Tuesday, June 10, 2014

A quick update and answering some questions

Hi Everyone!
So I wanted to update you all on our adoption T-shirt fundraiser!
We raised more than I ever thought we would!
Our goal was to sell 50 shirts in 3 weeks.
Not only did we meet that but we sold a total of 83 shirts!
That's $1262 towards our adoption!
Amazing!
 Thank you to all of those of you who supported us throughout this fundraiser!
And if you wanted a shirt but the deadline slipped by you, don't worry, we will
be doing another t-shirt fundraiser in August or September!

Ive had several people as exactly where we are in the whole process both physically and financially
and also people wanting to know whats next, and how they can help.
Here is an update on all of that!

As far as the actual adoption process, this is where we are.
We have signed on with our adoption Consultants and we have already
submitted all of our questions and most of our photos for our profile.
Our consultant is working on that as we speak and hopefully that will be done in a few weeks!
Our Family profile is what Birth Families will look at when they are considering our family to
parent their sweet baby, so its a VERY important piece of the puzzle!

We have also started on our Home Study questions.
This part is a bit daunting.
Its about 18 pages Each of very in depth questions ranging from Our education and work history, to our Faith and how that plays out in our live to our childhood histories and our parents marriages!
Needless to say its ALOT!
Along with the home study questions, we have to have back ground checks, finger printing done, drug tests, physicals done as well as submit all of our financial information.
After ALLLLL of this is done our social worker will compile everything, and submit it to the state,
once the state approves everything we will "approved for adoption"
At this point we will start sending our information to agencies and birth families can start to view our
profile!! EEEKKK!
From there it can happen very fast (example: a birth mother sees your profile, chooses you and she due in only a few weeks--> it happens!) or it can happen at a more "normal rate" (example: you are chosen by a birth family who is due in 6+ months)

All of this brings us to the financial portion of things. Because we have a possibility of things happening fast we have to keep fundraising and saving.
Once we are choose by a birth mom, we sign on with whatever agency she has chosen.
At that time w have to pay agency fees, which is usually about half of the whole adoption costs.
The rest is due at time of placement.
Basically if things happen fast the full amount of the adoption will be due very very quickly!

Ive had A LOT of people ask me how much adoption costs. Ill admit it makes me a little uncomfortable talking about the finances because I usually get crazy looks, when I talk about numbers.
Adoption isn't cheap yall!
Can we put a price on our children though? How much would you pay to have your children?
The number is infinite isn't it?
A domestic infant adoption can range from $15,000 (rare) to over $40,000
To date we have raised/saved about $6000!
This is amazing!
The number I have in my head for our adoption is about $25,000 so with what we have raised we are a quarter of the way there!

So What's next?
Our next fundraiser is an adoption yard sale June 21st and 22nd.
Everything we have so far are items that we have personally decided to sell or things that
have been donated by some very generous people!

Jake is also brain storming some other ideas.
He is really wanted to do some type of dinner fundraiser or
something sports related.

As well as continuing to fundraiser we will also very soon start to build a nursery (fun for me!!)
Because everything can happen quickly we hope to have a nursery done fairly soon :-)


How can you help?
- Prayers.
Prayers that God would give us financial provision, prayers for us as this process can be quite overwhelming and prayers for our birth mother. She is already out there, and she may already be expecting! Pray for her heart as she starts to make the most difficult decision of her life.
I also ask that you all pray that whomever our birth family would be that we would be able to really
form a great relationship with them. We want our child to know their birth family from the beginning and I pray that we can truly bond with them.
Pray for us as God starts to mold our hearts into the hearts of a Mommy and Daddy.

-Financial
Even if you feel God isn't calling you personally to adopt, perhaps he is calling you to support someone who is adopting.
God calls us all to love the orphans and widows, and that means different things for each of us!
Even $5 helps!
seriously! no amount Is too small!

-Share our story!
33% of all adoption happen through word of mouth!
Tell your friends and families!
Ladies, tell your GYN!
The cost of a private adoption is also much less that going through an agency so if we could find
a family privately that would be amazing!


I also want you all to know I am VERY open about our infertility, and our adoption story so far!
If you have questions, please ask! Id be more than happy to answer!

xoxo,
Ash