Adoption Terminology

We are Tom and Abi! Thank you for taking the time to take a glance into our lives! We got married in May of 2015 and are still in love today. In a busy world, we make it a point to prioritize our marriage and family. God comes first, family second, and work comes third. We've known and planned on adopting since before getting married, and we continue to hope and pray that the Lord chooses to bring children into our home for us to love, teach, and raise. 

We met in 2013 at a birthday party for a mutual friend. After a brief introduction, I went home and “stalked” Brendon on Facebook. After looking through his profile and thinking he was the cutest guy I had ever seen, I quickly added him as a friend. A week later he sent me a message and asked me on a date. The rest is history! We dated for two and a half years before we got engaged. Brendon surprised me by having our entire family waiting for us at dinner after he proposed and then surprised me again after dinner by having an engagement party with all of our friends waiting to celebrate. Brendon always goes above and beyond to make me feel special and he pulled out all of the stops for our engagement. We were married on February 6, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. Our wedding was the most memorable day of our lives. We celebrated our love for each other surrounded by all of the love of our family and friends. It was truly unforgettable! Since our big day, we have been through some highs and lows, but through it all, we have become stronger. We live each day together as a team and as best friends. We work to encourage one another daily, we respect and value each other’s opinions, and we do and we do a lot of laughing which helps to make our days bright!

Hello, we are John and Alisa Rachan.

We met in Spanish class in college at Olivet Nazarene University. We were acquaintances at first, but reconnected after graduation. John reached out to Alisa to get together since he worked at an engineering company close to where she lived. During college, she had a crush on him from afar, so instantly accepted the invitation to dinner. We spent 3 hours talking that evening and felt as if we had known each other for years. Alisa then went to live in Mexico City to do missions work with her nursing degree for a year. God was always working during this time, however, and we reconnected once again after she returned. We started dating a few months later, were engaged after 6 months of dating and married 9 months later. 

We have 2 children: Eliana, who was adopted, is 4 years old, and Ava, who is biological, is 3 years old. We have always desired to have a large family and first considered building it through biological means and later through adoption. However, when we struggled getting pregnant and were diagnosed with unexplained infertility early in our marriage, we decided to pursue adoption instead of extensive medical treatments. Eliana’s name means God has provided, and we truly feel that her life was an answer to our prayers in many ways. We have an open adoption with her birth family, and we are so blessed by this relationship. Ava was a surprise gift from the Lord as well, when we did not think that we could conceive. She was born to us about 6 months after Eliana was born. Her name means breath of life, and we are thankful for her life and for the friendship that our two daughters have with one another. They are truly best friends. We have been trying to grow our family for a few years now and are feeling led to pursue adoption once again because of secondary infertility and because of the joy that adoption has brought to us already. 

Together as a family, we enjoy playing in our backyard, going to parks and meeting other young families, going on walks/bike rides, exploring the outdoors, doing bonfires, playing board games, and hosting friends and family in our home regularly. 

In our lives, there have been both trials and joys. Through it all, we have seen God's faithfulness to provide for us and give us His peace. We are eager to participate once again in the beautiful gift of adoption because we also have been adopted as children into God's family. We hope to provide the best possible loving and caring home for another child, and will strive to teach our children to love the Lord, to be kind and compassionate to others, and to cherish every moment that God gives us. 

Hello! We are Danny and Ingrid. We value our relationship with God, family, and each other, and are excited to share our unconditional love with another child. We are an adventurous, fun-loving family from Wisconsin and look forward to growing our family. Although we have struggled for several years with infertility, long before that God had placed adoption on both of our hearts. Our first discussion about it started back when we were dating long distance. We have been married now for 10 years and have been blessed with our son, Steven, through adoption. Steven would make such a great big brother, and would love to have a sibling to play with.

A little about us: we met near the foothills of the beautiful Rocky Mountains at a discipleship school. When we first started our relationship, Brandon (who had never dated before) thought it'd be quite sweet to get Jess a flower. But when he took the carnation out of the car to hand it to her, the heavy flower head fell off! Not quite the impression he was hoping for, but despite the "flower that flopped", the relationship did not, and we joyfully were married less than a year later. 

After 8 years of marriage, we still enjoy laughing together at life's quirky happenings and dreaming big about the future. We love and follow Jesus Christ. Because of that reality, our home is filled with peace, joy (and so much of it!), love, laughter, giggles, excitement, hope ... the list could go on and on! 

To sum it up, our home and our family is a place where Light and Life are found.

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 met thirteen years ago through a friend who invited both of us to hang out at the same event. When Brian arrived, he called his friend to locate her, and Minela happened to be holding the friend’s phone when it rang which kicked off our journey.

We quickly became friends, started dating, and soon engaged. After a few years of dating and moving around the country, we married in a small courthouse in Texas. We are best friends and use every day to experience life to the fullest. We have always wanted to start a family and when it didn’t happen naturally, we looked towards IVF and now adoption.

Minela is outgoing and loves to be around people and making new friends. She is caring and loving which can be seen when she is interacting with anyone but especially with her nieces and nephews. She loves dogs and animals. She was born overseas and moved from Croatia to the United States when she was 8 years old with her parents and brother and sister. They were all refugees of war. Not being able to speak or understand English, they made America their new home which shows her strength in overcoming obstacles. It took her only 6 months to learn the English language and she is good at spelling but somehow, always gets beat by Brian at Scrabble which we both love to play. We are both competitive.

Brian is also outgoing but also enjoys being home and spending time with Minela and their dog, Harley. He loves watching college football and his favorite team is Florida Gators, which is also why his favorite colors are orange and blue. He loves to stay active with exercise or being outside. He really enjoys his job in engineering and the travel that comes along with it; he has been to Canada, Mexico, New York, California, and Las Vegas to name a few. His favorite weekend activity, besides football, is taking our dog to the park for a walk. It’s become a tradition. Brian is a very courageous, hardworking, loving person. He goes above and beyond in everything he does and does everything in his power to make sure his family is happy and well taken care of.

Together, we have so much love to give and can’t wait to share that love with your child.

I would like to introduce you to our family. My name is Julie, and my wonderful husband's name is Will. I am 30 years old, and Will is 31 years old. We have been married for a little over eight years. Will and I met at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We had both grown up very involved in our churches, so it seems appropriate that we met at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. We were friends for two years before we started dating. Will's kindness drew me to him. We dated and were engaged for a year and a half before getting married in 2015. Will and I love to travel, and some of our favorite places that we have visited are Spain and Portugal, the Grand Canyon, cruises to the Caribbean, and camping at State Parks, beaches, and other beautiful campgrounds around the Southeastern United States. We can't wait to share our love of travel and the world with a child. We spend a lot of our weekends going to football games, camping in our camper, hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains, and spending time with family either in East Tennessee or Middle Tennessee. I love to capture family adventures and memories with my camera. Since I am a professional photographer, I love to take pictures while we travel and around the local area. I look forward to capturing precious memories of our adopted child as they grow up.

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.