We are not a family that always knew adoption was for us. We struggled with infertility for several years trying to start a family. In 2015, we began serving with a program through our church, which was the beginning of a powerful journey that allowed us to adopt our first child, Ian.

We met Ian when he was two weeks old and instantly fell in love with him. Ian’s adoption was finalized shortly after his first birthday, and we could not imagine life without him. Although we haven’t had any contact with Ian’s birth family, we are hopeful for that possibility in the future. We are saving pictures and letters for his birth mom to share the story of his life with her when she is ready.

Our journey with Ian led us to adopt again, and in 2018 we welcomed home twins! Lincoln and Joanna joined our family and we could not be more in love with them. We stay in touch with their birth mom with pictures and letters, and are looking forward to visits in the future as well.

God has planted the seeds of adoption in both of us, and we can’t wait to share our love with another child. We feel incredibly blessed to have our children in our lives and are very excited to be expanding our family through adoption again!

We soak up every minute of time together as a family! Whether we are relaxing around our home, out and about in the community, on the road or in the air to find adventure, we love having fun and exploring together. We enjoy being active; going for bike rides, walks with our dogs, splashing in community pools, and chasing our kids around the park. We also look forward to pizza and a movie nights, snuggling on the couch, and curling up with a good book.

Just a quick two-hour drive from home brings us to Sarah’s grandparent’s lake house. Nestled in a quiet, country town on a small lake in Michigan, this is a perfect place for us to enjoy family time! The house holds countless childhood memories for Sarah, and allows our family to get away and unplug. We love heading to Michigan for weekend trips, and also look forward to apple fests in the fall, and extended family visits during the summer. Our days in Michigan are filled with water sports (tubing and skiing), boating, fishing, building sand castles, swimming, walks around the lake, and tons of yummy food (sledding and playing in the snow in the winter)! At night, we all sit around the table after dinner telling stories and playing board games and card games. Sometimes we have a bonfire on the beach and roast marshmallows, or bring a tent to sleep under the stars. We’re so excited to make these memories with another child!

As a family, our values guide our decisions every day: Love God, love people, use our gifts to help others, pursue our passions, celebrate life, and always remain faithful to our family and friends. We highly value family! We are eager to raise our children to live by these same values and to grow up to be thriving adults who can bring change to our world. We hope to instill in our children a desire to help and care for one another. We will always work hard to provide them opportunities to experience life to the fullest!

We love to travel and explore this world as a family; going to our favorite destinations and finding new ones. We don’t value things. It doesn’t matter if we have the biggest TV, the coolest gadgets, or the fanciest car. What’s important is the time we spend together as a family, laughing and growing together, and helping our world become a better place.

Our home is a fun place to be! There is always something new and exciting happening; blanket forts in the family room, art projects at the dining room table, racetracks all around the house, digging up treasure in the sandbox, spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen.

We live two blocks away from a park which includes a playground, recreation facility, sand volleyball court, picnic area, pond and walking path. There’s also a hill that’s perfect for sledding in the winter. Our kids are the neighborhood celebrities as they cruise down the sidewalk in their power wheels truck and wave to everyone they see.

We love our community. We live two blocks from the train station. A fun train ride allows us to take advantage of great activities like zoos, museums, and shows downtown while still enjoying a quaint community with wonderful neighborhoods. The elementary school is just three blocks away from our home, which means our neighborhood is filled with other young families just like ours.

Family is very important to us! We get together with our extended family and friends on a regular basis and cherish our time with them.

Our parents are eager to be involved in the lives of their grandchildren and take great interest in caring for them in a way only grandparents can.

Our siblings are also raising young families which gives us the fun privilege of coming together to share these experiences and for our children to play, grow, and learn with their cousins. Since much of our extended family lives nearby, we are fortunate to spend time together so often. Our children will have memories of holidays together, special visits and outings, and sleepovers with cousins and grandparents.

We also have close family out of state, with Zach’s mom in Arizona, which means fun weekend trips to warm weather, especially when it’s cold here! She is a flight attendant and loves coming to visit us too and sends postcards when she is flying for us to read together as a family.

Our family and friends are all so excited and supportive of our adoption plan. They cannot wait to be a part of the child’s life and look forward to a bundle of joy to spoil with lots of love, hugs and kisses!

We met during the summer of 2000 when we were in junior high school. Zach was living in Arizona at the time, and Sarah was in Illinois. Zach would fly to Illinois to visit his family every summer and during school breaks. He always made it a point to call Sarah, and at the very least, stop by for a quick visit. We stayed best friends for 10 years and started dating shortly after Zach joined the military as a Combat Medic and was stationed in Germany. We got engaged and were married at the courthouse just two weeks later, before Zach deployed to Afghanistan. We spent the first year of our marriage on opposite sides of the world. After Zach returned home from deployment, Sarah moved to Germany with him. Living together in Germany for almost two years gave us the incredible opportunity to travel to many different countries and experience many different cultures.

Zach graduated from nursing school and has been working for the local VA hospital for a little over a year. He is passionate about helping people and is able to work very well under pressure and the stress involved with trauma and urgent situations. His nursing schedule allows him the opportunity to have days off during the week to spend time at home, or taking family trips to the library, park, or zoo.

Sarah is currently a stay-at-home mom to our kids, Ian, Lincoln, and Joanna. Sarah has her teaching degree and enjoys creating fun activities to guide and encourage our kids to learn, explore, and celebrate life. She also works from home as a vacation planner for Disney destinations. She plans all the details to create dream vacations, and loves helping to make magical memories for the families she works with. Our jobs allow us the opportunity to use our gifts on a daily basis and interact with people who we have the privilege to influence. As our family grows, we plan to adjust our roles as needed so that we are fully present to care for the needs of our young children.

When we met each of our children, it seemed our hearts grew twice their normal size. We were not even aware we could love someone so much! Being adoptive parents has given us greater joy than we could ever imagine. As we are hoping for our family to grow again, adoption is the obvious answer. We are so excited to welcome a baby into our family again. We believe there is great value in the gift of siblings, and we look forward to nurturing those lifelong companionships!

We are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to grow our family and are excited to provide your baby with a loving home and siblings. We believe that having siblings who are also adopted will be a benefit for our children as we celebrate each of their unique adoption stories. We know that having siblings can give a child someone to play with, learn from, and look up to.

We delight in the role you will play, whatever you choose for that to be. You are significant to us and ALWAYS will be. We welcome your continued investment in your child’s life. We are happy to send email updates with pictures and stories, as well as letters with keepsakes that mark milestones in your child’s life. We are also open to making arrangements for visits when the time is right. We are eager to know you and happy to work together to maintain a healthy relationship. We make this commitment to you, that we will always speak highly of you and honor you with our words and actions. You have made a brave decision and we will always respect you for your choice. Our gratitude for your strength and selflessness will be evident in our home.

Sincerely,

Zach & Sarah