*Donations to the Dakin Family through Adopt a Love Story are tax-deductible
7000 Names is a representation of what a community can do when it rallies together. We believe people all over this world love a good story and we are inviting you into our story of adoption. We are looking for 7000 story builders. Adoption is the heart of 7000 Names. The power is not in the impact of one gift, but in thousands. If 7000 people…7000 Names…each gave seven dollars. That would bring home baby number 7. We love family so much that we can’t wait to see ours grow again through a domestic adoption. Our goal as a family is to raise $50,000. Anything above and beyond that will go towards funding another families adoption.
Thank you for taking the time to hear the vision of 7000 names. Please consider giving us your gift of $7 and listing your name today. It is our passion to see the masses be impacted by our story as it truly impacts our world forever.
Adoption is a beautiful way to build a family. Thank you for helping us build ours. More than giving larger amounts towards our adoption, it would bless us immensely if you would share our story. Your reach is bigger than ours.
Aly: On my first mission trip to Peru, I saw this little girl somewhere between the age of two and four. She was layered in filthy clothes with dirt and snot covered her face in this little town in the Andes Mountains. Her big brown eyes captivated my heart and I felt the world begin to slow down as our gazes locked and I felt God enlarge my heart for orphans, I wanted to pick her up and bring her home with me. The seed of adoption was birthed that day. I went on to do short term missions a few more times in Peru and other south and central American countries. God continued to grow my heart for children, yet that little girl’s face never left my mind. I knew because of her, a desire was birthed to blur the lines of blood and let love conquer injustice in just ONE child’s life because of mine.
JR: Adoption to me personally seems like it should be simple…there are people that need to be cared for, so we should care for them. I would like to believe there doesn’t need to be some earth-shaking, sky-shattering revelation to move forward on this one. Having said that, as we are finding out, if there is not conviction…there will not be follow through. There is faith-stretching pressure that is constantly being applied. We already have 6 kids. It would be so easy to just say, “Nah, I don’t think this is for us…” But, how can I say that with the knowledge that there are children out there in need? Someone out there needs us.
We celebrate our sixteenth anniversary in August. I was 22 and Aly was 21. When we met, we both were a part of church-based ministry training programs. We kept bumping into each other as the week progressed…and she kept going out of her way to say “hi” to me. I found myself not being able to take my eyes off her…I started talking myself into going to talk to her and…getting her email address. Someone else she had met from our group invited her to come out with our group after the service. It was the strangest thing…I instantly couldn’t talk to her…I felt so awkward around her. Well, I got her email address that night… and after a while her phone number (because I REALLY didn’t like emailing). It was game over from then on.
Aly: JR and I began our journey into parenthood with an uphill climb. It was only six months into marriage that this burning desire to be parent began to grow in my heart.
A year passed quite fast with not one positive pregnancy test. Another year passed and we sought the help of a second doctor. Six months later, on ovulation meds, I finally conceived our first-born son.
Three weeks into our son’s life, my husband said, “we need to do this again, soon!” He loved fatherhood as much as I loved becoming a mom. We tried for another baby as soon as we could, and we found out we lost our second baby when I was ten weeks pregnant right before our son turned one. That led us into the doors of an infertility clinic where we found out I was an excellent candidate for IVF. Six weeks (after implantation) we found out that both embryos had implanted and we were expecting twins!
When our twins were nine months old, I had a flashback of the night I found out I was pregnant with our oldest. My husband was in between jobs, life was the opposite of stable for us, and that night I found out I was pregnant with our fourth child. This was our first pregnancy by surprise with no intervention.
I was so happy to have our two and two. We had two sons and two daughters. My husband felt a strong call into the medical field. He began college at the age of 30, we were so tight financially that adoption was not even on the table for discussion until he was done with school, because FIVE KIDS was irresponsible at that point.
Then I found out I was pregnant again. I cried.
Then she was born.
Everything in me changed, and I was amazed at the grace God poured out upon our household. I was in awe of her life and how I would not have ever planned on having five of my own children.
Two years later we wildly welcomed our sixth child through embryo adoption. God had provided miraculously for us while my husband was in school full time and we chose to use some of the gift to pay for this procedure. We chose to walk down the embryo adoption path to add another child into our family. This time we got to experience an element of adoption, only I got to carry her and give birth to her.
After four C-sections, I got tubal. We were finally ready to move on from children coming from my body and we were expectant to see how God would lead us in our future.
When my youngest celebrated her 3rd birthday I began to dialogue with the Lord saying, “what I have is enough – I am already so busy yet I can’t shake the desire for another form of adoption – I am going to lay it down and let you do what you want with it.”
