Cody and Ali

Dear expectant parent(s):

We know we haven't met you in person yet, but we hope that our online introduction of ourselves can shed a little light on who we are as a couple and a family.

To begin with, our names are Cody and Ali and we live on Cody's family farm, characterized by fields of crops, rolling hills, rich soil and grazing cattle. It's a beautiful setting to be able to call ours, and we love spending time outdoors on the family farm in our free time. We will be married for 5 years come this October and look forward to many more years together, God willing. We met through mutual friends on a cool fall night, and as cheesy as this may sound, it really was 'love at first sight'. Our initial connection was evident and our relationship has only strengthened since. We currently have one biological son named Jack. Jack is a true blessing from the Lord and we look forward to the day that Jack becomes a big brother! He adores children and enjoys spending time with all of his cousins ranging from the ages of only a few months old to 12 years old. It's never boring at our family functions for Jack, or any of us for that matter!

Immediately after marriage, we quickly became pregnant with Jack. Shortly after Jack's one-month stay in the NICU, we had several follow-up appointments at our local Children's hospital, where they were able to first diagnose sweet Jack with a rare genetic syndrome. Not only was Jack born with a 1 in half a million medically complex syndrome, but Ali also experienced a very traumatic birthing experience, making it too dangerous to endure childbirth for a second time. After giving it much thought and praying on it continuously as a couple, we felt as though God was pointing us in the direction of adoption rather than adding on to our family biologically. Even though we didn't expect this plan to be ours, we truly love the idea behind adoption and are so excited to provide a child with his or her forever home. We consider ourselves a team and we look forward to adding on a teammate in the near future.

We love to update our family members and friends on our adoption process, as we watch them become excited for us and what's to come. What a blessing this process has been and will continue to be, not only to our immediate family members, but to distant relatives and close friends also.

Now that you know a little about us and who we are, we would like to focus the attention back on you. We want you to know how grateful we are for you and this incredible sacrifice you are willing to make. This can't be easy and we promise to not pretend that it's easy, nor dismiss your feelings in the process. This is hard. This is scary. But please know that we have been praying for our future child and our future child's birth mother, daily. Psalm 34:18 states, "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." We pray that you find God near to you during this journey and will continue to keep you and the precious life you are carrying in our daily prayers.

All of our love,

Cody, Ali and Jack-Jack