Our Family

We have been married for 16 years.
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Adoption was talked about before we said “I Do”.
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We struggled to conceive a baby the first few years of marriage.
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We sought counsel, prayer and medical intervention.
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We had a baby boy in 2006 with medical help.
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We prayed for another baby to join us again soon.
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We conceived with oral meds in 2007.
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We lost that baby in miscarriage.
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We started foster care classes.
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We fell in love with the system but weren’t emotionally ready to support the re-unification portion.
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We had an opportunity to see an infertility specialist in Jan 2008.
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I was prayed for and prophesied over that I would have many children.
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We watched God do a miracle with our IVF journey.
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We had boy/girl twins in October of 2008.
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We were found out by surprise I was pregnant with no intervention in July 2009.
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Our 4th child, baby girl number two was born in March of 2010.
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We were so amazed at God’s blessing and favor on our family after our painful start.
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We prayed our future would involve an adoption but our hands were full and we were thankful.
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In the fall of 2010, our 4th baby was just shy of six months old and we found out I was pregnant with our 5th child.
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I cried the first 4 months.
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Our 3rd daughter was born in May of 2011.
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We were completely changed by her arrival.
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We didn’t think we could handle it and then grace poured out upon us and we adored our story.
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Adoption longings didn’t go away.
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Our 6th baby was a miracle along with all the others.
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A frozen embryo for five years.
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We welcomed our 4th daughter, 6th child into our family in June 2013. She was an adopted embryo.
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We were ruined from ordinary and knew our future would welcome another child/children someday.
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We thought it would be through the foster care system.
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We found out in 2014, our family size was an “at capacity” and we would not be allowed to foster in the state we lived in.
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We let life move forward, we gave our hearts to the Lord and enjoyed the ages and stages of our children.
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JR went back to school in January of 2010 a few months before our 4th child was born.
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He graduated with his bachelors in Nursing in May of 2013.
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He went straight into the graduate program while working full time.
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In 2015 we began talking about what life would look like when he was done with school.
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We began to pray about relocating out of central Illinois when he graduated.
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Our hopes were that we could live near mountains or an ocean, and a large amount of sunshine.
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Our hearts biggest desire was to find a local body of believers to pour our family and hearts in to.
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In the spring of 2016, I (Aly) went to a home school conference in California.
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I was awe struck by the beauty. I jokingly called my husband and told him this location needed to be on the prayer list.
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Six weeks later he received an email with a job opportunity in San Diego: mountains, sunshine and ocean!
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Two days later, he was offered a six month job contract.
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The start date was four days after he graduated with his masters in nursing.
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In faith, we picked up and moved to San Diego with our family and a six month job commitment.
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We believed God would meet us and provide.
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While it’s not been easy in any way, we are wired to make choices that require our faith to be stretched.
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Here we are again believing God to do impossible things and walk with us down this adoption journey.
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. One year ago, in July 2017 we connected with an adoption crowdfunding organization called Adopt a love story, where we publicly shared our plans to pursue an infant domestic adoption.
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The spring/summer of 2018 we worked hard to get through our paperwork, almost finished in August 2018. The process of replanting our family in a new state has taken a lot of time. We have experienced a lot of circumstances that have kept us from moving forward, even though at times its felt like we have crawled, we are still moving forward.
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We hope that 7000 names will bring a community near and far together to help us welcome our 7th child into our home forever.