Speaker 1

Uh huh.

Speaker 2

You don't like to get your diaper changed. Welcome to the Jasmine star show or we talk about life business and everything in between. Speaking of everything in between, can we talk about my daughter today? Yes. I just said my daughter. I waited years to say those words in today. I get to say it publicly on this podcast. I am so happy you're here because we're about to talk about my adoption journey and what it means to run a business as an expectant slash new slash. Oh my goodness. What just happened, mother? Um, I should probably let you know that we had one day notice to pick up our baby girl, but hang tight. I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

Speaker 3

[inaudible] for years,

Speaker 2

my husband and business partner, JD knew that we were destined to adopt a child for years. We prayed for a baby hoping the path would open before us. In 2017 we began to take formal measures to adopt. Now we considered international adoption, but then we quickly learned how difficult it was to adopt outside of the United States given the current political climate. So then we opted for a national faith-based adoption agency and then when we applied, we went through meetings and trainings, but one night we sat through a presentation where a foster to adopt option was presented to us and this was totally outside of what we were expecting, but what this really means is that we become certified foster parents with the hope that we'd be placed with a child who would be eligible for adoption within a few years. We went through months of trainings and home studies and certifications and at the end of a very, very long process after we had been cleared to begin foster care, we just weren't at peace with our decision. So I should probably let you know that what we discovered was that children are often stuck in the foster care system with no way out. Statistically speaking, we ran the chances of getting placed with a child four to six times before finding a child eligible for adoption. Now, I've mentioned this before on the podcast, but JD and I sit on the board of Austin angels and national nonprofit organization helping families support children in the foster care system. Our hearts are for helping foster families. Our hearts are dedicated to creating pathways to love children in foster care. But I also knew that my heart could not take losing a child to the foster care system. My heart was ready for a family, something that I would be able to call my own permanently. And I worried a break my heart so badly that if I had to give up a child after a child after a child, that I just wouldn't keep pushing through the pain in order to find a permanent placement with a child. So we searched to find an adoption attorney and I need a little bit of help. So I reached out to the kind wonderful and very amazing adoptive mom, Rachel Hollis for some help. She referred me to her lawyer, David Rodriguez . We met David, and once we signed the papers, we began yet another approval process. It was more trainings, more meetings, and more home studies. We basically had to start from the very beginning, but nothing could break our determination to start a family. Now, to be honest, once we were approved for placement, we had to make a book and we had to do our profiles like the minute that happened, I thought we'd get paired with the birth mom immediately. Like looking back, I think it's really naive to think that I simply thought it happened because we were ready like Tada. Hey world, we're ready to be parents and we're officially official. In retrospect, what I can really say was just I was just desperate. I wanted to will our experience as parents into existence. I wanted to fight and climb and do everything to become parents, but God had other plans. We spent months in, months, in months waiting in silence. There were times when we made it to the final two families being considered for placement, but every time we weren't selected and Oh my gosh, these days were painful. I remember one day specifically when I was headed to a photo shoot alone and our lawyer called to let me know that our profile had been passed from a mom who I believed with all my heart that she was going to pick us, but I believed it in my bones. I asked JD to arrange flights. I packed my luggage before leaving to the shoot. I sang along to a pop music on the way to do shoe and when I saw David call us, I was like, this is it. I'm by myself. I'm getting this news in my car. When I answered his call, he apologized. When he hung up, I sat in a parking lot and I just cried. I gave myself the permission to sob for seven minutes because all I had was seven minutes. I had to stop crying because I had a meeting with a client, so I smiled to the shoot . I politely laughed with every click of vision or , but I was crumbling on the inside. I drove home and I cried. JD met me at the front door of our house and he held me in his arms and we cried some more. But I had to quickly dry my tears because I had to host a coaching session on the inside of social curator and I did not want to talk about what was going on in my personal life. And I need to actually take a second to pause here because the podcast is never just about me, and it's not about my pursuits into motherhood and entrepreneurship. It's actually not about that. It's about us in our collective journey. In the past two years, I have been so sensitive to people in a new way. Like I think oftentimes it's easy to hide deep pain on the outside, but if we take a step back, I feel like many of us are hurting below the surface. So if you're in a rough spot, if you're tired of being in a constant cycle of waiting, if you're hopelessly wondering if your time will arrive, I see you. I'm sorry you're hurting, but please don't give up hope. I want to let you know that you're not alone. And I can tell you that if you don't give up what's on the other side is better what you hope for and it's waiting for you. So speaking of waiting and please forgive me, I don't know if I'm going to be able to talk my way through this episode without crying man alive. There's like a lump in my throat already. Okay. I mean this journey, I'm like, I feel like we started formerly the process in 2017 but man, I had a client email me just yesterday and she said Jasmine, I remember as talking about adoption in 2012 and it struck me like it shook me cause I'm like man alive. We've been waiting such a long time. So speaking of waiting, let's go back to working through this process of waiting. Okay. On January 24th, 2020 where you received an email from our lawyer stating that a baby was born in Las Vegas. Now I won't get into the specifics of the story because I want to respect the birth parents and I have made the commitment to allow my daughter to tell her story when she's ready. For the sake of the podcast, I'll be sharing just my experience becoming a mom, even if my greatest joy came at the cost of someone else's greatest pain. So due to a certain health complications, child protective services was called by the hospital where the baby was born. They explained that the birth parents could voluntarily relinquish their rights or else the baby had to be put in foster care. The birth parents agreed to sign, so while JD and I were on a team call about health insurance for,

