No Matter What Age

Our family is your 'typical' American family - 2 biological children - 1 boy and 1 girl. We are part of a church where adoption is a familiar term due to the number of families there that have decided to open their homes and hearts to be forever families. We had been feeling a tug at our hearts for adoption mainly through a family that had hosted a boy from China in 2015 and then eventually adopted him. It was during their fundraising that we heard a presentation from Nightlight Christian Adoptions and decided that this was what God wanted us to do. Of course, with adoption comes a financial commitment to raise money. BUT we were at the point where Kevin had retired from the military and we had been waiting for over 6 months for his Veterans' Affairs disability determination. We made the decision to step out in faith and say that we were going to adopt on a Friday. That following Monday, we received the VA determination and it was a much higher rate than we had hoped for. This was a great gift from God to provide for our daily needs. We knew that since God was calling us to adopt, He will provide for the adoption, through all of His children.

After we started the adoption process, we saw that Nightlight was doing the summer hosting program again and would have girls in the program. We truly felt that God was leading us to adopt an older girl from China. After reviewing all of the profiles of the children available for hosting, we decided to host Mariana, a 12-year-old girl with cataracts. The two weeks that she was here was truly an adventure, and we are looking forward to continuing the adventure as a journey for a lifetime!