We have been married for over 9 years. It feels like just yesterday but also like we have been together our whole lives! We fell in love with each other because of each others' passion for Jesus and for this generation to know Jesus. Together, we have felt called to serve and make disciples of Jesus specifcially with kids, students, and young adults. We absolutely love spending our days walking along side families and serving the church. Our home is always open and full of families spending time together.  Our whole marriage is built on bringing glory to God together. 

SInce the beginning, It's always been our desire to grow our own family. When we first got married, we decided to grow our family biologically and through adoption. We truly believe that adoption is a beautiful display of God’s love for all of us.  While we have experienced so many wonderful life adventures, we know parenthood will be our favorite one. 

Brandon and Brandy have been married 10 years and they are very eager to add a sweet miracle child to their family. We love to spend time with our families and attend church events. Brandon loves anything to do with music. From playing the bass, to playing the drums, to singing. Anything he can do that involves music that is his happy place. Brandy loves anything out doors, during the summer she is outside every chance she gets. As a couple they love to vacation at the beach in the summer then in the winter they love to go to the mountains. They just genuinely love spending time with each other and their families.

We have been married for six years. Allison is Oklahoma born and raised. Nate was born in Missouri, but lived in Pennsylvannia, Arizona, Oregon, and California before finally settling down in Oklahoma. We have one wonderful little boy named Adrian, who is three years old. The pregnancy was very hard on Allison, and we were advised to not have any more children.

We are a fairly active family. We enjoy going fishing, hunting, or to the local park on a nice day. For the past couple of years, we have gotten zoo passes. Adrian really seems to enjoy getting to run around and see all the animals. We also really enjoy spending time with our friends. We have been greatly blessed by having several families that attend our church who also have young children. We have made it a habit to have lunch with them on Sundays, so we can enjoy each other's company while our kids run around and be kids.

We have also been blessed by two wonderful sets of grandparents that enjoy being involved in our and our son's lives. Nate's parents live about 30 minutes away. We attend church with them (Nate's father is a pastor), and hang-out with them at least a couple of times a month. Allison's parents live even closer. They are both retired and graciously volunteered to watch Adrian while Nate and Allison work. We see them fairly regularly including when we go on our annual family trip to Branson, Missiouri.

We are Matt and Cat and we live on a small farm in Strasburg, Colorado. We met during high school, and it didn’t take long for us to fall in love. We have been happily married for 10 years but have been together for 20. Through Matt’s military and civilian career, we moved all over and eventually landed in Colorado. It wasn’t your typical journey, and we definitely didn’t follow the traditional path. Through trials and tribulations, we both realized we needed to go back to school, later in our lives, to obtain our college degrees and we both enjoy successful careers in Systems Engineering and Insurance Management. We wanted to accomplish certain milestones in life before bringing a child into the world. When we realized that naturally conceiving was not an option there was the initial sadness; however, it quickly turned to joy and excitement as we began the adoption process. Matt was adopted at a very young age, and we understood how beneficial adoption can be for the birth mother, child, and adoptive parents. Now a little bit about the home the child will grow up in. The amount of love in this home is indescribable by words. The child will be happy and will know that they are loved and wanted. It is the simple things in life that are important to us, a good home, good health, stable marriage, and beyond all happiness. If the birth parent chooses, we would like our child to know about their birth parents, the incredible amount of love they had for the child, and the sacrifice they made to ensure the child was provided for in life. We will teach our child about love, respect, hard work, and most of all how to have fun. They will spend their time experiencing life rather than watching it on television. Education is important to us, and our child will receive a good elementary and secondary education. College is a personal decision, and we will support our child in whatever decision they make. Most important to us is that the child be provided with the opportunities they need to pursue the path they choose in life. We look forward to watching our child grow and mature; support them as they stumble in life; and, of course, will celebrate with them as they experience the many successes in their life.

We first met at a Salsa Dancing Social. After months of dancing and getting to know each other, we had our first date. As we learned more about each other, we realized how we felt at home with one another. It was the Halloween season, so we enjoyed getting dressed up and attending Halloween salsa socials and family friend Halloween parties. We were falling in Love.

