Joe and Carlie are true believers that things happen for a reason, and their evidence is the adoption of their baby girl, Hallie Rose.
The couple was originally gender-specific in hopes of adopting a girl, but later decided to open up their preferences and let things naturally happen. They received an adoption opportunity with a birth mother who would be giving birth to a boy, or so they thought – The baby turned out to be a girl!
If Joe and Carlie hadn’t retracted their gender specificity, they wouldn’t have received this specific opportunity because the doctors believed the baby to be a boy. Because of a twist of fate and one seemingly innocuous decision, Hallie Rose found her way home to Joe and Carlie and her big brother Jalen.
This is their adoption story.
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Joe, Carlie and their 11-year-old son, Jalen, were sleeping soundly in a rented Manhattan apartment until 5:30 a.m. when their phone rang.
Carlie quickly snatched the phone and answered it. Indeed, this was it – this was the phone call they had flown all the way from Kansas to New York City for.
She knew the news would be good, but what she heard was even better. What was said to her were the sweetest, most unexpected words she had ever heard in her life. Right then and there, something she had always thought to be true was proved: things do happen for a reason.
Building the Foundation
“Pretty much right away, we were kind of a family,” Carlie said, thinking back to when she first started dating Joe back in 2001.
Joe immediately made a connection with Jalen, Carlie’s son from another relationship who was 1 ½ years old when they met.
“I’ve always been kind of a magnet toward kids,” Joe said. “Once we started dating, I really took to Jalen. I think that made us stronger.”
Joe didn’t always see himself as a father until he became more serious with Carlie and continued to bond with Jalen. Joe’s budding relationship with Jalen reminded him of how much he enjoyed being around kids, and how much he actually did want to be a dad. As for Carlie, she was one of five siblings, all brothers, so naturally she hoped to be a mother to several children, with hopefully at least one of them being a daughter. And last but not least, Jalen was becoming antsy – he wanted a sister as well.
To read the rest of Joe, Carlie, Jalen and Hallie Rose’s adoption story, please click here.
