Building Beautiful Families

Erin and Clayton were so kind to share a part of their adoption journey with me. Their son just turned "one," and they are looking back at God's gracious hand on each part of their journey, especially during an unexpected medical crisis. Here's an excerpt from Erin's personal journal.  Thank you so much for sharing your heart with us, Erin! ******    **** *****   *****   ******    **** *****   *****   ******    **** *****   *****   ******    **** *****   ***** The idea of adoption had been on my heart for many years. I felt the call strongly in my college years, so when Clayton and I began to plan and start our life together, I made sure to communicate this desire to him, and he was supportive. We hoped we would answer this call someday, but we were not quite sure when that time would be.  As we began trying to grow our family, we faced unforeseen fertility issues, but God graciously allowed us to conceive our first son, Jude. A few years later, we felt re

I had the joy of serving Makyna and her husband Matthew last year, for just a few short months before their precious son, Worthy, was born in January.  They came to me as already homestudy ready, immediately started presenting to cases they received, and were matched a month after going active with us.  Their little guy was born about two months after that.  (I'm always amazed at how each adoption has its own timetable!) Their little guy r ecently turned "one," and Makyna was gracious enough to share the lovely as well as the "messy" side of adoption, that she shared with friends and family when he was still a newborn. **************** Before Worthy, as a hopeful adoptive parent, I saw many feel-good stories of adoption. Beautiful, precious, heartwarming stories. I knew I wasn’t seeing the full picture - for there to be a need for an adoption, there must be a heartbreaking loss - but I also didn’t fully know what the full picture would look like fo

I had the pleasure of serving Chase and Meredith on their journey to parenthood. They became a family of four in a wonderful way! They signed on with me in November of 2018, and their sweet twins were born in early April of 2019. Now that their whirlwind year has slowed down a bit, I connected with Meredith to get her thoughts on what they learned through their adoption journey. What first led you to adoption? :  We have always felt called to adopt. Even before we were married we had discussed adoption. We knew there could be a possibility that we would never have biological children because Chase is a cancer survivor. We decided to go all in and start the adoption process. We knew it was the right decision immediately. We felt peace from God and had an overwhelming amount of support from our family and friends. God was walking with us each step of the process.  What would you share with families starting the adoption process?: We had an amazing adoption

Sometimes a special family comes into my life, and they match and place so quickly, I scarcely have time to get to know them during the adoption process!  Leila and Philip were just that family.  They signed on with me in late December of 2018, and their sweet girl was born just a couple of weeks later in early January 2019.  Thankfully we have kept in touch and I have had the privilege of seeing her grow up on social media, and in our private support group.  As they recently had her one year old birthday, I asked them to reflect on their journey to adoption.  Leila shares some of her heart below, as they think back on their journey to adoption and parenthood.   This past year has held a huge reflection of the past five years of hope, loss, and prayer for us as well as countless others. We’ve prayed deeply and continuously for all that are in the wait. Please know you are loved and prayed for. As for us, we are parents to Haven, a longed and prayed over name, a callin

My name is Francesca and I am here to share my vocation of motherhood and how I never thought I would use the discernment process to motherhood. And how my desires and plans of being a mother happened in the most “extraordinarily ordinary” way! This is my story of how God opened my heart to adoption and made me a mother. In fall 2017, my husband Ethan and I were married and started discerning various life changes when a dear friend of mine from my women’s group recommended I read God’s Voice Within - The Ignatian Way to Discover God’s Will by Mark E. Thibodeaux. Soon after reading the book, little did we know, we would be questioning the possibility of infertility and using the Ignatian way to discern our next steps. But before we continue, I want to share with you the four phases of Ignatian discernment:  I’m going to list the four and highlight them throughout my story.   1) Get Quiet: If I, or anyone, want to discern well you need a consistent and meaningful prayer life. It is al

As part of National Adoption Month, I've been asking some of my past families about "what is your biggest advice for hopeful adoptive parents?" Alexis came to mind, as she is a new single mother through the miracle of adoption!  She jumped bravely into the process as a single woman, with the support of close friends and family by her side. She recently finalized the adoption of her sweet son Cohen.  When I asked Alexis her biggest piece of advice for hopeful adoptive parents, here's what she said..... Expectations!   The expectations I set during the adoption process made it more difficult when they weren’t met, but they made me turn to God, time and time again.  Whether it was an expectation set in regards to timing on completing paperwork, the number of cases coming through my inbox, responses from others involved in the process, information from an agency, a yes or no from presenting, birth parent communication, timing on delivery/baby arrival,