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We met on an online dating site. I noticed right away that Peter was special. He asked good questions and took a genuine interest in getting to know who I was. I was intrigued by him. After a couple of weeks of exchanging long messages, he asked me out to dinner. Our first date was at a restaurant called Smokey Bones. We felt at ease with one another right away and more dates followed, including bowling, a trip to the zoo, going to an indoor amusement park, and trying new restaurants. We enjoyed our second date at a local Thai restaurant where our connection deepened. Later, Peter proposed by setting up a private dinner with food from this same restaurant. He also had a book made that included all of our email messages from when we were getting to know each other online. Since we decided on a small wedding, we had our ceremony at a local park pavilion on the most beautiful fall day. It was a perfectly simple, sunny, and wonderful day. We chose a small wedding with hopes of going on a big adventure for our honeymoon. We went to Ireland, a place I had always wanted to go. Peter had been there before on a high school trip, and had wanted to come back with his wife someday. I guess both of our dreams came true :)
A ping pong table in a small Bible college in Pennsylvania is where it all began. Our friendship in the beginning laid the foundation for our relationship later and we got to know each other over games of ping pong. When we started studying together and spending more time with each other, we realized we had a strong connection. Rob thought Jessica was beautiful and fun to be around. Jessica admired how much Rob cared for his friends and family. It didn't take us long to see that we were meant to be together and have been inseparable ever since.
Each day is a blessing as we spend time together doing the activities we love. Walking around local theme parks, visiting the beach, and meeting up with Rob's family are some of our favorite things. Jessica enjoys cooking healthy meals, and Rob helps out around the house. An evening walk around the neighborhood is a nice way to catch up and enjoy nature. We plan weekly outings and look forward to our annual summer vacations. It will be a joy to have our little one in our lives!
Paul and I met during our first semester at Texas A&M Veterinary school in 2012. We formed a study group together and would spend late nights at the library studying for tests. We were fast friends and started to build that foundation before we ever went on a date. Paul is steadfast and calm in life's struggles while Haley is goofy and always ready to laugh. We made a great team. Thank goodness Paul worked up enough courage to ask Haley out! Two years later we were engaged and in August of 2015 we were married! From a young age, Haley knew God was calling her to adopt. When we met, Haley shared this calling with Paul and he agreed but wanted to try for a biological child first and then adopt as a second or third. After 2 years of no luck and a diagnosis of endometriosis for Haley, we knew God had already called us to adoption. We never pursued any in-vitro because we knew God had a child waiting for us that was perfect for our family. God definitely followed through with that promise after meeting our first son, Luke. We know there is another child out there God plans to add to our family and we cannot wait to meet them!
We are each other’s missing piece, extremely different but alike in so many ways! We met through a dating app when Daniel gave it one last shot before deleting the app and coincidentally was Rochelle’s first match. The timing was meant to be! We hit it off immediately and started dating in early 2019. Daniel proposed in 2020 in Florida at Marco Island when we were walking along the beach. He had asked a kind stranger to take a picture of us on the beach but quietly asked her to record everything. After posing for the picture, Daniel got down on one knee. We were married a year later right after everything open up after Covid. It was a small intimate wedding on the beach in Key Largo, Florida. Rochelle’s Grandma was the flower girl and our pup was our ring bearer.
Getting married when we were older helped us start our relationship strong because we knew who we really were. Our life experiences helped shape us into adults who know to communicate effectively and appropriately. We are able to truly understand each other and tell each other what we need in our relationship. We are both hard workers and love to have fun and enjoy each other’s company.
We know it sounds cliche, but we met online…by accident. We connected via social media, thinking that the person we connected with was someone else. When we started looking at each other’s pictures, we soon noticed that there had been a case of mistaken identity. After realizing we didn’t actually know each other, we had a mutual friend reach out to us individually to try and play matchmaker. We chatted back and forth for three weeks via email, talking about everything you can imagine – music, work, church, friends, food, and life. Our first conversation on the phone was incredible and lasted for several hours. After a month of speaking to each other, we decided to meet. Our first date was the day before Valentine’s Day and we both knew instantly that we were going to marry each other. From then on, we frequented new and unique restaurants, wandered through museums, hung out at the beach, and got to know each other’s friends and family. 13 months after our first date, we were married, and it has been the most incredible journey.