Speaker 4

because I told you , they said, well, you picked a plant . I don't know anything about this stuff, but any questions? Cool. All right , let's do vision. Okay .

Speaker 2

I got a call from David asking us to get to Las Vegas immediately because there was a mix up and the baby was placed in foster care. I know I won't get into the specifics. Why? Again, I want to respect the birth parents here, but JD and I had less than like 35 minutes to pack our bags. But first we needed to tell our parents, JD called his mom first.

Speaker 5

Okay. So we just got off the phone with our lawyer and our lawyer. Uh , so they were in court today and, and , uh , there was a new district attorney and the new district attorney, when he heard that the case , uh , of, of the, of the, of our , of the child came up. He was a little flustered because he didn't know what was going on. So he wanted to , uh , postpone the hearing until February 11th. And , and the judge was , uh , he said, no, that's not happening. That's too many days , uh , because we don't want this child in foster for , uh, you know, 10 more days. So they, he said it's going to be continued to tomorrow at eight 30. And so , uh , our lawyer said it'd be a really good idea if we head to Vegas right now so that uh , we could be there for the court hearing tomorrow because it's a 95% chance that the judge will probably, you know, rule in our favor.

Speaker 6

So that's where we are.

Speaker 5

So we're , you know, we should leave now pretty soon.

Speaker 2

I need to take a second and fill in one piece of very important information. The baby was put into foster care and that case was presented in the state of Nevada. I, again, I can't get into the specifics, but the birth mom voluntarily went to court to petition on our behalf. She stood before a judge and she begged him to move the BB from foster care and into our lives. We were not in Las Vegas for this hearing, but I will never ever be able to thank the birth mom for speaking up on our behalf. I can't imagine the pain that she was going through. I cannot imagine how hard it was for her. I cannot thank her enough for such a selfless act on behalf of her child. At the time of this recording. I haven't met the birth mom, but I am incredibly indebted to the humble act of grace that she bestowed to us at the end of the court session. The judge ruled for the case to be decided the following day, so our lawyer said that we should be present in court at 9:00 AM the following morning. We had to get on the road so fast in order to make it to Las Vegas and time so we packed in a total frenzy.

Speaker 5

You can get a camera . We need a camera.

Speaker 7

Oh my God. Can you get the battery chargers? The camera. CF cards. I need a card reader. You need a phone charger? You got all your stock . Don't you feel? I feel like I'm just forgetting stuff. Like what do you even pack ? Everything we can buy. Okay. Everything we can buy in Las Vegas. Okay.

Speaker 8

Oh my God.

Speaker 7

I just feel so scatterbrained

Speaker 9

and like just throwing stuff in a bag. I think over what ? We're going to laugh at this one day and being like, why did we pack that

Speaker 8

[inaudible]

Speaker 9

like I'm like unpacking my yoga mat. Like come on, come on. That's just like, Oh, hello . I'm going to be a new mom. And Greg does yoga. I mean

Speaker 10

have a little bit far away .

Speaker 2

Right?

Speaker 7

How are you feeling right now? Yeah.

Speaker 10

Feeling anxious to get to, I don't even know.

Speaker 7

You know, like you're, you're, you're like sweaty and you're acting crazy, but we literally cannot even go to court until eight 30 in the morning. You want to be where she is . You want to be closer to where she is just in case . Just in case. Okay.

Speaker 10

She can feel energy. She feels us there.

Speaker 2

She's gonna feel your dad energy. Then it was time to hit the road, but we needed to pick up something special.

