Prayerfully Waiting

We received an email today verifying that ABBA fund received our application materials. We have applied for an interest free loan. It would be so wonderful to receive any funds at all from this wonderful organization. Please be in prayer for the board as they consider our application, and for David and I as we await their reply. It usually takes about 6-8 weeks to receive a reply.

You can check out their amazing organization here: http://www.abbafund.org/

We are also waiting on verification that another one of our grant applications was received. We will let you know as soon as we hear anything!

Hope you all are doing well! Thank you for your continued support!

Playing Catch Up

We have been terrible about keeping up with the blog. I think it is obvious that we are not "natural bloggers", if there is such a thing. I could make some valid excuses like we haven't had Internet at our house the last 6 months (trying to save some money and just use our cell phones), or that we have been really busy, but the truth is we should have been better about it. So, here's to playing catch up!

1) Our home study was finalized and approved on January 14th of this year

2) We then prepared applications to be sent to 3 agencies/law firms. 

This preparation included more paperwork. Most applications have an actual application to be filled out, that includes personal information as well as all of your financial information. In addition we often had to provide copies of our recent check stubs, copies of our driver's license, copies of last years tax returns, sometimes our birth certificates, our marriage license, copies of our physicals and background checks, and usually an application fee (around $100 - $200 per agency). Just to give you an idea. We also had to finalize and print out our family profile packets. 

3)This preparation phase took us a bit of time. We were active with all three agencies/law firms by the beginning of March!

4) What does being active with an agency mean?

This means that we are in their database and listed as 'waiting to be matched'. As 'situations' arise the details are emailed out to everyone in their database listed in the 'waiting to be matched' category. A 'situation' is when a birthmother comes to their agency and wants to place their unborn child (or sometimes recently born child) up for adoption. The emails we receive look a lot like this (this is not a real case):

______________ Adoption Agency/Law Firm is seeking families to present to Jessica (birthmother's name). 

Name: Jessica

Location: Utah

Due date: August 2nd

Baby's Race: White/African American

Gender: Unknown

Father: agreeing to adoption

Medical/Mental: No none family mental illnesses. Mom has had prenatal care. Mom does smoke regularly. No drugs indicated. Does have a history with cocaine use. 

Other: Mother would prefer a younger family that wants to have more than one child, or currently has at least one child.

Cost: Agency Fee ($22,000) plus $8,500 on legal/case management plus $4,500 in birth parent assistance plus $8,000 in finalization costs. Total of $43,000 estimated. Please let us know if you would like to be shown.

David and I began to receive emails similar to these with varying case details at least once or twice a week. When we received an email we would contact each other and decide based on the information given if we would like to be shown. If we wanted to be shown we would contact the agency.  We would then receive an email letting us know that we were not chosen. 

5) We received a match. Friday, May 17th

We had been presented to a birthmother in Florida. Out of the blue David received a phone call from the law office letting him know we were matched. David was on his way to Virginia to play rugby with a van full of guys and I was still in Auburn. This was a whirlwind situation. The mother was due in 3 weeks and they were anticipating her to deliver early(within the next two weeks). There were several other medical details given that I will not disclose. The total cost of this particular adoption was going to be about $35,000. 

6) We turned down this first match, May 19th

David and I prayed over the situation Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Ultimately we decided that we did not have a peace about the situation. It was a heart wrenching decision and many tears were shed. 

7) Throughout this time period we have been researching/preparing grants and loans. We have also been slowly preparing the nursery. We cleared out the room (for the most part) and painted the walls a pale aqua color (tranquility was the name of the paint color). We also were given a crib and crib mattress from my cousin Reagan and her husband Blake. Thank you guys again!! Our nursery is pretty tiny so the only other pieces we are planning to get are a glider and a dresser. I am planning to place a changing pad on top of the dresser so it can serve as storage and the changing table. 

Back into a routine...hopefully

Hey everyone,

Joshlyn and I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year's. I know we did.
The holiday has been a great recharge for us, and we are now in 2013 off to a running start. The adoption stuff has been moving slow to say the least, but we feel things will be speeding up this month and we couldn't be more excited.

Our home study should be finished really soon. We are completing adoption agency applications this week. Hopefully, we'll have everything sent out and waiting for referrals within the next couple weeks. We'll keep you posted!

T-shirts have been ordered, and we are still waiting for them to come in the mail. So we will be getting those to you as soon as possible.

Thanks for all your support!

Last Call!!!!

We had planned to process the order for t-shirts, but we had a few last minute orders come in this past weekend. With that being said, we are going to push back the t-shirt order for one week. The new deadline is Sunday, Dec. 9th 10:00pm.

Please tell your friends! Thanks again!
 

Quick update

Hello all,

 It's been some time since a update was sent, and a few things have occurred since our last post.

About a week ago we received letters from the state letting us know that our background checks were cleared, and we were approved for adoption. That process went a little quicker than anticipated.
Our background information is now being forwarded to our home study agency. That being said...we are still in the waiting game for a bit longer. Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will be receiving information that our home study is complete.  Then we should be allowed to begin applying for grants, and start sending out our family profiles to the adoption agencies.

That's about it for now. We will again keep you posted with any new information.

Just a reminder!!! T-shirts for sale..... don't forget to get your order in!!!

We hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thanks again for all your prayers and support!!

Adoption T-shirt fundraiser!!!

Hey Everyone, 

We are selling t-shirts for the adoption!!! We decided to have a little fun, and show our love for adoption with one of the most well known adopted men of all time. SUPERMAN!!! If you think about it...a lot of famous super heroes were adopted...Batman... Spider-man...I am sure there are some others, but you get the idea.

Who knows... God may send a little super hero our way! ;)  

Everyone needs a new t-shirt, and this new t-shirt will be for a great cause!  

The cost is $15 per shirt.

The cut off date for orders will be December 1st, 2012.

Please let us know your name, shipping address, and desired size. 

Just send orders to the e-mail contact, or leave information on the comment board.

Payments can be made through our pay pal account or you can just mail us a check. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks again!

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Home Study #4 Finished!!!

We are proud to announce that we completed our last home study interview last Friday morning. The overall experience of the home studies was great. The last home study was pretty much the same experience as the previous interviews. The questions were mainly based on how we would raise our children, and the type of family we grew up in. We also had to write an autobiography of our lives. Naturally, Joshlyn wrote hers about a week in advance, and I waited until Thursday night. Procrastination at its best! Ha!

So whats next?
In the meantime we are at a bit of a stand still...In order to complete the home study we are now waiting for our background checks to clear. While we are waiting for that to be completed Joshlyn and I will be continuing to research grant and adoption agency information.

We will be sure to keep everyone updated on any new news that arises. Thanks again for you support!