Unexpected blessing and a detour

John, Aaron and I are so excited to announce a sweet little one will join our family in March! This pregnancy was a complete surprise. Being in the middle of an adoption, we were NOT trying. After over three years of trying to add a child to our family, three losses, secondary infertility and a year and a half in the adoption process we are so excited to become a family of four! 

It has already been quite a ride. This pregnancy had a rocky start and due to my history it was hard to be excited. Each appointment has continued to bring good news. It was quite a thrill to hear our reproductive endocrinologist say he believes we will have a healthy pregnancy and baby. 

This pregnancy has stretched my faith so much. I have been so fearful at times. Each of those times as I've prayed I hear God tell me to have peace. Not necessarily peace that everything will turn out the way I want it to, but peace in His sovereignty and that His hand is on this little one. 

Really, isn't that what parenting is all about? Faith that God's hand is on our precious little ones and that He will guide us in raising them? I do believe God's hand is on this child. He knew about this little one all along. We pray for God's protection and that He will continue to knit this sweet child together. (Psalms 139)

So, how does this affect our adoption? Let me make one thing clear. WE ARE STILL PLANNING TO ADOPT! Adoption was something we chose, it was never second best or a last option. We feel God lead us down the adoption road for a reason. Even though this journey is taking a detour, our hearts are still drawn to adoption. 

It is our agency's policy that if a couple becomes pregnant during the adoption process their file is put on hold. Our file will be on hold until this little one is six months old. At that time we would go "active" again and would likely keep our spot on the list. As excited as we are about this pregnancy, the timing was quite a shock. I would be lying if I said we didn't experience some disappointment. It's tough after working so hard on adoption the process has come to a screeching halt. We will continue to trust that this is all God's plan and timing. 

Many, Lord my God,

    are the wonders you have done,

    the things you planned for us.

None can compare with you;

    were I to speak and tell of your deeds,

    they would be too many to declare.

Pslams 40:5

Waiting

It's been a while since my last adoption update. There really hasn't been much to update. We are just waiting at this point. It's been a little discouraging and at times it's hard to have believe that we really will have another child someday.

There is always hope though. We have faith that everything will happen when it should and the way it should. It seems clear to us that there is a reason for our long wait, even if we don't know what that reason is yet.

Some changes could possibly happen soon. We are speaking with our agency trying to get all of the information that we can. I will definitely update soon once we have more information and decisions have been made. It's exciting and scary all at once, as adoption often is.

Here is a picture of the three of us. A waiting family indeed!

Tender Hearts Baby Home

I wanted to share this video with you all. This is an interview with the gentleman who runs Tender Hearts Baby Home. This is the baby home that our child(ren) will most likely come from. I was incredibly touched by the video. You can tell that Ken and his wife Cathy truly have a heart for these children. What a blessing to know that such a loving couple is caring for the children at Tender Hearts. I pray that God will bless what they are doing in their community.

For more information on how to support Tender Hearts and Ken and Cathy, visit: http://www.nightlight.org/tender-hearts-babys-home-in-uganda/

Dossier Completed!

Some of the paperwork for our dossier.  

We are so glad to be able to say our dossier is complete! It ended up being a little more challenging than we had anticipated. Mostly because of some odd views Uganda has on notarized documents. Long story short, we had to have everything notarized by a notary public with a commission expiration date that was at least two years away. This became especially challenging when we needed to find a notary to bring to our doctors office! We are thankful for various connections and wonderful people in our lives that helped us out!

So, that is behind us and God has proved his faithfulness again and again throughout. We sent the massive pile of documents to our agency to be reviewed. We received an email last week letting us know that everything looks good! Then last Friday our agency emailed us to let us know that we are on the waiting list. We are number 15!!!! There are 30 people in the program, so we are dead center. We still do not have a very specific timeline, it just depends on so many things. Our agency is saying 9 months give or take.  

What's next in the process? Mostly, we wait for a referral. As far as how long that will take is anyone's guess. Their goal is to match children with the best possible family. We are open to one or two children, up to age three. Also, we are open to a number of special/medical needs. We are praying that 2013 will be the year that we bring our little one home!

