who we are

as more people are hearing about our fundraisers, i'm hoping they will be encouraged to follow our journey. if you're new to our story, here's what we're about:

jamie and i have always wanted to adopt. i have a 11-year-old cousin adopted from china. her presence in my life instilled in me the desire to adopt. knowing that she could have ended up in slavery, as a prostitute, or even dead had she not been adopted showed me that adoption is literally a miracle from God. jamie has always had a passion for justice, especially justice on behalf of children. when he went to law school, his dream job was (and probably still is) working for the department of justice or a non-profit organization to prosecute child traffickers and other abusers of children. so for jamie, adoption has just always made sense.

to clear some things up (for those who are wondering) -- we have no idea if we can have biological kids. we've never even tried. we are so in love with adoption right now. everyday, i'm more and more impassioned about the plight of the orphan. we chose ethiopia simply because we're pretty convinced most kids born in africa these days have only a small chance at a real life. there are 6 million orphans in ethiopia right now, many of them orphaned because of HIV. people ask why we're requesting 2 kids, and we say "why not?" people wonder if our kids will be HIV positive, and we say "probably not, but so what if they are?" people ask if we will have biological kids, and we say "maybe. probably. maybe. but right now, our hearts are in africa with 2 children that are meant to be ours."

God gave us hearts for adoption a long time ago, but he has now flung them wide open in ways that we never even could have imagined. adoption has not just opened our hearts to 2 new family members but also to the poor, the sick, the suffering, the dying, and the oppressed of our world.

but if you're wondering about those 2 new family members -- we expect 2 boys, though a boy and a girl are certainly possible. we are open to either siblings or unrelated children. and right now, we're requesting that one child be 36 months or under and the other child be 12 months or under (we may be willing to increase the age of the oldest by a few months). and yes, we already have their names picked out and aren't afraid to share them. if we have 2 sons, they will be liam and elijah. if we have a son and a daughter, they will be liam and charlotte. we plan to send off our dossier (all our paperwork) to ethiopia in january, after which we will be officially on a waitlist. right now, they're estimating 4-6 months for a referral for 2 unrelated children, but anything could happen. it could be shorter or longer. so we won't actually know who are kids are for quite some time.

OK, that's [a succinct version of] our story. we hope you'll keep journeying with us...