This past week we had meetings with two different avenues for our adoption process. In all honesty, both meetings did not go as we expected and left us feeling a bit discouraged. The lawyer we met with strongly encouraged us to get our information out to friends and family that we are adopting. Below is a little about us and our story. If you feel led, please share our story, and join us on this journey as God continues to lead our path of growing our family.
To sum us up: we love Jesus, our dogs and the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
First and foremost, we love Jesus. Our personal relationships with Him is where we draw our strength and wisdom for us and our family. We are actively involved with our church, and we currently are leaders for our community group. Charles and I both grew up in a Christian home and plan on raising our family the same way.
We have three dogs, and absolutely love the joy that they bring to our family. We've had Bella (Beagle) for almost seven years, Pippa (Westie) for three years, and this summer we got Yadi-Bear (Goldendoodle).
We are huge St. Louis Cardinals baseball fans! With Charles growing up in St. Louis, he has always been a Cardinals fan. I married into it, but I have fully accepted the lifestyle. We try to catch a couple games during the season when we visit family in the St. Louis area.
As I mentioned, Charles grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in a large family, and he is number four of seven children. I (Susan) grew up in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. I am the youngest of three girls.
Charles and I met at John Brown University my junior year and his freshmen year. Charles studied business, and I studied Family and Human Services. We dated for a year and a half, and we got married the December after I graduated.
Seven years later here we are.
To describe us, Charles likes to say we are "Team Chusan!" Yes, we even have a secret handshake. We are a bit corny, but we like to have a good time. Charles is very outgoing and extraverted. He loves the social setting and business world. He's such a hard-worker and is always willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. I am a bit more quiet and introverted in a social setting. I enjoy getting together with a friend over coffee and getting some good quality time. Charles has worked in the corporate world since graduation from college, and the past four years, I have worked at a local elementary school. We both love humor, spending time with friends, hanging out at house with our dogs, traveling to visit family, eating good food and chocolate.
A couple of years ago, we decided to start our family. We quickly got pregnant with our son Jonathan. But unfortunately, we found out at 21 weeks that Jonathan had Potter's Syndrome, and he never developed kidneys. This is 99.99% fatal. I carried him to 36 weeks, and we had the most wonderful 4 hours of our lives. He was born on April 1, 2014 and passed on April 2, 2014.
After Charles and I started healing from our loss, we decided to continue to grow our family. After a few months of trying, I got pregnant again. Unfortunately, a year ago we loss our second baby at 11 weeks. Since that loss, we have been trying to grow our family.
Last month we have decided to grow our family through adoption. On December 9th (which was the 2 year anniversary of when we learned of Jonathan's diagnosis), I was doing my quiet time before work and it was about taking risks, following God's plan and not living comfortably. It was like I was hearing the word "adoption!" as I was reading the devotional. I then called Charles on the way to work to let him know that I was 99.99% sure we were supposed to adopt. He then told me that that morning during his quiet time he wrote and asked that God would give us a child. He quickly realized that that didn't necessarily mean I'd get pregnant. It is so encouraging to see God's hand as He is clearly creating the desire for us to grow our family in this way.
We'd love to bring a newborn into our home. We have the love in our hearts and space in our home for a precious baby. We are trusting that God has a plan for us that is better than our own, and we aren't sure what His plan is, but we know He is a Good and Faithful.
We'd love to bring a newborn into our home. We have the love in our hearts and space in our home for a precious baby. We are trusting that God has a plan for us that is better than our own, and we aren't sure what His plan is, but we know He is a Good and Faithful.
If you or someone you know is looking for a family for adoption, we'd love to start a conversation. Please contact us at OurGreathouseFamily@gmail.com.