Speaker 9

Okay. So I'm walking in to Nordstrom right now because our friends, Brendan and Kristin made an online order for a baby car seat and they just had a baby and they swear by this one. So they just said, we ordered it for you. It's at Nordstrom. Just pick it up. So here we go.

Speaker 11

Okay. There's a line. Hang on. I have all this like nervous energy running through me right now. Like I, I feel like I'm about to start a race. Like I'm in the starting line or something. Like I have adrenaline. I could probably pick up like a car. I can pick up a car with like 18 people in it.

Speaker 9

The a car seat. It is the car seat. Are you parked out here or picking me to pick it up or do you want us to help you? Yeah , it's a huge box. That's huge. Oh really? You have? So , um, are you parked on this side? I'm parked right here. Yeah.

Speaker 2

If there are parents that are listening right now, this just goes to show how little I knew about BB gear. It didn't occur to me that like I couldn't , um, just carry a car seat in a box to my car. So once we got in the car, got the baby seat in the car, I had to stop on my parents' to pick up my birth certificate for paperwork. My parents weren't home, but my youngest sister Zoe was there to ensure that I got what I needed. Ah , I love you. Thank you. Thank you for this.

Speaker 8

I love you. I want to say you guys listen to you as soon as it happens. I can't wait to see you as a anteater. I love you. Thank you. I love you. Thank you. Give mommy got a kiss. I love you. Hello. Hello.

Speaker 2

Hold on, let's go. Once we picked up my birth certificate, we then drove to my mother in law's house to drop off our dog polo. He loves it at her house and she spoils him rotten and we decided it would be best for him to stay there because we didn't know how long we would have to be living in a hotel. So once everything was locked in, it was time to hit the road.

Speaker 7

You're ready? Yes. Okay. Vegas bound. I'm going to get some gas and then uh , ain't no stop. Stop. Stop in this after that.

Speaker 2

Okay. It's taken us like way too long to get on the road. It's actually taken us an hour and 20 minutes, but it feels like it's taken us a week.

Speaker 7

Nice . I wish we can just like teleport to Vegas.

Speaker 2

Okay. Well since we can't tell a board we're going to drive four hours. Let's actually see how long it's going to take. Oh, wait.

Speaker 7

Okay . If you had dropped the fastest, even if it's save those five minutes and we'll get there. Almond is fast .

Speaker 3

There's a mile turn left on the Serta drive. All right . Well, Amy Winehouse. Okay. Oh , it says it's gonna take us four hours in six, four hours and 16 minutes. We're getting there at seven. Alright . Alrighty . Let's go .

Speaker 2

We sat in over four hours of traffic. We talked, we sang along to John Mayer's greatest hits. We listened to podcasts. I sent emails. We tried our best to pretend that this road trip was just like any other, we couldn't bring ourselves to acknowledge that we packed bags for ourselves and didn't at all pack one thing for the baby. I think that what we were trying to do is we were trying to protect ourselves. We didn't want our hearts to get hurt. So we decided like, Hey, we'll just figure out things as they arrive. But thank God our sweet friends, Brandon and Kristin were believing in a miracle and that miracle on our way. And they just said it is coming. So they drove to Las Vegas separately and they went on a baby shopping SPI for us. When we arrived exhausted to the hotel that night, they pulled up 10 minutes later, right behind us with a truck full of baby items.

Speaker 8

Oh my God. Thank you. Oh my God. You guys , I can't believe this. I can't believe this. What are you gonna believe this? What are you guys doing? Anything you want? We're doing branded . You guys make life easy. Don't even get it. There's so much like so it's just a weird, yeah , I can't believe it. We threw everything in a bag and got it. Came here and we knew we were going to get a call and we just, we still had to throw everything in a bag. So you see this car filled with all our baby stuff? I can. I can seriously you guys. I don't know. I feel like you guys are our village. Thank you . Thank you. Thank you. You guys can get your jacket and can say , we got this.

Speaker 2

We impact our bags. But before Christine and Brandon drove back home, Kristen had to teach us a few of the basics and whatever Kristen picks, it's been heavily researched and cross tested and mom group of fruits

Speaker 7

we're gonna make for how many ounces. So this one's only a two ounce bottle, so you'll just do two and two ounces like for newborns. That's what they drink, right ? Maybe around the door.

