Galen and Carly

To the parents who are making one of the most difficult choices of your life, we are praying for you. We are praying that the peace of God surrounds you in this time, and you find the strength of God carrying you through this process.

We want you to know how grateful we are that you love your child and want to give them everything you can. We are honored that you would trust us. Our hope and prayer is that throughout your child’s life they have a healthy relationship with you and understand the great love that you have for them. Whether you choose to be in their life or not, we will always teach them how loved they are by you.
It is our hope and prayer that you would be part of our child’s life. You have made this courageous decision to give your child to us, and in honoring that decision we want you to see how this child grows into the wonderful person they were created to be.

We are both honored and humbled that the Lord would choose to co-labor with us in his plan of adoption. We hope to give Glory to the Lord through adoption. Scripture tells us that we all are adopted into the family of God. By adopting we get a unique perspective of how God cares and loves us.

What I love about Carly:
Her passion for the Lord. Carly loves the Lord and puts Him first always. She has a heart to serve and selflessly cares for others. Carly is the most generous person I know. She loves giving. Whether it's thoughtful gifts, her time, or finances to a good cause. She loves to be generous. Carly has always been one to persevere and remain faithful. Even in my crazy ideas and bad days, Carly is always faithful to me and to pointing to Jesus every chance she gets.
~Galen

Hello!, I'm Carly:

First and foremost I love Jesus with all of my heart and that is the driving force behind my entire life. I hope to always be in the ministry serving my church, and I pray that the Lord continues to use me to minister to vulnerable families. I love to spend time cooking and baking whether for my husband or for other family and friends. Food is something that communicates love and warmth across language and cultural barriers, and it is a labor of love that lets people know that you care. The smells of this effort fills your home and makes you feel so welcome. It ministers to your own soul as well as others. I am an avid thrifter. I love that I can walk into a space and find things from all over that belonged to and were cherished by others. These little treasures become my own and now bless my family. I truly enjoy the sustainability of thrifting and it brings me so much joy to search all over to find something that isn’t made anymore. I love seeing movies at the theater, and I love curling up at home with a cup of coffee and watching a classic. Coffee is my favorite beverage, I probably drink too much of it! It’s such a comforting beverage and comes in so many forms that it keeps being exciting with every cup!

FAVORITES

TV Show: Frasier

Movie Character: Kathleen Kelly from You’ve Got Mail. She is the cutest little character and my favorite movie to watch. Anne of Green Gables is a close second.

Vacation Spot: probably hasn’t been found yet, but if I were to pick someplace to return to, it would be the mountains of Colorado! 

Color: Purple

Food: Tacos, but it changes depending on what day it is.

Animal: I love animals but Pandas are the best ones!

Holiday: Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday, but one of the best things about Thanksgiving is that it is the beginning of the Christmas season.

What I love about Galen:

Galen has a lot of patience. I see it in the way he pastors, in the way that he treats me even when he doesn’t fully understand me, he always tries to be patient and seek to understand. Galen loves truth and tenaciously pursues truth. He makes me feel safe. I know that if something should try to come against us or threaten me, he will fight to protect me, always. He is highly intelligent, retains about everything he writes and listens to. He also loves to learn and know more about the world around him. Galen is a great leader. I do believe Galen is anointed to lead our church in our city, and it is evident in the way he leads our church. His teaching ability translates into great leadership and he leads our people with understanding. Everyone sees where we are going because of his ability to share vision vividly. Galen is passionate about his love for me, his love for Jesus, the Church, and all those that he loves. He passionately pursues truth, and that truth pours out of him with wisdom and gentleness. He is very funny, and he is the most fun to laugh at. I can say so genuinely that we have such a fun life together. He treats everyone with respect, listens intently, and serves people gladly. Galen and I have a lot of common interests. We’re both foodies, and love to cook. We both love travelling and seeing new places, experiencing new cultures. We both love following Jesus and all He has for our lives, wherever it leads us. We just love the adventure of life that we find ourselves, and we’re both excited for the days ahead.
~Carly

Hi, I'm Galen:

