SEARCH RESULT
We have always felt called to adopt, and passionate that families can be defined by LOVE as well as biology. We are grateful to be considered as you make such a loving decision for your baby.
"Adventure is out there!"
*Links to our Instagram and Profile Book are in the "Letter" Section* =)
We met 10 years ago and have been married for 7 years. We met online and found a few ways we could have met before! We went to the same college and frequently had classes at the same time in the same building and went to the same conferences in high school for our extra curricular activity. Once we met though we quickly bonded over our love of board games. Today you can still find us playing games together with friends and family. Our favorite to play with family is Letter Jam since it’s a good one for any play level. We already have a list of games we are ready to play with kids including our childhood favorites like Sorry, Life, Clue, and more. We have a large extended family that all live within 20 minutes of us and we get together with both side weekly! We recently got back from an extended family airbnb trip to Broken Bow with some good family fun including too many smores to count and a kids train ride in the forest. We love spending time in the evenings together usually at our local park and exploring our city on the weekends from splash pads to zoos. We love holiday traditions like 4th of July kids bike parade, Christmas volunteering, and huge birthday celebrations! We are excited to add a little one to our family and for them to be able to bond together over being adopted. Harper is so excited talking about how good of a big sister she is going to be. We hope this helps you get to know us and if you have questions hope to hear from you soon!
We met on an online dating site. I noticed right away that Peter was special. He asked good questions and took a genuine interest in getting to know who I was. I was intrigued by him. After a couple of weeks of exchanging long messages, he asked me out to dinner. Our first date was at a restaurant called Smokey Bones. We felt at ease with one another right away and more dates followed, including bowling, a trip to the zoo, going to an indoor amusement park, and trying new restaurants. We enjoyed our second date at a local Thai restaurant where our connection deepened. Later, Peter proposed by setting up a private dinner with food from this same restaurant. He also had a book made that included all of our email messages from when we were getting to know each other online. Since we decided on a small wedding, we had our ceremony at a local park pavilion on the most beautiful fall day. It was a perfectly simple, sunny, and wonderful day. We chose a small wedding with hopes of going on a big adventure for our honeymoon. We went to Ireland, a place I had always wanted to go. Peter had been there before on a high school trip, and had wanted to come back with his wife someday. I guess both of our dreams came true :)
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 know it sounds cliche, but we met online…by accident. We connected via social media, thinking that the person we connected with was someone else. When we started looking at each other’s pictures, we soon noticed that there had been a case of mistaken identity. After realizing we didn’t actually know each other, we had a mutual friend reach out to us individually to try and play matchmaker. We chatted back and forth for three weeks via email, talking about everything you can imagine – music, work, church, friends, food, and life. Our first conversation on the phone was incredible and lasted for several hours. After a month of speaking to each other, we decided to meet. Our first date was the day before Valentine’s Day and we both knew instantly that we were going to marry each other. From then on, we frequented new and unique restaurants, wandered through museums, hung out at the beach, and got to know each other’s friends and family. 13 months after our first date, we were married, and it has been the most incredible journey.
We are Cory and Kelsi, with three children, Abe, Hazel, and Riley. We love spending time together as a family doing activities like bike rides, movie and pizza nights, individual and family date nights. We live in a small rural town that is currently growing quickly. Kelsi is a stay-at-home mom, that works part time for the local libraries providing early childhood activities. She has her degree in Early Childhood Education. Cory is a software engineer and gets to work from home two days a week. Cory has his degree in Computer Science. Our children range in ages from 4-10. With the youngest still at home full time but ready to start preschool in the Fall. Adoption has always been part of our plan. We were blessed with our three children, but are ready to add to our family through adoption.
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.
We both work in the agriculture industry and while we would have likely run into each other at some point, the timing couldn’t have been more divine. At the time, we had a few mutual friends who were trying to play ‘match-maker,’ and it wasn’t until I was assigned a new territory and walked into a particular ag retailer that I met Austin. I remember him having a hard time coming up with the words to say when I walked in because of course, neither of us expected to meet each other but we both knew about each other because of the whole ‘match-making’ bit.