Speaker 2

Our friends left in the hotel room was quiet, dark and empty. I couldn't sleep and when I did kind of doze off, I had nightmares. I was being suffocated. When we got into our car the next morning, we tried our best understand the gravity of the situation. The good news was that my parents surprised us by flying to Las Vegas as well. They told us like they wanted us to go to court on our own, but they wanted to be there to offer support as needed. Just having my parents there made me feel like a kid again. They've always showed me unconditional love and support when I needed it the most at 8:40 AM we arrived at the courthouse and we were overcome with nerves. Our case was at nine in the morning, but we wanted to meet our caseworker before. Okay.

Speaker 7

At the courthouse and then when this moment I just take a second, just give it, give it a second to just soak in. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now . Are you feeling scared? Good morning. How are you ? Thank you so much. [inaudible] just so happy to meet you guys. Let's just start . Thanks for getting here so quick. We were on call since two days ago, so it's when you're ready. You're ready. You ready? Thank you. I have a good feeling about you guys. [inaudible] you can't make me start crying early this week

Speaker 2

we were told that we could not enter the courtroom, so we set outside with the district attorney, petition the judge to keep the baby in foster care and our lawyer petitioned the BB to be placed with us. About 20 minutes later we saw the caseworker step out of the courtroom with her face. Really like sad . It was withdrawn. The district attorney applied for an appeal when the judge ruled in our favor. That meant the baby for the time being would have to stay in foster care. And this news hit us really hard.

Speaker 7

David and George attorneys just to see if we want to know likely cause I dunno , I dunno. I think , I think it's going to be positive that judge, but see now they'll go before another judge.

Speaker 2

The case worker told us to return to the courthouse later that afternoon for the appeal. So we left the courthouse and we just felt sad and we were anxious and we just were totally dejected and we immediately called our lawyer after a long conversation. He was empathetic to our position but then offered some really tough love clarity that we needed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You add a lot of clarity.

Speaker 12

Definitely . Just take a deep breath and we're just taking a step at a current. Don't, don't , don't do what I think is is in your nature. It's my nature to to , so this isn't, this isn't a negative mind is exactly mine . My stuff, I tend to play three dimensional chess and worry about what the next steps are going to be. Right now you can't do that. You have to be sequential and take it one step. Right .

Speaker 2

Okay. Thank you. David. I want to take a second and highlight the words our lawyer used. He said we want it to play three dimensional chess in this situation, but life doesn't ever work that way. What an awesome emotional gut check, right? We had to stay sequential and stay the course. Can I get an amen? Like how many of us need that reminder? We must stay the course and state sequential.

Speaker 7

I have peace that all the, all the steps are actually falling into place and I'm still optimistic and actually very hopeful.

Speaker 9

We had a few hours before the appeal hearing, so we decided to drive around Vegas for a bit. So right now this courthouse is two blocks away from where my grandmother used to live in Las Vegas. We actually didn't know where the courthouse was until late last night. And then on the way here, I turned to JD and I said, Lou and I used to drive here when we were 18 years old. Yeah. We would drive here together to visit my grandmother when we were 18 years old and we continued year after year. We would go come up here like two or three times a year to visit her and we would listen to John Mayer CDs. Yes. CDs were old. So we would listen to John, where are these long road trips? And we would visit my grandmother because she was, and still remains like my best friend. So I just want , I just, we're going to drive over to where she lived. She lived in , um, she lived in a mobile home community. So , um, it's two blocks away from the courthouse. And so we're driving over to her trailer park because I just, I just want to visit it again and yeah, just I want to be around something positive and my grandmother is like the most positive, radiant person I'd ever met in my life. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go hang out there for a sec.

Speaker 2

After we left my grandmother's trailer park, we went grocery shopping and tried to stay busy as the clock slowly ticked by. So we are back at the hotel. We went to whole foods and we bought how many, how many, how many? I think we brought like four or five dozen flowers. We're getting into our hotel room because JD says that we have to create an environment that is inspiring and welcoming and he bought candles and we are gonna just set this room up so that it feels the space feels like and feels like we're at home. That afternoon we got a call from the caseworker that the appeal was dismissed without having a hearing and just like that the baby could be released from foster care, but that didn't mean we could get her. She'd first have to be placed with cradle care. Now cradle here is a family that's approved by the adoption agency and they act as like an interim caretaker between us and the foster family. It was Friday night and is agonizing as it was not to be with the baby. We were determined to continue trying and then the more we tried, the more we realized there wasn't anything we could do to get her that Friday. Thankfully my parents wanted to catch up, so we met them at a Mexican restaurant on the Las Vegas strip to fill them in. Oh wow.

Speaker 13

Dad, you look so exactly . So nothing . I didn't read any book I got about .

