Hey y'all! We're the Wallers!
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We're Luke and Keely, the Founders of Mighty Families by Adoption. We created this charity fund to help others families who wish to grow by infant domestic adoption. In 2014 and 2015, we struggled through the trenches of infertility. Many days we thought we'd never find our way to our children. We didn't know what our future held or what God's plan was for us. The days were dark and lonely.
Early in 2016 we were told we'd never have our own biological children without medical intervention. We were offered the chance to do IUI or IVF which likely would have been successful. But we felt strongly against fertility treatments. The future felt scary and unknown. We quickly decided to begin pursuing infant adoption knowing that the road ahead would be long, expensive, and tiring. The process felt overwhelming, impossible. We eagerly completed our home study and decided to work with three local adoption attorneys. On April 30th, 2016, we were officially listed as a "waiting family" with our attorneys. We were unexpectedly matched only 9 days later - and our daughter, Triss, had already been born 10 hours away! We left only hours after receiving the call and got to our baby girl when she was 2 days old. And just like that, we were (very unprepared) parents. We spent 23 days in the NICU with our new daughter. We finally made our way home and were so excited for this new life. After being home for only three weeks, we were matched again through another attorney! And our second daughter, Burke, was born four months later just days before Thanksgiving in November 2016. So, here we are, parents of two wild toddlers who are only six months apart. Our hands are full but our hearts are fuller. We are consumed by overwhelming and unending love for our daughters, our greatest blessings. And we can't imagine where we would be if we wouldn't have said "yes" to the calling of adoption. Throughout the process of both adoptions, we saw more tough and dark days. On top of the emotional roller coaster, we felt the financial burden of adoption. Since, we've met so many other hopeful adoptive families whose dreams of adopting are out-of-reach due solely to finances. It is heartbreaking to know that finances alone can deter families from adopting. Our wish is to create this charity fund to help bring babies home where they belong. It is our passion to connect with fellow adoptive families and it is our greatest honor to provide needed funds to support as many adoptions as we can throughout our lifetime. In our free time, we love being outdoors and stumbling in to adventure. We enjoy hiking, going to the lake, kayaking, traveling, reading, cooking (eating), and gardening. Luke works for a financial institution and is the world's best daddy. He's the calm to our chaos. Keely is extremely active in the adoption community. She is the creator of Mighty Mamas by Adoption, an online community of supportive adoptive mamas. She's also a freelance writer for three parenting/adoption publications although her favorite job in the world in being a mom! |
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