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We met in Virginia the summer after Katie graduated college and had an immediate connection. We started out as good friends and soon after fell in love. We live in a small town in the northern DFW area with our son Josiah, and two small dogs Sophie and Riley. We all enjoy spending time outdoors, trying out new restaurants and going on adventures. We love to laugh and have fun just being together as a family.
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 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 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.
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 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.
Hello! Our family lives in a suburb outside Washington, DC and we have two biological daughters - we are very excited to add to our family through adoption! We have been happily married for nine years and are best friends who enjoy traveling together to places both near and far. We are a family who doesn't like to sit still and is always on the move! We are energized by adventure, powered by ice cream, and firmly committed to following Christ and raising our children to love Him and love others. Come explore our profile to learn more of who we are!
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.
If you and your spouse feel called to adopt internationally, one of the first things you will need to do is complete an application with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It will probably be best for you to be connected with an adoption agency that can help guide you through the process and answer any questions.
The application package will include the USCIS form, your completed home study, the application fee and any documents that support your home study or the adoption process. There are two different forms, Form I-800A or I-600A, depending on which country you will be pursuing in your adoption journey.
Form I-800: A is used for adoption from countries participating in the Hague Adoption Convention. This form is also known as the Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country.
Contact with either the parents, legal custodians, or other parties responsible for the care of the child that is targeted for the adoption is forbidden during the application process.
Form I-600A is used for adoption from countries Not participating in the Hague Adoption Convention. This form is also known as the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.
The targeted child for adoption must remain in the country where the child is located until the application processing is completed.
The purpose of either of these forms is to communicate the eligibility of the prospective adoptive parents to adopt and they are capable of providing appropriate care to any adopted child.
Your adoption agency or attorney may have an independent filing fee for handling the application process for you. In addition to that, the USCIS will be charging a filing fee of $670. There is also a fingerprinting fee costing around $80. This fee is assessed for each person over 18 who is residing in the home.
Where is the form filed?
The place to file the forms differs depending on whether you are filing form I-800A, I-600A, or I-600. If you are filing Form I-800A, then you will be submitting your form and accompanying documents and payments to the address noted below:
USCIS
P.O. Box 805695
Chicago, IL 60680-4118
You are welcome to submit the forum and accompanying documents using a private courier by using the following address:
USCIS
Attn: Hague
131 South Dearborn – 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60603-5510
If you are using either Form I-600A or I-600, then you will be filling through the local USCIS office in the United States with jurisdiction over your place of residence. Please visit the www.uscis.gov website and use the Field Office Locator to find the appropriate office.
You will receive written approval from the USCIS office. The validity varies depending on whether it is Form I-800A or either Form I-600A or I-600.
Form I-800A – is valid for 15 months
Form I-600A or I-600 – is valid for 18 months.
It is possible to extend the validity of either form. Please visit the www.uscis.gov office for extension procedures.
Fingerprinting
All prospective parents must go through a FBI criminal background check. Fingerprints are submitted as part of this process. In order to protect the potential adoptee children, fingerprints are only collected from an authorized site.
Authorized fingerprinting sites include:
USCIS offices
Application support centers
US embassies or consular offices
International military institutions
What is basic adoptive parent(s) eligibility?
It is important to learn all you can regarding the laws and regulations regarding adopting from another country. As prospective parents pursuing adoption, you are subject to the federal laws of the United States, the laws of the country where the child resides, and the laws of your home state.
For example, the federal laws of the United States allow Americans with disabilities to pursue adoption, however they are countries the prohibit prospective families with some disabilities from adopting. You may find that some countries prohibit single parents from adopting.
What is your next step?
To learn more about filing an I-800A, I-600A, or an I-600, please contact the USCIS toll-free at 1-800-375-5283. You may also visit their website at www.uscis.gov