Speaker 14

Give me that . Geez man . Maybe the , maybe all the cheese man . All the gossip right now. What have you guys been doing all day? We live walking. We went to go get a baby and if we find out , Oh yeah, we're expecting a phone call from the lawyers . We're just waiting. We're waiting to see what the possibility of us being United with the baby today. If there's any texts . Any possible . Any chance . Oh hello .

Speaker 9

It was so nice to have the chance to process our emotions with my parents and after dinner we headed back to the hotel. How many stories did my parents tell about how this baby has already like bless them? Like how many? How many, how , how lucky did they say? Just in like the past day , they said, Oh, the baby did this for us and the baby open at least eight doors for them in their life. They're going on a European vacation because, Oh yeah, taxi driver . Oh my parents are going to Bulgaria. There was a taxi driver who picked my parents up from the airport and they started talking. My dad had charmed him and he, he said, what are you doing in Vegas? And the taxi driver guessed , Oh, gambling a conference and anniversary. And my dad says, no, keep on guessing. And then he said, finally, he's like, I give up. What are you here for? And my dad said, we're here to see our granddaughter. My daughter just adopted a baby. And he was so moved by this. And he says, Oh, you have to take your granddaughter to my country of Bulgaria, Sofia, Bulgaria, you must go. And when he dropped my parents off their hotel, he unloaded their bags. And when my dad paid him, he said, no, no, no, I can't take the money. Use the money and buy the baby a gift from me by the baby. A gift and my parents were so moved that they, now they, they, my parents scrimp and save and they've been dreaming of a European vacation to Spain. All of that changed because their taxi driver said they needed to go to Bulgaria and they said that baby girl open their eyes to see Bulgaria. Right. Like that was one story. That was , what was it , how many other stories? Delta lounge, they got 8,000 extra points because baby girl, baby girl opened her eyes, just warmed people's hearts. So, Oh, and then when they checked in their hotel, they check their hotel and um, they, they don't have to pay the resort fee or, and they don't have to display the taxes because my dad told the person who checked him in, you know, I'm here to adopt, I'm here to see my adopted granddaughter. And they calmed everything. So baby girl is basically like a lucky charm. Like they're in Vegas. They should probably, my parents don't gamble, but if they did today, she might be a good night for them. So we are hoping we have made a decision. Okay, we're just getting the hotel. Might be a little noisy. We are hoping that tomorrow we could pick the baby up from cradle care. She was moved from her foster home into cradle care, which is a family that has been approved by the agency to take care of her because it's Friday. Um , we couldn't get hospital records and the agency doesn't want us to take the baby without verifying her hospital records, but we spoke to our lawyer and he spoke to the agency lawyer and we just said that we're willing to take the baby without seeing medical records because we decided not emotionally, but we decided that whatever, whatever she has gone through, whatever she has or whatever, she will go through. We are committed to being her parents and making sure that she is all the baby. That night we went to bed so excited to see her baby girl. The next day we could asleep because we were so excited. But then we got some pretty bummer news.

Speaker 11

It is Saturday morning, February 1st and I just got news from the caseworker that we won't be able to pick up baby girl today. She said that she had plans and that the cradle care family had plans, which is kind of a bummer. I texted her and like very, very Jasmine fashion and I said, can we pick up the baby anywhere? Can we pick up the baby at any event at any time in any city, in any state? And she's like, I'm afraid not. So JD is downstairs printing out the paperwork that we need to sign and I don't want to tell him. I think he's going to be real . I know he's going to be really sad. I'm just trying to like shift my mind to have it be that this is happening for us. There is a reason baby girl needs to stay with her cradle care family. If they're going to see her and they're going to love her and they're going to notice stuff about her and they're going to help us raise her because it takes a village and then

Speaker 9

tomorrow, tomorrow it'll come. I believe it. I believe it. It'll come tomorrow. I was really sad having to tell JD the news because he was so excited to get her in his arms. I know.

Speaker 7

How are you feeling? How are you feeling?

Speaker 9

I just recorded a voice memo how I felt. Now I turn the, I just turned it on for you. How are you feeling?

Speaker 7

Um, sit down, sit down. I'm holding on holding to the belief that this is happening for a reason.

