International Adoption

Hello! We're Dave and Ashley!

We met in a college class when we were assigned to do a group project together. We began dating a few months later. A week after our first date, Dave found out he was going to be deployed after graduation. We spent a year communicating through emails and video chats. We married a few months after he came home. We've now been married over ten years and our life together continues to be an adventure. Dave finished his military career and is now an ICU nurse. Ashley is a junior high/high school teacher. We have two children, Audrey and Bryce, and love spending time together as a family.

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 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

We met at church and started playing board games with our friends and we often flirted across the table. We had the same sense of humor and we were both very competitive. After a year, we had our first date, a perfect picnic at the lake! A few months later, we flew to Liam’s hometown to meet his family. During that trip a blizzard began and our flight home got canceled. So, we did the sensible thing to do, and rented a small car to drive 20 hours through a blizzard. We tested our relationship on that long drive home while sliding on the road and running on no sleep. We realized from that trip and other dates that we were made for each other. Which led to our marriage. Then, we discovered we were pregnant! Kensi had a difficult pregnancy. We knew we wanted another child, but we wanted to look into other ways. This brought us to adoption. We know the love that Christ has for all his children. We are very involved in our church and close to our small group. We often are with them playing board games, roasting s’mores, or playing with our kids together. We love to go hiking, camping, anything outdoorsy, traveling, eating and making good food, and spending time together.

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!!

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! 

Our names are Crissy and Thomas. Crissy is a pediatric nurse and Thomas is a former police officer and current first responder for 9-1-1. The thing we want most in this world is to have a family. We have been married for nine years, and we did fertility treatments for the first six of them. We were originally introduced in 2007 and over the next few years were introduced by a few more. We finally decided to give it a shot. We got married in November 2013, Over the next several years of medical intervention, treatments and one lost pregnancy it was discovered that Crissy had unexplained infertility. We still have the dream to start a family. We know that families are made in many different ways and we are hopeful that our family is still out there. We truly feel as though God has led us to adoption, and we hope and pray that this will finally be our opportunity to create our family.

We have been married for over 9 years. It feels like just yesterday but also like we have been together our whole lives! We fell in love with each other because of each others' passion for Jesus and for this generation to know Jesus. Together, we have felt called to serve and make disciples of Jesus specifcially with kids, students, and young adults. We absolutely love spending our days walking along side families and serving the church. Our home is always open and full of families spending time together.  Our whole marriage is built on bringing glory to God together. 

SInce the beginning, It's always been our desire to grow our own family. When we first got married, we decided to grow our family biologically and through adoption. We truly believe that adoption is a beautiful display of God’s love for all of us.  While we have experienced so many wonderful life adventures, we know parenthood will be our favorite one. 

 

 

We met in 2008 when Facebook had apps that became the precursors to today’s dating apps. After chatting online for a few weeks, we decided to meet for dinner after church. I (Mindy) spent the whole service praying Clay wouldn’t show up because I was so nervous. But he did show up, and we had a great evening. We talked for hours over queso and tacos. I was disarmed by his lack of pretense, his willingness to show me who he really is and not cover up rough patches in his life. We hit it off that night and began dating exclusively. A few months later, Clay wanted to be baptized at our church, and he asked me to do it. That afternoon was the first time our parents met each other, and it is a wonderful memory. After dating for about a year and a half, Clay proposed and we were married just three months later.

When we met, I had a degree in counseling and was working for Presbyterian Children’s Homes and Services. I felt called to teaching though, and shortly after we began dating, I accepted a position to teach 5th grade at a private Christian school. Sixteen years and so many good memories later, and I am still here and now our daughter attends as well. Clay was working for an accounting firm when we met. He has continued to work in office administration and finance, while also getting his master’s of education.

Our life is focused on our faith in Jesus and love for one another. We are surrounded by family and friends who love and support us and have fun with us. We are active in our church and school, and both of these communities are extensions of our family. We still eat lots of tacos and queso, and we are thankful that we both stepped out in faith through what seemed to be just a chance meeting online.

Hello! We are Justin and Kaitlin and we are so grateful that you have taken the time to glance into our lives. Justin and I have always wanted to be parents. We had plans to have children biologically, hopes and dreams of what our family would look like, however God's plans look different for our family. After two years of infertility, negative tests, unsuccessful fertility treatments, many prayers and trusting in the Lord’s timing, we are overjoyed to start this next journey. We feel  strongly that the Lord is calling us to welcome a child into our home through adoption. We have been praying for this future adopted child for a long time, and now we pray we get to meet them soon.