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Waiting for our Snowflake Baby

Posted on February 3rd, 2023 by

Ty and I were married in 2015. This was Ty’s second marriage and my first. We knew that conceiving a child would be difficult as Ty has three adopted sons from his first marriage who at that time were 11, 10, and 8. However, I was still not without hope of being able to conceive and bear a child because after all, God bringing us together was a miracle, He could answer anything. It was not until a few years ago that I also learned that I was contributing to our infertility issues.

Each month would come and go without pregnancy. There were months that my hopes would rise and then be dashed. In the summer of 2017, there was a sermon series preached at church about superheroes. One of the messages that was given came from a man who he and his wife have fostered/adopted several children. That superhero message was about how foster and adoptive parents are superheroes to children who need loving families and how all of us were adopted into God’s family. During that message, I began feeling God stirring in my heart to consider the path of foster care or adoption. We discussed this option and even attended the small group at our church for foster and adoptive families. However, we were not in a place financially or personally to begin the process.

Once again this past year I felt God prompting me to investigate adoption again. After our discussions, we agreed to pursue the adoption process and not stand in the way of where God is calling us during this next season. After much discernment and investigation into different adoption platforms, we surprisingly landed on embryo adoption.

Ty & Heather are Adopting Snowflakes

Posted on January 31st, 2023 by

We are so excited that you have taken the time to consider donating to our embryo adoption journey. God stirred in my (Heather) heart the desire to adopt several years ago. We are finally in a place where adopting is a possibility. Finding the right agency to pursue adoption through brought many different road blocks, but we have found an agency that fit us perfectly. When we began the process of finding an agency neither of us were familiar with embryo adoption. Embryo adoption allows for the adoptive mom to carry and give birth to their genetically unrelated child. We are in the process of adopting our own snowflakes (embryos). Every snowflake is uniquely create, just a every person is uniquely created by God and with a purpose. We thank you for considering donating to our snowflake adoption.

Five Haffs Make a Whole

Posted on February 5th, 2019 by

Our family's story is a little crazy. It began with Shane and I marrying and having completely different ideas about what our family would look like- and adoption was not on either of our minds. We were surprised with our biological son- and after his first birthday we decided we were done having kids (those long newborn nights and teething, am I right?!). However, we weren't done growing our family! First came Ruth- our sweet and spicy daughter from Lagos, Nigeria. She was our first adoption experience and it couldn't have been better. Now, we're adding to the mix a precious girl from Asia, and our family is pretty much going to look like a mini United Nations Convention! We are blessed with a supportive family and church, but adoption is certainly a test of our faith. We are trusting that God will provide all our needs- not only financial (which is enormous!) but also emotionally- we want to be all our kids need us to be, and point them to Him- who is all they truly need. Thank you for giving to our family- your gift is helping us change the world for one more child by being her forever family.

Waiting for Our Menegocci Little(s)

Posted on November 26th, 2018 by

Adoption has always been part of our conversations and prayers––how could it not? We have been adopted by God into His family, and have been shown indescribable love and grace. The desire of our hearts is to be parents and extend these gifts to our kids by pouring out into their lives, teaching them the ways they should go, showing them their identity in Christ and loving them unconditionally.

We could not be more thrilled for the joys and victories to come, as well as the challenges and difficulties that will sharpen us to become more like the One who loved us first.

If willing, please join us financially in bringing our sweet kid(s) home. This money will go toward our matching fee, most of which will be sent to the orphanage to help cover caring for our child and for court costs.

Thank you for embarking on this journey with us!

"We love, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

The Shamblin Family Adventure

Posted on November 23rd, 2018 by

Hey! We are the Shamblin family from North Georgia. We are Steve and Nikki Shamblin and our five kids Thomas(24), Emily (22), Sadie (19), Reed (15), and Lydia (6). We adopted Lydia from China three years ago, through Nightlight Christian Adoptions, and we have been so blessed with her as an addition to our family! We consider her a precious gift from the Lord. I, Nikki, asked Steve to pray about adopting several years ago. Unbeknownst to me, he began to pray that the Lord would take the desire to adopt away from me! We already had four biological children and zero money, so there was no way! Well, God had different plans than Steve, and instead of changing my heart, God changed his. Now, he is just as passionate about adoption as I am.
Since adopting Lydia, we have considered adopting again. We decided to host a waiting child over Christmas last year. We had the pleasure of hosting two children from Columbia for two weeks. It was wonderful. Needless to say, we fell in love with the kiddos. The oldest one is not available for us to adopt, but the younger one is. We want to bring her into our family forever. She is thirteen years old. On our adoption journey three years ago, the Lord provided the finances in amazing ways! Both Steve and I are administrators of a small Christian school. We do not have a budget for international adoption, but we have a love for kids, and we know that the Lord will provide whatever we need to fulfill His calling in our lives. He has called us to open our home to children in need, and we are excited to participate in the journey of adoption again!

Trying to grow our family

Posted on September 16th, 2018 by

My husband and I have been married almost 5 years now and we’ve been together since high school which was 14 years ago. We want a family more than anything and our hoping to have one soon. Sadly I cannot have children of my own due to some infertility issues but that does not mean we cannot provide love to a child who needs a good home. Our hope is that one day we can say our dream of having a family came true.

