This is our blog about our journey to grow our family and the amazing hand of God in and through it all.

Our Beginning....

From the time that we were first married we always wanted children and even envisioned perhaps growing our family through adoption in addition to having biological children. I (Ashley) have adopted siblings from Romania so the thought of adopting seemed very natural. As time continued, our desire to grow as a family began to really blossom. Our deep desire is to have children that we can love and raise in the love and admonition of the Lord.

And Then...

As time continued it seemed that the Lord was not blessing us with biological children. We briefly considered adoption and even sent away for information. However, that was quickly shelved due to the sticker shock of the cost of adoption. We were hesitant to move forward with expensive fertility procedures. So, we started praying fervently that if adoption was what the Lord wanted for us, He would make it clear.

Our Answer

Within weeks of fervent, pleading with the Lord for direction, our answer came with astounding clarity and timeliness. The doctor suggested that we should consider adoption. Doctors usually only say this after a lot of money through expensive procedures and/or time has passed. Fortunately, neither was the case, so we felt confident that the Lord was uniquely directing our path. It was almost like a miracle!

It felt that we were leaving the wilderness and the our time of wandering and onto our destined path. We were so thankful for God's clear guidance in this matter. With that we promptly began researching various paths of adoption such as domestic vs. international. We quickly settled on international because even though there are many more hoops to jump through there is a definite process and a light at the end of the tunnel.

But Where...

We looked at El Salvador which really piqued out interest since we met on a mission trip over there. However, the Lord revealed that this was not our path. We also looked at China but were told that the wait was going to increase. I had always wanted to adopt a girl from China in the back of my mind so this was a little disappointing. Then we came across Vietnam and it seemed perfect for us.

But With Who...

We looked at number of different agencies and we finally settled on one. I was about to check their references when I came across Orphans Overseas website. After some investigation we thought we had found the perfect agency. We signed up with them in Dec 2006. Yeah!!!