We thank God who uniquely designed our family. He is the Master Designer and we offer our thanks and praise to Him alone. Long before any of us were ever born, God knew and put together the design of our family, and we think that it is a great design! We were married April 11, 1992 in Grand Rapids, MI. We still live in Grand Rapids, MI. Chuck is originally from Traverse City, MI while Susan is originally from Amsterdam, NY. We have changed over the years, but one thing that always remained constant was our desire to have children. We had various pregnancies throughout our married life, but these ended in either miscarriages or tubal pregnancies. Our first wedding anniversary was spent in the hospital where Susan had been taken for emergency surgery during the middle of the night for a tubal pregnancy that had ruptured and came very close to losing her life. Still, we continued to want children. After 13 years though we were beginning to wonder if that would ever occur. We had considered adoption several times before, and were very interested in it, but always felt the cost was too prohibitive. Little did we know how much life was about to change... Not only was God going to build our family through adoption, but He was going to provide in ways we never imagined to bring our son home in 2006. And then He again provided so we could bring our daughter Grace home in 2007. For Andrew's adoption we ended up needing almost $25,000. We started with $2,400. God always provided the money when it was needed.

It was on Friday, September 16, 2005 that God introduced us to our son, Andrew, through AGCI (All God's Children International). We completed the adoption of our son Andrew from China on June 27, 2006. Then on Sunday afternoon, February 25, 2007, God introduced us to our then 6 1/2 month old daughter, Grace, through IAAP (International Assistance and Adoption Project). We got Grace in Guangzhou, China on November 5th, 2007 and completed her adoption the following day. Grace was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and has just begun the surgery process at the University of Michigan.

We are thankful that before Andrew and Grace came home, God was a Father to them (Psalm 68:5-6a). We truly serve an awesome God!!
 

We hope that while you are visiting our site, you will take a moment to sign our guest book and to read through our Blog. Please come back often as we continue to update our blog on a regular basis. We have taken a lot of photo's since we added Andrew to our family, and that tradition has continued with Grace's adoption. We also have a few short video clips that you can view by clicking HERE. If you would like to receive our email updates when our journal is updated, be sure to sign up using the subscribe form above.
 
God Bless!