We are potential parents who love living life and want to share that love with your child. We have love in our hearts for God, first - family, next and from there it extends into our community. Marriage, to us, means working hard daily showing our love to each other. It helps that we both share a deep faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ. We exist with Him at the center of our lives. One of the things for which we pray daily is that God would bless us with a child. It does not look like this will happen biologically but, with God’s help, it may through adoption. We look forward to pouring our love out to a baby boy or girl, sharing all that we have with them. We especially look forward to helping them grow up knowing how much God loves them and the wonderful things He has in store for their lives.
We want to grow as a family through adoption. We respect all children’s uniqueness and believe that each has been created intentionally by Our Lord. The two of us often find ourselves in lively interaction with the children of our extended family and in our circle of friends. During these conversations, we both learn from the youngsters as well as share lessons we have learned in life..
We are Cory and Kelsi, with three children, Abe, Hazel, and Riley. We love spending time together as a family doing activities like bike rides, movie and pizza nights, individual and family date nights. We live in a small rural town that is currently growing quickly. Kelsi is a stay-at-home mom, that works part time for the local libraries providing early childhood activities. She has her degree in Early Childhood Education. Cory is a software engineer and gets to work from home two days a week. Cory has his degree in Computer Science. Our children range in ages from 4-10. With the youngest still at home full time but ready to start preschool in the Fall. Adoption has always been part of our plan. We were blessed with our three children, but are ready to add to our family through adoption.
We have know each other since the late 90's through mutual friends. We started dating in 2005, were engaged in 2007, and got married in 2008. We are active and enjoying the great outdoors. We especially enjoy getting out to do some fishing and atving when we get a chance.
We adopted our son in 2020 and have an open adoption with his birth family. This includes in person visits, video chats, and messaging back and forth with pictures/videos and updates.
We both work in the agriculture industry and while we would have likely run into each other at some point, the timing couldn’t have been more divine. At the time, we had a few mutual friends who were trying to play ‘match-maker,’ and it wasn’t until I was assigned a new territory and walked into a particular ag retailer that I met Austin. I remember him having a hard time coming up with the words to say when I walked in because of course, neither of us expected to meet each other but we both knew about each other because of the whole ‘match-making’ bit.
Austin asked me on a date THREE times before I finally relented. The third time, he invited me to the lake, and being from northeast Oklahoma where lakes are abundant, I was convinced this part of Texas didn’t have lakes so I really only said yes because I missed home and missed being out on the lake. We had instant chemistry and fell for each other pretty quickly. The first time we ever went out to lunch, for a work meeting, he says he left that meeting and told his co-worker that he could listen to me talk for the rest of his life. We didn’t immediately date. In fact, we went on a few dates and then stopped abruptly, but months later we reconnected and as they say, the rest is history.
Austin proposed in May 2017, during the busiest season of our careers – cotton planting season! Even though the day didn’t go as planned and I ended up hauling seed during the time Austin intended to propose, it was still a night we will never forget, and now we have the most hilarious story to tell when people ask about our engagement. We wouldn’t trade it for anything. Well, maybe Austin would. He was awfully stressed out that night.
It’s hard to believe we’ve been together for nearly 9 years and married for almost 6. Time has really flown by and each and every day in our marriage is so much fun. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, you can count on us to be the life of the party and always down to have a good time. We love laughing and creating memories together. We recently remodeled our current home together that we purchased originally as an investment property, and while we did that we lived in our motorhome with our dogs for 6 months. I feel like that is a great test of a relationship, not to mention, the home remodel. We only grew closer during that time and really learned that we don’t value ‘stuff’ much and we’d rather have the time and finances to create memories and travel together.
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.