Our Story

We are Matt and April.  We will be married 10 years in June and we have 2 biological kids, Gray & Gracie. 

Matt and I are high school sweethearts who are blessed enough to have only ever dated each other.  We got married, had a blast for nearly 5 years, and then God gave us Gray.  Three years later, almost to the day, God gave us our Gracie girl.  Life is good.

But there has been a 15 year discussion going on between the two of us and God.  He was and continues to be very clear with us that there is a baby He wants to put in our family through adoption.  Matt told me about this when we were 16 years old.  Crazy, right?  At first, it was a fun conversation to have as high-schoolers who were dreaming of the future.  But, we found it continuing through college and through our early years of marriage.  We began watching couples we knew go through the process and we kept hearing God say, "That's for you too."  Over and over again.

In November of 2007, we found out we were pregnant.  Excited doesn't even begin to describe how we felt.  But, on December 13th, our baby Hope went to heaven.  We were crushed.  So, we went back to what we knew without a doubt God had said to us.....adoption.  We started an adoption class and stumbled upon a small local agency called New Life Pregnancy Center.  We loved them and through reading about them, felt connected to people we hadn't even met.  We requested the first set of paperwork and sent it in.  We continued with our class, learned so much from our amazing teachers (who God has now placed in the same church with us), met some wonderful couples, and heard God say again even louder, "This is for you."  On the last night of our class, several couples who had completed an adoption came to tell their stories and answer questions.  One lady had adopted 2 boys through New Life, the agency we had fallen in love with through our own research!!!  We felt like God was confirming that this was His plan for us.  We also met another important person that night.  He came to share his story not as an adoptive parent, but as an adoptee himself.  Fast-forward 5 years, and now he's our pastor.  Funny how God placed people in that class with us who we would later attend church with and would walk this journey with us.  God is so good.

Well, at the end of our adoption class, we found out we were pregnant with Gray.  We were thrilled of course, but knew that God had used that time to remind us that adoption was coming.  So, we called New Life, told them our news, and assured them they would hear from us again. 

They did hear from us again in January of 2011.  We had been trying nearly a year to get pregnant again and it just wasn't happening.  So, we started down the adoption road again.  This time we filled out even more paperwork and were actually approved.  The approval letter came the day after I found out I was pregnant with Gracie.  Of course!  They were so gracious, but we were a little embarrassed to call back a second time to tell them, Oops Never Mind!!

I want to pause here for a second and make clear that adoption has never been our "second choice."  It's never been as if we only want to adopt if we can't have babies of our own.  Never.  In fact, we honestly knew we wanted to adopt before we ever agreed to have our own children.  The question for us has always been timing.  And obviously, our timing was wrong each time up to this point.  God had different plans, but with each pregnancy He gave us, He also gave us a stronger assurance that adoption was coming.

One of New Life's policies is that your youngest child has to be one year old before you can apply for adoption.  So, in September 2012, the month before Gracie turned one, we visited New Life's website and discovered that they had changed some things in their requirements, things that we felt God had called our family to as well, and we knew that God was leading us here again.  They were only going to be open for applications for 1 month, October.  Gracie would be one.  So, we sent in our paperwork for a third time.

We had our first meeting with them on the day before Thanksgiving.  We spent 2 1/2 hours talking with a lady that we had now known through emails and phone calls for over 4 years.  We laughed when she asked us if we were sure we weren't pregnant this time.  It was wonderful.  She answered so many questions we had waited so long to ask.  We all felt like this was right.  The question was just timing. 

We let the holidays pass and we prayed and talked.  In January, we told them that we felt like God was leading us this way, and would like to begin the major paperwork and home study process with the understanding that adoption is usually a long journey.  We were okay with that, especially since Gracie had only just turned one.  Plus, we needed time to figure out how to pay for all of this.  If you've never researched it, adoption is very expensive.  We waited for a reply for 2 weeks, which is an unusually long time to wait with them, because they are normally so prompt.  When we finally heard, the response was that yes we could start the process slowly if we wanted, but that they needed adoptive families right now, and could they call us if a situation arose where we were needed. We were pretty shocked. 

After some prayer, we answered that yes, they could call us if a situation arose.  But, we said we really didn't feel that we could receive a baby until October or after for several reasons, one being that Gracie is still so young.  However, we promised to stay open to God's will and timing.  Over the next 2 months, we completed a lot of paperwork, began some of our required readings, brainstormed fundraising ideas, met with our pastor, scheduled a homestudy visit, signed up for an adoption training, and prayed a lot.  And then, on Saturday, March 9th, we got an email from New Life.  There are birthmoms that they can show our profile to now.  They asked if we would consider stepping up our timetable.

God had prepared our hearts for this through many different ways.  So, we said yes, and in one week's time, we completed our home study and are now ready for birthmoms to view our profile.  God provided all we needed to prepare for this.  It has been incredible to watch Him open doors for us.  

Matt and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has called us to adopt.  The time seems to finally be here.  It is definitely not the timing we had in mind.  But, it never seems to be with Him!

We are thrilled and ecstatic that God has brought us here.  We are also terrified!  We felt this blog would be important because obviously, there will be a new little face in our family pictures soon and you might wonder where they came from.  It will also serve as a record of our journey to him or her.  Hopefully, it will encourage others as so many adoption blogs have done for us.  And most importantly, we pray it will be a testament to our God who adopted us, who redeemed us, and who provides all we need and more for the praise of His glory.

If you've made it to this point, thank you for reading this.  If you have questions, please go to our FAQ page and if your answer isn't there, leave us a comment and ask!