our story
Hi! We are Chris, Julia and Teagan Jernigan. We are local to Tullahoma and have lived here for over 20 years but Julia was born and raised in Fayettville, TN. We have been on quite a journey to come to the place that we are at today. Here is our story.
Chris and I met and started dating in September of 2005. He quickly swept me off my feet and we were married in April of 2008. Two weeks after we were married, Chris joined the Army Reserves and he was off to boot camp. While in AIT, he was given orders to deploy. We spent only 6 months together of our first 2 years of marriage. When he got home from Iraq, we started trying to get pregnant. We weren’t in any hurry, as we were still pretty young. But he was soon given orders to deploy again in 2014. While Chris was away for the second time, I had some tests run to see if there was a reason as to why I hadn't been able to get pregnant yet. I received the news that both my tubes were blocked. My left tube was blocked at 100% and my right tube was 75% blocked. The news was devastating. We took some time to decide what our next steps were.
Chris and I decided to do IVF. That’s when the journey with fertility really began. When he came home from the last tour, we went to a fertility clinic in Nashville just 2 short weeks after he arrived home. I had to have both of my tubes surgically removed. Then came the hormones (bless Chris’s heart because I was not a pleasant person 
, but he still loved me). We attempted to make embryos so that they could be transplanted into my uterus. Good news came but also with bad. We were able to make 10 embryos, but only 2 survived the genetic testing, both girls. We were very hopeful with our 2 little girl embryos but unfortunately neither attached and we lost both. We were told we weren’t pregnant with our last embryo, on the same day Chris got orders for his 3rd tour overseas.
, but he still loved me). We attempted to make embryos so that they could be transplanted into my uterus. Good news came but also with bad. We were able to make 10 embryos, but only 2 survived the genetic testing, both girls. We were very hopeful with our 2 little girl embryos but unfortunately neither attached and we lost both. We were told we weren’t pregnant with our last embryo, on the same day Chris got orders for his 3rd tour overseas.I wasn’t doing well mentally as we knew we could never have our own children. Although we were broken hearted and once again separated for a year, we still had hope and we still made plans for the future. It was at this point that we decided we would adopt. But first, we took time to heal and get back to being “us”. God kept his loving hand over us and protected us physically and emotionally, getting us ready to keep moving forward and keep reaching for our dreams of being parents.
In June of 2019, we were asked to adopt a baby due in January of 2020. We were overwhelmed with emotions of joy and gratitude and it was the easiest YES! We had prayed for so long for this precious blessing. The mother allowed me to be in the room when she gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl. We were given the greatest privilege of being able to name her, Teagan Carol Jernigan. She was the missing piece of our puzzle and our hearts! We officially adopted her on September 9th, 2020 and it was the happiest day of our lives. She is our Sweet T, hence the name Sweet T's.
That brings us to now! Teagan is 4 years old (today actually,1.24.24) and keeps us on our toes everyday! We have been incredibly blessed with this sweet and sassy girl. We are so excited to see what the future holds for our little family!