Speaker 9

Once we wrapped our minds around not getting the baby until Sunday, we decided to use Saturday to complete a list of things to prepare for baby girl. So you knew that moment that like new dads have like right after their baby's born in the hospital, it's like they're hugging and they're kissing, they're high fiving people and they're passing out cigars. Maybe they're not passing out cigars. Like maybe they just didn't in the 1950s I don't know. But like we don't really have that cigar moment except for the fact that there's so many random strangers in the world who just want to help you when your life is about to change. I mean taxi drivers waiving their taxi fees. When we checked into the hotel, like they upgraded our rooms that we had more space with the baby and they said, can we give you a crib and please, we'll comp your, your laundry bill if you have baby clothes to wash. and then just right now JD went downstairs because we brought a printer, we brought up , we brought a printer. My printer is from like, I'm pretty sure 2002 so imagine this like 32 pound printer that we brought from home because we knew we would be printing out a ton of documents design. We didn't bring enough paper. So JD ran down stairs and he went to the gentleman at the counter and he said, I have some really important document design. I just need some printer paper. And there was like this awkward silence between them for a second. And then JD said, I'm here in Vegas to adopt my daughter. Can you please give me some printer paper? And the guy says , Oh my gosh. He opens up his printer and brings out like a ream , like seven pounds of papers as a cure going, print them, hurry please. And so to strangers in the world who really want to help other people get the thing that they want. Thank you. Our goal was to have the baby's medical records reviewed before the baby was placed with us. Now this sounds easy, but we spent hours on the phone to find a doctor or a nurse who'd help us read their medical records. And then we finally found a local hospital we could set an appointment with and then pay out of pocket for the review. But it didn't work out the way that we had expected. Okay. So we just walked out of hospital number one. Uh , we took in the baby's medical records to see if they would be able to be read because we got them and it's like 37 pages of medical talk that they don't understand. And so one hospital said that they won't be able to read it for us. So now we're going to hospital and number two to see if we can get a pediatrician to just help us understand this.

Speaker 2

We arrived at hospital number two and no one there would help us either. I started to feel so overwhelmed and I started to feel just desperate. I was a new mom trying to figure out the health of our future baby and I needed help. We were driving down the Las Vegas strip and we pulled into a random emergency clinic and we asked for help . The front desk nurse took so much pity on us and she called an RN to help us out.

Speaker 9

We just locked out of a medical center in Las Vegas. We went to two of their hospitals and nobody would read the medical records and so we just pulled into like an emergency clinic and we said, we'll pay a doctor, can somebody just please read these medical records because we don't understand them. And the kindness of two nurses who came out and they just sat with us and they explained that the baby was healthy and I'm not going to talk about any of their personal details to the birth mom or to the baby, but I just wanted to document this moment that like we tried to pay them. She spent 35 minutes with us and she just said, what you're doing is courageous and what you're doing is brave and we want to give this gift to you guys. And so I just, there's just so many people who are doing the nicest things for us, just these complete strangers. And I think that baby girl was blessed because there's so many people who just want to help her. I'm just so thankful. I'm just so thankful. I'm so, so thankful. So today is Saturday. I been texting with our case worker and um, we should have the baby in her arms tomorrow morning, so we will, we will get that and we'll get that there . And yeah, it's happening.

Speaker 2

We spent the rest of the day preparing for the baby to arrive. And so we were buying clothes and blankets and diapers for her and our friends had texted us and told us to go to bed early because it was going to be the last good night of sleep we'd get. But in typical Jasmine and JD fashion, we just did things our own way. Okay. Like, we look at advice from people and we're like, Oh nice. But no , we were going to do us. Okay. We decided to celebrate our last night without a child with a lovely dinner and a Las Vegas show.

Speaker 5

Okay. It's our last night, last dinner date and let's see. Oh yes. Without a child . That's correct. Our the last dinner date before we get our baby tomorrow and we were walking around the casino cause we're here in Las Vegas. And you decided I gave you too . Well I didn't give you, I had, there was two options for dinner, Chinese or rustic Italian and I'm going , of course I need what you would choose, but I still wanted to throw it out there cause I love Chinese but rustic Italian

Speaker 14

and we're having a beautiful glass of wine. Okay, but what do we, what are we doing tonight? You got tickets to go see love. Love. That's so appropriate. We are going to go see the Beatles , circus de Solei. We're going to get inspired, we're going to get inspired and we're going to be listening to music that our parents listened to. And then we listened to, we listened to and that our future daughter will listen to .

Speaker 2

It was truly the most magical last date as non-parents we rested well, but the next morning I laid in bed with a million questions. It's

Speaker 11

six 40 in the morning and you don't want to be awake. And our friends are gonna be upset because they said get lots of sleep over the baby comes, but I can't sleep.

Speaker 15

[inaudible] I woke up last night, but I'm , I'm sleeping now, but I won't sleep now. But last night I was up from three to probably five.

Speaker 11

Why it isn't nervous.