My love for Jesus is what gives me the foundation for my entire life. Jesus is the reason I am a pastor, and He is the reason I am who I am today.
I enjoy cooking and smoking meat. It makes me happy to cook for other people and to see them enjoy a good meal. I like the creative outlet cooking gives me also. I like to learn about anything and everything. I enjoy reading, however, I am very slow at it so I don’t get through many books. I am able to retain a lot of information which has been a blessing to me. I have a passion for making things better. I am quick on my feet and problem-solve when things don’t turn out the way we want them to, and I am good at identifying and resolving areas of need. This passion also carries over into the relationships that I have with people. I want to help people be the best they can be. Character means a lot to me. I want to be someone with good character because that is the thing that shines through when circumstances are tough. People of good character are ones you can trust. At the end of the day, our character is the only thing we have.

FAVORITES

TV Show: I love watching The Office, but I wasn’t the biggest fan when it first came out.

Movie Character: I don't have a specific favorite, I tend to gravitate toward characters in movies who end up sacrificing themselves for the greater good i.e. Boromir, Morpheus, Maximus etc. 

Vacation Spot: I love going anywhere with mountains and good food.

Color: Purple

Food: BBQ; I love brisket and smoked turkey.

Hobby is cooking but especially making BBQ.

Animal: Lion

Holiday: I love Thanksgiving because its a time to be with family and eat good food.

Our first date was at a Starbucks halfway between the cities we lived in. We sat outside for 8 hours talking about everything, there weren’t very many lulls in conversation. I came home with one of the best sunburns I have ever had, and hoping for another date. That second date came a week later, then a third and so on. And the rest is history. I told Carly that if we decided to date I wasn’t going to break up with her; that I was called to Cleveland and she had to be ok with it if we were going to be together. We were married that next year and I couldn’t have asked for a better woman to be in my life.

We realize that being intentional to nurture our relationship is what is going to make it last. We make conscious decisions to spend quality time together, making time to date each other. When life gets busy we are intentional to do small acts of kindness to let the other person know we are thinking of them. We pray at minimum daily together, that God would continue to be at our center. We do our best to have a day off each week, with ministry that is easier said than done, to spend time with each other and focus on resting and enjoying each other's company. The Lord has given us big and great dreams for our future that can only possibly be from Him and empowered by Him to come to pass.

Between the two of us, Galen and I have three nephews and two nieces. We see them all occasionally throughout the year as they all live a good distance from us. In our church there are several families that we are very close to. One family in particular we are God-parents to their girls. We often spend time with this family and delight in spending time with the girls. They are 6 and 2, full of spunk! Both girls are extremely smart, and it has been so fun watching them grow up, and being a part of their lives. The father of these two girls was in our wedding as a groomsman, and we were given the honor of being their godparents. We think that it takes more than just parents for a child to be raised well. It takes raising those kids in community to really give each child the best life. We may not have children of our own yet, but we serve as uncle and aunt to a lot of kiddos in our church. We love celebrating each child we have a relationship with, and are honored to have some positive influence in their lives.

We are very blessed to have an incredibly rich circle of friends, and a vibrant church family to spend our days with. Living in Ohio has given us a church family full of different backgrounds that would not normally call themselves family, but Jesus makes us family!

We plan to raise our child knowing that their birth parents chose out of great love and care for their child to give them a family that they trusted to care for them all of their life. We think it's important for every child to know where they come from; their adoption will not be something hidden from them. Everyone has a story, and adoption would be part of our child’s story that will reflect God’s own love in each of our lives.

To the parents who are making one of the most difficult choices of your life, we are praying for you. We are praying that the peace of God surrounds you in this time, and you find the strength of God carrying you through this process.

We want you to know how grateful we are that you love your child and want to give them everything you can. We are honored that you would trust us. Our hope and prayer is that throughout your child’s life they have a healthy relationship with you and understand the great love that you have for them. Whether you choose to be in their life or not, we will always teach them how loved they are by you. It is our hope and prayer that you would be part of our child’s life. You have made this courageous decision to give your child to us, and in honoring that decision we want you to see how this child grows into the wonderful person they were created to be.