We're adopting!!!
We are so excited to announce that God has called us to grow our family through adoption. This has been a dream of ours since before we were married and we are so thankful to see how God has been preparing the way for us to adopt so that now we can start the journey.
Over time, the call and desire to adopt became more clear as our hearts and minds were given opportunities to practice caring for children who weren't biologically ours. These experiences were especially powerful and meaningful as Jen cared for several families through her job as a nanny from 2014-2019, where she loved and cared for these children as if they were her own.
While we always wanted to adopt, we also prayed and asked God for the opportunity to have children biologically. However, 18 months of trying to get pregnant didn't leave us in sorrow or despair; rather, it solidified our desire to adopt.
We’d love for you to join us as we take these steps to grow our family! There are 3 specific ways you can be involved:
1) Pray
Please pray:
For the birth mother and father, that they would have wisdom, peace and strength as they make the courageous decision to pursue adoption with us.
For the protection and preservation of the baby as he or she grows.
That we would be matched quickly and easily while fostering a meaningful and loving connection with the birth mother.
For the finances to cover the entire cost of the adoption.
For our adjustment from being a family of four to a family of five.
2) Give
We are expecting this adoption to cost between $30,000-$40,000. We plan to cover a significant portion of the estimated costs with personal savings, but we are asking that you would prayerfully consider giving through our family profile here on AdoptTogether!
3) Share
Do you know others who are in the process of adopting or who have already adopted? Do you know anyone who would be encouraged by our story and want to join us? It’s a small world out there, and we’d love to encourage others who are on a similar journey and to grow our community. Please consider sharing our story with those you know.
We are so excited to not just bring this child into our immediate family, but into the world (which includes all of you)! And we are so thankful this child will not only be the recipient of our love but the recipient of your love as well.
It is true that joy is multiplied when life is shared with family and friends, so thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share this part of our lives with you!
Love,
Jud & Jen
Dear family and friends,
It's been a long road and also a long time since our last update. Thank you for your continued prayers and questions regarding our adoption journey. We truly appreciate each and every one of you who have come alongside us in this journey to grow our family.
Our adoption contract with Angel Adoption ended a few months ago in April. To be honest, we unfortunately did not have the best experience with this agency and if we go down this road again, we would choose a different group of people to work with.
These were our statistics at the end of 24 months:
- Our profile was presented 148 times in person to expectant mothers
- Our profile appeared in Angel Adoption's Family Finder results 137 times
- Our Angel Adoption website profile was viewed 788 times
The general story of our experience was this: if an expectant mother chose to speak with us, it was us in a pool of 4-5 other couples. We would then text her first to begin communication. Every time we communicated with an expectant mother, she ended up ghosting us. We learned that this behavior is very common with expectant mothers, but it was also very discouraging. We never knew if she chose another family or if she chose to keep the baby herself. More often than not, we felt in the dark with Angel Adoption and this reason, among others, is why we wouldn't choose them if we decide to pursue adoption again.
In the past year, we also discovered we are unable to have children biologically. We are in the process of determining whether or not we want to engage in medical interventions to move forward with this process.
To say the least, while the past few years have been a rollercoaster full of challenges, we have grown stronger together and have remained content with what God has given us: each other, our two awesome dogs, a beautiful home, amazing family and friends, and recently added chickens.
Thank you for being such a faithful and kind community and we have felt so loved and supported by you. We hope this message finds you all well and full of joy.
With love,
Jen & Jud
Dear Family & Friends,
We can hardly believe it's been 1 year on our adoption journey! We can't thank you all enough for all your support, encouragement, and prayers as we seek to grow our family.
Since we started this process, we've had contact with three expectant mothers. We were not chosen for two of them, and currently, an expectant mother is deciding between us and two other families.
Our agency, Angel Adoption, provides us with statistics every quarter and we wanted to share our 12 month statistics with you all!
We are excited and hopeful for what this next year will bring!
All our love,
Jen & Jud
