GREAT NEWS! We've decided to adopt a child! We're so excited to give a child an opportunity to grow up in our home and teach him or her the best things that we know.

We've started a fundraiser on Pure Charity to raise the funding that we need for our Agency fees.  It's been our dream to help give a child an opportunity like this and we hope that you will consider helping us make our dream a reality.

Every donation is important and will help make this adoption a success. Would you kindly consider making a donation? Also, we would appreciate your willingness to share this with others who may want to participate.

Thank you so much for being a part of our lives and helping accomplish something that's important to all of us!

The story of our WHY:

I remember sitting in the living room, in 3rd grade, watching a news story about the baby girls in China being abandoned and thinking about how bad I wanted to help them. Then, in high school we visited Columbia, and while at a church we watched as kids climbed a rock-side mountain, barefoot, to beg for money with their milk jugs attached to long poles. Once someone would give some to a younger kid the older ones would fight them for it.

My parents would always take us to areas that showed us how lucky we were while on vacation. They didn’t realize it then, but the images of the one-bedroom shacks and kids begging for money were etched into my brain in a way I could never forget.

I would casually mention to all my friends in high school that one day I would adopt. It was something Matt heard every time I spoke of a future family. The seeds had been planted, and throughout the years it seems like adoption is something that would keep coming back into our lives (and hearts) even if we weren’t really talking about it. Through church videos, Matt’s college roommate, my boss in Houston, my co-worker, and my volunteer work it was a constant theme.

Before we had Abram we would discuss in what order we should adopt. Then Abram and Julip were born and we moved. When we got here we were just trying to settle in. Still, Matt had two new co-workers with adopted kids and another one who was adopted. He had a long discussion with that guy about how grateful he was to be adopted, and that was enough to get us talking again. We decided that we wanted another child, and that we would try through adoption.

I had heard (and seen first-hand) how many kids are in the US foster care system so, in January, I began contacting our county and separate private agencies to start the process of fostering to adopt a boy/girl that is 5 years or younger. I was told by every agency that I spoke with that children under 8 are very rare and that it would not be likely that we could adopt one before moving in 2.5 years. They wouldn’t even let me start the process. I felt like my dreams were crushed.

We began looking into private domestic adoption. It was significantly more expensive and would most likely be a newborn. I kept seeing parent’s stories they sent out just hoping to be picked since they were not able to have biological children. I could not in good conscience take a newborn from a mom who has never had the ability to experience that fragile time.

Then my mom sent me a video of a women’s international adoption story. I had always thought it was WAY more money than any domestic, but the prices weren’t too much more. Matt asked why we weren’t considering adopting from Central/Latin America since I have always loved those places and culture. We both immediately said, “Honduras”! We had just spent a day there on our cruise and felt really drawn to the people of that country.

We have researched just about every country you can (and cannot) adopt from and Honduras is still our top choice.  The process will take us about 3 years and 2-3 trips to Honduras.

We cannot wait to meet our child and watch them grow/bond with Abram and Julip! We are already so full of love for this child!