Exciting Announcement!!

We have an exciting announcement to share...we decided to begin the process to adopt a baby!!!

As many of you know, we have struggled with infertility for the last 4 years. It's been the most heartbreaking experience we've ever endured, but some good has come out of it. Andrea has received so much support from her Christian infertility support group called Bearing Hope that she wanted to give others the care that she had received, so she agreed to take over leading the group for the last couple of years. She has been able to support women through the difficult journey of infertility and miscarriage, and even helped one woman find the doctor that helped her get pregnant! We have also grown stronger in our relationship with each other and with the Lord, and our faith has grown so much. This journey has reaffirmed for us that God always brings good things out of bad situations. Genesis 50:20 says "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving (or creating!) of many lives."

We have both always had a strong desire to grow our family. When we got married 5 years ago, we were led to pursue having a biological child, but we always said we would love to adopt a child if we're not able to conceive. God's calling in our lives sometimes looks different than we expect so we must step forward in faith believing that His plans for us are good, and even better than we could imagine. After much prayer and research about all of our options, we have decided to stop our infertility treatments and pursue domestic infant adoption! We are so excited!!

Why is adoption so exciting you might ask?

1. We love kids!! We love our kids, the kids in our families, our church family’s kids, our friends’ kids, and we sigh and smile at random cute babies in public. We totally adore all children and could easily love another's child as our own. Andrea has poured out her love to her stepkids since her stepdaughter H was 3, who is now almost 23, and she's been loving her stepsons for the last 6 years. Also, Scott and Andrea each have 2 adopted cousins, so both of our families are experienced at loving and accepting adopted children as our own. Andrea has loved teaching Sunday school to preschool aged children and helping with Vacation Bible School for the last 7 years, and everyone says the kids love her too! Scott is a baby whisperer. He picks up crying children and they fall asleep on his chest. We were made to love kids!!
2. There are so many children out there needing to feel loved and a family to belong to. We could provide a loving family with a mom, a dad, 3 older siblings, several grandparents, and lots of extended family members. We also have a safe and comfortable home, an awesomely supportive church family, and two of the cutest and sweetest border collie dogs who would all love them like crazy. How awesome is it that we could give all that to a child who may not otherwise have any of it!? We cannot wait to share with a child everything that we've been blessed with.
3. We have waited, prayed, cried and hoped for so long that we would have a child to nurture, love, support, and raise up to know the goodness of Jesus and to be a light in this hurting world. We have delighted in raising our kids: Andrea's stepdaughter H from a previous marriage (22) and Scott's sons M (16) and G (18), and now adoption gives us a chance to raise a baby together! It's a dream and a calling we've both shared ever since we each separately told God that we wanted whatever He wants for us, since He knows what's best for us better than we do, and He placed that desire on our hearts before we even met.
4. As Christians, it's our responsibility to care for orphans. James 1:27 says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Not all of us are called to adopt, but we can support those who are called! What a great opportunity to live out our faith!
5. If we as Christians believe that life begins at conception and unborn babies should be treated the same as babies outside of the womb, then we need to step up and support the moms who choose life. We can do this by caring for a birth mom's child and supporting the birth mom's needs, like her medical and legal/adoption expenses, professional counseling, and prayer needs. Supporting a birth mom who is making this incredibly selfless, brave, and difficult choice would be such an honor!

One of the number one reasons a lot of people don't adopt is the extremely high cost, which includes birth mom support. Adoptions can cost anywhere from $20,000-50,000, depending on domestic vs international and depending on the adoption agency. I would guess that not many people have that much money just sitting in their bank accounts ready to spend. We sure don't! With such a large sum, we will be borrowing some of that amount, but we of course want to be fiscally responsible about it.  However, what's really exciting and what a lot of people don't know is there are several resources available to help people afford the high cost of adoption, including grants, tax credits, and amazing organizations that will help people raise money to help with the costs. We will talk about these resources and explain why adoption costs so much in future posts very soon!

We have been blessed with great jobs, and are capable of affording to raise a baby, but infertility treatments have greatly reduced our savings. We plan to apply for several grants, but we are also going to need some help from our friends and family with the costs. Never fear, we have a plan! Stay tuned!!