Our Story

Introducing...

Hello friends and family! We are a family from Loveland, Colorado who have been very blessed to have seen a good deal of amazing places in this world. This blog is about our hearts being changed by the unforgettable experiences we have had and will have as we fell in love with the beautiful country and people of Ethiopia.

We knew we would eventually start a blog. The task just seemed so daunting! Creating a design that represents you and is visually pleasing (thanks, husband!), committing to writing frequently enough and writing interesting, worthwhile things to keep the readers engaged and checking back, not to mention wondering who will read it anyway? We know it will always be a work in progress. All pressure aside, we’re excited to share some of us with you all and process the journey of our lives together.

Nick entered the military right after graduating high school and spent ten years between active and National Guard duty. He finished up just a month before we got married so after the wedding, we were assured there would be no more deployments. We were married on May 27, 2007 in Cincinnati, Ohio and Nick moved down to North Carolina where I was in school.

I (Kelly) graduated from University of Cincinnati with my Bachelors in Health Sciences and continued on to Duke University where I earned my Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. A short ten days after graduation, I boarded a plane and spent two months living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, volunteering as a physical therapist in the government orphanages. I was so blessed to have this experience and know God used it to change me. I came home, excited to see my husband again, but devastated to leave the kids behind. Nick heard all the stories and saw all the pictures and it wasn’t long before we knew we would be called to adopt.

James 1:27 says this, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  While reaching out to orphans is something we are so excited about, it is also a daunting, sometimes scary process. So much paperwork, money for the process, and fear of the unknown makes it very overwhelming. We have to believe, however, that if God has called us to this place in our lives, He will provide the patience, the strength, the relentlessness and of course, the funds. Adoption just happens to be the way God has called us at this time to fulfill His desire, and so we will follow by faith. So THANK YOU, for following our journey and being apart of our lives during the process of our Ethiopian adoption.