~Our Story~

It’s national adoption month again and Eric & I wanted to once again share our own story in the hopes that it would possibly encourage another family to adopt. If our story about building our family touches at least one other family and helps them to adopt another child, then it is worth it. There are so many sweet babies and children already in this world that need families. They need a mommy and a daddy. That really bothers me. I read something that said if Christians stepped up as God commanded (James 1:27) then there wouldn't be an orphan crisis in the world. These children don't need the finest of things, they need families. It's hard to sleep at night knowing this. If you have children, imagine what their lives would be like in an orphanage. Imagine them being shuffled from foster family to foster family. Never really knowing the love of a mother and a father. If you wouldn't want your child to be subjected to that, why would you want another subjected to it?   


Eric & I have been together over 14 years. We will be married 10 years on 11/16. We've been together since high school. After we got married, we decided to wait a couple of years before starting a family. After 2 years went by, we decided that we wanted to try to start a family. We tried to get pregnant for several years before going to a fertility specialist for some help. We tried several unsuccessful treatments before we decided that we didn't want to continue there. We took a few more months off and made the decision to adopt. Adoption had been on my heart and mind for years, but we had worried that we would never be able to afford to adopt. It’s not cheap. I had been researching all kinds of adoption information for the last couple of years. The more people that I got to know, the more blogs that I read, and the more people that I talked to about their adoption experiences, I felt so much more at ease that we would be able to adopt as well. 


However, over the last couple of years, I have met some absolutely amazing families and new friends and I realize that adoption is absolutely NOT just for couples that have fertility issues. There are so many families made up of biological kids and adopted kids and they are beautiful, beautiful families. I love that we have made so many wonderful friendships with other adoptive families. It does sadden me though that so many couples won’t even consider adoption just because they can and do have biological children. We know of NO other adoptive families even close to our age within a 50 mile radius of where we currently live. We would love nothing more than to have some adoptive friends nearby!  


We made the decision in August 2010 to apply to Holt. We prayed that if we were accepted that God was pointing us down the path that we were meant to take. We received a phone call very shortly after letting us know that we were approved. I requested the files for a little girl and a little boy just a couple of weeks after being accepted. We had to turn down both of those files, but since then, an awesome thing has happened. I am now friends with the sweet baby girl’s mom on Facebook and I've met the little boy’s mother through our agency's bulletin board! I can now follow along with both these children as they grow.


The third file I requested was our sweet boy's. It took our pediatrician a couple of weeks to review his file and get back with me about her professional opinion of his special needs. It was agony waiting. We were the only family that requested to move forward with his adoption, so we didn't have to go against any other family in front of the committee. We had an over the phone interview and after answering many questions about Landon's special needs and how we would take care of him and how we could provide care for his possible special needs. We had our over the phone interview on 11/16 (our 8 year anniversary!) and were told on 11/17 that we had a son! That moment changed our lives forever. We became parents. I went for weeks worrying and wondering, is he really ours? I even emailed and asked the girl who did our interview if he was really ours. Nothing really felt final until we received his legal paperwork, which didn't come until January because our social worker took an additional month and a half to turn in our approved home study. With the exception of the wait, the paperwork is probably the toughest part of the adoption process. That and getting things done in a timely manner (or timely in my opinion).   


Fast forward 2 years later....We are more blessed than I could have imagined. Landon is my dream come true. I cannot wait to again grow our family through adoption. That will be the only way that we add to our family from now on. I can't say enough how much of a blessing this child is. He is the sweetest, most perfect little boy we could have ever dreamed of. God knew exactly what he was doing when he ordained this little boy as our son. I encourage you that if God is pulling at your heart about adoption. Listen. You'll be glad you did. I'd be happy to talk or answer any questions at all if someone is interested in adoption. It is something that God has definitely laid upon my heart and my life is completely blessed because of it.