SEARCH RESULT
Thank you for looking at our profile. We have longed to be parents for quite some time now and hope to give a good home and a vibrant upbringing to our adopted children.
We are active, outdoorsy, faith-filled people. Our house is always open to friends and free of most technological distractions. We are uncomplicated, adventurous and joyful as we take on the challenges of this life together. We share a love for God and our Catholic faith, which is the foundation of our marriage. Another unique thing about us is that Ivana is an immigrant from Switzerland. A lot of our travels include visits with relatives in Europe, and sometimes we speak German to each other.
We hope this profile will give you an insight into who we are and what our life is like.
Hi, we are Austin and Hannah and we met the summer of 2019 in the college group at our church. I (Hannah) still remember walking to the patio of the building where Austin was grilling tacos (the location of our proposal a few years later). We both thought the other was cute but neither of us said anything at the time. We became friends and hung out in group settings throughout the summer. Following graduation from college I returned home to WA to stay and at the end of the summer he asked me out and we enjoyed our first date getting some tacos and going to a Mariner’s game! We introduced the topic of adoption early on since we both had a desire to grow our family through adoption. Austin's mom was adopted from Korea and Hannah saw adoption firsthand when her youth pastor adopted when she was younger. We both knew that we desired a partner who had the same passion for adoption.
We both went to college at Texas A&M University. Claire majored in mathematics and Jeffrey in Industrial Engineering. We both joined the Baptist Student Ministry our freshman year. In 2015 we were both Bible study leaders of different groups and slowly got to know each other over the year. We began dating and most of our dates consisted of studying, getting coffee and snacks, and taking breaks by driving around exploring our town. We got engaged October of our senior year (2017) while finishing school, applying to jobs, and student teaching. It was a wild year but God was oh so faithful in each moment. We graduated from college and three weeks later got married! We moved to McKinney on a whim – about 30 minutes from each set of parents – and fell in love with the city. We absolutely LOVE doing life together and getting to explore the DFW area!
A primary factor of who we are as a couple is quality time spent together! We find lots of joy in time spent together, or with community even in the mundane things. We are avid board game players, coffee shop visitors, and amateur food enthusiasts. Some of our favorite moments with friends and family have happened just on a couch in deep conversation or over a cup of coffee!
We have been so blessed to have friends who live close by and that we get to see often! They are our chosen family and who we get to do life with. Our community has comforted us and rejoiced with us and we hope to continue walking with them as we get older! We have found a lot of joy in prioritizing our community and growing it! They love Jesus and us so well!.
In 2023 we adopted our son, Eliezer, and are absolutely obsessed with parenthood. He is in full toddler mode which has been the sweetest season of our lives (even with the hard tantrum moments). We are so incredibly thankful for the way God has blessed us in our marriage and are very excited for the years to come. Parenting has definitely been our favorite adventure yet!!
We are Daniel and Vanessa Bittner. We are a normal couple who live in rural Indiana. We farm crops, have chickens, a small dog named Parker, and we like to grow produce in or garden. We live a very stable and predictable lifestyle. Daniel works 8-5 everyday as a tractor mechanic for John Deer. Vanessa makes her own hours as a Ministry Director.
Daniel loves gardening, puzzles, and spending time with his family.
Vanessa enjoys reading, embroidering, writing, and archery. Vanessa is also a public speaker and published author who writes under a pen name for privacy reasons.
We love children and have 9 nieces and nephews. We spend as much time with them as possible. Our families are both so excited to have a baby. This child will be adored by everyone.
We have been trying to have a baby for over 6 years and we have known adoption was our path for a while. We are patiently waiting for our chance to be parents.
We met at a church Christmas party and got to know each other through game nights and dinner outings with friends, leading to our own friendship and more conversations between the two of us. We realized we had a lot in common and both felt very comfortable being ourselves with each other. We had our first date in 2017 and were married at our church in 2018.
As a couple. we love exploring new places and sharing experiences together. We like to go for walks in nature and especially enjoy exploring different national parks. Our quest is to visit them all! The theme parks at Disney and Universal Studios are also some of our favorite places to unwind and play. We enjoy exploring abroad and closer to home as well.
We are Monica and Peter and we are so grateful you've taken the time to glance into our lives. Many years ago, we were longing for children but struggling to get pregnant. After several rounds of fertility tests, we ultimately received a call from our doctor confirming we would not be able to get pregnant without fertility treatments. We were devastated at the time, felt peace about pursuing fertility treatments, but also felt strongly that the Lord was calling us to welcome a child into our home through adoption. We went the fertility treatment route first, and by the grace of God, we now have two young boys. We're crazy about our kids. Throughout all these years we have continued to feel the pull toward adoption, and now, here we are! We cannot wait to come alongside a birthmother and offer lifelong, unconditional love to her child with an open adoption if that's what she desires. We have been praying for this future adopted child for a long time, and now we pray we get to meet them soon.
