We met thirteen years ago through a friend who invited both of us to hang out at the same event. When Brian arrived, he called his friend to locate her, and Minela happened to be holding the friend’s phone when it rang which kicked off our journey.

We quickly became friends, started dating, and soon engaged. After a few years of dating and moving around the country, we married in a small courthouse in Texas. We are best friends and use every day to experience life to the fullest. We have always wanted to start a family and when it didn’t happen naturally, we looked towards IVF and now adoption.

Minela is outgoing and loves to be around people and making new friends. She is caring and loving which can be seen when she is interacting with anyone but especially with her nieces and nephews. She loves dogs and animals. She was born overseas and moved from Croatia to the United States when she was 8 years old with her parents and brother and sister. They were all refugees of war. Not being able to speak or understand English, they made America their new home which shows her strength in overcoming obstacles. It took her only 6 months to learn the English language and she is good at spelling but somehow, always gets beat by Brian at Scrabble which we both love to play. We are both competitive.

Brian is also outgoing but also enjoys being home and spending time with Minela and their dog, Harley. He loves watching college football and his favorite team is Florida Gators, which is also why his favorite colors are orange and blue. He loves to stay active with exercise or being outside. He really enjoys his job in engineering and the travel that comes along with it; he has been to Canada, Mexico, New York, California, and Las Vegas to name a few. His favorite weekend activity, besides football, is taking our dog to the park for a walk. It’s become a tradition. Brian is a very courageous, hardworking, loving person. He goes above and beyond in everything he does and does everything in his power to make sure his family is happy and well taken care of.

Together, we have so much love to give and can’t wait to share that love with your child.

We met at a Christian Club that Rick had started with a friend at a local college. We dated for four years and then got married and it was the best decision we could have made. We are perfect for each other.

About Paige (from Rick’s perspective)

Paige is the love of my life. I feel that she is the most generous, caring, loving, and thoughtful person I know. She continually motivates and encourages me to be the best version of myself. Paige is an amazing mom to our two boys and is always investing love and time into their lives. She loves to bake with them and read to them. She loves making special moments and memories in each day. For every holiday that comes around, Paige plans exciting projects for the kids to bring as much anticipation for that holiday as possible. Tea parties and fun educational games are a common occurrence in her homeschool days. She loves to take the kids outside to explore and she has the best way of bringing whatever she is teaching them to life. More than my wife, Paige is my best friend. When we are together, we are always laughing, and sharing with each other all the amazing things God is doing in our lives. I feel infinitely blessed to be married to her and to have her in my life. I look forward to the years ahead knowing that we have each other for the rest of time.

About Rick (from Paige’s perspective)

Rick is a wonderful husband to me and Father to my boys. We work, play, and laugh together daily. He is the most loyal and patient man I know and he never ceases to amaze me with his dedication to our family. He is compassionate yet strong. He is honest and trustworthy. If I ever doubt myself or get discouraged, he is always there with a hug and a listening ear. When I have an idea to try, Rick is always supportive and gives his all to help me achieve it. He embodies all the qualities I dreamed of finding in the man I would marry. As the years go by, I find myself more and more in love with him as we live this life as purposefully as possible. We hope that our children remember us most for bringing joy to others and making a difference wherever we go. Watching Rick with our two boys is a gift. He can make them laugh like no one else can. They love to spend every waking moment with him. We are thankful that Rick works from home often which gives him the ability to have more time with us than most. He knows how to make life fun and memorable even on the most mundane days. I love this man and cannot imagine my life without him. The bond we share is truly a gift from God.

Hi! We are Adam and Amelia. We appreciate you taking the time to get to know us and considering entrusting us to parent your child. We met each other through friends from church in early 2012 while Adam was living in St. Louis and Amelia was living in Seattle. We had a long distance courtship that led to marriage at the end of 2012. We both desired to have children with birth and adoptive children always being part of the discussions for growing our family. We began pursuing both adoption and biological children simultaneously while trusting God to provide children as he saw fit. We were blessed to have our daughter, Penelope, become a part of our family in 2023, which put a brief pause on the adoption process while we adjusted to caring for a little one. We are praying and trusting God to continue to grow our family through adoption. We desire to have multiple siblings for Penelope, and our hope is for them to join our family through adoption. 

We seek to foster a home environment that encourages exploration and inquisitiveness. We like to go for walks as a family, play at the nearby park, visit with neighbors, and work in the garden. We enjoy being silly and laughing together. We all like to read, and there are lots of books in our house to encourage reading. We also cook together. Penelope loves to help make food with us, so we find ways for her to participate in an age-appropriate way, such as adding the seasonings to a dish or stirring something in a bowl.

We both like board games and look forward to playing them with our children. We have discovered that cooperative games are a good way to play together since it is everyone against the game. Amelia taught Adam how to knit, and it is a hobby we both enjoy. We knit things for family and friends to share our love of knitting with others. Amelia loves to garden and shares that passion with Penelope. We both enjoy cooking. Adam also enjoys baking, which is something he likes to share with family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors.

As you consider us, know that we value you and want you to have interactions with your child, if that is something you desire. You are important to your child, and we want them to know about you. We are thinking about you and praying for you. We hope to meet you and your child soon.

We are incredibly grateful that you have taken the time to learn about our lives. It is truly an honor to introduce ourselves, and we hope this gives you a small glimpse into who we are.

We are Beau and Erin, and we were both born and raised in Washington State. We have been married for almost 20 years and have desired to grow our family for more than 15 of those years. We met in high school at a summer Bible camp in 1998. We started dating later that summer and quickly realized we were meant to be together. After six years of dating and once Erin completed her bachelor’s degree, Beau proposed, and we were married on August 13, 2005.

