Our Story

Our journey began as two people walking separate roads; soon we will be a family of three coming home together.

Several years ago, Dan was working at Back to the Bible, an international radio ministry. After hearing the stories of a coworker who regularly traveled to China, the seeds of passion for the Chinese people were planted in his heart. In fact, Dan gave up his dream of getting a short wave radio for his birthday one year so he could send one to China instead. (Alaina did end up buying him one for Christmas just two weeks later!)

Meanwhile, Alaina read the book Safely Home, by Randy Alcorn. After reading this book, she was awakened many times in the middle of the night with the overwhelming need to pray for the people of China. “Why China?” she asked. The message gently came, “I have plans for you there.”

After about a year of separately praying for China, we visited a church in another town. The guest speaker was a missionary on furlough from China. After the service, one of us mentioned to the other (we forget who now), “I think God wants us to go to China.” Imagine our surprise when we realized that this desire had been planted in both of our hearts without the other’s knowledge.

During this time, we traveled another journey: the journey of infertility. By God’s grace, we realized that our plans for a family were shutting out God’s plans. Our dear friends from church had traveled this same road, which led them to a beautiful daughter through domestic adoption. We attended an informational meeting with the Nebraska Children’s Home in November of 2003. The morning session was about international adoption (a Chinese story…hhhmmm…God at work again?); the afternoon was about domestic. We walked into this meeting open to whatever God would have us do. By the end of the day, we realized that God had brought our hearts to China “for such a time as this.”

The next year and four months led us to All God’s Children International (our international agency), and a lot of belt-tightening to save our first sum of money. In March of 2005, we had our agency fee collected and started our paperwork. In September, our homestudy was completed, and after a faith-testing experience with Immigration Services, our documents were signed, sealed and delivered to China on February 7, 2006. On December 8, 2005, we saw our sweet daughter’s face for the first time and immediately fell in love.

Now, we wait (a familiar experience along this journey). While our journey to China seems like it is almost at an end, we know that this is just the beginning for the many adventures God has in store for our lives as a family of three (Dan’s thinking four…Alaina’s leaning toward 5. We wonder what God has to say!)

Thank you for journeying with us,
Dan & Alaina

Fall 2005 - Nebraska City
Go Big Red!