Jilian Clark fell in love with Adam Reece, a junior at Elizabethton High School, when she was a high school sophomore. Three months into their relationship and 15 years into her life, she knew he was the one she wanted to marry. They dated for five years before he proposed while on a snowboarding trip on Sugar Mountain over Christmas break 2007.

A few months before they were to be married last summer, she called Adam with a proposal of her own. She wanted to bring home the 2-year-old brother of a very sick baby who was being treated at Johnson City Medical Center, where Jilian works full time while also going to school full time. 

The ill child has a disease that only 50 others in the world have. For three months, the 1 year old had been treated at the Children’s Hospital at Johnson City Medical Center, and Jilian had gotten to know 2-year-old Ricky. When the baby’s mother, who also has a 6 and a 7 year old, needed to be able to accompany the baby to other hospitals for treatment, Jilian felt a tug.

“It’s really hard because her other baby is so sick, so she can’t be a great mom for Ricky right now, but she has great intentions and really loves him,” Jilian said. “I guess, as a Christian, you just help people when they need help.”

So, Jilian called Adam and told him about the family’s situation and that she wanted take care of Ricky while his mother traveled with the baby to different hospitals. There are no legal forms about the current or future care for Ricky. The decision to bring Ricky home was completely impulsive, although Jilian had been entertaining him at the hospital for months. Still, she said, “I never really expected to bring home a baby from work.”

When she brought Ricky home for the first time, Adam says he thought, “What do I do with this?”

What they did: With some extra help from their families, the couple cared for the boy full time.

“He makes our lives completely different,” Adam said. “It’s a lot more structured when he’s with us—like we eat breakfast and take naps and play outside.” 

Jilian and Adam were married at Memorial Presbyterian Church on 08.08.08 at 8 p.m. Many of their wedding pictures have Ricky wearing a mini suit for the ceremony and a tuxedo T-shirt with “Little Ricky” printed on the back for the reception.

Jilian said her dad, Dicky Clark, told her, “It’s a good thing you don’t work at the animal shelter.”  

While Adam had finished school by the time they got married, Jilian was still in college—and still is. She is public relations major and a Spanish minor at ETSU. Adam, who graduated with a business degree from Northeast State in Kingsport in May 2008, works at Summers Hardware and Industrial Supply Company as a logistics specialist. “That pretty much means I go to businesses and take them stuff they buy from us in a big truck,” he said.

Eventually the couple wants kids of their own, but Jilian still has one more year of college. This semester she is taking 18 hours of classes and working at the Children’s Hospital, where she puts in 12-hour shifts three days a week.

She has worked there since June 2005 when she started working right after high school and as a CNA with a nursing major at Northeast State. At the hospital, they changed her from nursing to administration where she does payroll, scheduling and community relations. This is when she changed her major to public relations.

She says she wants to actively get involved with hospital outreach and fundraising. She’s also interning with American Diabetes Association, so hospital PR is her passion.

With a minor in Spanish, which she is able to help her to communicate with the growing numbers of Spanish-speaking families, like Ricky’s, who come her way at the hospital. Right now, if they need a translator they have a use a phone system, but because she speaks Spanish, she is able to directly connect with the families. In high school, she went on a mission trip to Mexico for two weeks, which began her love for the language. The couple also honeymooned in Puerto Rico. It’s a full life.

“We both have good jobs,” Jilian said, “and while it’s stressful to work full time and go to school full time, it is completely worth it to be able to come home to him every night.”