Our family is growing through adoption!

I can’t believe we are finally sharing this news as it’s been on our hearts for years and in the works for months — We are adopting a little girl! 😍 We have officially begun the process to adopt internationally and could not be more excited! This journey will be long but it will be SO worth it when we get to bring our daughter home.

Our family sitting on the front porch holding a sign that says "YAY! We are adopting a sister!"

HOW WE GOT HERE

Over the last 2 years, we have talked about adding to our family through adoption. Adoption has always been something on my heart since I was very, very young. I always felt that God wanted my family to grow through adoption and it was something Jacob and I talked about from the very beginning.

After having our second son we spent a lot of time questioning our next steps. We knew we wanted more kids but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be pregnant again any time soon. However, God was already orchestrating his plan for us.

In March of 2019 we found out we were pregnant. I was anxious from the beginning, feeling like something was off with the pregnancy. We remained positive (because we WERE very excited) and learned in April of 2019 that we would be welcoming another little boy into the world! However, God’s plan was a little different than ours, and in May 2019, he was born. Unfortunately, at 14 weeks pregnant, we miscarried our son and it was heartbreaking. It has been officially one year and we think about him all the time.

But after a storm there is a rainbow and it was after losing him that we found a heavyweight on our hearts, mostly mine at first, that adoption was the next step. We were not wanting to replace him and do not see this as a “just try again” situation. Adoption has always been on our hearts as part of our story and had Baby Brother been with us today, adoption would still be on our minds as a way to grow our family.

After losing our third baby boy, I knew I wanted to give my body a break. Three pregnancies within 4 years had my body just a little tired. The idea of being pregnant again was not something I could do. But we also did not want to wait a handful of years to have another child biologically. (We like our kids close in age)

I decided to follow the calling God had placed on my heart and that became so strong after miscarrying. So I presented adoption as an ACTUAL next step to Jacob. And we talked about it. For months. And those months turned in to a year. And that year turned into now.

It took us a while to get here but we have officially decided to grow our family through international adoption. And we are ecstatic. but also nervous.

The process is just beginning and I plan to share updates along the way but here’s what we DO know.

  1. We are adopting a little girl with Down syndrome.
  2. We have chosen to adopt from China.
  3. We do not know WHO we are adopting or WHEN it will happen. It’s likely that we wont be matched until Winter and travel mid 2021. BUT we could move faster – it all depends on how well things progress!

If you are a person of faith, we would love your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey. There are so many unknowns and we just pray that there is a little girl out there who needs us to love and care for her.

To learn more about or support our adoption, visit our AdoptTogether page.