A quick snapshot of us:
• We live in rural Iowa.
• Bryan is a pastor of a Reformed Presbyterian Church.
• Olivia is a homeschool mom.
• We value: faith, joy, and love.
• In our home, kids are safe, wanted, guided, and deeply loved.
How we met:
Bryan is from Southern California, and Olivia grew up in Ohio. We met at a Christian student conference in Virginia while Bryan was serving in the Navy.
Why Adoption:
It's been a long-held desire since we were both kids.
We want an expectant mother to be able to choose adoption with real hope, knowing her baby will be safe, cared for, and deeply loved in a stable home with open hearts and open arms.
Our faith shapes this deeply. In the Gospel, God welcomes those who were not His children and makes them His beloved children through Jesus. We see adoption as a reflection of that love.
We were set up on a blind date by some mutual friends at church and have been married for 5 years in September. We had met for coffee and cupcakes on our first date. We were going to share a cupcake, but Bryan learned that Elisabeth didn't like chocolate. We were able to get past this obstacle. We love to travel and have been to six countries together. Elisabeth grew up going on road trips with her family. She has been to all fifty states. We plan to do road trips and travel in the future as a family. Elisabeth grew up playing board games often with her family, and we play them often together. We love to have friends over for games and dinner. We both have love of reading and plan to share that with your child. As Stickland Gillian wrote: "Richer than I you can never be-- I had a Mother who read to me." We both have a love for the arts: symphony, art museums, and Broadway plays. Bryan's mom introduced him to plays as a child, and we plan to share that with your child.
Greg and I always enjoy our time together. We like to spend time outdoors, on a kayak or paddleboard, and are always up for a competitive driveway basketball game! We also like working in our yard. I plant flowers and watch them grow, and Greg keeps them watered. Together we make a great team! We love grabbing ice cream with our nieces, cheering on our favorite teams, and watching funny movies together. Christmas movies are in season all year! Whether we’re at home on game night or out sharing a pizza, we always have fun laughing together.
Our love story:
Greg and I met through my younger brother, Will. Will and Greg met shortly after Will graduated from college. Years later, Will bumped into Greg at the grocery store. He told Greg he should give me a call. Will had never set me up on a date before, so I knew this guy must be someone special! I agreed to go out with Greg, and we have been together ever since.
We dated for one year before becoming engaged. On a cold New Year’s Day, Greg and I went on a romantic walk along the riverfront in Nashville. We were on the beautiful pedestrian bridge overlooking the city when snow began to fall and music began to play. A man on an electric keyboard was playing Ed Sheeran’s song, “Thinking Out Loud”— a beautiful love song about growing old with your true love. I looked at Greg and he was down on one knee. He told me how much he loved me and asked me to marry him. I enthusiastically said, “Yes!” I complimented Greg for having the musician play the lovely music for the proposal, but Greg said he had not hired him. The musician just happened to be on the bridge performing the perfect soundtrack for our engagement! Every time we pass the pedestrian bridge, we remember the wonderful night we promised to belong to each other forever.
Our wedding was a dream come true! The fun began at our rehearsal dinner. Instead of a traditional dinner, we invited the wedding party to a baseball game. We enjoyed the fireworks display over the ballpark that night—it was as if everyone there was celebrating with us. Our wedding was held at the Nashville Symphony Center. The wedding was a family affair. All our siblings, their spouses, and their children were included in the wedding party. We had an amazing band and everyone danced all night! Our wedding was a joyous event and a true celebration of God’s promises.
We are Mark and Allison! After secretly liking each other online for years, we finally met in Colorado and knew right away that this was meant to be. We’ve been married now for 12 years, and although we don’t have any children yet, we both come from loving families where children are cherished, so having children has always been a desire close to our hearts. We’ve talked about wanting to adopt ever since we were dating! While our path to get here hasn’t always been fast or easy, we're so excited to be parents and welcome a precious baby into our lives.
Mark is a Hardware Engineer and loves lots of outdoor activities like biking, hiking, taking care of our yard, grilling, and golfing. He really cares about our neighbors and community and will jump in to help someone out wherever he can. Allison is a Proofreader and enjoys jogging, hiking, reading, getting together with friends, watching classic 90s Disney movies, and cooking. We volunteer on Sundays at our church and are involved with a weekly life group. We live in Texas, close to Mark’s family and Allison has family in Michigan. Both of our families are super supportive and have been praying for us and you!
The Adoption Council steers, guides, and directs the adoption education, standards, and practices of the Christian Adoptions Alliance. It is a collective effort to stand for and promote adoption from a Biblical perspective.
Are you looking for an accredited Christian adoption agency?
