About Me

-
My name is Jackie and I knew I wanted to be a mother since the age of 13.  In 2015, I decided to take the plunge and move full steam ahead on my journey to single motherhood by choice. My father had just turned 80 years old and his health had been declining rapidly.  At best, he may have a few more years on earth and I was determined to make sure he experience his first granddaughter before his final days with us.

I was born and raised in Orange County and now live in Oakland, California.  A CPA by trade, I have spent my professional career in the asset management space.   Most importantly, I am a "Choice Mom" to Baby J, my beautiful daughter.  She is my absolute biggest dream come true.

I am on this amazing journey with our "Choice Family".  Baby J was born into an amazing village of multiple grandmas, grandpas, and countless uncles and aunties.  She is already dearly loved.

We share our story here in hopes to inspire others.  My number one goal is to provide a happy and loving life for Baby J the best I know how.  As many of you know, families can be created in many different ways.  I have three wonderful half-brothers; we each have different mothers or fathers yet we share a powerful bond.

Welcome to my blog and thank you for being here and for joining us on this amazing beautiful journey of our "choice family".

-jackie



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy 3rd Birthday Jojo!

-
Image
It's amazing and crazy how fast this third trip around the sun has been ----even in these slow pandemic days.  These past several months have been particularly challenging and lonely to say the least,  but Jojo and I have proved to be the best team - mommy managing full-time work during peak busy season and Jojo adjusting to life without our sweet nanny, family, and friends. For Jojo's third birthday this year, we weren't able to host a big birthday bash as we did last year and it was A-ok.  She still had an amazing celebration with chocolate cupcakes home-baked by mommy, cheeseboard pizza and a life-size PINK DANCING UNICORN!  She is indeed one lucky kid and knows her life is rich with memories and wonderful people.  Many from near and far submitted their birthday wishes which I then compiled into a video montage.  Personally, they were therapeutic to see all the immense thoughtfulness and love that came with the birthday videos.  This video is a ...
Read more

Dreams still come true

-
Image
Dreams and miracles still come true even in these wild and seemingly forever pandemic.  We are heading into nearly a full year of this shelter-in place and I've been honestly too overwhelmed to pause and celebrate the birth of Jojo's full biological brother into this world!  There is just no excuse! Brandon, Jojo's younger brother arrived three weeks early in Spring of 2020 weighing in at 7 lbs, 7 oz, and 20.5 inches.  He was born a very big younger brother to say the least.  Comparing newborn photos side by side, one would think they were practically twins! How did this happy ending story begin?  My IVF journey continues with four extra Grade A boy embryos after conceiving my sweet, perfect Josephine in July 2017.  Nearly four years later, while I am still uncertain if I can physically, mentally and financially raise a second child on my own, it was clear that I will NOT need all four embryos at any point of time or pay to keep them frozen forever....
Read more

Doing this Differently

-
Image
In honor of Mother's Day this year, I'm excited to share a conversation I had on the unique topic of  Sharing Embryos .  I sat down with my dear friend Nicole, who's also a solo mom to her wonderful three-year-old, Dylan, here in San Francisco.  She recently launched an inspiring new podcast  Doing This Differently , which opens up discussion about non-traditional family setups, fostering open-mindedness, understanding and inclusion. We were joined by Heidi, who shared her experiences raising Jojo and Henry as full siblings through embryo donation.  She is truly a super warrior mom who had Henry at the start of the pandemic in April 2020.      We touched on several heartfelt topics during our interview: Why someone might consider donating an embryo. The challenges of becoming a solo mom during a pandemic. The right time to tell children about their birth origins. Key learnings from navigating embryo donation. How and when to introduce the concept ...
Read more