Noteboom Family goes to Liberia

Posted on September 7th, 2018 by

We have been married almost 4 years now, and have been actively trying to have a family for 3 of them. We have gone through some fertility treatments, and while we were going through them, we continued to feel God call us towards adoption. Once our third round of treatment failed, we both strongly felt that having biological children is not God's plan for us. As we began researching adoption, we were very much drawn towards international adoption. We felt that the children in the orphanages around the world are in a some of the most desperate situations, and we felt called to help change that for at least one child. We began researching different countries, and we came to an all-stop at Liberia. It seemed like God had chosen this country for us, because we both instantly got such a sense of peace. We know that our child/children are in Liberia, and we can't wait to meet him/her/them!

The Overcomers

Posted on August 17th, 2018 by

We are a blended family living in Fresno, CA. Mom-Dawn works with children who have special needs at the local regional center. Dad-Michael has his own medical equipment upholstery business. Kids are Jeremy age 20, Christian age 16, Edwin age 6, and Victoria age 4. We live in Clovis Unified School District which provides excellent educational opportunities. Victoria was adopted in 2015. We have a home study from her adoption and are working on an updated home study with Golden State Family Services. We have Pre Services trauma informed training completed as well as finger prints, CPR and 1st aide. We are a loud happy Christian family that loves to travel in the US.

Evan and Christina

Posted on August 2nd, 2018 by

Dear Expectant or Birth Mother,

Our family life is a fun mix of Baylor sports, music, books, travel, and our church activities and community. Both of us work at Baylor University: Evan, who has a master’s degree in education, works for the track and field team, and Christina, who has a PhD in English, teaches business communications. Our jobs come with wonderful perks, including a flexible schedule to allow us lots of family time, free admission to Baylor sports events (We love football and basketball games and track and field meets!), and free college tuition for our children. Christina is thankful that her teaching schedule would allow her to be home with a baby for four days each week. On the three days a week that Christina leaves home for work, we would use a wonderful mothers’ day out program at a local church for childcare.

Our flexible schedules allow us to send our only son, Jude, to a Christian university-model school, in which he goes to school three days a week; on the other two days a week, we homeschool. As a teacher, Christina loves being part of Jude’s education and helping him learn. Homeschool gives us opportunities to read and play soccer or basketball outside together, make many trips to the library, and learn about what interests him. We also love the sweet, nurturing atmosphere that Jude’s school provides for him.

Jude is our biological son, born in 2011. He loves sports, Legos, and books. When asked to describe him in one word, his kindergarten teacher said, “Compassionate.” He is an empathetic boy who would be a wonderful big brother. He is both silly and smart. He loves to make people laugh; he also asks thoughtful questions. He cares deeply about what others are feeling, and he wants to help them to feel better if they are sad. Jude is continually playing a sport with a community league. Soccer is currently his favorite, but he has also enjoyed basketball and t-ball. Jude regularly attends Sunday School and our church’s Wednesday night children’s program.

We met through working with a Christian college ministry. We were ministry partners and good friends for several years. We both admired each other’s character and values, and we knew when we started dating that we would marry. Our first date was at a lovely dam in South Africa, where we were leading a team of college students doing ministry there. We were married less than a year later, in 2007, in Greenville, South Carolina.
We have continued in our commitment to church and ministry. We lead a community group for our church; about five other families regularly come over to our house, share a meal with us, and talk about the Sunday sermon and pray for each other. All our kids usually play in the backyard with a couple of babysitters that we arrange. We also volunteer for our church’s Wednesday night children’s program. Evan leads the outdoor activities time, playing sports and games with the kids, and Christina leads the music time, singing songs and dancing with the kids (about 40 children in all).

Travel is another big part of our family life. Christina leads a study abroad program for college students every June, and we enjoy using part of it as a family vacation. Evan also travels to various meets with the track and field team, and Christina and Jude accompany him whenever possible. In Jude’s six years of life, he has already been to Austria, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany in addition to California, Washington, Utah, Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Colorado, Arkansas, Missouri, and Alabama. We enjoy learning about and seeing new places!

We believe that when God says "No" to something, often He is saying "Yes" to something else. We had Jude with no problems or complications but have had unexplained secondary infertility for the past five years. Our doctors tell us that we are healthy, and they don’t know why we can’t have more biological children. Trusting that God is good, wise, and sovereign, we are pursuing adoption, hopefully as God's "yes."

Several families in our church, including one of our pastors, have grown their families through adoption, and now they are beautiful, multi-racial families. We believe we would have a tremendous support system through these and other friends at church, and we would be committed to helping a child whom God gives us through adoption to learn about his or her ethnic background and have access to adults and children of that background.
If you choose to place your baby with us, we would like to have as open a relationship with you as you would feel comfortable with. We live in a cozy home in Waco, Texas, close to the local library, several fun parks, and the YMCA. We would be glad to share pictures and letters with you, and we would love to visit regularly with you, if you like.

Sincerely,
Evan and Christina