We have BIG news!
We are adopting a child!
We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption related costs can easily total up to $50,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $35,000.00 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as he/she grows up.
Please see below for more on our adoption story:
Alyssa:
I always knew that adoption was a calling of mine. I don’t think there was an exact point in time when I knew, but whenever I thought about being a mom and having kids, I just felt that it would be through adoption. Fast forward a few years and I’m married to my favorite guy, Adam, and life is good with our pups. We never did anything to prevent pregnancy and two years into our marriage I began to think that one of us was not able to conceive. This actually didn’t bother me because I just figured it was part of the plan to adopt. So we went to an informational meeting at Project 1.27 where we learned about their foster-to-adopt program. I was ready to give them the check that night and start the process. Adam, on the other hand, was not so sure. While I was ready to take the plunge and hopefully get matched with an 11 year old (seriously, that was the age I was set on), Adam wasn’t even sure he wanted to adopt. I couldn’t believe this. We both had sat through the same program and I remember being so disheartened that he didn’t feel the same way. Less than a month later I found out I was pregnant. We were overjoyed and adoption wasn’t necessarily taken off the table but was definitely pushed to the back burner as we enjoyed and anticipated the arrival of our first child. We had our son, Foster Wilde, on September 2nd, 2014. Life with Foz was great, but we knew that we didn’t want to have just one child. We continued like we had our entire marriage and didn’t use anything to prevent having another baby. Once Foster was a year old and we hadn’t gotten pregnant again I brought up the idea of adoption. So a couple of months later we went to another Project 1.27 meeting. This time I was a bit more level-headed and agreed that we should talk more and pray about it before jumping in. A week later we found out we were pregnant again. (I just smile at God’s timing here). 9 months later our daughter, Crosby Brave, was born on August 15th, 2016. Life with two kids just under two years apart has been a lot of things. Mostly wonderful, but there are also challenging moments. But it’s in the middle of those most hectic times that I hear this voice, “there should be one more.” As a Christian, I know that we all have the same calling, “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” (James 1:27). This looks different for everybody and doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone should adopt a child. Sometimes it means helping to fund someone’s adoption, volunteering for an organization that helps widows, sponsoring a child, or praying for the lost and abandoned. I just knew we were called to take action somehow. After prayer, research, and attending multiple meetings with various agencies the last few months, God has really spoken to Adam and me. We have decided to pursue international adoption and adopt a baby boy from South Korea with the A.A.C. agency. How this looks is so different than what I originally imagined. But I take rest in the fact that this is all a part of God’s plan. There are so many unknown and scary aspects to this, mainly — how in the world are we going to come up with $40,000.00 to make this happen? Our church has a saying that is often repeated, “But, God.” I know that none of this will be possible without Him. So when I start to let the fears creep in of how we are going to afford this, how will this change our family dynamic, are we really equipped to be parents a third time, I lean into my faith. We can’t do this alone, but with God we can.
Adam:
Before I get into why I believe my family is called to adopt, I think it is important to cover how my family was founded. I met Alyssa nearly fifteen years ago, and though we didn’t begin dating until almost six years after we met, I knew from day-one that she was something special. She is one of the most unique, fun, caring, and charismatic people I have ever known — but those words still don’t accurately depict the person she is. Her heart for helping others and endlessly sacrificing her time, money, and energy is indescribably infectious, and something I greatly admire. The circumstances and timing throughout our dating relationship seemed to be against the success of our romance, and it took an incredible amount of perseverance and patience on my behalf. After what felt like an eternity of winning the attention and affection of Alyssa, I wasted little time to ask her parents for permission to marry her, and soon thereafter proposed — she may argue that it wasn’t soon enough. Since our union in 2011, we have imprinted our strengths onto one another. She enabled me to find the servants heart that God so graciously gave me, and I have inadvertently taught her perseverance and patience in the face of adversity. While we still have much growing to do, the things we have been able to accomplish for other people and our family, makes me immensely proud of the couple we have become. Because we have grown in each other’s strengths, I found my calling to adopt, and Alyssa was able to patiently wait for me to find that calling. I am so grateful that God has opened my heart to adoption, and allowed me to feel the same passion for orphans that my wife does. I had no idea that God was working on my heart for this journey, but looking back, it is quite apparent what His intentions were. I believe now more than ever that this is God’s timing for us to adopt, and I am overwhelmed with joy and anticipation. I am beyond excited to be seeking the expansion of our family, and to bring a child into our loving home.
Though we anticipate our pursuit to fulfill God’s calling for us will be unpredictable, we will strive to release control and rely on Him to provide. We will depend on Him to bless our efforts to save and raise money, and will not allow tough obstacles to derail us from fulfilling His will for us.