Speaker 15

I don't think. I didn't wake up with like anxiety. I just woke up and I just had a lot of thoughts .

Speaker 11

What were you thinking?

Speaker 15

A lot of different things. Um , I was trying to picture how my baby's gonna look . I don't know why I pictured her face. Maybe 20 different ways. Her hair color, 20 different .

Speaker 11

What do you think her eye color? Like what do you think? Or eye color

Speaker 15

I have , no, I think they're either Brown or black.

Speaker 11

Okay. We should. We should just, we should imagine. We should just say. Okay. Do you think she has a lot of hair or no hair?

Speaker 15

He has hair. I think he's chubby. I hope she actually has a little bit of meat on here .

Speaker 2

I should take a second to say that we knew virtually nothing about the baby. We hadn't seen her. We hadn't seen her birth parents. We knew so little about her ethnicity, her background or her health, but we loved her already.

Speaker 11

Okay. But really, what color eyes do you think she has?

Speaker 15

I think they're going to be either black or Brown. Okay . Quinn black.

Speaker 11

Okay. I think she's going to ha , I think she's gonna have very little hair and Brown eyes. Even if she doesn't know as like, I think her energy, I just think that we're like, I don't know, maybe it's stupid. I just think that she's like around us immediately.

Speaker 2

Okay. Not immediate. Okay. Okay. Not okay. I

Speaker 11

know that immediately we have like, we have like a decade of pent up child love inside of us, so it's just like poor little baby. It's like a New York city height hydrant , broken hydrant of just like love, like we're just like wash out girl. Okay. Do you wonder , do you wonder how that , um, I don't know if they call it the handoff . I think they call it the handoff . So I proposed for Superbowl Sunday , right? The handoff . Oh my God, that was, that was funny. That was actually kind of funny. Um , I think that's your first dad joke.

Speaker 8

Oh no, no, no, no. I really , you're going to text all, you're going to text all your guy friends. So there was a handoff today beyond the Superbowl and it didn't have it at the super bowl . I think you already stole my joke . I think I did do I don't about a name,

Speaker 15

a name? Yes.

Speaker 11

Do you have one in your hair already?

Speaker 15

I don't. I have three names in my heart and I really think that,

Speaker 11

I think you have one that I think you have one that's at the top. I just want you to be honest.

Speaker 15

You know there's this one that I would call her, this name if her hair and her icon, like I see her hair and eye color and I would say that's her name . And there's another one where if I see a certain type of movement or like a separate type of thing, like I'm a vigor or like if I see some type of like excitement, I have a name, if I see what would like a pig if I see her, I'm sorry with a big smile. That's the third one. So I'm like, I don't see any of those. I'm going to be lost. I'm not going to know which one

Speaker 11

any of those three reactions cause baby . Okay. But you know babies that are 10 days old. Uh huh . When you say movement, like,

Speaker 15

like you know like she just moves it a lot. Likes her legs are always like, like

Speaker 11

and 10 days old. It's like a , it's like a , it's like a jello dessert at Thanksgiving. Like they kind of, they kind of,

Speaker 8

well I like have a name for jello dessert . What , what do you, how are you feeling running ?

Speaker 11

I feel like I'm , I don't know. I've heard that moms, when they're debating between names, like they know, just like when they hold their baby and they feel like, when do we hold her? Like we'll know and maybe we sound so ridiculous. I know, I believe it, but it sounds ridiculous, but I believe you. I think we'll know. I always feel like we are ridiculous people. Like we have ridiculous dreams and we've ridiculous things like that. Go . And then like they come to,

Speaker 2

I believe you. I know. I know. After a workout and a breakfast, neither of us could really eat. We waited in our hotel suite. The baby would be handed to us by cradle cure, but we had no idea how things would actually take place. Then we got a phone call.

Speaker 7

I'm so nervous. Oh yeah,

Speaker 10

it is. Oh, Dan , how you doing?

Speaker 6

[inaudible]

Speaker 10

Oh my goodness. No, don't, don't have gay. You can't get up your soon enough then . Do you need some , uh, assistance or guidance or over at the front desk? Um , there's a gentleman by the name of Jacob. He's right there. He is. He's actually, they , they, they know you're coming. Um, and they are going to , uh, we're going to actually have , uh , uh , I think someone from , uh, the concierge will escort you up here.

Speaker 2

We decided that we didn't want to get the BB in the lobby of a hotel and preferred a private moment as a family with us and our caseworker . So the amazing concierge team arranged to escort cradle care to eyes . Then we just had to wait for her to arrive, which felt like it took any turn. Niti now looking back on her audio vials, in actuality it just took 18 minutes, but I am telling you it's felt like 18 years.

