Our Story - Andrew & Alison

Our story towards adoption started in 2010 when Alison was in university and stumbled across family blogs chronicling adoption journeys. She was intrigued and started closely following these family’s journeys which eventually led us to visit a foster home in China in 2013. We were dating at the time but Alison had a hunch that adoption would one day be a part of our lives together. We agreed to spend three weeks of our summer together in a village in China. We spent our days helping with the children and chatting with the caregivers. All the while, our hearts were being changed and softened with both of us agreeing that one day we would pursue an adoption when we were ready.

Fast forward to 2015 which was shortly after we were married. We returned to China for yet another trip that summer “just to see” where we were at. We both returned home certain that we would pursue an adoption from China as soon as we were eligible. Through a series of closed doors and events, including the birth of our biological daughter, we eventually decided to adopt from Korea in 2018.

Throughout the mountain of paperwork and appointments, we always wondered what it would be like to receive a referral. How would we know if we should accept? What if we had to decline? What if there were too many unknowns? How would we know the child would be the one for us? There were always these questions in the back of our minds and we were curious to see how God would make it known to us.

We received a proposal for a little boy the day after Thanksgiving in 2020. This time of the year and date is of huge significance to us. We were married over Thanksgiving weekend in 2014 and became a family of two. We became a family of three when we found out Alison was pregnant over Thanksgiving in 2016. We received our proposal for our son the day after Thanksgiving in 2020 and discovered he was born over Thanksgiving weekend in 2019. Not only had we finally received our long-awaited referral, but the timing of when we received it was confirmation that this child belonged in our family. We have many reasons to be thankful and to celebrate milestones in the future when it comes to this time of the year. We are in awe of God’s timing and provision in everything.