It is very exciting that the next step in the process is receiving a photo of our son or daughter!! That will be an amazing day. Most of my friends think we will be adopting a daughter. If you ask Aaron, he is convinced that he will have a little brother AND a little sister. I told him that he can pray to God about it. His response was, "I will ask God and he gonna say yes". Oh boy! He actually does pray about it, and if God says yes we are going to have our hands full!

The fee to accept a referral and be matched with our child is $4500. Thanks to our amazing family and friends we have enough to accept a referral! What a relief. After we accept a referral, our agency will get us a court date. Once we have a court date, we will travel to Uganda to meet our little one!

Here is where we're at with the finances:

Donations: $11,127

Fundraisers (coffee, hats, garage sale): $1,378

Total raised: $12,505

Out of pocket: $5819

Adoption cost is estimated at $27,000+

Praise God!!

Check out this mysterious donation: 

The note says, "Don't give up on your adoption, be encouraged!"

We checked our mail today and this was in our box! It's rubber banded to junk mail. Our neighborhood has locked mail boxes. No one would have access to our box. It has to be from our mail carrier. We have no idea how they knew we are adopting. So crazy!

Also, the adoption tax credit passed! This is great news. We are still trying to figure out what exactly it means for our adoption. We know it will help, we just aren't sure to what extent. We have some grants/programs to apply for now that our dossier is finished. I can't believe how close we are to having all of the funding we need! 

Thank you, thank you to our family and friends. This adoption WOULD NOT 

be possible without your generosity. We simply do not have the words to express our gratitude.

Things to pray for:

• God's glory be shown through our lives and this process to everyone involved
• That our hearts would be prepared to meet the needs of a grieving child or children
• The the hearts of the kiddo(s) would be protected and be prepared for a new family
• The courts favor toward us and being granted guardianship of our child or children.
• All of the details that will go into traveling to Uganda. The timing, help with Aaron, someone to take care of our house/animals and time away from work for John.
• The rest of the finances, mostly in-country expenses and attorney fees.

Hats, hats, hats!

I have been pretty busy making hats lately. I just completed an order for 18 hats! I am so thankful that people are ordering hats to help us with adoption fees. What a blessing! I have had a blast choosing styles and colors. Here are some pictures of the hats I have made:

I will have more hats to add next week. I have been working on Ear flap hats, slouch hats and animal hats. Check out my Etsy site: Harebell Handmade http://www.etsy.com/shop/HarebellHandmade?ref=ss_profile

Hats range from 10-20 dollars. All proceeds go towards our adoption costs. If you live near me just text or email and we can do a direct sale and avoid the shipping!

So Much Can Change in a Year

It's incredible how much can change in a year. I think back to this time of year last year, and I am amazed. This time last year I was seeing four different doctors for three different reasons. How our family would grow was quite uncertain. Adoption was in the back of my mind, but didn't seem like a possibility for the near future. My how quickly things can change. Especially when God has a plan!

The fall season is here once again. This year we are waiting for approval from the US to adopt and then we will send our request (and lots of paperwork) to Uganda. Our family will soon be growing! The only doctors visits any of us have had is to ensure that we are in good health and that we will be able to parent an adopted child.  What a difference a year can make. 

A lot of people have been asking for updates on our adoption. I just love that so many are interested in our adoption journey and how everything is going. It means so much to us that people are interested! Things are moving along. Sometimes it seems slow, but progress is being made!  

John and I had more fingerprints taken, this time in Denver. Don't ask me why we needed more fingerprints done and why we had to go to Denver this time. It is somewhat of a joke in international adoption. It's pretty much the exact same thing we had to do for the homestudy, just in Denver and much much more expensive! Oh well, just another hoop to jump through I guess.

Currently we are working on preparing our dossier. The dossier is a a whole bunch of official papers that we send to the Ugandan government. It includes copies of our homestudy, birth certificates, our marriage license, passports, letters from our doctors, letters of reference, proof of employment, photos of our home and family, and our approval from the US government to adopt. Everything must be notarized as well. 

