We are Adopting!

Welcome to our tribe, the Lewis Family! 

We are Robert, Amanda, Everett, and Clara.

Our journey together started in 2008 at Florida State University. We met the first week of school, started dating soon after, and were engaged in 2011 right before graduating. We got married in May of 2012!

We quickly began chasing our academic and professional goals together. The quest to build the foundation for our future family has not always been easy. When we look back on the last 13 years together, there is one thing that is evident: God was and still is in control!

After graduating from FSU, we moved to Sarasota, FL to live with Amanda’s parents for a few months while planning our wedding. After our wedding, we moved to Baltimore, Maryland together. We were fortunate to receive support from our family and lived with Amanda’s grandparents in their basement in Baltimore. Amanda began an accelerated nursing program at Johns Hopkins University to receive her second Bachelor’s of Science to Master’s of Science (in nursing) program.

While at FSU I had volunteered with a local Sherriff’s office and held a position with the United States Secret Service. This experience fueled my calling to become a law enforcement officer. While in Baltimore, I became a federal law enforcement officer with the Federal Reserve Police. This position required sending me to a federal academy for several months in Atlanta, Georgia. This stage was incredibly challenging for our new marriage. We were RELENTLESS with our love to each other and continued to pursue our collective goals.

Amanda graduated with her BSN from Hopkins and became a registered nurse (RN) in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Amanda elected to postpone her MSN program for a year in order to gain more work experience as an RN in the NICU and pay off student loans. We took Amanda’s entire paycheck and paid off her loans and then bought our first house together in Baltimore city.

Baltimore provided us with such valuable opportunities, but it was not the place where we wanted to raise a family. We loved our jobs, but felt unfulfilled in many ways. I struggled with finding purpose in my current protective assignment with the Federal Reserve Police and I knew my calling was traditional law enforcement. I wanted to implement positive sustainable change in my community and truly serve others in the image of Christ. Amanda loved the NICU, but it was emotionally taxing and the challenges of inner city Baltimore were overwhelming at times.

We sold our Baltimore city house in 2014, Amanda resigned from her position in the NICU, and I resigned from my position with the Federal Reserve Police. We bought our second house in Apex, North Carolina (a suburb of Raleigh) and were excited to begin our new life in North Carolina.

Amanda began her MSN program at Duke University to become a pediatric nurse practitioner, while working as an RN in a local NICU. I began another long para-military training academy to become a sworn Police Officer for the Durham Police Department. We were quickly at peace and felt that we had finally found the place we wanted to call home. Our goal of starting a family was soon becoming a reality.

In 2015 I graduated from the police academy and began working as an officer on Durham’s east side, known for its exceptionally high violent crime rate. Amanda graduated and became a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner. Amanda got her first pediatric NP job in a rural outpatient pediatric office.

In 2016, Amanda accepted a new position as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner specializing in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes with Duke University Hospital. Around the same time, I transitioned from inner city policing in Durham to a suburban police department where we lived at the time, the Apex Police Department. The Town of Apex was voted the best place to live in 2015 by Money Magazine and we absolutely loved the area and the friends we had made. Later that year, I graduated with my Master’s degree and we began to build a house further out in the county (the house we live in today).

In 2017, we welcomed our son, Everett into our lives and in 2019, we welcomed our daughter, Clara into the world. Our children bless us in more ways than we could have ever imagined! Everett and Clara are a constant reminder of the RELENTLESS love Amanda and I have for one another and of our RELENTLESS journey to make our dreams come true!

Adoption is something we have discussed throughout our marriage, since the beginning. Growing our family through adoption provides another opportunity for us to demonstrate and give our RELENTLESS love, consistent with the example of Jesus Christ and his love for us. We are so excited to begin the journey of adoption this year and welcome you to join us on our journey! For those of you that already know us, we hope this blog will keep you informed as we move through the process. For those who are reading our story for the first time, we thank you for your support and welcome you to follow along! Our greatest hope is that if you are researching or thinking of starting your own journey to adoption…we hope this can guide you and motivate you towards pursuing adoption as well!

If you feel called to support us on this journey, we thank you and appreciate you! Read the next post to find out how!