From the very beginning of our relationship, we have wanted children but faced challenges conceiving. Our doctor informed us that it was unlikely for us to get pregnant without medical intervention. At that time, we were devastated; however, we strongly felt that the Lord was calling us to welcome a child into our home through adoption, and we found peace in that decision.

Both of us come from medium-sized families and grew up with siblings. We understand how special sibling relationships can be, and we believe that family is one of the most important aspects of life. In addition to our immediate family, we have an extended community of friends who are also very important to us.

In our home, we emphasize love and respect for one another, striving to demonstrate a love similar to that of God. We have always hoped and prayed for children. Adoption has been on our hearts for a long time, and we are very excited about the prospect of adding a child to our loving family.

If you choose us, know that you will always be an important part of your child's story, and your child will grow up knowing just how very loved they are and we would love for you to continue to be a part of their life as well if that is something you would like.

We met in 2013 at a birthday party for a mutual friend. After a brief introduction, I went home and “stalked” Brendon on Facebook. After looking through his profile and thinking he was the cutest guy I had ever seen, I quickly added him as a friend. A week later he sent me a message and asked me on a date. The rest is history! We dated for two and a half years before we got engaged. Brendon surprised me by having our entire family waiting for us at dinner after he proposed and then surprised me again after dinner by having an engagement party with all of our friends waiting to celebrate. Brendon always goes above and beyond to make me feel special and he pulled out all of the stops for our engagement. We were married on February 6, 2016 in Dallas, Texas. Our wedding was the most memorable day of our lives. We celebrated our love for each other surrounded by all of the love of our family and friends. It was truly unforgettable! Since our big day, we have been through some highs and lows, but through it all, we have become stronger. We live each day together as a team and as best friends. We work to encourage one another daily, we respect and value each other’s opinions, and we do and we do a lot of laughing which helps to make our days bright!

Hello! We're Dave and Ashley!

We met in a college class when we were assigned to do a group project together. We began dating a few months later. A week after our first date, Dave found out he was going to be deployed after graduation. We spent a year communicating through emails and video chats. We married a few months after he came home. We've now been married over ten years and our life together continues to be an adventure. Dave finished his military career and is now an ICU nurse. Ashley is a junior high/high school teacher. We have two children, Audrey and Bryce, and love spending time together as a family.

We met at a church Christmas party and got to know each other through game nights and dinner outings with friends, leading to our own friendship and more conversations between the two of us. We realized we had a lot in common and both felt very comfortable being ourselves with each other. We had our first date in 2017 and were married at our church in 2018.

As a couple. we love exploring new places and sharing experiences together. We like to go for walks in nature and especially enjoy exploring different national parks. Our quest is to visit them all! The theme parks at Disney and Universal Studios are also some of our favorite places to unwind and play. We enjoy exploring abroad and closer to home as well.

Hi, we are Austin and Hannah and we met the summer of 2019 in the college group at our church. I (Hannah) still remember walking to the patio of the building where Austin was grilling tacos (the location of our proposal a few years later). We both thought the other was cute but neither of us said anything at the time. We became friends and hung out in group settings throughout the summer. Following graduation from college I returned home to WA to stay and at the end of the summer he asked me out and we enjoyed our first date getting some tacos and going to a Mariner’s game! We introduced the topic of adoption early on since we both had a desire to grow our family through adoption. Austin's mom was adopted from Korea and Hannah saw adoption firsthand when her youth pastor adopted when she was younger. We both knew that we desired a partner who had the same passion for adoption.

Hello, we are John and Alisa Rachan.

We met in Spanish class in college at Olivet Nazarene University. We were acquaintances at first, but reconnected after graduation. John reached out to Alisa to get together since he worked at an engineering company close to where she lived. During college, she had a crush on him from afar, so instantly accepted the invitation to dinner. We spent 3 hours talking that evening and felt as if we had known each other for years. Alisa then went to live in Mexico City to do missions work with her nursing degree for a year. God was always working during this time, however, and we reconnected once again after she returned. We started dating a few months later, were engaged after 6 months of dating and married 9 months later. 

We have 2 children: Eliana, who was adopted, is 4 years old, and Ava, who is biological, is 3 years old. We have always desired to have a large family and first considered building it through biological means and later through adoption. However, when we struggled getting pregnant and were diagnosed with unexplained infertility early in our marriage, we decided to pursue adoption instead of extensive medical treatments. Eliana’s name means God has provided, and we truly feel that her life was an answer to our prayers in many ways. We have an open adoption with her birth family, and we are so blessed by this relationship. Ava was a surprise gift from the Lord as well, when we did not think that we could conceive. She was born to us about 6 months after Eliana was born. Her name means breath of life, and we are thankful for her life and for the friendship that our two daughters have with one another. They are truly best friends. We have been trying to grow our family for a few years now and are feeling led to pursue adoption once again because of secondary infertility and because of the joy that adoption has brought to us already. 

Together as a family, we enjoy playing in our backyard, going to parks and meeting other young families, going on walks/bike rides, exploring the outdoors, doing bonfires, playing board games, and hosting friends and family in our home regularly. 

In our lives, there have been both trials and joys. Through it all, we have seen God's faithfulness to provide for us and give us His peace. We are eager to participate once again in the beautiful gift of adoption because we also have been adopted as children into God's family. We hope to provide the best possible loving and caring home for another child, and will strive to teach our children to love the Lord, to be kind and compassionate to others, and to cherish every moment that God gives us.