International Adoption

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.

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 are a loving, stable, and joyful family of 3, who whose prayer has been to be able to share these gifts with more children. Genuine, hopeful, friendly, and fun are a few words to describe us.  We're that family that likes to play guitar (we practiced during the pandemic) and sing praise songs around a bonfire, carry a picnic blanket and kickball in our trunk just in case, read aloud to eachother on car long and short car rides, and have Christmas lights up in our patio all year round because they're pretty.  I'd like to say we are serious when it comes to our faith, morals and work ethic, but live these out in joy and flexibility.  For example, Matthew bikes to work listening to Catholic podcasts, and I have a "Cleaning with God" playlist to help me stay motivated.  We love our God, Church, family time, and friends. 

We are high school sweet hearts that met through mutual friends over 16 years ago. Our married life, 7 years ago, began in Salt lake City, where we first became parents when we adopted our cat, Cora. Living in Salt Lake City taught us a lot about working together as a teamby leaning on on another for support. After 5 years together in Salt Lake, we returned to the St. Louis area. This is where we met, and we are elated to be surrounded by friends and family that inspire and motivate us everyday.

Our marriage is strong, built on  a foundation of trust, communication, and teamwork. These are the core values we will use to guide us as we transition into parenthood. We have known about our fertility struggles long before we were married, so adpotion has been on our hearts for a large portion of our relationship.

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!

Hello! We are Micah and Achelle, along with our three amazing kiddos - Jackson, Jeremiah, and Sofia. Thank you for taking the time to look at our family profile. We have been married for twelve years and have been blessed with our three amazing children, We have been blessed twice by the gift of adoption and we are excited to welcome another child into our home and family.  Our house is often loud and crazy but full of love and memories to last a lifetime. 

We first met during our Freshman year in college, initially connecting through mutual friends and playing intramurals together. Micah noticed Achelle right away and thought she was cute and sweet. Achelle was attracted to Micah's lighthearted and goofy personality. We grew closer and began dating. Throughout college, we enjoyed studying together in the library, taking walks around campus, and became better friends. Two years later, Micah proposed, and we married a few months later in July of 2013. After college graduation, we settled in Micah's hometown in Wisconsin to be near family. Over the past twelve years of marriage, we've learned to lean on one another and grow in both the good and hard times. We credit our strong marriage to our foundation in Jesus and our commitment to love one another daily.

We believe life is best lived together in the everyday - whether it be doing dishes, yard work, playing with the kids, or relaxing together on a family vacation. Our goal each day is to cherish the small things and enjoy each moment we are given with each other. We strive to create a home that is full of love, respect, and laughter. We love to spend time together and enjoy being outdoors. As a family, we enjoy bike rides, board games, camping, playing in our yard and just being together! We are a homeschool family, which allows us to have a lot of flexibility in our days. It’s a huge blessing for our children to be together daily and develop deep relationships with one another.  

We are Blake and Steph! We are very happy to share our life with you. We have 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. We adopted our youngest son in 2019. We are high school sweethearts and have been married for 17 years. We knew we wanted to grow our family through adoption before we were married. Our home is Christ-centered surrounded by people who are loving and supportive. Having Christ as our foundation is very important to us. We know through Him all things are possible. Our kids are very involved in church and school activities and we love to spend our time supporting them. Steph is a school nurse at the same school the kids attend and Blake works in agronomy and farming. We have several other activities we enjoy doing as a family which include, golfing, fishing, playing games, and having bonfires. We also enjoy boating in the summer and trying new foods. We look forward to learning more about you! 

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. 

We’re Andrea and Nelson! We’ve been together for twelve years and married for eight (this March), and about five years ago we were blessed to adopt our amazing son, Oliver. Andrea is fascinated by a lot of things, ranging from shark biology to crazy celebrity beef. Nelson enjoys working with his hands and BBQing on our smoker. As a family, we love going on adventures together, spending quality time, and exploring whatever is making us curious at that moment (like animals at the zoo, the jellyfish at low tide, or what we can build with Legos or cardboard boxes). Our family believes in open communication, unconditional love, and asking questions. No topic will ever be off limits in our home. Oliver is very excited about welcoming a sibling home and has been praying for it to happen “tomorrow.” We, too, are excited for another little one to join our family. Thank you for considering us!

One of the greatest things we can share as parents is access to our friends and family. We are unconditionally loved and supported by so many people whether they be biological or adopted relatives, or dear friends. We have strong relationships with some special people – some who have been in our lives for 30+ years. Several of our friends live minutes from us, and a few have recently started their own families so are itching for play dates. Both sets of our parents are still married and are wonderful grandparents. Andrea has an older brother and sister-in-law, and Nelson has 2 sisters, 3 brothers and 2 sets of in-laws. We are aunt and uncle to 13 nieces and nephews and combined, we have 10 aunts, 10 uncles and over 60 cousins. Simply put, we have a lot of family and friends! And everyone is beyond excited to welcome home a new member!

Along with our extended human family, we have two fuzzy members of our family - our adopted animals Indy and Obi. We rescued Indy as a 3 month old puppy. And 2 year old Obi chose Oliver. Really! He came right up and head nuzzled him. It's been love every since! These two pets are characters who love us, but most especially they love kids. 

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!