Why Adoption
Our decision to adopt started prior to being married and prior to any infertility diagnosis. We both saw it as an exciting opportunity to share God’s love and be a living testimony to His love for us.  The fact that we shared this desire was part of God’s affirmation for us to be together. After we got married, we discovered that having kids biologically would be difficult for us. As hard as this news was, we thought that there would be no better time to start the adoption process. God has blessed us with incredible friends and family that have continued to love and support us through this time.

How We Met
We met at church when we were in high school and involved in our youth group. Susie remembers that Israel was a silly high school boy that was out to prank, tease, and be a nuisance.  Israel sees things quite differently if you ask him. He remembers becoming friends with Susie and developing a strong friendship through ‘pager’ conversations. (Remember ‘Pagers’?).  Those short and sweet conversations grew into long phone conversations and so on, until, we found ourselves driving to church events together and attending each other’s sporting events. It’s tough to pin point our first date, as our relationship grew very organically and our like for each other grew into love. It was in our first few years of college that we knew our love was real and not just a feeling that fades in & out as it does when you’re a teenager.  We started our relationship when Susie was 16 and Israel was 18… fast forward 16 years and our love for each other has become stronger and our lives together have been incredible. 

Our Work
Israel is a worship pastor and works with volunteers to create an engaging worship time for the church through music, arts, and technology. Susie is a Registered Nurse and works in the Emergency Room. Her responsibilities span from taking care of minor injuries and sicknesses to saving people’s lives. 

About Susie (By Israel)
If there were 3 words that I'd use to describe Susie, it is Loving, Fun and Candid. It's what she brings to every relationship, it's in how she lives her life, and it's what she has filled our marriage with for 9 years going on 10.  Susie has always been a loving and caring person and her occupation portrays the gift of being able to love and care for people in the most critical circumstance. Susie has spirit of adventure and enjoys the simple activities of a hike in the woods, a stroll around the neighborhood, or a bike ride.  She has hiked the tallest mountain in Colorado, Mt. Elbert at 14,433 ft. Living life with her is so much fun, because of the excitement and imagination that she brings to any activity that we share together.  Lastly, I have fallen in love with Susie’s ability to be candid and communicate. She follows through on her promises and is always able to communicate what is on her heart despite circumstance. This is truly a gift that she has and it is important to have these abilities as a wife and a mom.

Susie’s faith in Christ is central to who she is, and I've been inspired by her faith through the challenges that life has thrown her way. I am truly blessed to be her husband, and I know that she's going to be an amazing mom.

About Israel (By Susie)
Israel is the most kind, gentle, loving, hard working, talented, and joyful person you will ever meet. His smile is contagious and people love being around him. Israel is so generous and would give all he owned to anyone in need. He enjoys playing his guitar and singing. He loves the outdoors and hiking mountains – he has actually finished 39 out of the 54 14’ers (mountains above 14,000 feet in Colorado) so far and would like to climb them all eventually. In his free time, he also loves to mountain bike, hike, read, and anything else that has to do with outdoors. Israel is going to be a great father because he is just so fun loving and caring. All the kids at church flock to him and that gives me a small glimpse of how our life will be with our children.  I can’t wait!!!

In Closing
Our hope is to be a family that honors God by being nurturing, caring, kind, and generous to each other and our community. Growing up with siblings has been a huge gift to us and we hope to add to our family over the years so that our children can enjoy the blessing of those special relationships.

We love God, family, friends, laughter, outdoors, new adventures, and so much more. We hope the pictures and words that you see bring you peace and maybe even make you laugh. We are really excited to be first time parents and cannot wait to share our love, warmth, energy and devotion with a special little guy or girl.

Trusting and loving God through every season has been the most important lesson of our lives and we hope to model that to any child that is placed into our lives. We, along with all our friends and family, joyfully await the arrival of that special little one and are eager to help raise them into a kind, secure, compassionate and loving person.

We always want to be open with our child about their adoption story, and promise to speak of you and your family with respect, compassion and joy through every stage of their life. We will raise them to respect and celebrate their origins. We will be proud of the characteristics and traits that come from you, and talk about them with affection and delight.

We are so grateful to share our story with you. Thanks for reading!