The Martinez Family Love Story

Angel: Justin and I met through mutual friends in the fall of 2009. We were both at the hospital for the birth of their daughter, our mutual god daughter. There was this instant connection between the two of us and we spent the next few days celebrating our sweet God baby and new life! Two months later, Justin got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever bride. We dated about two years after that and married in the fall of 2011. We have been blessed with the ability to grow in our marriage through seeking the Lord together, traveling, and embracing all that military life has to offer. We are fearlessly looking forward to this next chapter into parenthood and thanking God for all He has already done.  I am a registered nurse who specializes in the care of oncology patients. I have a huge heart for people and find it incredibly important to love and serve others.

Justin: I am a United States Marine and have been serving for the last 12 years. I plan on doing at least 10 more years, God willing. I am currently a communications instructor. I love to help people and serve others. It breaks my heart to see someone in need of anything. I love the Lord and strive to rely solely on him for everything.

Angel: We started trying to grow our family through natural conception in October of 2014. Within a year we were diagnosed with infertility. Justin underwent surgery in the fall of 2015 with no improvement and in the fall of 2016, I also had surgery to increase our chances of natural conception. Throughout the process, the doctors presented a series of different options to us including IVF, donation, etc.  We prayed about our options and it was instantly clear that we did not have peace with any of those options. God was calling us to grow our family through adoption. For the first time in my life I did not have one doubt about what I was supposed to do in this situation. Justin also knew without a doubt that this was our calling from God. When we officially decided we would pursue adoption, God started revealing all of these small details in my life allowing me to see that He has been writing this story for a long time, long before I met Justin or knew this would be “our story”.

Justin: After two years of trying naturally and going through a surgery to try to improve my fertility and finding we still were not pregnant, I knew that God had bigger plans for us and that our calling was adoption. Though we had talked about many of our other options, I knew there weren’t really any other options for us and that our path to becoming parents was supposed to happen through adoption.

Angel: Being that we are a military family, we relocate every 3-4 years.  During a time such as this, it can be very difficult not having your closest friends and family close by. Justin and I just moved across the country (again) in January. I was concerned with “starting over” and not having a strong network in our new area at such a crucial time, but God completely aligned every detail. Within a month of being in our new city, we met a couple who had just adopted 4 months ago and they have been such a rock for us. The “godwinks” have continued to come as all of these intentional relationships have formed. We haven’t officially announced to our community back in our hometown, but we have received full emotional support from our closest family and friends.

Justin: When we moved from California to North Carolina in January 2017, we immediately were connected with this couple that had just adopted their beautiful little girl and they have since become our great friends. Myself and Chris (the husband) are in a men’s group together with ten other men that continually pray over our adoption and encourage me in this process. We have been joyfully overwhelmed with all the support of our community and we are continually meeting people that just want to show their love and support.

Angel: We are looking forward to the redemption journey where God has the final word.  After learning of our infertility and spending time in prayer, adoption was the only option for us. It instantly became less about conceiving naturally and more about the opportunity to be parents and provide a loving home to a little one. There aren’t enough words to adequately describe our gratitude and excitement. We know that the journey ahead will come with many difficulties and times of defeat, but we also know that we serve an incredible God who always makes a way. The song “higher” is something that has encouraged me each day of this journey as it says, “You have called me higher, you have called me deeper, and I will go where you will lead me Lord” In the moment that I fully surrendered to God, I fully trusted this process and where He is leading us.

Before we ever learned of our infertility, I would spend countless hours watching adoption stories and shedding tears at the beauty in it all. I would admire the courage of both the birth mom and adoptive parents for embarking on this journey. I can now promise you that those moments I was experiencing were not by chance, but only the almighty God starting to write our story and light the fire in us. Even though there are so many parts of this journey that are physically, mentally, and financially frightening, we are finding peace in His promises to us and our calling to adopt.