I could come up to the hospital. The night before, JJ had kidney stone pain and didn't sleep well at all. We called the doctor the following morning and scheduled an appointment at Baylor Irving since that's where Ashley would be delivering. After being seen, the doctor said he was going to have surgery that day. We were at the hospital until around 8:30 p.m. and still no word from Ashley. Her friend that was with her did give me text updates though. After we were discharged, we went to pick up JJ's prescriptions and went to my parent's house in Irving. Around 10:00 after JJ had just fallen asleep, I got a call from Ashley. She said, "Are you ready to meet him?" I of course was super excited and woke JJ up. We quickly grabbed our things and headed back to the hospital. We were in awe as soon as we saw him. Ashley handed him to me and took a picture of us with her phone and texted it to me. We stayed until midnight and told her we would be back the following day whenever it was convenient for her. We were so in love and couldn't wait to bring him home.