Our Story

Our story starts long before we were married. In fact, our story starts long before we even met! Our story began with a little girl named Allie who was born with a disease that would require medications and surgeries and that would eventually lead to an infertility journey.

 

Knowing that this was a possibility early on, I was not deterred. I proudly proclaimed to just about everyone, “I’m going to have a quiver of children!” I quickly became excited about the possibility and hope of adoption. So, when Tyler and I started dating one of the first questions I had for him was, “Do you want kids?” And the second, “Would you ever consider adoption?” I was so overjoyed to hear him answer both with “YES!” And so, from the beginning, adoption has always been our Plan A.

 

But Tyler and I were married during our seminary years. With Tyler in school full-time, both of us working part-time, and both of us serving in various ministries, we knew that adoption wouldn’t be an option for us right away. So, Plan B, we began to try for our first child naturally. A few months went by, no baby. With each passing month, the ache in our hearts grew tighter. But we kept trying. “Miracles happen all the time,” we thought. A few months turned into a few years. At times, the weight of this burden of infertility seemed unbearable. I felt like Paul in 2 Corinthians who said that he and Timothy, “were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even life.” Infertility is a grief unlike other kinds in that it is unseen to the onlooker. Even when the onlooker is aware, there is no visible marker as a reminder to comfort. For that reason, it has been something that we have most often felt like we carry alone.

 

But the verses in 2 Corinthians don’t end there. They continue, “indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” This burden has been in so many ways a blessing to our marriage, our ministry, and our individual relationships with Christ. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, our eyes have seen something of the beauty of our Jesus. He has shown us that even on our lowest and darkest days our future is still as bright as it could ever be. He has shown us that this world is not our own and that our best days here, whether in reality or what our minds wish for, could never compare to the wonderful glory that is to come. Great is His faithfulness!

 

So, after grieving the loss of the likelihood of ever having a baby naturally, we prayed for healing. And over the past year and a half, the Lord mended our hearts and turned us back to Plan A. In May of 2021 we applied to be one of Angel Adoption’s adoptive couples. We were one of over 900 other applicants, and there were only two spots available to incoming adoptive couples for the month of June. They chose us to be one of the two.

 

We do not deserve it. And we are forever humbled by the graciousness of our Heavenly Father who not only adopted us into His family but who has now provided us the possibility of adopting a child into our family.

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O Lord, You are my God;

I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;

For You have worked wonders,

Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.

- Isaiah 25:1 -