A quick snapshot of us: 

• We live in rural Iowa. 

• Bryan is a pastor of a Reformed Presbyterian Church.

• Olivia is a homeschool mom.

• We value: faith, joy, and love.

• In our home, kids are safe, wanted, guided, and deeply loved.

How we met:

Bryan is from Southern California, and Olivia grew up in Ohio. We met at a Christian student conference in Virginia while Bryan was serving in the Navy.


Why Adoption: 

It's been a long-held desire since we were both kids. 

We want an expectant mother to be able to choose adoption with real hope, knowing her baby will be safe, cared for, and deeply loved in a stable home with open hearts and open arms.

Our faith shapes this deeply. In the Gospel, God welcomes those who were not His children and makes them His beloved children through Jesus. We see adoption as a reflection of that love. 

Our story began when we were living on opposite sides of the country. Cathalina had recently moved to the United States and was living in New Jersey, while Joseph was in his home state of California. We spent months getting to know each other and building a strong friendship before finally meeting in person.

Over the following year, our relationship continued to grow, and we both chose to move to Washington State, where we lived about 30 minutes apart. Later that winter, in 2012, we were married and began building our life together. We worked hard, saved for our first home, and filled our lives with meaningful memories, family traditions, and adventures. Joseph introduced Cathalina to his family, and Cathalina brought Joseph to Colombia to meet hers, blending the cultures and families that have become such an important part of our lives.

From early on, we shared a clear desire to build a family together. In 2022, that hope became a reality when we welcomed our daughter, Sofia, through adoption—an experience that has deeply shaped our lives and strengthened our commitment to growing our family.

We are Blake and Steph! We are very happy to share our life with you. We have 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. We adopted our youngest son in 2019. We are high school sweethearts and have been married for 17 years. We knew we wanted to grow our family through adoption before we were married. Our home is Christ-centered surrounded by people who are loving and supportive. Having Christ as our foundation is very important to us. We know through Him all things are possible. Our kids are very involved in church and school activities and we love to spend our time supporting them. Steph is a school nurse at the same school the kids attend and Blake works in agronomy and farming. We have several other activities we enjoy doing as a family which include, golfing, fishing, playing games, and having bonfires. We also enjoy boating in the summer and trying new foods. We look forward to learning more about you!