Shout Out: Meet Natalie and Dan!

Natalie and Dan have an incredible story, keep reading to see it and learn how you can be a part of it!

My husband and I talked about adoption after only a couple months of dating. I told Dan my heart: I have been interested in adoption for long time. I want to be a mom, and I want to be a mom to adopted kids. I even think I want to adopt before any other method of adding kids to my family. I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't think I was crazy! I quickly fell hard for his kindness, humility, discipline, and hilarity. Dan's a medical student, and I was getting my Master's in Social Work. We got married during our Christmas breaks in December 2011.

Before too long, we felt a tug to start considering adopting before the two- to three-year plan we had discussed while engaged. In May, I graduated and got a job, and we started the adoption process just about as quickly as we could. We're young, we're newlyweds, and my husband is still a student. We love God, each other, and adoption pretty fiercely.

We set out to adopt one baby of either gender from a big country in Africa. I'll be honest: We talked in depth off and on about whether or not we should really take the plunge and adopt two kids. In the end, we decided that's a really big plunge. But, we decided to ask our home study worker to approve us for two children, while still only requesting a referral for one... Just in case, you know! Referral time came, and I found myself reading a totally wonderful and surprising email in the middle of night. We did. not. sleep. after that email. Over the course of a couple days, we talked, cried, laughed, and prayed A LOT. And then, we made our decision:  We are adopting twin baby boys!

We accepted this referral with full trust in God... that He will provide the financial means for us to bring them home and the wisdom + energy for us to parent them well. And we are so dang excited to be parents to those little guys! We're praying that they'll be home in about seven months.

Fundraiser:

We're selling t-shirts that we designed and had printed by a local print shop. They're American Apparel shirts, which are super comfy, and we have v-necks and crew necks. They have a triangle pattern world map design with the words "Get You Here." The text was inspired by Aaron Ivey's song "Amos Story" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4eZybIXpm8). 

 Here's the link to our shop: http://getyouhere.storenvy.com/

Please consider supporting Natalie and Dan's adoption and purchase one of their awesome shirts! If you are a fundraising family looking for a "shout out" on my blog, check out this post for details.