The Smucker Family Love Story

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Daniel: We decided as a couple even while we were dating that we wanted to adopt whether we could have biological children or not. It’s something that we’re both passionate about and love how it truly mirrors the heart of Father God.

Leah: Even before I was married or even dating I had a desire to adopt a child. I suppose at first it was out of a sense of not knowing if I would ever marry and have my own children as well as knowing that there are so many children that need a home with a present parent. Now there are so many other reasons to add. We want to open our home and hearts to a child to give them whatever we can: love, family, security, faith, shepherding. We want to give that to all our children however the Lord brings them into our family.

What brought you together?

Daniel: Leah is from big city Minneapolis and I’m a country boy from Lancaster, PA. Our paths more than likely would not have crossed had it not been for a missions trip (World Race through Adventures In Missions). It was not love at first sight. In fact, Leah was one of the last people I got to know out of our group of 40+. Long story short, we traveled together to 11 countries in 11 months, ended up in leadership together, fell in love throughout the course of the year (although lived in denial), eventually embraced what God was doing in our lives, and got married ten months after we got home.

Leah: There isn’t much to add to what Daniel has already said, but for me Daniel was an answer to prayer. He is exactly what I needed and I am continually blown away by the gift that he is. He is steady, constant, unwavering. He is reliable, intentional, loving, and invested in everything that he does. He is a beautiful gift straight from the Father Heart of God.

Why Adopt Now?

Daniel: A big reason is that we haven’t been able to have children through conception at this point. We’ve always wanted to adopt, we just feel that now is the time. Why not adopt!

Leah: We have been trying to conceive for the past 2 1/2 years and haven’t been able to start our family through natural means. We decided that we would start building through adoption

We want to open our home and hearts to a child to give them whatever we can: love, family, security, faith, shepherding.

Daniel & Leah

Daniel and I are adventure lovers. We love finding the adventure in anything in life. We met traveling the world. Travel and exploring different places and cultures is a passion and delight for both of us. As we grow our family we want to continue to travel and give the gift of travel to our children. We moved to Colorado a couple years ago and it really is a childhood dream come true for the both of us. We love the mountains and being outside in creation exploring. The community in our town and church is a very big reason why this place we are carving out for ourselves in Colorado is so special to us. We are truly blessed!

Oct

Smucker Adoption Update

Adoption Update

Hey there! First of all, thank you to all of you that have already donated in the last couple of years! We are extremely grateful for your support. As stated on our profile, adoption has always been on our hearts and since we had not been able to get pregnant, we decided that we wanted to start the adoption process. We were in the home study process when OF COURSE, we found out we were pregnant! We now have a sweet little 2 year old son and are starting the adoption process again. This time though, we are doing an embryo adoption. Since Leah had a successful pregnancy and loves being pregnant, we are the perfect fit for an embryo adoption. You are probably thinking the same thing I was thinking when Leah first presented the idea to me. 1. What is embryo adoption? 2. Why adopt an embryo?

When couples go through in vitro fertilization (IVF), sometimes there are fertilized eggs (embryos) that remain and are frozen for later use. When couples decide that their family is complete but still have embryos remaining, there are a few options. They can donate them to a couple who is unable to conceive. Couples can donate the embryos to research. Or they can thaw them, removing their chance of becoming a child. A fourth option is to keep them frozen and continue to pay storage fees.

Embryo adoption allows the genetic parents to give their embryos a chance for life. And it provides us-the adopting parents-with an opportunity to grow our family.

After talking through and processing together, we both felt drawn to this route for growing our family and decided to pursue it. We have completed our home study, and are currently scheduled for our initial consultation with the NEDC(National Embryo Donation Center) in Knoxville, TN. The costs are quite a bit lower with embryo adoption and will end up being around $15,000.

We are asking you to consider partnering with us in giving these embryos a chance at life.