The Adoption Council is comprised of professionals across the pro-life and adoption spectrum directly connected with adoption education and support services.
The council is in a state of development. Current members include the following representatives.
Angela Boblitt is the Founder and Executive Director of Choosing Hope Adoptions, which was founded in 2014. She was born and raised in rural Minnesota. She graduated with a Bachelor of Art in Music from Winona State University in 2002. In 2003 She accepted a job as the Director of Children and Youth Ministries in Springfield, OH, where she served in that role for nearly a decade.
Angela and her husband Brett have 4 children; Noah, GeorgiAnne, Xander, and Lucy. Their oldest two children are biologically theirs, while their youngest two joined their family through adoption. Angela is committed to seeing adoption practiced with Biblical definitions and Christian practices.
Melissa is the Adoption Director at Catholic Charities Diocese of La Crosse, WI. She has been with the agency since 2003, when she was hired as an Adoption and Pregnancy Support Social Worker. Prior to coming to Catholic Charities, she worked with homeless families for over 9 years. She oversees the Family Services Program, which includes the Pregnancy Support and Adoption Program, as well as the Wisconsin Adoption and Permanency Support Program. She has a Master’s Degree in Guidance and Counseling with an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology. She also serves on the Children, Family, and Youth Services Committee for CCUSA, as well as the Adoption Steering Committee.
With the Wisconsin Adoption and Permanency Support Program, she is able to continue to support all members of the triad after the adoption is completed. Adoption is ever-changing, and she has enjoyed being a part of those changes over the years.
Robyn serves as the Executive director of Advocacy for Children, Focus on the Family. In this role, she oversees the following programs: Foster Care and Adoption, a program that exists to raise awareness for children in foster care needing forever families; our pro-life content and children communications, Sanctity of Human Life campaign, and all aspects of Option Ultrasound, which provides ultrasound machines and sonography training to qualified pro-life medical clinics.
She supports the Wait No More events, which are designed to recruit families to begin the journey of becoming foster parents and/or adopt from foster care. She has served at Focus on the Family for more than 25 years. Robyn and her husband are kinship adoptive parents for their two oldest grandchildren.
Jeannine Floores has been involved in maternity ministry since 1990, when she began the work of planting “Sarah’s House,” her first maternity home in southern California. She was ordained by the Christian Church into ministry in 1992 and continued her work in full-time church and maternity ministry. She moved to Austin, TX in 1996 with her husband Brian and two sons, where God continued to use her there to plant a second ministry, “Breath of Life Maternity Ministries, which includes the Loving Hearts Christian Adoption Agency.
She has two sons, Travis, 27, and Matthew 25 who have recently created her newest and favorite title to date, “Grandma.” As both a birth mother and an adoptive mom, as well as the sibling of an adopted child, Jeannine Floores has certainly experienced adoption from all angles.
Sharen is a nationally recognized child welfare consultant and the retired Manager for Permanency Services for the Colorado Department of Human Services in the Division of Child Welfare Services. She retired with 30 years of comprehensive work history with the department. She oversaw six programmatic areas, including the Foster Care and Adoption Program, and supervised a team of professional staff.
Dr. Ford is the former President of the National Association of State Adoption Programs (NASAP) and the Association of Administrators for the Interstate Compact on Adoption Medical Assistance (AAICAMA). She currently serves as the Director of Foster Care and Adoption at Focus on the Family and is as committed as ever to raising awareness regarding the need for every child to have a quality family.
Carol serves as the Executive director of Covenant Care Services, a nonprofit, pro-life ministry in Georgia. She earned a Bachelors in Sociology and her MAT from Georgia College & State University. As Executive Director, Carol is responsible for overseeing our home study-ready families, our expectant mothers, and post-placement services for birth mothers. She is deeply invested in all aspects of the adoption triad.
Carol has a strong desire to meet the needs of women in an unexpected pregnancy and is committed to placing children in two-parent Christian homes. Carol, and her husband Clay, have one son Hobson. She is an active member of the praise team at her church and is a Task Force for Life member. Carol brings a passion for seeing adoption in place of abortion.
Anna serves as the Chief Operating Officer at America World Adoption, a domestic and international child placing and humanitarian non-profit organization, headquartered in Washington, DC, with over 25 domestic state and international offices. Working in adoption since 2004, Anna has an extensive breadth and depth of experience in adoption, serving vulnerable children and parents in both the United States and overseas.
With personal experience in adoption as an older adoptee, adoption is an intricate part of Anna’s life. She lives in Northern Virginia along with her husband and three children.
Brad serves as the President of the Christian Adoptions Alliance, which is committed to advancing adoptions from a Christian perspective, standing on Biblical definitions and Christian practices. The Alliance does this by providing education, training, and aligning with agencies, attorneys, and ministries that serve the adoption community from a Christian perspective.
