Hi! We're the DeYonke's! (Dee-Yawn-Key)
We met in high school in Durham, NC and started dating under a pair of old oak trees. Our first few dates had a lot of 'serious' conversations— Did we want kids? Yes! How many? 3-5! And from the very start— we asked— could you see yourself adopting? Yes!
Those first few dates laid the groundwork for our family values: love, kindness, belief in God, and a deep compassion for others. We have strived to create an intentional home where everyone feels safe and included. We wanted a big house that was never quiet- and always full of love.
Becoming parents was the biggest, most important job either of us wanted. Shortly after we were engaged in 2018— we took adoption classes to prepare ourselves. We quickly learned— adoption is not about finding a child for our family, but its about giving our family for a child.
That stuck with us as our family grew— we welcomed our son Eric into the world in 2020, and our daughter Lily into the world in 2023. Now, when we think about giving our family to a child, there are immediate questions that pop into our minds.
Could we adopt siblings? YES! Could we parent a child with special needs? YES! Could we parent transracially- a child of another race? YES!
We know we want our children to grow up with social mirrors— members of our community who are from their same ethnic group and culture.
Our house smack dab in the middle of Cary and Morrisville, North Carolina, home to over 50,000 Indian Americans (36% of the population!) We live around the corner from three Indian grocery stores, a handful of restaurants, and have an Indian pediatrician. Adopting from India made sense for our family for so many reasons.
So where are we in this process??
Currently (March 1, 2025), we are awaiting our I800-A approval and our CARA approval. Once we have both of these— we will match with the child we will adopt!! We know this child will have moderate special needs. We do not know what special needs they will have yet. We are also approved to adopt a sibling set of 2— we would be over the moon to complete our family and keep siblings together!!
Once we match— it will take 6-12 more months to bring our baby(s) home. We think we will match sometime June-September of 2025, and bring our baby(s) home sometime in 2026. They will likely be 1.5-2 years old when they come home!
We know this is a long wait, but we believe this process is done intentionally to reduce human trafficking, coercion, and keep families together when possible. Those are all good things- and this is worth the wait!
We are hoping to fundraise $10,000— roughly 25% of our adoption's cost. We truly think this process takes a village- and we are so grateful for your support.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our children as they grow up. Please follow along on Facebook or on Instagram, @deyonkedonkies. We also have a small yearly newsletter we send out with our Christmas cards if you send us your address!
The donations made here on the AdoptTogether platform are tax deductible, and will only be available to our family as we apply to AdoptTogether for grants proving that we are using the funds for adoption related expenses- they'll even disperse the money directly to our agency!
We appreciate you more than you can know, and are forever grateful for your help growing our family.
Love,
Alex and Joel DeYonke
