Adoption Terminology

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.

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 both attended Oklahoma State University and started dating after we graduated and moved back to our hometowns, in September 2011. On our second date we had a pizza baking competition, since Matt is the pizza connoisseur! Other favorite dates included going to museums, taking the dogs to dog parks, Thunder games, annual trip to the State Fair, and going to the local drive in movie. 

We were engaged in December 2013 on a ski trip. After discussing with Shae's mom how to do it, Matt decided he just couldn't wait any longer and proposed while our group was playing cards - right after Shae ate a blue sucker and had changed into her comfy clothes for the night. Shae's blue sucker caused her mouth to look like a Smurf, but love is blind! 

We were married on May 3, 2014 in the church that Shae grew up in and where we are now members. We asked our guests to wear orange, black or white and had Pistol Pete as a surprise guest at our reception!

Karsten was born in the crazy year that was 2020! Her birth mom choosing us to be her parents is truly a gift and an honor. Some of our favorite things to do as a family include going to OSU football games, visiting the zoo, and playing outside! 

Thank you for taking time to look through our family's profile. We know the magnitude of the decisions you're making right now, and although we do not know your name, we are praying that you are safe and healthy, and that you feel loved, supported and at peace.

With love,
Matt and Shae

Our love for each other started from our love of horses. We met at a time in our lives when we both trained and showed horses alongside both of our families. Though we had known of each other, one day we fell in love as we discovered not only did we share the same interest but most importantly we shared the same values. We could tell from that moment that God had led us to each other. After dating for a year, Jonathan proposed in April and we got married in October 2016. We have been married for 7 years and still can say we are truly each others best friend.

We couldn’t believe we sat near each other in nursing school for 2 years and never shared more than a few words with each other. After going on our first date, almost a year after graduation, we realized how much we had in common and we were instantly attached to each other. We realized we grew up with similar beliefs and enjoyed the same hobbies. We love sports and going to events together, cheering on our favorite team. We both love trying new restaurants and exploring new cities. We love to ride around looking at mountain views and just enjoy each others company. We love to plan vacations with the kids and surprise them with new adventures. We truly are best friends. We love each other so deeply. We respect each other and stand behind each others dreams. We make sure to put each other first and continue learning ways to grow our relationship with each other and the Lord. Having children was always a dream of ours, even before we were married. We love parenting together and we are so grateful for these special blessings that God has given us.

We met in 2007 at Grace Christian University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After filling out an "Application to date my daughter" for her dad, we started dating and quickly fell for each other. We got married on May 29th, 2010 in Seattle, Washington in the church where Casey was raised. After a 6 month internship in Phoenix, AZ, and a final semester in college for Casey, he was offered a full-time position as the Associate Pastor of Youth Ministry at Mountain View Bible Church in Post Falls, ID. 

We moved to Post Falls in 2011 and haven’t looked back. We love the family we have at the church, especially since our families don’t live nearby. We have the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors in many ways including hiking, camping, fishing, swimming, disc golf, and much more. We also enjoy regular time together as a family playing card games and board games at home, throwing a football or kicking a soccer ball at the park, and traveling to visit our families.

We wanted to have a family soon after we got married, but God has been teaching us to wait on his timing. After 5 years of marriage, we adopted our son Landon at birth on November 20th, 2015. He has brought so much joy into our lives, and his story is truly incredible. We are beyond blessed to be his parents. Now we look forward to the day that we can bring another little life into our family to love and protect.

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.

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. 

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 first met at a Salsa Dancing Social. After months of dancing and getting to know each other, we had our first date. As we learned more about each other, we realized how we felt at home with one another. It was the Halloween season, so we enjoyed getting dressed up and attending Halloween salsa socials and family friend Halloween parties. We were falling in Love.

At Thanksgiving time, Reena began talking about Joel with her other family members with so much excitement. Reena introduced Joel to her brother, and they hit it off immediately. When Reena invited Joel to meet her parents, Mom gave Reena the Thumbs up. It was Christmas time and there is a cute little ornament with Reena’s picture that Reena had made at school in the first grade. We were decorating our Christmas tree, and Joel took that ornament and placed it at the very top of the tree. Reena’s heart melted and her family invited Joel to our larger family Christmas party where he was immediately welcomed with open arms.

That same Christmas, Joel had invited Reena to his family’s church for their annual Simbang Gabi Mass. This is a Christmas tradition within the Filipino community where Joel’s whole family was present. It was so wonderful to meet Joel’s family in such a beautiful setting. Shortly after, Joel and Reena would attend Joel’s family church on Sunday’s after Dance class, and then meet at his parent’s home for Sunday Dinners.

The following Easter, Joel took Reena to the Easter Vigil, which is the Saturday before Easter Sunday. She learned about the RCIA process where she could learn about the Catholic Faith and be confirmed as a Catholic. That fall, she enrolled in the program and Joel sponsored her. As they went through this beautiful journey together, Joel proposed that following Fall. The following Easter, Reena was confirmed as a Catholic, and Reena and Joel were married that Summer.