The next fee is $3000 to send the dossier. Once we send in the dossier, we will be told what number we are on the list. Then we wait for a referral for a child! We will not have another fee until we accept a referral. It can take months or possibly a year plus to receive a referral. I can't imagine how excited we will be to finally have a picture of our son or daughter!

Thanks to the amazing generosity of our friends and family, we have what we need to send in our dossier! What a blessing. We had a garage sale in September. Our friends donated a lot of great items and we were able to raise $760 dollars! Just a couple of weeks ago our sweet friends asked that donations be made towards our adoption in lieu of gifts for their daughter's birthday. The Hill's raised $200 dollars (thank you everyone who donated!!) which turned out to be right about what we needed to order certified copies of birth certificates/marriage license etc!! Praise God!

Here is another break down of the fiances:

Donations: $9170

Fundraisers (coffee, hats, garage sale): $977

Total raised: $10,147

Out of pocket: $5819

Adoption cost is estimated at $27,000+

Only about $11,000 more to go! All the glory to God!

Again, thank you to our family and friends. This adoption WOULD NOT 

be possible without your generosity. Words can not express what 

your support means to us!

Adoption Update and Generosity

When we first began this journey, we truly had no idea how the finances would work. I felt God was saying that He could take care of the money. John and I decided to step out in faith. Not all the money is due at once, the fees are paid at different times. We decided to save and raise funds in order to pay for our adoption. We knew God could provide and are excited to to see His faithfulness in action.

Some incredible things have happened in the last month. God has provided through some very, very generous donations. Donations that have left us speechless. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would receive such generous donations to our adoption fund. It has taken me days to write "thank you's" to these people because I keep tearing up as I write.

It is humbling that our friends and family care so much and want to help.  It is inspiring that there are people around us that are this generous. It is also encouraging, and confirms that what we are doing is truly the will of God. He will fund what he favors. Wow.

I believe we will learn so much in this process; lessons that will carry into other areas of our lives.  God is not only teaching us that he can provide, but also inspiring us to be more generous.  John and I see that there are areas in which we can grow. I think being more generous with what God has given us is one of them.

We still have a ways to go. There are some big fees ahead. However, it feels more in reach. We are staring to feel like the financial side of adoption can happen. We currently have all the money we need to pay the next fee that is due! Amazing!

God has blessed John and I with such incredible friends and family. The love and support we have seen already is so wonderful.  I am so glad we will bring our little home to such a great community of family and friends. 

To our dear family and friends: There is no way we could do this without all of you! Thank you so much!

Here is a little break down of where we are at with the finances of our adoption:

Donations: $6,980

Fundraisers (coffee, hats): $85

Total raised: $7065

Out of pocket: $5819

Adoption cost is estimated at $27,000

Only $14,100 left to go! We are nearing the half way point! YAY!  Praise the Lord!

Next fee due is $3000. It is for the dossier which is a massive collection of documentation that is sent to the Ugandan government.  The fee will be due in a month or two.

I plan to begin applying for grants and doing some more fundraising soon. Once our homestudy is approved by the state we can begin applying for grants.  It's a lot of work but very exciting too. We have some neat things in mind for fundraisers! A lot of our friends have already offered to help us out with fundraising. Check back soon for more details about these.  We are so excited about all that God is doing!

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. ~Eph 3:20-21

Hats for adoption!

I am quite excited to announce our second adoption fund raiser! I crochet and have been working on making kids hats the last few months. I have made hats for Aaron and also some of my friends kids. When we started our adoption journey it seemed like a great way to raise a little money to pay our adoption fees. I've been quite busy making hats, it's not unusual to find my watching animal documentaries and crocheting in the evenings!

All the proceeds will go towards our adoption costs. I opened an Esty shop, it's called Harebell Handmade.

Girls hats are $16 plus shipping, boys hats are $12 plus shipping and newborn hat/bootie sets are $10 plus shipping. If you live near me or frequently see me, send me a message on facebook or email me and we can skip the ordering/shipping step!

I can do custom orders as well. If you want a hat in certain size/color just use the "contact me" link at the top of the page or convo me through my Esty shop.

