We were married in 2016. We grew up in the same church and our relationship grew from a natural friendship and a desire to honor the Lord through our family.

Our desire to adopt came on slowly, but our desire to raise children in God-honoring home has been deeply seeded in our hearts for as long as we can remember. 

We have always loved children— we both grew up around kids and have spent many years in various capacities caring for children from church ministries like VBS and summer camps, to volunteer opportunities through our vocations. With a combined 16 (soon to be 17) nieces and nephews, we have been very active and involved in the lives of many children that has only intensified our desire to raise children and give them the loving, safe, and memorable childhood we both feel we had.

After several years of trying to conceive, we were at a loss of why it was not happening for us. We trusted God's plan for us, but the grief was heavy and the prospects felt bleak. Why did we have a deep and good desire that we could not fulfill? We discussed foster care and adoption, but we were terrified of what we did not know and of what we didn’t understand.

In 2019, an at-risk little boy came into our lives. His parents had fallen on hard times and they were seeking— even the help of strangers like us. The situation and risk involved did not make sense to us, but we saw this little boy needing love, safety, and care, and we had it in abundance to share with him. He spent 2 or so years in and out of our home, sometimes for a week or more at a time. We fell in love with him, and later his sister, in a way we previously didn’t think possible. Our hearts were ripped wide open as we poured into him with no guarantee of him having a future in our family. When this time was cut off, it broke our hearts, but it eradicated our fears and strengthened our resolve that our hearts and home could be open to love children that were not biologically ours. 

After a few more years of fertility treatment intermixed in those years, and ample time to grieve and refocus, we stepped into the adoption process with a local, non-profit agency, and we matched with our son, Walter, who was born July 2023. He is absolutely the most incredible person we have ever had the opportunity to love. Loving, caring, and genuinely enjoying him over the last 3 years has been the thrill of our lives. Our relationship with his birth parents is more than we could have asked for and we do not take for granted the incredible open adoption relationship we have with them. Walter is growing up knowing them, hearing his story, and honoring his birth family in our home. We have relished the time we had as the three of us, not wishing to rush or hurry the precious time we have with our son.

Our adoption experience excited our hearts to the possibility of welcoming another child into our family, as well as another birth family that will extend our heart beyond what it’s current bounds. It is no surprise that our love and desire to care for children has shown up in our son, Walter. Watching him interact with children, especially babies, has been a display of his genuine tender heart towards little children. It feels that as soon as he was able to articulate his desire for a brother or sister, he was asking for one. The prospect of not only us, but our son being able to experience the joys of adoption again, has drawn us to this place.

Our previous adoption agency closed, and we are now looking at a significantly higher financial commitment for this adoption. We fully intend to respond to this call to adopt again by whatever means necessary, and trust this calling will come to fruition. However, we desire to be immensely wise with the resources we have been given. While on paper we know we can likely pull together money necessary for an adoption, we do not desire to put our family in a situation where we have so depleted our financial resources that we cannot afford to care for our children— especially if our newest family member comes with medical complications that we are open and willing care for. We desire to confidently enter whatever adoption situation, without the limitation of our fears of being wiped out financially and unable to care for our children. We desire to step into the realm of meeting a need for a child and expectant mom to the fullest extent of helping with their expenses and whatever else comes along with it. We want to generously show the love of God at every step of the way, and are excited to see how God will bless our efforts.