He has been serving the pro-life and adoption community for over 20 years. He is adopted and had the opportunity to meet his birth mother at the age of 20 and learn the journey she went through to choose life and adoption for him. His family grew through the blessings of two children through open adoptions.
Over the years, Brad has served the adoption community by providing home studies to prospective parents, post-adoption counseling to birth mothers, and education to those involved with the different aspects of adoption.
Kathy Jerman is the Executive Director of New Hope Family Services in Syracuse, NY. New Hope is a New York State certified adoption agency as well as a pregnancy resource center. Since 1965, they have placed over 1,000 children in forever homes. Kathy earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Arcadia University in PA. She has been at New Hope since 2016, when she began as a volunteer Client Advocate. She became the Executive Director in February 2019. She oversees the pregnancy center, adoption agency, and their newly launched mobile ultrasound ministry.
Kathy is passionate about empowering women to make life-affirming choices and helping them to see that abortion is not their only option and giving birth does not mean sacrificing their education or careers. She is committed to ensuring that New Hope provides ethical and Biblical adoption services that focus on all sides of the adoption triad. She and her husband Mike have four children.
Christie Mac Segars is the Vice President of Domestic Programs for Lifeline Children’s Services. She earned a Bachelors’s degree from Samford University and a Master’s in Social Work from The University of Alabama. She has been the Domestic Director at Lifeline since March of 2013.
Christie is committed to delivering adoption services from a Biblical and Christian perspective, and she is passionate about taking the gospel to hurting families and the ministry of reconciliation and redemption that exists in the various domestic programs. She and her husband Croft have three daughters, Ila, Elizabeth, and Harris.
Kevin is the Senior Director of Christian Adoptions Services, where he has served for the last five years. Prior to CAS, he served for twenty-two years as a pastor in North and South Carolina. Kevin received his Bachelor of Science from Gardner-Webb University in 1993 and his Masters of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1996.
Kevin has preached in over 100 churches since coming on board at CAS in 2016, raising awareness of orphan care. He is passionate about serving vulnerable children and pregnant moms in need, and he has a deep conviction from the Gospel to serve this population. He is married to Kim, and they have three children.
Robin Stephenson is the Founder and President of Lifetree Adoption Agency, a Christian-based adoption agency located in Dallas, Texas. For her, adoption is a ministry calling where she is committed to helping fulfill the dreams of birth parents and adoptive families while carrying out God’s will for our lives.
Jimbo Savley is President/CEO/Executive Director of Small World Inc., a Christian ministry offering services that are a positive alternative to abortion, domestic adoptions, international adoptions, and family support counseling. He has a BSW from Middle Tennessee State University and has been with Small World since 1991. He has worked pro-life and orphan ministry in numerous states and countries. He is an ordained minister and currently serves as College Ministry Director for his church, in addition to his work at Small World.
Jimbo and his wife Kristena have 2 adult children and look forward to being grandparents someday. Jimbo’s passion is to bring solutions through adoption to children who are orphaned, to help women in a crisis or unwanted pregnancy find real solutions which give a quality life to both her and the child, and to assist potential adoptive families as they follow God’s will in their lives to fulfill James 1:27 and take care of orphans.
Marlys Ubben is the founder and Executive Director of New Horizons Adoption Agency, Inc. Founded in 1987, New Horizons is a Christian adoption, foster care, and orphan care agency located in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Marlys has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, in Education, and is a licensed Social Worker and Certified Adoption Investigator. She has over 40 years of social work experience working in both international and domestic adoptions.
Marlys and her husband, Verlyn, are parents of six children, three of which are adopted. They have also parented three additional children who lived with them for many years. Marlys, with her family’s help, has committed her life to help families, birth parents, and children to a better life and future.
Tom Velie is the President of New Beginnings Adoptions & Family Services, where he has been serving since 2002. He earned a Bachelor’s in Social Work from the University of Mississippi and then a Master’s of Social Work from the University of Southern Mississippi. Tom served as a Master Trainer through the National Council for Adoption’s Infant Adoption Awareness training program, as an adoption agency accreditation evaluator for the Council on Accreditation, and is a member of the National Council for Adoption Hall of Fame.
Tom and his wife, Debbie, have two adopted daughters (international adoption) who have made him a grandfather with an abundance of grandchildren.
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Sociology from Gordon College and a Master’s in Social Work from The University of South Carolina. Tricia has been working in child welfare since graduating from college and she began her work in the field of adoption in 1992.
She has worked in foster care, domestic and international adoptions and pregnancy counseling while engaging churches and the community to support vulnerable children. She joined the Lifeline staff in June of 2021 and is grateful to be a part of an organization that seeks to share the Gospel of Jesus with a lost and hurting world. Tricia is committed to caring for women in unexpected pregnancies and providing adoption services with Biblical integrity.