1. Tell us more about your family.

We met in New York City while attending the same church in 2011 and were married in 2014. We moved to Marietta, GA in 2016 and have lived here since. God blessed us with our sweet bio son, Hopper, in 2018. James is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and Emily works at WinShape Homes working alongside local churches to develop foster care ministries. We love doing anything and everything together - including traveling, going to Six Flags, visiting the Zoo, hiking, playing board games, watching movies, etc. We just love being together.

2. Tell us more about your heart for adoption.

When we were dating and heading toward marriage, we discussed the possibility of adopting. We both have a heart for the vulnerable and the nations, so this lended itself toward international adoption. It mainly was always an issue of timing for us. After going through the “Ready or Not” study at our church and hearing the stories of others who have traveled this journey before us, we felt compelled to travel the road of adoption ourselves as a matter of obedience. Like having a biological child, you can never be fully prepared, but we feel as prepared as possible. We have deep faith, great support, a loving family, available training and education, desire, and willingness. Of course, fear is present, but we trust God to provide and strengthen.

3. Tell us more about your adoption journey so far.

We feel open to many medical special needs for several reasons. We are blessed with a supportive community at our church as well as a great healthcare system here in America/the greater Atlanta area. Additionally, James is a Nurse Practitioner and is well equipped to care for many needs at home. Initially, after praying about the programs offered by our agency, we chose to adopt from Colombia because of our life circumstances - it was one of the countries that required the least amount of time in country. With both of us working full-time and a school-age child, this is just what made the most practical sense for our lives. However, our love for Colombia has deepened as we have learned more about the country. We also love its proximity to us and desire to visit throughout our child's life to ensure he/she can stay connected to the culture and a core part of his/her identity.

4.  Tell us more about the child you are adopting.

We are compiling all of our documents for our dossier to submit to Colombia and hope to have everything ready by the end of February. This is the last big "chunk" of paperwork. After our dossier is approved, we will move on to the matching phase, and we are open to being matched with either a boy or a girl, with medical special needs. We desire to keep birth order, even if just by a small amount, so we are open to ages 0-6 years old. We are aiming for a goal of traveling to Colombia late summer 2025 (pray with us!).

Prayer Requests:

If there has been a roadblock - we have hit it! But we are praising God for His faithfulness to us. Please pray against discouragement and for perseverance. Pray for our child to be hopeful and joyful as he/she waits as well.

If we raised about another $10,000, we would be very close to being fully funded!

We will be donating $1 from every bag of coffee sold this month to the Ludemann's Connected Hearts Ministry fund and we'd love for YOU to partner with this family to adopt their precious child! You can donate directly to them through their Connected Hearts Ministry link, where 100% of the donation will be used for adoption-related expenses: https://give.connectedheartsministry.org/campaign/ludemann-family-adoption-fund/c611346