Meet Jeff and Jan

It is with great honor and respect that we write this letter to you. Our words are written with much thought, empathy and compassion. We realize the decision you have made and are making is probably one of the most important decisions you will make in your life if not THE most important decision. We truly commend you and bless you for your decision to want a wonderful life for your child and for choosing adoption. We stand with you and beside you in your decision and would like to offer ourselves as potential parents to raise, nurture, and love your child.

We pray you are able to somehow get a good picture and impression of who we are through our words in this letter. We are Jeff and Jan Jansen. We met the day after Thanksgiving 1993 and fell instantly in love. We dated 6 months before being married in June 1994. We had children by a previous marriage when we met, and they all lived with us, together as a big happy family. The youngest was 7 and the oldest 15 when we married.

Some would say our quiver was full, but we realized how desperately we wanted more children. Jeff had 4 children from a previous marriage, and Jan had one. We are both physically unable to bear any more children. We realize not everyone has the blessing of having biological children, and we are thankful we were given that gift. But had not yet been given the opportunity to share that experience with each other as our children were older when we met and felt it was important enough to us to pursue parenting again. We did in-vitro-fertilization in 2002. Sadly, it was unsuccessful. We did not lose faith that God would provide us with children as He thought was best.

It soon became obvious that God was leading us towards adoption. At that time we knew little about it or about our options, but soon after much investigation we knew we were being divinely lead to adopt from China. We brought home our daughter, Mercy Rain, in April of 2006. She is the light of our lives! We had no idea what a miracle adoption truly was until we were so blessed to be able to be one of the fortunate families who did adopt. Mercy was 12 months when we brought her home. Our lives have been changed in ways we simply cannot express. The love we have for her is immeasurable. She is a very happy and well-adjusted little girl!

We believe it is very important that Mercy has a sibling to grow up with. She is already excited about a new addition to the family and so are we. Our other children are very loving and open towards Mercy and they are also aware of our desire to adopt another child. They fully support our decision. We have a very close and loving family. We see our family often and holidays are an especially joyful time!

We have been in full time itinerate ministry for about 5 years. Itinerary means we do not stay at a stationary place, such as one single church, but we travel as we are invited and lead…..all over the world. Our children will get the great opportunity to be able to travel and see the world, even in their infancy and youth. Mercy Rain has already been in 6 different countries and about 10 states in the United States in the 2 years she has been in our family. She LOVES traveling and we love to take her with us. She has the opportunity of meeting a lot of people of many different cultures. It is a learning experience you could not possibly get any other way. We also love to sightsee while we are traveling, as well as going shopping, and just experiencing all we can while we are there!

We love what we do. Jeff travels more, as he is the key figure in the ministry. Jan stays home with Mercy and helps with booking airfare and events coordinating. Jan will turn her job duties over to a personal assistant once we have another child, so that both children will get all the love and attention they need while in the home. When Jeff is not traveling he is home for days or weeks at a time and gets to spend his undivided attention with his children and his family.

When we are not traveling, we play in the yard, go to the community pool, go to movies, Chuck E. Cheese; we eat out, play games, go to the park and are always looking for a new experiences to share.

Jeff is also an accomplished musician. He has numerous CD’s on the market. He will actively teach our child to play music if that child desires. Music is very important to us and there is a great focus on music and singing in our home. Jeff sings and plays his guitar to us and even writes songs especially for our daughter. He also plays keyboard. Mercy is already quite musical and sings constantly to the amazement of many, considering her age! She has also learned to dance and is very skilled! We are sure our new baby will also be surrounded by music and develop a great interest as well.

We live in a 4000 sq. ft. house in a new neighborhood in middle Tennessee. We have 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. We have plenty of room for another child. There are many children of all ages in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is very family oriented. As mentioned earlier, we have a community pool where the children gather and play in the summer and there are numerous family events throughout the year, such as a community July 4th celebration. We live in a medium sized town that is progressive, but has remained very safe and family oriented. We are about 40 miles outside a major city so we frequently go into the city where there are museums, a major zoo, major theatrical events, and any kind of learning experience you would seek.

Our children have grandparents who live in Wisconsin, where Jeff is from, and also grandparents who live about an hour away from our home. They are all very active in our lives. We visit Wisconsin 2 to 3 times a year so the grandparents can see Mercy. They are all also very excited about a new grandchild.

Because we do travel often, we do plan to home school Mercy and our other child. We have a network of friends and home school tutors from which to coordinate with for the best education possible. There are many classes locally for home school children to get together and learn together in a classroom type setting and also for social interaction.

Our children will have a much broader range of social activity than most children. Our daughter has friends she cherishes in many nations of the world as well as around this country.

We believe our lives are extremely stable, as our family is the most important thing to us, but we also lead a very exciting life and consider it a great honor to be able to travel and minister as we do. We believe it is what God called us to do and we are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to add another baby to our lives and our family!

We will promise you that your child will be loved completely, absolutely and unconditionally. He or she will be welcomed especially by us, but also by our extended family and our grown children. We come in contact with so many people who say, “Your daughter is the most blessed child we have ever known.” We just tell them, “Thank you, but we believe WE are the ones who are blessed!’ And that is exactly how we will feel about your child as well.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration of us in choosing the parents you believe will make the perfect fit for your child. Sincerely,