"          (As told by Honey)   If we met, you would know that I am a person who likes to make big statements. I like to employ three of my favorite words, I will never, and fill in the blanks accordingly. Ten years ago as we waged what seemed a hopeless war against infertility as a young couple, I liked to toss out, "I will never go through exhaustive fertility treatments. There's too much pain."  Flash forward five years later to a time when I liked to declare, "I will never pursue a domestic adoption. There's too much risk." Interestingly, God has used the very avenues that I said I would never venture down to bless Steve and me with three children all fashioned by the Father's

heavenly hand--one daughter through exhaustive fertility treatments and two sons through domestic infant adoption. I would like to say now that, of course, my "nevers" didn't really mean never. Oh, they did. But God knew better. He used our circumstances and my husband in ways that brought me to a place of utter surrender, where I could get rid of my "nevers," go forward out of my own personal wilderness, and move into the place of blessing God had prepared for us as the family only He could fashion

Nearly three years ago a couple that we had grown close to through a church in Dallas adopted biracial twins at birth within a matter of months after beginning the process. Shortly after learning of their adoption, we placed a prayer card in our church's offering plate requesting prayer for us, specifically that we could adopt a son domestically.

Six weeks later from the following Thursday after we requested prayer, we became parents to a two-day-old African-American boy we named Dane! We were so in love with Dane in the first hours that we had known him that as we were signing our adoption papers, Steve told the adoption agency we would be back to adopt another son. And we did. Our son Davis, who is 3/4 African American and 1/4 Hispanic, joined our family forever nine months ago when he was two days old.

It's so clear that our adoption story is utterly a God thing. He was certainly working in our lives and hearts during Adoption Weekend November 2008, when we heard our pastor speak a message that changed the course of our family forever.

We had been married for nearly 11 years, knowing for a decade that we would not be able to have children. During that time, however, my yearning for children grew stronger. We researched various opportunities to work with children through missions, orphanages, local partner programs, and foster care. David was supportive but not personally interested in joining me in searching for fulfillment through work with children, especially not through adoption or foster care.

That all changed on November 9, 2008, when we heard our pastor's message on children in crisis around the world.  David's heart broke for these children. He felt a call from God right then and there to bring a child into our lives and our home. And so our journey began...

At that point, we knew very little about our adoption options, so we began the process to educate ourselves. Our church was forming an adoption support group to nurture people through the adoption process; we immediately joined the group. The group exposed us to people who had adopted children domestically, internationally, and locally through foster care. Prayer was a daily part of helping us determine the correct decision to make.

After several months of investigation and prayer, we decided to pursue a domestic newborn adoption in January 2009. Once we made our decision, God opened all of the doors to turning our dream of a family into a reality. With our paperwork completed in just a few months, we were quickly matched with a birth mother and blessed by the birth of our son Jacob in June 2009.

Our lives will never be the same. Looking back at who we were before Jacob, we view ourselves as selfish, pursuing only our dreams and goals. Last June when Jacob was born, God gave us a miracle and changed us forever. Our focus is no longer on ourselves; instead it is and will always be on our new little miracle Jacob. Our son brings us joy and happiness every day of our lives.

We think of how easy it could have been to ignore what God was calling us to during the pastor's message that November. He captured our hearts, and we chose to listen and follow His plans for us. What a blessing!!! The story of how God has built our family is a true example of how His desires for us often exceed our wildest dreams and expectations.

"Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father." James 1:17 (NLT)

Nearly two years later after unsuccessful attempts to conceive, we both realized that it was time again to start looking into adoption.  We didn't know where to begin. 

My mother-in-law and I came to Canyon View Vineyard Church's Adoption Weekend and Expo last fall to learn more about adoption and the process. When we walked in, David and Terri Brown were standing at the Woven Families table, and they shared with us their wonderful story about adopting Jacob through domestic infant adoption.  From that day I knew that I was committed to adopting and was eager to tell Denny about my experience.

Denny was ready to look into adoption again but not sure yet if he was ready to move forward.  He and I decided to attend the next Woven Families meeting and then go from there.  God was clearly working on Denny's heart; so much that Denny soon became convinced that we were meant to adopt.

We formally began the domestic adoption process in January 2010. Today we have been matched with a birth mother set to deliver our baby boy on August 19, 2010, almost two years to the day of our first due date. God works in amazing ways!

Update: Denny and Tanya welcomed their son Isaac on August 19, 2010. They adopted him the next day.