Marc and JaLisa’s story, as told by JaLisa:

We struggled with infertility for many years and after undergoing fertility treatments, had a son in 2015. After several more unsuccessful treatments, we felt like God was telling us to stop and pursue adoption instead. We were referred to Victorious Hope Adoption Consulting from friends who had also worked with them. We were so inspired after meeting with John and Cindy and really admired them and their ministry. We finally felt ready to start the adoption process in July of 2018 and now a year later, welcomed our second son into our family!

We were chosen by an expectant mother in February of 2019 and she was due in June, so we had a few months to prepare. However, during this time, our contact with her (which had been texting every week per the agency’s recommendation) had dwindled and there were some doctor’s appointments she was missing. A couple months into our match, we were contacted by a relative of the birth mother warning us of different things and telling us not to be surprised if the birthmother changed her mind and that it was a scam. After talking to our caseworker, we learned this was most likely a relative who was known to have some mental challenges and was trying to cause problems for the birth mom. We were encouraged to not worry even though our caseworker was telling us that she was seeing a lot of red flags as well. As much as we wanted to pray that we would be able to welcome this child into our family, we started instead praying that God would just do whatever He thought best since only He knew if this child was meant to be part of our family or not. We had to truly put it all in His hands, as we felt completely helpless and of course couldn’t control the outcome. Both Marc and I felt a real spiritual battle taking place during those months of being matched and decided to receive prayer and anointing at our church, which we’re so glad we did!

On May 29th we received the call that the birth mom was in labor and we jumped on a plane to Arizona still not sure what her decision would ultimately be, but still placing our trust in the Lord. After we arrived we were able to meet with our son’s birth mother and we had such an emotional, wonderful time of sharing and connecting! It was also special to spend some time with her children and parents at a local restaurant while in Arizona, so that we could all meet. After those months of feeling like we were on an emotional roller coaster, we were so grateful that everything went so smoothly once he was born and there were so many little blessings along the way! We thank God for our sweet little guy!