Hello! We are Brett and Theresa. Thank you so much for visiting our AdoptTogether page and joining us on this journey.
We met in 2014, fell in love, and got married in 2016. When we got married, we were excited for married life and the hope of welcoming children into the world, but so far that hasn’t been God’s plan for us. We sought infertility treatment after treatment, but with no effect. Grieving infertility is not an easy process, and after 6 years of marriage and dealing with infertility, through prayer, conversation, and reflection, we decided that now is the right time to grow our family through adoption.
Adoption has many challenges that need to be worked through: a cumbersome legal process, out-of-state travel, assembling a profile book, consultant fees, medical bills, and many more. These challenges snowball into a big financial hurdle. The typical infant adoption in the United States costs adoptive parents between $40,000 and $50,000, and can be even higher in some cases.
Most importantly, we want to ask for your prayers-working through the challenges of adoption can be physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. Know of our prayers and gratitude for each of you. We also ask that you pray for the expectant parents and their families as they navigate the difficult situations and emotions they are facing as they discern adoption.
In addition, if you feel so moved, please consider contributing to our adoption fund. No help is insignificant to us. For example, even a $10 donation will cover a coffee stop while we drive (possibly across the country) to meet our child. Whether you are able to financially contribute or not we invite you to return to this page to follow along on this journey to parenthood with us.
Thank you so much for your support!
With love and prayer, Brett & Theresa Werner
Hello! We hope your 2024 is off to a great start. In our last update we introduced you to Veronica when she was just four days old. Now she is a busy 6 month old who loves to roll over, find new toys to play with, and watch Tali run around the room. Being 6 months post-placement, we were thrilled to learn last week that our adoption has officially been finalized in the court system! There's a lot we could tell you about what that means, but what it really boils down to is the adoption process for us and Veronica is now "over." While the legal adoption process is over, the journey of parenthood has just begun, and we are loving being Veronica's parents!
Thank you so much for joining us on this journey over the last year...we are so grateful for your support, whether it be financial, spiritual, or otherwise. We know that without your support, Veronica wouldn't be a part of our family today. As we said in our initial letter, please know of our prayers and gratitude for you. It's also true that none of this would be possible without the love and sacrifice of Veronica's birth mother. Our final ask of you is to please keep her in your prayers.
While this is our final update here, we hope to connect with you outside of this website and look forward to telling you more in the future!
Blessings to you and yours,
Brett, Theresa, and Veronica Werner
Hello! Thank you again for joining us on this journey of adoption, your prayers and support are so appreciated. We started down this road almost exactly 9 months ago, so it's fitting that we share the news that last week, a beautiful baby girl entered our lives!
We were at home on Wednesday, September 20th when we got a call that we were selected for a match with a baby girl born one hour earlier in Corpus Christi, Texas. Within 18 hours we packed, booked flights, drove to Brett's parent's house to drop off our dog, flew to Texas, and drove to the hospital to meet her. We are thrilled to announce Veronica Marisol Werner was born on September 20th, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and 19 inches long!
We are here in the Corpus Christi area until the states of Texas and Nebraska legally clear us to travel home. While we wait for those clearances, we're enjoying this time snuggling with Veronica, getting to know her, and starting to experience life as a family of three.
Again, thank you for your continued support and prayers! Please continue praying for us as we get settled in and work toward finalization, which we'll update you on next time. We are also praying for you!
Love,
Brett, Theresa, and Veronica
Hello once again, and thank you so much for your prayers and support! Since our last update, our home has been abuzz with adoption-related activities. We are happy to announce that our profile book is complete! Now that it's done, we can start the process of applying to various adoption agencies who work directly with birth mothers. This last week we applied to work with an agency in Texas; Theresa is thrilled at the possibility of adopting a Texas baby! As a Midwestern native, Brett realizes he would be outnumbered by Texans, but at least he would be in good company with Tali, who is a Nebraska native. Also, Brett sometimes feels his sense of humor would fit in in West Texas, since it's so dry. (*Cue Theresa rolling her eyes*). We will also be adding in another one or two agencies scattered across the country.
From now until a match is made (and even beyond, but more on that in the future), "waiting" is the name of the game. Part of our adoption training involved learning to "wait well." This means to try not to be worried and stressed, but instead to maintain a joyful attitude of anticipation and hope. For now, "waiting" comes in the form of reviewing cases presented to us, deciding to present, and waiting for a decision from the birth mother. And for us, "waiting well" includes getting our home ready for a baby. Taking action to get ready for a baby builds anticipation and creates hope for when we will have a baby in our arms. We now have a rocking chair, a changing table, a swing, and some other baby necessities for when we bring baby home. Next up on the home front is painting the nursery!
In May we went on a "babymoon" to Panama City Beach, FL and Nashville, TN. It was fun to get away for a week and relax, reading on the beach in Florida and enjoying live music in Nashville. We had a great time, except for poor Tali who apparently doesn't like heat, sand, or water, which made the dog beach a bit of a struggle for her.
Again, thank you so much for joining us on this journey. It means so much to us to have a community that prays for and supports us, and we look forward to sharing the next update with you! Have a wonder summer!
Happy Easter!
We are so grateful for your support of this journey - both financially and spiritually - and we want to keep you updated on the process!
A week or so ago our Home Study was finalized, and we are one (BIG) step closer to being in the matching/waiting phase of our adoption journey. This is one of the most important parts of the adoption process, as it is a legal approval to adopt, and will be a part of the finalization paperwork down the road.
Next Steps: We have also had our in home lifestyle photo shoot. Many of these photos will go into our Adoption Profile Book - the expectant parent's only glimpse into who we are. This provides expectant mothers/families a small look into our home, lives, and hobbies. They can see what our home looks like and visualize their child there. We are currently working on writing all about ourselves and gathering candid photos for this profile book. Then it's off to the designer to make a beautiful book!
Our Request: Thank you so much for your sacrifice in donating, we ask that you share this website and our story with your friends and family. We know God is in control of this story, and we can't wait to see what miracles he works to help us achieve the funding we need.