I hit a point that I needed to question my own motives… Do I just love babies? Is having another child good for our whole family? Should I surrender the desire and just move on?
JR: We’ve talked about adoption from day one of our marriage. Now that I am done with school and that stressor is in the rearview, we feel like we can breathe long enough to actively move towards this.
Aly: Here we are 15 years later, and we don’t have this huge well of financial resources to pull from to pursue this form of adoption, because we do have a lot of kids. Domestic adoption was always off limits in my heart because it costs a fortune, but wow, the desire is like a wildfire, it has spread to every corner of my heart.
We need to move into a different home at the end of the year, my husband is looking for a new job in a new field. On paper this is not the best timing.
Yet, God.
We know his character, his faithfulness and his grace so much more intimately today than we did 15 years ago. We are still us, imperfect and filled with doubt. We stand at the bottom of this mountain both filled with absolute disbelief that this is possible and certain faith that God has a story for us that can’t even fathom, because he is a good God.
Married
Fifteen years
We have
Six Kids
We have Done
An Embryo Adoption
Aly
It’s a miracle I graduated from high school, I was hardly ever there. I had no knowledge of God until I was 17 when He radically changed my heart. The Gospel captured all of me and I set my heart to seeking after God for the rest of my days. I received church based ministry training for 3 years and that is where I met JR. I hadn’t envisioned family as my future passion and it is now the greatest calling I have the honor to walk in. Raising my children in the knowledge and love of Jesus is a task I believe should have all of my attention in this season. I am a makeup artist by trade and as much as I enjoy it, my passion is to disciple young people, those in my home and outside of it. The gift to homeschool my children is one I receive with deep gratitude.
JR
I am a nurse by profession. I have just completed my training and certification to practice as an advanced practice nurse, or family nurse practitioner. Prior to working in healthcare, my wife and I worked in full-time ministry. We began as youth pastors, and then young adult/career ages. I love being physically active and am training for my first triathlon. As a side note, since our time in full-time ministry my wife has poured out her life for our family. She continues to have a passion for discipleship and is continually cultivating relationships with young ladies, teaching them what living a life of virtue looks like in real life.
Foster
Foster is all into all things creative, building Legos, drawing, writing books, and playing with his siblings and friends. He takes his role as the oldest seriously and loves leading his siblings. He is constantly thinking of new things to try to pursue…he is a go-getter, and one heck of a salesman for an 11 year-old!
Charlie and Paisley
Charlie & Paisley, the twins, are 8 years old … and they do not know which one is older. They were born on the 20th of October and they will find out who was delivered first on their golden birthday. It makes for great fun in their childhood! Charlie has one of the most compassionate hearts you will ever find. If someone is hurting, he hurts with them…he wants only to bring peace and healing to people’s hearts. He has a tender heart for God and a wild amount of energy in his day-to-day life. Paisley knows how to live in the moment! She has a free spirit, which, often times, is easy to see with her crazy hair-dos. She loves gymnastics, swimming, and generally flipping herself around all the time. She is easy going always playing with her brothers or sisters.
Betsy
Betsy is 7 years old. For as long as we can remember, Betsy has expressed the desire to help people through the gift of medicine. She plays doctor with all her siblings, and dreams of the day she can visit real life orphanages. Betsy cannot wait for us to have our adopted baby in our home. She is a connector; she connects to the hearts of people she knows and those she just meets.
Willow
Willow is six years old and full of love and life. She was a big surprise when we found out about her and she has continued to surprise us every stage of her life. She is quietly determined, smart, kind, and has a teachable heart. Willow adores all her siblings. She loves making friends with others but at the end of the day she always has her people and she is proud of her tribe.
Salem
Salem is a fresh four year old and with that comes all the desires to exercise her independent abilities. She is a testimony of God’s pursuit and faithfulness.
She was an adopted embryo and her life story is one of which we are humbled to be apart. She is the most passionate child we have had the privilege to raise. She knows what she wants and goes after it sometimes without thinking it through. We are all better because of her. Her name means peace and we believe God is going to use her testimony to bring peace so many.
MATCHED IN SEVEN DAYS!
What an incredible December! It has made up for the very LONG fall season we endured. We had a lot of obstacles to jump through for us to be ready to present our family’s profile book to expectant mothers. We received the great news that our home study was approved on November 7th, 2018.
