stories

The Cavallo Family

Anthony and I met in the winter of 2010 at a game night. We didn’t really hit it off in the beginning. Fortunately, Anthony was stubborn in pursuing me, and through many emails and phone calls I got to know this really special man.

His faith was just beginning to blossom and it was so neat to watch him grow spiritually as he was discipled by a pastor from our church. That’s when our relationship also really deepened. 

We knew we were going to get married. I was honest with him that I may not be able to get pregnant. He told me he still wanted to marry me and be part of my life; the good, the bad, and the ugly. We were married in July of 2011 and just celebrated our 7th anniversary.

We began to talk about adoption four or five years ago. We met with the Adoption Options agency. Due to my fears, we then halted the paperwork we had started. We began to pray seriously last year about pursuing adoption again. We agreed we wanted to look to adopt a set of older siblings, perhaps brothers. We weren’t sure we wanted to wait the length of time it might take to pursue an infant. We had been told that it could be a two-year process, and we were both getting older. So, we laid out a plan for saving money and created fundraisers we could do. We came up with the hashtag #cavalloclan, and decided Psalm 113:9 would be our theme verse: "He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Alleluia!"

We finally finished and sent our application over Christmas break of 2017. This is where we saw God’s hand of guidance work through the rest of the process. Our application was accepted on January 2. During our first appointment at the agency two weeks later, we discussed the possibility of adopting a set of older siblings. The case worker happened to mention they didn’t have any families currently enrolled in their infant program and she was talking with a birth mother looking to place her baby. At that moment, Anthony turned to me and said, "This is what I have always wanted!" I burst into tears in this woman’s office and after discussing our options, we all agreed we should take a few days to talk it over together and then we would call her.

We continued to pray and both talked separately with the case worker. Finally Anthony and I decided our best option was to enroll in both of their programs and see if we might be a match with the birth mother. After much work, prayers, and support from our family and friends we prepared our house for the home study which was finalized on April 2nd. When we met with the birth mother on April 6th, she chose us! We have been in awe of how God has provided, down to the specific details, with every single step of this journey for us!

Honestly, the events just seemed to fly after we were matched for a child, and they really took off when Landon Stephen made his appearance one week early on May 8th at 10:33 p.m. Our hearts and lives will never be the same! We have walked this journey just as my husband has always said, “We’re the Cavallos, we don’t do anything the normal way!” I mean, we did get ready for an infant in less than five months! Through this experience we have learned that God has a heart for adoption.