We love children and our desire has always been to build a loving and supportive family for as many children as the Lord would bless us with. When we started to try for a family in 2010, we faced three years of unexpected infertility issues before we became pregnant with identical twins! We were very blessed to start our family with the birth of Madilyn and Mikaela in 2014 but during our struggle with infertility, our hearts were opened to adoption as we realized that we had love in our hearts for children beyond our own biological children. We knew that adoption would be a part of our family’s story someday.
Over the years, we prayed and thought about adoption a lot, waiting on God’s direction and timing. We began our first adoption journey in 2020, and after many ups and downs, we were thrilled to welcome our son, Judah, in 2022! We were amazed to see God work and help us carry the financial load of his adoption. We are extremely grateful for every individual and organization, like Katelyn’s Fund, that supported our family, both financial and prayerfully, to not only make it possible for us to not only welcome Judah into our family but also put us in a financial position where we could consider adopting another child. After much prayer and family discussions, we didn’t feel like the Lord was done with our adoption story quite yet, so we began our second adoption journey in early 2024.
Fast forward to November, and things moved quickly! On November 15, we received an email about a baby girl born on November 12 that needed to be placed for adoption in Oklahoma. We had to make a quick decision without having a lot of answers, but we knew that if we gave the Lord our “Yes,” he would guide our steps and bring us to the right child at the right time. So, we decided to show our profile, and the next morning, we were elated to learn that the birth mother had selected our family! The next day was a flurry of activity as we packed everyone up and made our way from IL to OK to meet our daughter, Jenavieve! After spending two weeks in OK, we made our way home to IL and began to settle in as a family of six.
As we settled into our new way of life, one of the many questions we had was how we could cover the cost of this adoption. Given the quick timing between Jenavieve’s birth and placement, many of the grants that we had planned to apply for were unfortunately no longer available to us because we had already taken placement. We were so thankful to learn that this was not the case for Katelyn’s Fund and that we still had the opportunity to apply for a grant! The support we have received from Katelyn’s Fund goes far beyond providing financial assistance to our family. The fellowship and continued prayers will make a substantial and long-lasting impact in the lives of our children and their birth families. We felt so much encouragement during our conversations and are greatly honored and humbled to be selected. Our family is amazed to see how the Lord is writing our adoption story and we pray He will use it to display his glory! Thank you again for your ministry and all that you do to support children and families!
One thing that we have seen God’s hand at work within our adoption journeys is how He is using our family and our children’s adoption stories to open other’s hearts and minds to adoption. We are thankful that other couples and families have witnessed our adoption journeys and it has made it possible for us to share God’s heart for adoption as well as support them as they consider adoption and move forward in their own journeys.
