John and Sarah's children artwork

Two years after their son Michael was born, John and Sarah wanted to continue to add to their family. They decided to pursue adoption because of the complications Sarah suffered during her pregnancy.

John and Sarah especially felt a calling to build their family through transracial adoption, Sarah said:

“We are a Caucasian couple, and we decided that we wanted to adopt an African-American child. We felt that our families and community would be supportive of our decision, and we took steps to educate ourselves about transracial adoption. We ultimately made our decision because we felt that a child’s skin color differing from our own should not prevent him or her from being our child. We already had multicultural books and toys around our home, but we purchased a new African-American baby doll that Michael could play with and told him that this was what his new sibling might look like.”