about dry ground

Our Mission

Our mission is to remove the barrier of cost for families to grow through adoption by providing funding for up-front adoption costs and post adoption services.

Story of Founders, Jimmy & Jessica

We got married young and waited 8 years before trying to have a baby. When we started trying, it didn't take us very long to get pregnant, but our first pregnancy was ectopic. And the second. And the third. Each pregnancy loss was devastating. Between the second and third time, we had begun to explore the option of adopting. It was something we had been interested in prior, but we thought we would have biological children first. God had other plans. We began the adoption process for our first child in 2015 while also continuing to try to have a baby naturally. Our fourth and fifth pregnancies ended in miscarriage. But in the midst of this fifth pregnancy loss, our oldest daughter's birth mom found us through the site adoptimist.com that we had our adoption profile on. Two months later, we held our baby girl, Julianne, in our arms on her birthday. We were parents for the first time through the miracle of adoption. It was then that all the worship songs that talked about God parting the seas hit home with us. We felt like we knew what it meant to be the Israelites walking through the divided waters on dry ground as God made a way for us to grow our family through adoption and be parents to this beautiful baby girl.

We continued to try having a baby naturally after this as well, which resulted in another miscarriage. We had begun to feel like we may need to do something medically to stop this from continuing to happen, but in this process, I learned that my thyroid may be the issue for the miscarriages. Once I got this regulated, we tried one more time, only to result in another ectopic pregnancy. However, since it was ectopic and not a miscarriage, we thought, perhaps if it could just get in the right place and with my thyroid under control, I could sustain a pregnancy. If I miscarried again, then we would make the decision to stop trying. It was at this time that I prayed that God would either let me have a baby that I would carry to full term or not let me get pregnant at all. God answered this prayer, and I didn't get pregnant for 3 years.

In 2020, we asked God to do it again. We prayed that he would part the waters for us again as we started the adoption process for the second time. This time took a little longer. We started out with our profile on adoptimist.com like before, but after a year, we had not made a connection. Since we would need to renew our home study, we decided to try using an adoption consultant, and about 2 weeks into using them, a birth mom chose us. However, there were some legal concerns with the agency, and we made the hardest decision we had made in this journey yet. We walked away from this adoption. This gut-wrenching decision, however, was confirmed as the right one when less than 2 weeks later, we got a call from our attorney letting us know that a baby girl had been born in Nashville the day before and asked if we would we be interested in adopting her. Of course! Her birth mom would need to review our profile and sign a power of attorney before we could meet her, so we went to bed that night not knowing for sure if this would be it. But the next morning, our attorney called to tell us to come meet her. In January of 2021 on her second day on this earth, we held our beautiful second daughter, Anaiah, in our arms. God did it again, growing our family through adoption for the second time.

We were pretty content as a family of four. But in December of 2021, we found out that my second cousin had lost custody of her almost 3-year-old son and he was living with my aunt and uncle. They were his great-grandparents and not prepared to raise another child, but couldn't stand to see him go into foster care, so we said that we would take him if it came to that. Then, in January of 2022 we found out I was pregnant! And this time, my 8th pregnancy, we heard a heartbeat for the first time. In April, still in my first trimester, we found out that my 3rd cousin would not be going back to his mom and my aunt wanted to know if we were still willing. We said yes. So, in June, he came to live with us, and in October, I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl, Annabelle. We officially adopted our son, James, the next February. We had gone from 2 to 4 kids in the blink of an eye.

The two years following our son coming to live with us would prove to be the hardest years our family has ever experienced. Although we had adopted before, our son came from trauma, and with this came behaviors that caught us totally off guard. It changed the dynamic in our house and left us questioning if we made the right decision by adding our son to our family. We also questioned why God would choose this timing for our only biological child to be born. But as soon as our youngest daughter was born, it became crystal clear. She was a super easy baby and a breath of fresh air to our family, bringing balance to our home. We were reminded that God knows what He is doing after all.

Our son continued to be our biggest challenge in life yet. Some dear friends introduced us to Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). We sought out a TRBI certified counselor who has helped us tremendously and was able to connect us with tremendous resources proving to us once again that God will provide everything we need in this adoptive parenting journey. After two years of what can only be described as chaos in our home, and praying for peace, we were finally beginning to see it.

Then we had a revelation. Moses left a palace of luxury when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. Yes, God parted the seas for him, but from that moment, his life on this earth became more difficult. We realized too that God had not only parted the seas to allow us to be parents to each of our children, but he had also parted their seas in bringing our family together. And though He would have made a way for them whether we were the ones to accept the role or not, we are so thankful to be the ones that He is using in their lives.

Parenting in general is not for the faint of heart. Parenting four children, none of whom have the same biological parents, is another challenge in itself. But we wouldn't have it any other way!

We understand that one of the biggest barriers to growing families through adoption is cost. And after adoption, there can also be costs for needed therapy and other services in order for families to continue to grow not just in number, but also in connection with each other. We started Dry Ground to help remove the barrier of cost for families to grow through adoption by providing funding for up-front adoption costs and post adoption services. Please reach out if we can help!