Keep checking back, I plan to add more designs and items to my store!

A huge huge thanks to my friends for the use of your beautiful children! 

They make the hats look good :)

Homestudy approved!

We met with our social worker today. She brought our homestudy so that we could each read it. Our adoption agency has approved our homestudy! John and I weren't too concerned, but it's nice to be able to say we are approved! Now it will be sent to the state so that we can be officially approved by the state of Colorado.

It feels really good to have our homestudy done! We just just received notice that our agency has our application for the Uganda program. We will begin working on our I-600A (Application For Advance Processing of Orphan Petition). Basically it is the government giving us the go ahead to adopt a child internationally.

This journey feels more real with each task we cross off the list. It is wonderful to be making progress!

Depraved indifference

This 8 minute video is really really good. These are a lot of the kinds of thoughts I've had lately. The video does a much better job explaining it than I can! I hope you will watch it!

Do you like coffee?

John and I sure do! We are excited to announce our very first adoption fundraiser. As I mentioned before, adopting is a step out in faith for us. We do not have all of the fees for adoption. We are always looking at ways to save and raise money to help us reach out goal!  We certainly can't do it alone. If you would like to help, here is one way you can!

Simply use the link below for our coffee shop with Just Love Coffee. Then click shop and support. A portion of anything purchased will be donated to our adoption fund. It's quite simple! 

https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/great_big_love/

Adoption takes a village

A dear friend and I were talking yesterday and she said that she really believes that adoption is a community effort. I couldn't agree more. Raising kids in general is not easy, and it takes a village. Adoption is a journey; such a massive undertaking. It really does take a community. Both to bring these kids home and to raise them.

As soon as John and I made the decision to adopt, we knew we would need help. First off, the support of our family and friends. We need our family and friends behind us on the journey and we will continue to need them long after our child is home. 

The very next thing that was glaringly obvious was the expense.  We simply do not have the finances available to pay all of the adoption fees.  Adoption is incredibly expensive. We are estimating that our adoption from Uganda will cost $25,000-$30,000.  There are application fees, homestudy fees, agency fees, orphanage fees and legal fees just to name a few.

Despite the expense, we still feel that we are being called to adopt. The money couldn't be the reason we said no to a child without parents. So we made the decision to step out in faith and ask God to provide the finances. It continues to be a decision each day. It's scary. We have no idea how this will work out. It's uncomfortable. Somehow I suspect this is exactly where we are supposed to be. I believe God is teaching us how fully we can trust him and that He is the Great Provider.

Our hope through this process is that others will see that adoption is doable. It is so common to hear, "I would love to adopt, but I don't have the money." Our prayer is that through our story, other families will see that adoption is within reach. There are an estimated 163,000,000 orphans in the world. I believe especially as followers of Christ we can come together and provide these kids with loving families.

Thankfully we are already experiencing some incredibly encouraging things. Our family and friends are excited. They want to help us. Some by praying, others by offering to help us fund raise, and others by donating products. We have only just started and people want to help! Already, we are amazed at the avenues available to fund an adoption. There are companies that offer opportunities to help perspective adoptive parents raise funds. We plan to apply for as many grants as we can. After our adoption is finalized, we may qualify for a tax credit. All of this gives us so much hope that it can happen!

So, how can you help? Pray for us! Pray for our child and for the adoption process. Ask us about our adoption. We are so excited and love to talk about our adoption journey. Have any good ideas for fundraising? Let's here them! Spread the word about our adoption, tell people about this blog. Please pray and consider donating to our adoption fund. We truly appreciate any help we can get to bring our little boy or girl home!

I will also post information on the support page above. Any fundraisers we do will be posted on the support page as well. 

          

Progress update

We are still at the beginning of our adoption journey. Currently, we are working to complete our home study. This involves gathering a lot of documents (birth certificates, tax returns, proof of insurance), getting physical exams, completing classes and meeting with a social worker. The home study is to prepare us for adoption and it's challenges, and to ensure that we are prepared to adopt a child.

