We adopted our youngest son while stationed in Italy, he was born in WA State. We have an open adoption with his Birth Mom. We were told he was conceived the day we went active with our adoption agency! We waited basically the amount of time of a pregnancy. We were matched on World Adoption Day! His Birth Mom said she saw our video profile and didn’t need to see or talk to anyone else, she knew we were the family meant for him. We were a military family living abroad with a son and daughter already and thought no one would want to pick us, it turned out that those were all the reasons she picked us, she had veterans in her family and loved that he would have a brother and a sister to grow up with and be able to travel to all the places she had always wanted to go. He was 2 days old by the time we made it from Italy to WA when he was born. We had a wonderful experience with both the adoption and home study agency and highly recommend them. When we met his Birth Mom, she had a name picked out but wanted to know what we wanted to name him. We had a first name picked out but couldn’t find a middle name we both agreed on. When she told us the name she had picked for him, my husband and I both immediately loved it without knowing the other felt the same way. After talking privately back in our room, we asked her the next time we saw her if we could use it as his middle name. She was so happy we wanted to use it. I still can’t believe how it all played out, we are so grateful for his Birth Mom and so blessed with such an amazing son! ?
Dawn M.
My husband adopted my oldest a day before our wedding! Was the perfect timing.
Ali S.
We have 2 special needs kiddos we adopted internationally and are planning to foster at our next duty station.
Susan A.
We live overseas in Spain and adopted our youngest from India 8 months ago. She is 3 years old and such a joy! The process was definitely more difficult due to us being overseas. We are still struggling to finalize loose ends such as citizenship, passport, ss card, but seeing her smile and how well she completes our family makes every tear and hurdle so worth it!
Jessica K.
My husband and I domestically adopted an infant while overseas. From beginning to end of the process took less than 9 months. Our heads were spinning!
Megan R.
Yes!!! AD AF family. My husband separated after 11 years to prepare for our family growing and I’m currently at 9 years going to retirement. Adopted our daughter as an infant through domestic adoption. Finalize next Month hopefully. Right before I deploy so it’s been a whirlwind year for us!
Brittany O.
Our military journey has been quite the adventure. My hubby was on a 6 month deployment rotation for about 4 years. (Home 6, gone 6) But in those 4 years we adopted a girl who had been a foster child of mine in previous years, but was now an adult. We didn’t care if she was 21. We wanted her to know how official she was to us. (I had her Since she was 16)
Autumn B.
We then went through a miscarriage and I thought hope was lost. But God has other plans and we conceived day one after his deployment ended! ?He deployed again 5 days after her birth, but a few weeks after he returned home (7 months later), we received a call from my little brother who’s girlfriend was in rehab and very pregnant. Having already raised 2 drug exposed babies, my brother and her knew they couldn’t take on another, so they asked us to adopt. It was truly an unexpected whirlwind. However the whole 2 weeks we had before her birth I realized how intense of a love I could have for a child I’d never met/felt/seen. She was born 6 weeks early HEALTHY! (Despite 2 overdoses during pregnancy) Our family felt complete. I then found out there was a large mass in my ovary. Being almost 40 with family history of ovarian cancer, they wanted to do a hysterectomy. I was told I had a 0.5% of ever conceiving anyway…..6 months later, as they’re doing preliminary testing fort the surgery, another baby was on the way! This rounded us out to 8 children total. And you’d think that was good…nope. Started fostering in California with the hopes to adopt again. We fostered and had an adoption that fell through during that, but then you orders to Ohio. We’re excited to start the process again in Ohio and hopefully continue to grow our crazy crew!
After having 3 biological children we contemplated international adoption but it was just a flicker of light in our minds. We never did anything serious about it. Then one day we were contacted by our pastor about a brother (12) and sister (13) from Colombia in the Kidsave program in need of a family.
Tara M.
They were within a year of age as our kids so we took the leap and adopted. As with all adoptions…it took a lot of adjustment but the outcome was very much worth it. They have been part of our family for 8 years now. They are amazing people and have brought us so much joy and we learned as much from them as they have from us. They both currently serve in the Army and we are super proud of them!❤️
We have 3 children we adopted. Grace from Hong Kong in 2014 Eli and Hannah From China in 2016. All while husband is active duty army. We lost our daughter grace last year to heart failure but she was tough and fought hard. Wouldn’t change the choice for the world.
