The Brand Family Adoption

We are the Brands, and we want to adopt a baby into our family!

Have time for the full story? Let’s go back to the beginning…

My life was forever changed February 23, 2011, the day I found out I was going to be a mother. A myriad of questions started repeating themselves in my head. Would I be a good mother? Would my child like me? How was I going to raise a baby? At the time, I was 22, single, and having a baby was the last thing on my grand to-do list.

Olivia Grace was born on November 11, 2011, and even as I write this very simple sentence, my throat has tightened and my eyes well up with tears. Olivia has been the greatest blessing I could ever dream of receiving. My pregnancy with her brought me to know Christ, my heavenly father, and changed me to the core of my being. After Olivia, I questioned what in the world my motivation was before she arrived. Living for myself seemed so trivial and boring in comparison to being a mother. I always planned on being a mother and having children, but I never dreamed how much I would LOVE being a mother.

Even though Olivia brought so much joy and meaning to my life, we were not complete. My heart desired a man to share the joys of raising a child with. I longed to find someone who would help me show Olivia what a God-first relationship looked like. Someone whom we both could depend on to love us, unconditionally.

I met Joel in August of 2012. He was brilliant, charming, and he looked like Clark Kent. He also happened to be one of my best friend’s brothers. I fought like hell not to fall in love with Joel, but he was patient, and he was persistent, and he was the kindest man I had ever met. After I finally let Joel meet Olivia, all my walls and defenses came down. I will remember the day they met till my dying breath. Olivia walked right up to him, climbed up on his lap, and they read a story together. By the afternoon they were rolling around on the floor, tickling and laughing together.

Today, almost 10 years later, we are a family of 5. We welcomed Evangeline Rae in 2017, after over a year of infertility, and Odin was a surprise COVID baby, born in 2020.

In our home, you can regularly hear laughter reverberating off the walls, little feet racing from room to room, and our Chow Chow puppy pitter pattering after them. Our house is always messy because we spend more time playing with and enjoying our kids than cleaning up…maybe one day we’ll figure out how to accomplish both, but for now we embrace the joy AND the piles of toys.

We’ve loved being a family together. Raising 3 head-strong kids has it’s challenges, but we would not change a thing about the life we have cultivated…except for the longing to add another sweet baby to our family.

Adoption has always been written on our hearts and we feel like God’s plan is for us to welcome another little being into our family, through adoption. We have specifically chosen Legacy Adoption Services out of McKinney, TX to work with because they serve young mothers who have found themselves unexpectedly pregnant, like I was 12 years ago.

The cost of our Adoption is detailed here:

Christian Adoption Consultants - $4,000

ADOPTION APPLICATION FEE - $1,200

HOME STUDY FEE - $3,000


PROGRAM FEE - $4,500

Matching & Placement Fee - $47,00

We would like to ask for your prayers as well as your donations. We will be applying for grants with the help of Christian Adoption Consultants so what we really need in order to get start on this journey is to raise $8,200…which is no small amount.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers for patience and for God’s hand to intervene with the timing of our adoption as well as prayers for the birth mama of our precious baby.

Thank you and may God bless you.

The Brand Family