We have always wanted to have kids and before we got married we decided that if it ever took longer than a year or two to have a baby biologically we would start looking into adoption. We have friends that have adopted and others who are adoptees and both have been very encouraging and helpful through the process. We feel that God has led us to adoption to start our family. We see all that He has put in place for us to adopt right now and are excited to go where He is leading us.
What brought you two together?
From Tirzah — We met at aviation maintenance school! I was a year behind Mark and started after he graduated. We knew of each other, but didn’t get a chance to really meet until he came back to visit the school one day and a teacher asked him to talk to the class about his job. We talked briefly about his job and then he left. That night he sent me a Facebook message and we started talking.
He invited me to go to an aviation museum that was two hours from where he lived. So, on our first date, I drove two hours to get to his house and we drove another two hours together. After spending the whole day together, we decided we really enjoyed spending time together!
I graduated and was able to get a job at the same company he was already working for. We got married about two years after we started dating. Soon after getting married, we moved to a new state for new jobs and we work at the same company. We have been married for three years and love spending time together. We love getting outside, whether it’s camping, kayaking, or anything in between!
Why now?
After being married for two years we began trying to have a child. When we realized that was taking longer than expected we began to pray about it and felt that God was leading us toward beginning the adoption process. The adoption process has definitely helped us grow and learn to rely more on God. We decided that God was calling us to use the money He has given us to financially invest in the life of a child.
As we have started the adoption process we’ve been able to see so many amazing ways that adoption shows Christ. He adopted us into His family, He chose us and loved us even when we were broken. Adoption is expensive, but the cost we are looking at pales in comparison to how much God paid for our adoption into His family. We want God to be glorified through our family adoption story.
We absolutely can’t do this alone! We need a community to support us! Would you consider partnering with us through prayer as we step out in faith?
I grew up in Canada, in a big Christian homeschooling family, and am the middle of five siblings. I’m so thankful for the support and encouragement I get from my siblings and parents. In college, I was certified as an Aircraft Maintenance Technician and am currently an Aircraft quality inspector. I love airplanes and I am so thankful that Mark and I are able to share a love of aviation and work at the same company.
I enjoy being able to volunteer, whether it’s with the kid’s programs at church or at an event for Compassion International. I love working with kids and being an ambassador for missions and reaching people with the gospel through meeting physical needs. I have worked with kids at camp and at church for most of my life and have always wanted to be a mom.
Mark and I love being outside. We love being at the beach and kayaking, but our favorite place is in the mountains. We love going camping and hiking. Our hope is to one day visit all the national parks!
Although I love adventures and being outside, I love being able to come home at the end of a trip! My home is my comfort zone! I love coloring, baking, reading, or just watching TV.
Mark
I grew up in Virginia in a small town. My Dad and uncle were both auto mechanics so I learned how to work on things from an early age. As I got older I found that I wanted to be a mechanic as a career, but not in the automotive world.
I visited a friend in college and found out about their Aircraft Maintenance Technician program. I applied to attend and started in the fall of that year. Soon after graduation, I started my first job as an Avionics Technician at a company a few hours away. I spent almost four years there before picking up and moving to Georgia for another Avionics position. My favorite part of avionics is seeing a plane that landed with an issue fly away fully functional knowing I had a part in that process.
I enjoy the outdoors and spent my high school years in cross country running the trails behind our school. In college, I began mountain biking and carried that hobby into my time working in the Shenandoah Valley in VA. After I moved to Georgia I didn’t have the options of mountain biking like I did in VA so I began kayaking and spending time on the water. We still try to drive up to the mountains several times a year and tent or hammock camp. We have been going to several national parks lately and our goal is to visit all of them. Within the next few years, a few friends and I are planning a trip to backpack from rim to rim in the Grand Canyon.
Jul
1
We are Matched!!
It’s been awhile since we’ve posted about our adoption journey, but We are excited to announce that we are matched! We are so thankful that God has blessed us. We cannot wait to meet this precious gift and are incredibly grateful to the mom who chose to trust us with her baby’s future.
We are so thankful for all of the prayers and support we have received in the past two years.
We still have a lot of work to do before we hold this precious baby girl in our arms at the end of August and we would be so thankful for your continued prayers for us, the baby, and the birth family.
Jul
18
Financial Update
We are so thankful for all the financial support we have received for our adoption costs. We never thought that we would be able to raise so much money when we started our adoption journey. This support has been a reminder to us of God’s provision and of His leading. Without Him we know that nothing would be possible.
We want to thank everyone who has donated, prayed, and helped us raise money. We wish we could fully express how grateful we are to each one of you who has supported us!
We have received all the funds needed to match the 5K matching grant that we received from Potter Homes through Lifesong for Orphans. This means that we will have 10K in our Lifesong account ready when needed. Special thanks for our church family (City Church Pooler) for giving us money to reach this goal.
Our Run for Adoption 5k race in May was a success and we are so thankful to everyone who ran with us! Special thanks to our friends Emily and Hope for helping us organize the race.
We are so thankful to you all for your support! We have been greatly blessed by family, friends, and strangers.
We now are just waiting on God’s timing to welcome a child into our family. We pray that God would help us trust in His timing.
We would love to answer any questions you may have about adoption, our journey, or our adoption finances.
Apr
13
Virtual 5k!
Join us for our VIRTUAL 5K that will take place the week of May 17th-23rd!
All profit will go towards funding our adoption! This is a virtual event and you can complete it at your favorite location on your own time during race week.
For more information and to sign up, visit our race website:
We have been awarded a matching grant from Potter Homes Adoption Fund, administered by Lifesong for Orphans. This means that any donations we receive into our Lifesong account will be doubled up to the grant amount! We are so thankful to Potter Homes and Lifesong for this generous gift. If you would like to give towards our matching grant please donate on our Lifesong page: https://mystory.lifesongfororphans.org/stories/adoption-story/
In this season of waiting, It’s easy to feel like we’ve hit a dead end. After all the hurry and push of getting every form submitted, signing paperwork, the stillness of waiting is difficult. It’s as if we turned the page of a wonderful story and this page is blank. We don’t know what’s going to happen and we aren’t sure if the story has a happy ending. All we can see is the blank page in front of us.
We are thankful for this time of waiting. God is teaching us to trust in His timing and in His plan. We are praying for the child (or children) God has already picked for our family. We are continuing to learn about adoption from those who have walked this path before us.
This is also a good time to save money for when we do get matched. We are applying to grants, no interest loans, and are still receiving 50% of the profits from our GoBena coffee page! (Click the link to order some coffee before our page comes down! https://my.gobena.org/stories/mayhew-adoption-fundraiser/?id=627)
We would love to talk to you about adoption and answer any questions you may have for us. If you are interested in reading more about adoption two great resources are in the links below.
We are so excited to be starting 2021 with a completed Home Study! We are praying that God would allow us to bring home baby Mayhew this year! We are so thankful for all of the prayers and support we have received since starting this process! We can’t wait to share more milestones with you all as we continue on this journey.
We wanted to post this update to let you all in on what the next step looks like for us. We are now an active waiting family with a few agencies through our consultant and will be applying to more agencies in the next few weeks. Now that we are active, we begin the process of waiting for situations to arise that we can present to as prospective parents. We appreciate your continued prayers and support as we enter this time of waiting and anticipation, knowing that we could receive the gift of a child at any time in the near or distant future.
If you have any questions for us about adoption or about the process we would love to talk with you!