Austin asked me on a date THREE times before I finally relented. The third time, he invited me to the lake, and being from northeast Oklahoma where lakes are abundant, I was convinced this part of Texas didn’t have lakes so I really only said yes because I missed home and missed being out on the lake. We had instant chemistry and fell for each other pretty quickly. The first time we ever went out to lunch, for a work meeting, he says he left that meeting and told his co-worker that he could listen to me talk for the rest of his life. We didn’t immediately date. In fact, we went on a few dates and then stopped abruptly, but months later we reconnected and as they say, the rest is history.
Austin proposed in May 2017, during the busiest season of our careers – cotton planting season! Even though the day didn’t go as planned and I ended up hauling seed during the time Austin intended to propose, it was still a night we will never forget, and now we have the most hilarious story to tell when people ask about our engagement. We wouldn’t trade it for anything. Well, maybe Austin would. He was awfully stressed out that night.
It’s hard to believe we’ve been together for nearly 9 years and married for almost 6. Time has really flown by and each and every day in our marriage is so much fun. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, you can count on us to be the life of the party and always down to have a good time. We love laughing and creating memories together. We recently remodeled our current home together that we purchased originally as an investment property, and while we did that we lived in our motorhome with our dogs for 6 months. I feel like that is a great test of a relationship, not to mention, the home remodel. We only grew closer during that time and really learned that we don’t value ‘stuff’ much and we’d rather have the time and finances to create memories and travel together.
We grew up just 25 minutes apart, but didn't meet until our freshman year of college in another state. Those were the days of AOL Instant Messenger (ha!), and after meeting one day on campus, there were many late night messages, talking about our family, friends, and interests. After a year of friendship, we took the next step into dating. Our first Thanksgiving break apart was the moment we knew we loved one another, and the rest is history. We married in 2010 after graduation and moved to Kyle's hometown in East Texas. We've always enjoyed quality time together, whether traveling or a simple night in with takeout and a movie.
We enjoy getting outdoors (hiking, kayaking, yardwork, reading in the hammock), cooking together, traveling (food, art, taking in local culture), photography, playing board games, working on home projects, and spending time with family and friends. Our hobbies are very similar to one another, so we can enjoy doing these things together or apart.
The last few years we have faced a number of heart aches, such as infertility, but have always committed to putting in the time, communication, encouraging words, love, and laughter needed to grow and overcome together. We wouldn't trade those prior days for anything, because we know the best moments are yet to come for us.
What is an orphan is a common question when it comes to international adoption? Many people take the position that an orphan is a child who has lost both of his or her parents. Another common assumption is that an orphan is a child who is cared for in a community orphanage.
It is fair to say that both of these answers are correct. However, there is a need to answer the question with more information. Orphans around the world often have that distinction because of other factors separate from either losing their parents or living in an orphanage. The majority of the world’s orphans have their parents. Their parents are alive!
An orphan can be defined in a number of different ways, however, here is how the American Heritage Dictionary answers the question – What is an orphan?
The international community tends to use the broader definition of an orphan – “a child who is deprived of parental care.’ Their parents have usually not abandoned them because of an absence of love. Instead, it usually happens because of disease, poverty or other circumstances the inability to provide and care for the well-being of their child.
These children find themselves in the community with no place to stay and they must find a way to take care of themselves. Some of these children will make their way to an orphanage and receive food, shelter, and possibly even some schooling.
An orphan can be further classified by using definitions such as UNICEF’s “single orphans,” which is a child with only one parent who has died, or “double orphans,” which is a child with both parents having passed away. In practice, though, we tend to think of children living in orphanages as orphans, although it is possible that both of their parents are alive but not caring for their child.
An orphan is a child who, because of the death of parent(s), poverty, disease, or some other circumstance, is seeking to fend or care for himself whether through roaming and surviving on the streets or finding care and support through a orphanage.
No matter what the answer to the question “What is an Orphan” – there is a desperate need to meet the needs of these children around the world.