Most of our documents are turned in. Our fingerprints have been taken (the first ones we'll need anyway) and our child abuse clearance. All three of us have had our physical exams. John and I attended our CORE adoption class and now we only need a few more hours of education. We have a social worker and have been meeting with her the last two weeks. Our last home study meeting should be this week! 

In case it wasn't clear from my last post, we have chosen a country! After much prayer and consideration we have decided on Uganda! We are very excited and would appreciate lots of prayer!

:)

Busy, busy!

That last week has been pretty crazy, but also fun-filled! We have been packing in activities lately. Seeing a lot of people too. Even though it can get exhausting, it's wonderful to have so many exciting things going on!

The weekend of May 18, John and I attended our CORE adoption training. This is a requirement in Colorado for anyone adopting. The class was all day Friday and Saturday and covers topics such as attachment, culture, development and parenting. We really enjoyed the class and felt like we received some good information.

Since my parents were in town to watch Aaron during our classes, it worked out perfectly for Aaron and I to ride out to western Colorado with them. My dear friend and her family are about to move out of state. So getting a chance to see them was a big priority. It was wonderful to meet their little guy. Aaron and their oldest played together beautifully! I was a little sad to see the evening end!

Aaron and Sophia being silly

We got together with John's sister and her youngest two kids. I feel like I barely know my nine month old niece! It was great to see Olivia's little personality starting to come out. Aaron and Sarah always play (and cause trouble) together well. It was a short, but good visit!

Cousins

I was also able to spend some time with two other friends. I am so thankful that these friendships have continued. Even though I haven't lived in the same town for quite a few years, each of these lovely ladies make time for me when I am in town.

 The week flew by and before long it was time to head to southern Colorado with my parents. John met us there so we could spend the long weekend with more family. The drive would have been great except Aaron came down with a cold. Aaron has some problems with asthma/reactive airway so his breathing wasn't too good. Once I was able to talk to his doctor and get the "ok" to increase the dosage of his medicine, things improved! It did make for a long trip over the mountains though.

We had a fun memorial weekend spending time with family. There was lots of good food and conversation. Sunday I hiked with my parents,  aunts and cousin. Our time seemed to go pretty quick. Monday evening we headed back home. Even though it was a busy trip, we enjoyed all the time with family and friends. I certainly feel blessed!

Hiking at the Paint Mines (Calhan, CO)

Exciting news!

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18

Many of you already know, but in case you haven't heard. WE ARE ADOPTING! That's right! Our family will be growing through adoption in the next year or two. We have decided on adopting internationally. There are many reasons for this decision. I will probably write more about that in another post. We have not settled on which country. Right now we are interested in Uganda, Panama and China. Hopefully we will narrow it down in the next couple of weeks!

Why adoption? With so many children that need loving families, why not?! John and I had always imagined that we would adopt at some point. We were thrilled when we realized that our timeline was being changed and that God wanted it to happen much sooner than we had originally anticipated!

One reason we thought adoption would happen down the road is because it is so expensive. We simply assumed it was out of reach financially. However, the more we prayed and researched we found that it was more of a possibility than we expected. It will still be a huge step out in faith for us. We do not currently have all of the fees. We do not know where the money will come from. We are trusting God to meet those needs.  God has always been faithful to his promises and always provided so generously to us.  We often pray that we might find a way to extend those blessings to others.

John and I have much, much more to write on this topic. We will be updating the blog with more news and information so keep checking back. :)   For now, please pray for guidance as we decide from which country we should adopt.  Pray that our hearts and minds are prepared for a new family member and how to be the best family possible for one of God's children.   Here is something I have come across that I thought was inspiring: 

While not everyone is called to adopt a child into their own family, there are many ways we as Christians can provide for orphans. Pray! Pray for children who are without a family; that they might have safety, provision and shelter.  Pray for adoptive/foster families, that they would listen and heed God's prompting.  Other great ways to support adoption is by sponsoring a child though Compassion International, supporting others who are fostering/adopting, providing respite care for foster families, providing financial help for those adopting, supporting orphan care groups at church, mentoring a child, the list goes on and on!  Please join us in our excitement as we start another new adventure.