Speaker 6

Maybe we should just calm down. It's okay. We try. We're trying. You know , we're trying, we're trying. You don't need to get frustrated, so , okay. Did you call my desk answering ?

Speaker 7

It seems like Dan would call if there was a problem. It could be the baby. He had to change the baby. You know, sometimes things happen, but Oh my God, they're going here . Oh my God . Oh my God. Oh my God.

Speaker 14

Hi. [inaudible]

Speaker 7

your full day.

Speaker 14

[inaudible] come on in. Come on in. Come on in .

Speaker 7

[inaudible] box . [inaudible] Oh yeah .

Speaker 2

Our first moments. His parents was nothing short of incredible baby girl was sheer and utter perfection. She didn't cry. She ate well. She slept through any noise.

Speaker 8

She's eating so well. Wednesday we'll do are you, where are you tripping out right now? I can't believe this. Like, how do we have a baby? Oh, God's blessings. God's beautiful. No room . I don't think there's enough camera memory in the world.

Speaker 2

When the room cleared out, JD and I , um , we laughed with her and we danced with her and we watched the Superbowl with her and I told her, I taught J l o everything she knows about shaking her hips. It was euphoria. I felt like I was living in a cloud, writing a unicorn, eating chocolate fondue. We spent most of the day agonizing over her name prior to meeting her JD and I had three names that we really loved, but then we finally settled on her name and JD immediately turned her name into a song.

Speaker 13

[inaudible]

Speaker 8

of course , girl , that's it . That's it . That's my Luna voice.

Speaker 2

Our sweet daughter, Luna soul , was placed in our arms on Sunday zero two zero two 2020 her entrance in our lives was marked by a palindrome and the Superbowl, so our little family celebrated in a hotel room wiping away the constant flow of tears. All the terms of her adoption will remain private. Luna soul is incredibly strong and beat the odds squarely set against her health. She sleeps mostly through the night. She hangs out with me while I work by teach while I record a podcast and her daddy is a walking puddle of love for her most of the day I cooped into her ear reminding her of how much she is loved and how long we have waited to call her our own. I never knew, I never knew my heart was capable of loving someone so deeply

Speaker 9

as if each inhale is a new opportunity to create more space for her soul to grow. I will never, ever know how I was chosen by God or this truly spectacular baby, but I crumble in gratitude for her in my life of the many, many things I am thankful for. When JD said his girls are his entire world, his moon, sun and star. I nearly exploded into a puff of [inaudible] glitter y'all . I like lost my mind. I couldn't be more elated to raise a daughter and show her how to pursue her wildest dreams. I hope that my ceiling will be her floor. For those of you guys who have been part of the journey, I always joke and I say that this baby was the baby that the internet had prayed for. For people who have sent us well wishes for people who have just give her blessings from strangers to friends, to people who've connected online. I want to see . Thank you. I want to see first and foremost thank you to guide for placing her with us. Thank you to her birth parents for me . Very hard decision. Thank you to our lawyer David radius who patiently worked through us in the process. Thank you to our family who have loved Luna before they met her, to our friends who've gone above and beyond to shower us with gifts and with love and with support. Thank you to the many, many gracious caseworkers and to the agencies who worked so hard to protect her. Thank you to Luna, Saul's foster family who kept her for five days and who loved her as if she was their own. I know it sounds silly, but I also do have to take a second to think. The four seasons Las Vegas, I know it probably sounds like an ad, but I cannot say how much they have gone out of their way to make this hotel feel like home. We were escorted and met in valet and people, they're generously set up her her car seat. When JD was having a hard time, we were graciously upgraded to a suite so that our family would be able to spend the first few nights together in peace. Enjoy. Luna was sent gifts from the hotel like a little Teddy bear and they sent her a chocolate cake with her name inscribed on it. Thank you to the many people who came and fixed our heater when we asked for it, who offered to clean her baby clothes into the cleaning staff, into the valet who carefully placed every item of hers in this room. We, at the time of this recording there sitting in Las Vegas, still in a hotel. We want to be home with friends and family, but we also know that this whole process takes time. And while the three of us sit in this hotel room recording this podcast, I just want to express my deepest gratitude for the people who just really rallied around us. I'm thankful. Thank you for listening to her journey. Thank you for supporting us. We appreciate your prayers. We appreciate your kindness. I appreciate your time more than anything. Thank you so much. Friends.