The Tants Go Adopting

      There are many paths to adoption. You can do a private adoption, either domestically or internationally. There are more costs involved in a private adoption and depending on circumstances, it can take a long time for child to enter your home. You can also go through the state and foster to adopt. This requires that you become a licensed foster parent through the state, which can be time intensive, but there are few out of pocket costs to foster to adopt. There is no right or wrong path, just what path is right for each family. About a year and a half ago we started the process to adopt through foster care. We attended all the classes in Louisville, we knew the child we wanted to adopt, and we had two pieces of paperwork left to turn in, when everything changed. The birth parent for this particular child came back into the picture and possible reunification began. It was also at this time that God called us to a church in Floyds Knobs, Indiana and we knew...

        This weekend Aaron and I were with friends and our adoption journey was the topic of conversation. We were asked, "tell us your story, how did you come to the decision that adoption is the right choice for your family?"         As I pondered this question, I thought back to my classroom at Andrews Elementary School in Burlington, NC. I started teaching at Andrews not long after Aaron and I started dating and I was teaching a class for children with severe and profound disabilities and each of those students were my babies. How I knew that Aaron was the one for me, was that he loved my babies as much as I did. Teaching in that setting meant that I saw some very sad stories and more than once Aaron would make the comment, "I would take Student A home in a heartbeat." I fell in love with this man all over again because he had a heart for my babies and I knew that he meant it when he said he would take any of those babies into our home. It...

Our story begins almost 12 years ago in a small town in North Carolina. My sister set me up on blind date with her boyfriend's college roommate and to be honest I wasn't all that excited to meet this stranger. Then the most beautiful boy I had ever seen walked through the door, and I was a goner. Aaron Tant changed my life that night, because that was the night we started our forever. Ever since Aaron and I began planning our future together more than a decade ago, we knew that adoption would one day be a part of that future. Over the past 10 years of marriage, God blessed us with 2 beautiful children, Elias who is 8 and Sophia who is 6. I am thankful beyond words for my children, but the pregnancies and labors took a toll on my body, so we made a decision to have my tubes tied. This was not a decision we came to lightly and one that we approached with much prayer and conversation, but in the end, we knew it was the right decision for our family, and especially for my body. ...