At Thanksgiving time, Reena began talking about Joel with her other family members with so much excitement. Reena introduced Joel to her brother, and they hit it off immediately. When Reena invited Joel to meet her parents, Mom gave Reena the Thumbs up. It was Christmas time and there is a cute little ornament with Reena’s picture that Reena had made at school in the first grade. We were decorating our Christmas tree, and Joel took that ornament and placed it at the very top of the tree. Reena’s heart melted and her family invited Joel to our larger family Christmas party where he was immediately welcomed with open arms.

That same Christmas, Joel had invited Reena to his family’s church for their annual Simbang Gabi Mass. This is a Christmas tradition within the Filipino community where Joel’s whole family was present. It was so wonderful to meet Joel’s family in such a beautiful setting. Shortly after, Joel and Reena would attend Joel’s family church on Sunday’s after Dance class, and then meet at his parent’s home for Sunday Dinners.

The following Easter, Joel took Reena to the Easter Vigil, which is the Saturday before Easter Sunday. She learned about the RCIA process where she could learn about the Catholic Faith and be confirmed as a Catholic. That fall, she enrolled in the program and Joel sponsored her. As they went through this beautiful journey together, Joel proposed that following Fall. The following Easter, Reena was confirmed as a Catholic, and Reena and Joel were married that Summer.

We met on an online dating site. I noticed right away that Peter was special. He asked good questions and took a genuine interest in getting to know who I was. I was intrigued by him. After a couple of weeks of exchanging long messages, he asked me out to dinner. Our first date was at a restaurant called Smokey Bones. We felt at ease with one another right away and more dates followed, including bowling, a trip to the zoo, going to an indoor amusement park, and trying new restaurants. We enjoyed our second date at a local Thai restaurant where our connection deepened. Later, Peter proposed by setting up a private dinner with food from this same restaurant. He also had a book made that included all of our email messages from when we were getting to know each other online. Since we decided on a small wedding, we had our ceremony at a local park pavilion on the most beautiful fall day. It was a perfectly simple, sunny, and wonderful day. We chose a small wedding with hopes of going on a big adventure for our honeymoon. We went to Ireland, a place I had always wanted to go. Peter had been there before on a high school trip, and had wanted to come back with his wife someday. I guess both of our dreams came true :)

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. 

We recently attended a “marriage night” at our church, and we were asked to define our “superpower.” We chose the word “perseverance.” We have been through a lot together, but our faith in Christ has been our firm foundation through it all. We have been incredibly blessed in ways would could never have imagined, and we have also leaned on God for strength during times of loss, waiting, and unexpected difficulties. But through each season, we are so grateful for the love we have for each other, and even more for our faith in God, who is strong when we are not.

When we were first introduced by a mutual friend at dinner one night, little did we know all that God had planned for us. We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary. We have supported one another through late nights of studying as we were completing our degrees and celebrated graduations and job offers. We have danced together at many weddings, but we have also cried together at funerals. We have held hands in hospital rooms and nursed each other back to health. We have been isolated together in quarantine (and as it turns out, we really do enjoy each other’s company!). We have poured each other more morning cups of coffee than we can count. We have laughed together almost every single day. We have prayed through it all, and we cannot wait for the next adventure.

We met at the gym where we both attended the same exercise class. Katy knew Kelly was a dentist and when her dog ate her retainer, Katy asked him after class if he could help make her a new one because her dentist was out of town. (That’s right…the old “my dog ate my retainer” trick!) And it worked! ? Katy got her new retainer and Kelly asked Katy on a date. And the rest, they say…is history! Almost a decade later, we are celebrating 7 years of marriage and growing our family!

Katy works part time as an academic advisor for a local college, and is able to spend lots of time at home with a new little one. She loves gardening, playing pickleball, trying new restaurants & recipes, and volunteering. Katy describes herself as empathetic, warm, fun, resilient. Katy loves being a mom and watching children grow, change and become who they are while loving and laughing with them along the way.

Kelly is a dentist and owns his own practice, which allows him to work 3 days a week and be at home with my family. Kelly loves learning, biking, baseball & snowboarding. He describes himself as practical and adventurous. Kelly loves being a dad and interacting in different ways with children as they grow and sharing experiences with them.

Katy said “Kelly’s calm demeanor, kind heart, and willingness for adventure make him a great dad and husband.”

Kelly said “Katy is smart and curious. With her warm and welcoming manner she draws people in whether they are dear friends or complete strangers. She is amazing at helping children grow and navigate the world.”