Chris and I started trying to conceive a baby in 2011, and it was only about six months later that we realized we probably had some issues.

I ended up going to an OB and getting kind of some baseline tests done. I knew that I was young to be doing that because really, I think they say that you need to try for at least a year before you need to go see an OB. But I just felt like there was something wrong.

So we ended up going. We then got referred on to a fertility clinic, where that then ended up being a year of testing and surgeries and all sorts of things.

We then ended up sitting in a fertility doctor's office just five days before Mother's Day, and we found out that we had a less than one percent chance of ever conceiving.

So as you can imagine, that was really devastating. I knew that we were going to have to grieve. I knew that we would probably grieve differently. But I also, deep down, really did know that God still was in control and He had a plan. I just needed to trust the process, which really, in the midst of it, is easier said than done.

I think hindsight's kind of always 20/20 to look through and look back and realize you kind of did do that. You did trust the process. But while we were in it, it was really hard.

I went into a pretty dark place. I remember meeting with a friend, and she encouraged me to go see a counselor. And she kind of specified that she thought we should try to find someone that dealt with infertility.

I had so many friends supporting me and so many people loving on us, but I didn't know anyone who had specifically dealt with infertility. So I went to our church, and they referred me on to someone.

And right away when I met her, I knew that we had a connection. She encouraged us just to learn how to grieve and that we needed to grieve this to be able to move on.

And I will never forget sitting in her office one day, and I just was having a really sad day. I mean, I felt like everyone around me was pregnant. And she kind of looked at me and she said, "You know, I really think that what you think your Plan A is, it now just looks different, and that, you know, there are other ways to have babies, and that you just need to look and seek what God has for you, and that that can become your Plan A."

And once I kind of shifted my mind and was able to focus on what God's plan was, and that it wasn't just about me and what I thought my plan was, I was really able to see and be able to pray just for His will and wanting what He wanted for our family.

So over the process of about six months, Chris and I kind of prayed about that, and God very clearly put people in our lives and made it very clear that we were supposed to adopt.

Over the next six months to 12 months, we did our home study and kind of walked through all the paperwork and all of the process of getting to a point where we were matched.

And so we ended up getting matched with our son Jack in September of 2013. He was not technically supposed to be due until mid to late December, and his birth mom and dad graciously invited us to come down to Sarasota, Florida, and get to know us and have dinner with us and just talk about just our adoption plan, what the hospital would look like, all of that.

And so we flew down on October 26th, and he ended up being born just a few hours later, which was crazy because he was eight weeks early. He was born at 32 weeks.

We then ended up having to stay in the NICU for about four weeks. We had nothing prepared at home, but that is where all of our friends and family stepped in. They were literally the hands and feet of Jesus.

It was incredible to just see how they showed up. They came to my house and they decorated our nursery, got all the things that we needed, and it honestly meant the world to me because here we were in a completely different state with no support around us, yet we had so much support just waiting on us, and it meant everything.

It was so cool.

We then came home, and I'll never forget showing up to my house and my mailbox was covered in flowers with a sign. And I walked in and my fridge and pantry were stocked. They had taken all the baby gifts I had gotten on this online baby shower and returned all my duplicates and wrote all my thank-you cards.

I mean, it was incredible. Like, that's the way to go, is to just have everyone do all that for you. But so sweet. So much love. Such God's faithfulness. It was incredible.

Now we have been blessed with not only Jack, but now we have Stella, and she is five years old, also adopted domestically from Florida.

And it has been the most amazing journey to just watch how God has not only redeemed their stories, but redeemed ours as well.

There is nothing short of God's perfect plan in all of the details. And I cannot wait as they get older and they are able to comprehend and understand more of their story and understand how God has redeemed their stories, even though there are such hard parts in it.

But there's absolutely, I pray that, you know, that they are able to see God just in all of it.

Anytime anything bad happens to you, I think you automatically kind of get put into a club, whether you wanted to be in that club or you didn't. As much as those are difficult to be a part of, you can choose joy and choose to walk those paths knowing that God has placed you there for a reason, or you can choose to just isolate yourself and be alone.

So it didn't take long for Chris and I, after we adopted Jack, just to have so many people reach out to us that were also adopting and wanted to hear our stories and wanted to ask us questions and just learn more about adoption.

And that has been something so fun that we love to do. We love to take couples out that are just starting the process and kind of walk alongside them as they are adopting.

It is such a joy to let them know that they are seen in the waiting and that they are loved and they're not alone.

And we love being able to see their families grow.