Since the beginning of our marriage, adoption had always been a desire tucked away in the back of our minds. While we didn’t know the timing or place, it was always coming up in conversations or in plans for the future. In late August and early September, we began researching the different options available for us as a family. We have seen beautiful stories of adoption that have taken years and years to unfold, so we decided that we would go in with no expectations, trusting that the Lord would open the doors in His time. After the meeting, we were anxious to research even more.

In November, we received an email about an update on the “Waiting Children” List. This process is slightly different from the normal adoption process because these children are approved by the government for adoption and simply waiting on their forever family. Long story short, when we looked at the list of children from this specific country, we fell in love with a little boy with the same eyes and smile as our 9 month old son.

Just out of curiosity, we sent an inquiry and received additional information on him for the next few weeks. This healthy and smily boy the same age as our son had been found abandoned when he was one day old. Of course our first response was to jump on a plane and go get this sweet little one. However, we slowed down, talked, prayed, and waited.

Not wanting to act on emotion was a big thing for us. This is a child’s life–not something that we wanted to take lightly. The timeline that we had in our head was formed from watching others walk through this process. We have seen others wait 2-3 years or more for their little one to come home. Hearing that our timeline was going to move a little more quickly was shocking, but the Lord continues to call us to trust Him. We asked questions, prayed, waited, and asked more questions. Finally, right before Christmas we were officially “Matched” with this little one and started the process to bring him home!

The two of us desire to give this boy a forever family–a Mommy, Daddy, and brother–that will love him unconditionally. We desire for this little one to know that he is made in the image of God–that he is so much more than an orphan. But most importantly, we desire for this little boy to ultimately be adopted by his Heavenly Father, to become his disciple, and reach others for Him.

So, we covet your prayers during this time. We are not expecting this to be easy–in fact we are expecting it to be an emotional roller coaster. We covet your prayers spiritually, mentally, and financially–that we will continue to trust the Lord and hold fast to His promises.

At a Christian concert we heard first hand the story of an orphan getting a forever home. We talked about it and prayed about it ad felt God directing us to pursue giving a child a forever home. We started found an agency and started the process. Just as we were beginning the home study my appendix ruptured and I spent 3 months recovering from multiple complications. God still had plans for me. We resumed the journey as soon as I was well enough to do so. We hosted a young girl in over the summer. We expressed our desire to adopt her and her younger sister. That did not come to pass. Looking back I see God's hand pointing her in a different direction. She was not "our" child. After a time to move past that disappointment, we knew there were other children that need forever homes. Enter 2 teen sisters needing a forever home. We believe God has a perfect plan and perfect timing. We trust that by his plan he will make a way for us to bring these girls to their forever home. We appreciate all who would partner with us on this journey, be it with prayer or financial gift.

Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

Sitting on the hilltop behind the elementary school my husband attended, he and I were playfully talking about how many kids we wanted. Seven. Both of us said seven and thought it sounded so doable, so simple! We fell in love fast. One of the things I loved most about Jackson was his tender heart. He had served a two year mission for the LDS church in Albania and it was evident that he loved an cared for the people there with everything he had. I knew he would love our future family that way too. That night on the hilltop was two months into our dating and then we got married 6 months later! We finished school and then decided it was time to start a family, but a year went by and nothing. Two years, three years, four years all went by and then five. Last year we had our 6 year anniversary and decided it was time to do IVF. After several other infertility treatments, we were told this was what we had to do next.
We had moved to Seattle, but had a doctor and clinic we were attached to in Utah that we decided to do our IVF through. It made for some difficult time apart from each other as I went back and forth for weeks at a time while Jackson continued working. But, we were hopeful and encouraged by the amazing results we had from our "batch!" 13 healthy embryo's were created and we were thrilled. All things seemed to be working perfectly for us, we even had positive results from our first attempt where we had implanted 2 of those embryo's. It was during Christmas time and we waited until we were with our families for Christmas to tell them the happy news that I was pregnant! It was such an exciting time as both of our families had been praying for us for years. But then I woke up one morning and it was over.
We were discouraged, but many of our friends had to do IVF a couple of times to get pregnant. Our next cycle, we did it again. Two embryo's and the trips back and forth to Utah. A nerve racking 10 day wait and I was pregnant! This time with no bleeding and I felt amazing. Again, it was such a happy time. I was at lunch with my girl friends talking about when my due date would be and how my pregnancy would line up close to theirs. Walking back to the car, I suddenly doubled over in pain. My left side of my abdomen felt like it was being stabbed from the inside. I went home and tried to rest, but it was getting worse. I called the doctor and they told me to get to the hospital and I was hitting my leg the whole way there to stop myself from passing out. Jackson met me there and held my hand as the technician did a 45 min. ultrasound without telling us anything.
I'm so grateful for the doctor that day who advised me to terminate the pregnancy immediately, but respected that I had worked so hard and let me have a little more time to do some blood work to confirm that this was an ectopic pregnancy. When the results came back a few hours later, I was ordered to go to the ER and to get an injection of methotrexate. It was over and I was broken. We cried for a long time and even though we had so many embryos and the clinic was already making plans for us to do a third round, we couldn't bring ourselves to even think about it.
We will never know why pregnancy has been an issue for us, but I'm so grateful. I know that sounds weird or crazy, but I'm so grateful for the perspective and thoughts and love and experience it's given me. It is the reason why we are here. There came a point even before we attempted IVF where I began to think that there had to be a child out there who wanted a mom & dad as much as we wanted him. There were so many signs along the way that added to mine and Jackson's realization that this is how we want our family to come to us. We wanted to adopt. We wanted to make that choice intentionally. Not because we ran out of embryos or because we had exhausted every resource to get pregnant. No, we want our child to know that we made this decision because we felt and believed that there was a child out there meant for us and who we would love and who would love us to. We believe in eternal families, that we can be together forever and that because of Jesus Christ we can love an adopted child as our own.
We began our adoption journey shortly after that difficult time with a lot of prayer and research. After about a month or two we felt undeniably sure that we wanted to adopt internationally from the country that Jackson spent two years of his life serving in. Over the years of our marriage, Jackson and I have traveled to Albania and I too fell in love with the people and the culture. So much hope and potential and goodness in the people there and it's stunningly beautiful with a rich and complex history. We also considered the unique opportunity we would have to build a strong connection to our child's heritage because Jackson knows the language and can speak it fluently. It's our hope to teach our child about where they are from and that they can develop a sense of pride for their heritage and a love of their personal adoption story.
May 1, 2017 was the day we officially began and on September 8, 2017 we were sent a photo of a darling 10 month old boy and the rest of his file came shortly after. Jackson and I are overjoyed to announce that we were matched with this sweet baby boy just this past week! He already has our hearts and we carry his photo with us wherever we go. We pray for him daily and together we pray for him nightly. We ask God to watch over him and to protect him, to keep him safe until we can get there. I can't explain the love I feel for this child that I've never met and only know so much about! I have one photo to hold, but it's the first thing I'd save if our house caught on fire!
Thank you for letting us tell our story. It's one we love and that we want to share because we believe with our whole hearts that this little boy is our miracle. We don't know yet when we will be able to go to Albania to meet him and bring him home, but we are preparing in every way we can. Anything you can offer to give helps us so much and fills our hearts with gratitude.
With love,
Jackson & Emily Owen

