Getting Started

Back in January, Dalton and I announced that we were beginning the process to adopt a child from Eastern Europe. For those of you wondering, "Why are they not having kids of their own first?" or "Why Eastern Europe?" this post will hopefully answer some of your questions. 

First of all, ever since Dalton and I began dating, we both knew that adoption was in our future. We talked about it a lot. We would even set aside spare change in his car as our "adoption fund." We had no idea at the time that it would come so quickly.

Once we were married, we began talking about our plans for a family, knowing that we wanted to adopt and have biological children, and for some reason we kept venturing back to beginning our family with adoption. As Christians, we are all called to take care of orphans and widows in some aspect; it’s not a task for only a few of us to handle. Adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel, and for the two of us, our response to that call was easy; we just couldn’t say no.

After praying about it and talking with friends from church who have recently adopted, we decided to move forward and look for an adoption agency. In December we went to an informational meeting at Lifeline Children’s Services and spoke with various people who helped us get on track. With us not having a particular country in mind, the team at Lifeline figured out which countries we qualified for based on our age and length of marriage, with Eastern Europe encompassing those countries. We didn't (and still don't) know a lot about the countries in Eastern Europe, but we know that if God led us to it, then it must be where our child is. 

We are now in the process of getting our paperwork together and raising the funds we need to get started with the application process (with our first fundraiser being a garage sale on April 1^st).

We are both so thankful for all of the love and encouragement we have received from friends and family as well as others we have already met on our journey. We appreciate all of your prayers, encouraging conversations, and donations thus far. We couldn’t go on this adventure without each of you, and we are excited for you to be apart of bringing our baby home!