Haley C.
We adopted our daughter at 3 1/2 from India. India is a special needs only country for foreigners. She has now been home with us for 3 years! 3 months after she came home, my husband was deployed, which wasn’t ideal, but we made it work. She is thriving and has completed our little family of 5.
Abby V.
We adopted our son from South Korea in 2015. We accepted his referral in Virginia and took another set of orders so we could finalize there. Well, things didn’t go as planned. Korea delayed us and the military needed us to move 1 year early so we had to jump through many, many hoops to eventually get our son home. But he’s home and we are so thankful!
Lexie C.
My husband and I were both in the AF when we started fostering. I recently retired after 28 years and Aaron still has 2 more years before he plans to retire. We have 3 homemades (biological children). We started fostering 8 years ago, we’ve had 11 kids go through our home. Their ages ranged from 8 months old to a 17 year old with her own 3 year old. We adopted our now 14 year old son when he was 11 (he was placed with us when he was 7). Two years later, we adopted his half sister. She was 9 when we adopted her.
Irene C.
We chose special needs, international adoption. Our story is too long to post in length, but, in short, we knew our son, who has Down syndrome, didn’t stand much of a chance at living a fulfilling life; or surviving at all if left in an orphanage. So, we took a major leap of faith… Meaning we had NONE of the funds associated with adoption, let alone an international one, and began the process. It was a major undertaking and took such so long that about 1/2 way through my husband got new orders had to geo-batch on San Diego while the three older boys and I stayed behind in WA. During that time we had our normal day-to-day activities to include my homeschooling the boys, his sea duty workups drills training, etc… all while raising funds and completing the plethora of paperwork that comes along with international adoption.
Daniell S.
To raise the money we held numerous fundraisers, sold fudge (which is how I started the business I run today) and got a grant from RODS Racing in order to make the adoption possible.
It was a tedious process, but so worth it!
He completed our family and made us the #SettlesSix.
My husband and I used a sperm donor through California Cryobank, which is like adopting sperm. Our daughter is 21 months old now.
Heather B.
We did IVF in 2013 and lost twins at 8 weeks. We couldn’t afford to do it again, so we decided to to adopt through the State at our next duty station. It took a year to get certified and by the time we did, it was time to move again. We never got a placement. So, on to the next duty station. It took about the same amount of time to get certified in the new state, but this time it was foster to adopt. My husband got deployed right before our certification came. Thirty minutes after we got the approval call, we got a call for 11 month old B/G twins! I couldn’t believe it. We lost twins and then got twins on our first placement. We ended up adopting them right before their 4th birthday. During that time my husband got deployed for a year, stationed in TX for a year and a half, got deployed for another year, and re-stationed in the State we were adopting from. In the end we saw each other 6 times in 3.5 years. He got here in June and was just deployed again in December for 6 months. So, as of June 2020 we will have seen him for about a year out of almost 5 years. It was definitely a long road, but so worth it.
Barbara H.
We are directly adopting 2 sisters (ages 11 & 15) from foster care. We are not fostering them first, just directly adopting since they are already adoptable. We are awaiting their placement within the next month. ??
Kristina H.
We did!! We have 4 biological children, but felt God calling us to adopt from the state. We went through the process and training to become an adoptive home through the state. We got a call one day that they had a 2 & 3 year old that they needed a home for. They fully expected these children to be adoption eligible quickly. We gladly accepted!! My husband and I both serve in the military, but God is good and everything went according to his perfect plan! The adoption was finalized THIS WEEK!!!
Tee C.
We, an active duty military family, adopted our daughter from another active duty member that we were connected to by a mutual military friend. We waited ten long years to become parents and the whole thing happened by surprise.
Helen S.
We adopted our son from birth! My husband was activated in the Coast Guard at the time. We were actually sitting at his Chief Initiation Dinner when we got a text that our little guy was born! It was a great night with those memories!!
Danielle Z.
My husband is in the Air Force. After several years of failed fertility treatments we decided to foster in 2014. God knew the desires of our hearts and was faithful! We fostered from November 2014-December 15,2016 when our 3 handsome boys officially joined our family as Cooper’s! It is amazing to look back and see Gods amazing plan for our lives. Thru fostering we grew in our faith and our marriage. One thing I know for sure is when you think God does not hear your prayers he knows the desires of your heart and HE IS FAITHFUL!
Robin C.