We made the choice to work with two other organizations throughout our adoption journey. First, we made the decision to work with a consulting agency, Faithful Adoption Consultants (F. A. C.). They do not work in direct relationship with expectant parents, but they do work with different private agencies all over the country. Their main goal is to help connect their clients, the hopeful adoptive parents, with the agencies expectant mothers. The requirements to become an active client (with F. A. C.) were almost at extensive as our home study requirements. I think that’s why they suggested that we sign up with them right when we began the home study process so we didn’t have to paper chase and document file more than once. We financially couldn’t do both when we began our home study paperwork in Feb 2018. However, because of our 7000 names fundraiser we were able to sign with F.A.C. in September.
We also signed with Kindred + Co. a professional profile-book company. They created the most beautiful book that shared who we are as a family. They did an incredible job of capturing the real us. Our book wasn’t complete until right before Thanksgiving.
With those holidays in the midst, we didn’t get our books in to F.A.C until the end of November. We received our “ACTIVE” email on December 5th. We began receiving emails the very next day of cases. We had to make the decision (in less than 24 hours) if we wanted to present our book to these women. We saw six cases in five days. We said yes to showing our profile book twice. The second mom we presented to chose our family on December 12th, 2018. The most incredible words you could ever hear on a phone call… “Hey, Aly, you and JR are MATCHED!” That process took all of SEVEN days! We matched to our future seventh child and he/she’s incredible first mama in seven days!
We are overwhelmed with excitement and hope. God’s heart for adoption just continues to humble us. What we see as impossible or hard in adoption, God sees as a passionate pursuit. He calls us HIS OWN. He never held back in his pursuit for us. We have grown so much through our waiting days, turned months and turned into almost years.
His never ending example of pursuit of us, even when He wasn’t guaranteed our hearts, blows us away. He came for us anyways. He ALWAYS sees us as his OWN. He went to the most extensive lengths for us. We have a lot of money to raise in the next few weeks. Yet we are overflowing with faith that God has miracles in store for us to marvel at. He is faithful. He has called us to this pursuit, We stand in faith that He will be faithful to complete what He has started. We will be bringing a baby home sometime at the end of February! Please continue to pray for us!
7000 Names Fundraiser
It is our dream to see our story stretch wide in a community like minded folks who believe in children, family, life and adoption. We are looking for 7000 story builders, to be apart of helping us build our story. If 7000 people give $7 we can fully fund our adoption. We would love to invite you to partner with us on this. $7 is an amount that young and old can give. Please consider donating $7 and your name today! We can’t wait to gather the thousands of names that will become a collection that builds our adoption story.
One Year Progress Update
It has been over a year since our family shared our dream of adoption with Adopt a Love Story. We have spent the last year climbing endless hills of circumstance. We have persevered and here we are a year later with our home study half way finished and a fundraising dream of how to fulfill this dream of adoption. Finances have held us back at times but more than that we have been faced with circumstances we couldn’t control the timing on, the home we lived in after we first landed in California didn’t have enough bedrooms for us to move forward with our home study. It took us months to find a home with enough bedrooms for us to be approved.
We spent numerous months of battling with electrical problems in the rental we found, the landlords didn’t want to fix the problems and they actually gave our deposit back to us and asked to us move. After a lot of prayer and surrender the home we had found worked out after all. Miracles can happen even through electricity! In the spring of 2018, we finally began our home study paperwork. We have been busy doing the education portion of our checklist. I had to get CPR and first Aid certified, and I was honestly annoyed by it, in my mind I had managed to care and mother six children, why did I need this certification when my husband is a professional in the medical field?
I had to spend a lot of time doing the online modules and then spend an afternoon at an in-class hands on session. I was so surprised by how much I was wrong! I was so happy to learn every thing that was taught. That knowledge would have probably saved me handfuls of tears in years past when my children were smaller and had accidents that I wasn’t trained in handling. We always made it through but now, on this side of the certification I feel so confident in my ability to care for injuries.
We are back at a stand still in our adoption process. Moving to California a year and a half ago was a dream but every dream requires hard work and a lot of sacrifice. We are back in position where we have to hold on moving forward because we need to creativity raise funds to help us continue. We are a one income family that is passionate about being a family that lives life together. We homeschool our children, we never go without but currently my husband is working two jobs to make room for us to have additional funds to move forward.
We are hopeful that all this hard work will be apart of our story someday that helped us see what we were made of when we rallied hard as a family to bring our youngest family member home. In the midst of JR’s hard work we spent months dreaming up ways to fundraise.
We have finally come up with plan that can carry us through until we are fully funded. Please take a few moments to read about our vision with our 7000 names fundraiser.