We have been married for 25 years. Since the beginning we have both had a strong desire to share our lives with children and have a house full of love, laughter, and teaching. First Lorrie gave birth to our oldest boy, then another boy and then a daughter– three altogether. These three brought so much joy it can’t be articulated in this brief write up. But Lorrie’s pregnancies while beautiful were also very difficult for her. We longed for more children to share the love of our growing family that God had given us. This led us to pursue an adoption of a little girl from the Philippines. In January of 2010 we were so blessed with another beautiful daughter Naomi. She needed us and we needed her –she brought another beautiful melody into our home. And later with Naomi’s enthusiastic blessing we went back to the same orphanage and adopted her best friend -Jacob - in 2012. You can read more about Jacob's adoption by visiting our blog emptytheorphanage.blogspot.com

Jacob and Naomi brought so much life and love to us. We camped, climbed canyon walls and had adventures all over Colorado. In 2014, Jacob was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. It was devastating news. We came together as a family and walked with Jacob through a deep valley. Sadly, he passed away on January 3, 2015. Jacob was only 14.

Adoption is our family’s story it's who we are. What we’ve (the whole family) found is that we have even more room to love now and we want to share it with others. We’re not finished loving and providing a family to orphans. We found out about a sibling group of three brothers ( ages 9,8 and 7) who have spent their entire life in an orphanage in the Philippines. So, after talking with the children and much prayer, we have decided to pursue the adoption of these three brothers. We are in the process of bringing them home to join their forever family.

This will make the third adoption for our family. 25 years ago when we married, we had no idea what the future would hold and how blessed we would be simply because of adoption.

We have been talking about adoption since we got married in 2008. Over the last 9 years, we have had 3 biological children, moved overseas, come back, talked about adoption, lost our sweet 4th child before her birth at 18 weeks with Down Syndrome, and have felt God finally confirming the timing for us to pursue adoption. Because we have lived among the nations and felt particularly drawn to South Asians, India was a natural and exciting fit for us.

We have completed our home study and hope to be registering in India for a 2-4 year old girl with mild to correctable special needs - but we are open to God's leading! We will be waiting for our paperwork to be approved by the US government and when that comes back (probably around mid November) we will need to have raised $6500 to get registered as a prospective adoptive family in India. When we do get matched with a child, we will need $6000 at that time. This could be very quick, if our child is on the waiting child list.

So our fundraising goal is $12,500 by December 1st! We would love if you would prayerfully consider being a part of our adoption story. We can't wait to find out who God has in store for our family!

Adoption has always been on our hearts but on a mission trip to Nicaragua our hearts broke for older orphans that would likely age out of the system without ever knowing the love and stability of a forever family. Already having four biological children we prayed hard to see how God could use us to make a positive impact in the lives of these children. We know that having a large family comes with some obstacles and also that older orphans come with their own set of issues, but we felt God calling us to be open to up to a sibling group of up to three children and to be open to any age child. We have been blessed with so much and know that our hearts and home are ready for this new challange.