The details we can share:

We are adopting thru Reece's Rainbow- They are an amazing organization fighting for the orphans of the world, more specifically orphans with Down Syndrome and other types of special needs. They have been wonderful to us so far and we are looking forward to partnering with them to advocate, not only for our daughter, but for the other precious waiting souls as well.  Click here if you would like to read more about DS.


About our girl:
Right now, she is known as Gracie. If you don't know, that was Brynn's name before she came home as well... pretty cool, huh?

If you also don't know, I have an obsession with names. More people than I'd like to admit can verify the existence of a navy blue binder specifically for names. Boy names, girl names, place names, surnames, family names, nature names... arranged by sex and in alphabetically order. It's ok, you can pray for me.
That being said, I spend a lot of time "naming" children- both for myself and for other people (and yes, some people have actually used the names I've suggested for them :)! True story. I have named about 12 children for us... can't honestly say how many of those I think we will actually use. By the way, Nathan is included in these discussions regularly- he's a trooper :)

As for our newest addition... well, she kind of named herself. Her official name will be

Anna Gray.

Anna is for my grandmother and Gray is for my dad.
We had/have every intention of calling her Anna Gray, but within hours of deciding to adopt her, the kids were already calling her Annie.  Actually, BEFORE we decided to pursue the adoption and BEFORE we discussed what her name would be if we did, Nathan accidentally called her Annie instead of Gracie during one of our conversations ha!  She does look like an Annie, so we'll probably use both.

For now, Anna Gray lives in an orphanage in Eastern Europe. For the safety of her adoption and the adoptions of other sweet littles, we can't say her specific location publicly. Please respect that to protect these children and their forever families :)

We should be able to go get her in about 7 months. Nathan and I will travel together once, and then I will go back a second time and actually bring her HOME! She is 3-4 months old right now, so she will be just under a year by the time we get to her.

The cost to adopt her is about $25,000.

Just let that sink in for a moment.




To answer the obvious question... NO, we don't have a spare $25K laying around. What we do have is a big, big God. We don't believe He would have specifically told us to adopt this child, and then not provided a way for us to do that. We will have to work hard, but we truly believe He will take care of us. He's never let us down before!

Be prepared to hear about several fundraisers in the very near future. We have absolutely zero intentions of soliciting money from anyone. However, for those who WANT to help bring Anna Gray home to us, there will be opportunities to do so. Already, our family and friends have stepped up in support in so many different ways- I can't wait to see how God uses all of us for this baby girl!