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.
Love that you laid that out in bullet points! I’m also in San Diego county (Carlsbad!).